Hello from southwest Arizona

[swestgold]

Hello everyone, I live between the harcuvar and harquahala mt ranges. The gold is very fine in this area with hot rocks every step of the way. I am a novice at prospecting for sure. I bought a mid level detector( gold bug 2)that seems to work well with the discriminator when I used it out in quartzite at the miners camp claims(Oh yeah I wanted a minelab but I don't have the bling). But in this area that I live the gold is to fine and the areas that are more concentrated with gold are of course all claimed. I did find some gold in a 4 inch quartz vein in the harcuvar mt. range and now have 2 claims contiguous. I had seen some people from Arizona on here that was why I decided to join up and maybe pick some brains on some issues. Like the minerals that are in the vein on my claims. (I will post some pictures)But am not sure if it's appropriate thinking this forum is not for hard rock mining. Also I live 35 miles from alamo lake and 55 miles from the Colorado river,with temperatures all ready to the boiling point I was wondering if any one new of open to public to pan areas on the shores. I would like to find a place especially on the river being its nice clear water. But cooling off in the water, doing a little fishing, looking for gold, not much that is better then that. Thanks,All (Hold on to that pyrite found out mine was mixed with high grade gold) Looked blocky like all the other pyrite I had ever seen. Go get that Au

[nuggethunting]

Hello DesertRat50,

Welcome to the forums. You live right in gold country, even though it's hot this part of the year. I would personally like to hear more about the gold vein discovery that you found. I have found thousands of gold nuggets ranging from sizes to a grain to pound in weight, but have yet to find an actual vein or source. I'm sure most of them have pinched out (eroded away), but that won't stop me from searching.

The Goldbug2 is excellent for searching for small gold within veins, specimens and small gold overall.

P.S. There are nuggets in those ranges, very spotty, but they are there. Keep searching, you will find them!

Talk with you later,

Rob Allison

[swestgold]

Hi Rob, About my claim, I was taking a break out exploring one steep hill( I always take my breaks where I can pick at something like most would do) Anyways I was picking at a 4 inch quartz vein that had no signs of minerals until I picked down around 6 inches and ran into the green and blue cooper sulfides and then pyrite mixed with them. I thought they were pretty cool specimens so I showed them to people around town and they also said that was some pretty pyrite(even some that mine gold)One day I showed it to a couple that was selling cabachons in salome and the wife of the couple was like omg,omg there is gold in this. I was thinking o.k what ever. Her husband called his uncle who in the past was a southern Arizona mining supervisor and had been in mining over 50 years. He checked it out with his pocket mag and scratched at it and said yup there is gold in it and invited me to his house to do a acid test. Were he said it was pyrite(forget what type of pyrite he said)mixed with what he said was high grade gold. I sent in for a fire assay and I came back as .986/ton Au trace Ag. I now know the sample I sent in wasn't a good one to tell the over all of the vein. I sent in about 2 pounds of the white quartz that showed pyrite. I have dug in one spot about 3 feet deep when I was down about 18 inches I started running into pockets of the reddish/brown quartz with all kinds of shades of copper sulfides and will send in some samples of that for assay. The vein is over 100 feet in length going up a steep hill side on BLM land that had never been surveyed or claimed. I call it my hobby claim unless I hit a rich pocket the economics I don't think its a big money maker but ya never know.Some pics off what I have picked.The last 2 pictures were from up closer to the top of the hill but maybe 6 inches down I saw less pyrite but the colors were more ranged I am guessing different stages of decay.

[nuggethunting]

Hey Desertrat50,

Thanks for the story and pictures. The "gold looking" metal in the first couple of pictures looks like the typtical "chalcopyrite" of Arizona. I worked at the Bland Mine and many others helping with ore and seen thousands of tons of this stuff. It does carry gold, but not too much VG (visable gold) is present until crushed. The Bland ore was loaded with chalcopyrite, but we couldn't see much visable gold until we crushed it with jaw crushers, ran it into a ball mill and then across a table.

How was the GB2 responding on this type of ore? Where you able to get any hits?

Here is a piece I found with a metal detector not too far from the Mountain range you're working.

Talk with you soon,

Rob Allison

[swestgold]

Hi Rob, Nice specimen. You mean my gold buy 2 that's collecting dust LOL. I know they take practice but I have trouble distinguishing even the tones. I was detecting at miners camp and a lady had one and she found a couple tiny placers and wasn't digging up every tone she heard. I practiced with the tiny flake in a card I bought from the detecting club. I still couldn't get the different tones sorted .(Tone deaf or something) and I was always having to balance. So I gave up on it and when I can afford a better one with better bells and whistles then I would be more apt to use it. I just went out and try it on my ore and nope didn't get a beep. I crushed some up to powder and the stuff that looks more like gold then Pyrite is super fine I use a 10x to see it, Maybe some one with better eye sight could spot it out but I can't. I know detecting is an art and I should not give up so easily. Thanks for your replies, Robert.