placer nuggets in solid rock

[picker]

My best find was a couple of pounds of placer nuggets from one patch.

ever walk across a large piece of bedrock with your metal detector and have it sound off?
you were told it is just mineralization right! WRONG! well sometimes...

What i found was placer nuggets in solid bedrock like chocolate chips in cookies.
After days of hand work with the single jack and point i cashed in some nuggets and bought a gas jenny and a Bosch bulldog demo hammer and went back to the claim FAST.
But i guess i was going a bit to fast and got pulled over by Johnny law! long story short he let me go after showing him some pill bottles filled with gold nuggets( i think i fired him up with the gold fever!) Back to the claim for the next week chipping away at the rock. i came home with 10 5 gallon buckets of ore to crush and no way to crush it! I tried a buddies impact mill but it damaged the nuggets and rolled them into small round bars.
   So i built a small jaw crusher and had more fun crushing the ore and picking out the nuggets.

Oh , and the next summer i was driving a new dodge ram!

[ScottC]

Hey picker, congrades on your finds. Thats interesting your finding placer gold nuggets in bedrock. Can you post some photos of you finds and some of the interesting bedrock.

Scott

[picker]

the rock in question is a false bedrock at the bottom of the ancestral Yuba
it can be found in many of the pits along the middle Yuba.
the best area i have ever prospected!!!
fine gold and pickers in the dirt.
nuggets on the top of the false bedrock
nuggets within the false bedrock.
all three deposits are from different times as each of the gold deposits vary in purity and color.

the first pic i found was during the second year of mining the claim. My buddy Dan and myself with the jaw crusher in front of the new Dodge.

[picker]

mining false bedrock

[picker]

friends helping find gold

[picker]

the fever is strong with this one luke!
alpha pit nugget patch worked 7' deep total 4.5 oz.
872 nuggets
Note the 1/2 mile long ground sluice in the back ground

[ScottC]

Nice photos, thanks for posting them.

Someone told me the Alpha pit was all private property. I've driven through the Omega pit and walked around a little. I've always wanted to detect those pits, but I'm pretty sure there all claimed up.

Scott

[picker]

it's the other way around...lol
omega is private with 50% the 50%public is land locked!!!
alpha is public but has been under claim the last time i checked 4 yrs ago.

Alpha was where i had my first detector lessons by jim sally, doug duso,
and jimmy sierra. wow that was back in the day!!!
i will check on the claim and post if open or not.
neer the town of washington.

[ScottC]

Wow, thats interesting. I bought a Detector from a guy back in 1996 that told me he goes out nugget detecting with Jimmy Sierra when he's in the area. His name is Bill Williams, I think he passed several years ago.

My claim is about 3 to 5 miles as the crow fly's from Alpha & Omega, in the direction of Deer Creek. Maybe closer, its hard to Judge. I'm only gettin 2 to 4 OZ per season. Perhaps this year I'll do better.

I've only been to A & O 2 times, and both times I could just smell the gold there.

Scott

[picker]

Man you are telling me!

most guys are just so darn lazy when it comes to prospecting!!!!
just move one of those old cobble piles that contain dirt mixed in with the cobbles and you will double or triple you years take in one weekend!

FYI the dirt has been washed down into the piles 12-18" over the years.

same thing on nugget shooting the area!

the place is thick with gold!
find some old dig holes or your first gold target and the remove the next 12" of soil with the #2 shovel and detect again...more gold!

I never could figure out why someone would spend so much on a detector and give up after finding one picker?

i the pits nuggets are always in patches!!!!

[ScottC]

Man if you ever need some help, I have a MineLab GP3500, and a Eureka, and a BucketDigger. The BucketDigger is my own design hand digging tool, the digs pretty fast and efficient, I'm bringing to the market in June and will be offering then forsale at http://www.bucketdigger.com

Scott

[picker]

did you know there was a large ming camp from the ridge at hwy 20 to the dirt road crossing at deer creek. we have found old iron and nails every ware on that hill side. forgot the name of camp town but they worked the big pits along green horn and red dog.
hade a claim on the up hill side at the crossing back in the 80's
three small pits between white cloud and a&o all open area.
the gold we were gitting was all flat thick flakes.

I am planing a trip in earily summer to that area...we should hook up!
i enjoy prospecting in larger groups more as i get older..we cover more ground the concentrate when some one hits a patch.

[ScottC]

Have not been over to that side of Deer creek exploring yet, but this summer for sure, since the area has been opened up by a new loggging operation. Good for quad exploring on the open logging roads.

Even though I have looked, I've never found gold in a pit area, only along the creeks detecting. Some nice nuggets on the area I'm currently working. a lot between 1 and 5 dwts, but nothing bigger yet.

Yes, we should get together this summer. Just let me know when your going.

Do you live in the Sac Calif area?

[picker]

stuck do in Fresno the last five years.

the pit nuggets 1-20 grains tons of them and they add up fast..and we get large ones once in a while..

spread out 20 nuggets of 2 grains in a 6" circle and 6" deep. many detectors treat this as a hot rock or mineralization, then guys ground balance them out....
I have seen this done so often it just makes me laugh.

[ScottC]

The story I read about A & O the old timers pulled alot of gold out of there in a short period of time. I don't remember the numbers but I just remember it was a lot of gold. It didn't mention large nuggets coming out of there.

Scott



 

[picker]

the town or camp was at alpha when they were mining omega.
next thing you know one guy finds gold when digging an out house and you know the rest.

Mr. cole owns the private property just south of alpha.(up hill)
he has some amazing stories...like the 20 chinese miners that died in a drift mine cave in at alpha, and the bodies are still there. I know some guys that will not camp at A because it is haunted...LOL

[ScottC]

Is the old alpha camp site area on private property or public land? I would pay money to coin detect that old site. Those miners were finding alots of gold and they were probably partying and gambling, and possibly losing a few old coins.

Scott

[picker]

sorry to say but the old town site of alpha was 60' above the present ground level now in the pit.
but there is( at least the last time i was there) a tin can dump from the workers at alpha. undisterbed ground from that era to today!
it may hold some goodies from before it was a tin can dump.
i always had plans to clear the trash one grid at a time and work that ground. never got around to it and many other things....

[picker]

the site has been under claim for the last 18 years, still active
the claim owners are in your neck of the woods...
ALPHA PLACER claim
CLARK CHARLES L 405 MESA VISTA CT ROSEVILLE, CA 95747-6724 CO-OWNER 0.00
CLARK WILMA R 405 MESA VISTA CT ROSEVILLE, CA 95747-6724 CO-OWNER 0.00

[ScottC]

Thanks for the info. Those sites would a great place to run a trommel operation. Those frontend loaders can break up that false bedrock pretty good.