# Okay, exactly how do you dig for gold?



## Eric (Jul 21, 2008)

1. How far do you dig in the ground? 20 feet(3 metres) to 30 feet(3.5 metres)?

2. Do you need a metal detector? If not, where do you find gold?

3. Can vaccuums replace digging?

4. If you go super high tech with your prospecting, will that increase my chances of finding gold? Lets say I spend $6,000 on the world's best metal dector (whatever the brand may be), the Gold Exorcist, and a powerful vaccuum, would I find more gold?

Thanks guys. Los Angeles is my home city, by the way.


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## NuggetHuntingFool (Jul 21, 2008)

You can find tons of Gold in California.

The thing I would start with is simple panning. It's simple, yet effective. Start out by finding some spots on the river banks. Follow the gold upstream. Once you start finding gold that isn't smooth then you're closer to the deposits. Then you can metal detect for the source, although chances are better for being struck by lightning.

Or you can simply start detecting around well-known mining locations of the past. I'm sure there is still a lot out there to be found.

Go to Google Video and search for prospecting, panning, etc...


Good Luck.


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## sawmill (Jul 21, 2008)

From your questions,I suggest that you join a prospecting
club and learn the basics.
They have claims,and lots of friendly people that are willing
to teach you.
Without knowing the basics,grabbing a pan and taking off on
your own is not a good idea. It will take some skill and knowledge
just to find a panning spot that is not already claimed.

Lode prospecting,and desert mining is even tougher. To give
an answer to your digging question is simple

First you find gold indicators,take samples,and if there is gold,
you dig, take samples,and take more samples.
Knowing the geology,host rock,mineral types,types of deposits
really help too. Knowing where to dig is what is important,not
how deep. Once you find gold,that determines how deep you dig.

Also there is tons of laws,rules ,and regulations to learn.


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## Irons (Jul 21, 2008)

You will find all kinds of things around mine sites, especially nails. Bring a spare or two and an air pump when you go.

Getting stuck in the desert is no fun. Driving down creek beds is asking for trouble. I learned my lesson when my VW beetle hit a 'puddle' of quicksand and it took me a whole day in the blazing Arizona sun to jack it out. That's when you find out how attracted the flies are to sweat.

Don't park your car in a creek bed. That thunderstorm you see in yon mountains will wash you and your car away in a flash. That's why they call them flash floods. I got out of one about 30 seconds before a wall of water mixed with boulders about 20 feet deep innundated the spot where my car had been.

A fellow I knew wasn't so lucky. He parked his brand new Lincoln Continental in a creek bed and when he finally returned, all was visible was the top of the roof. The inside was full of boulders.

It's probably still there. It was a long walk to town.


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## sawmill (Jul 22, 2008)

Irons
My claims are in Arizona,and you are dead on with
your advice. :shock: 
Getting ready to head back down there and play in 
the dirt too.


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## jimwig (Sep 5, 2008)

oh man that continental story was too graphic. but funny in hindsight.

how deep is a hole? well i tell you. deep enough. and not an inch less.

digging for gold (i assume you mean hard rock or old alluvial placers)
is the work for geochemists, geologists and fools - all of whom have their own reasons and research for a particular spot.

i have worked on mine sites where the assay was .02oz/ton (Bullfrog Nevada) and they had whole mountains to crush, leach and sell.

i have seen nuggets of size come from single engine dredges on both sides of the U.S. and done a little metal detecting in the desert areas of California (Randsburg) and Dahlonega (Georgia).

all this to say i have never really "dug a hole". to dig is a major operation requiring more resources than i will ever possess. but it does happen. i suggest Alaska and a front endloader, trommel etc.

tons of gold in California - yeah buddy but you gotta get past the guards to get to it. 

no seriously recreational mining can pay. but it is a bust butt situation and no guarantees. stay with recovery using jewelry and scrap.

and then no huge profit margin guaranteed.


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## Harold_V (Sep 6, 2008)

jimwig said:


> stay with recovery using jewelry and scrap.


Have you ever wondered how many will have been lost in that little treasure of a tip?

Any readers see the wisdom?
I welcome your comments. 

Harold


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## Oz (Sep 6, 2008)

Comments???

It is far and away the truth. I do enjoy panning however but it is for recreation not profit. I love the outdoors! I will admit however that if I go home with a little bit of yellow that the value there is far greater than the metal. 

It’s kind of like the pears I am putting up this weekend. I can buy them far cheaper in the grocery store. Even though I got them for free out of an old orchard, after you take the labor into consideration they are far more expensive than store bought. There is however a certain satisfaction in taking something from the earth and making something of value by your own hand, free of commercialism.


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## Harold_V (Sep 6, 2008)

Very nicely stated, Oz, and I agree fully. 

My comments were directed more towards those that want to pursue refining for a living. 

My wife grows one hell of a garden. She makes jam from fresh picked raspberries that is to die for. You can't buy anything like it. Pies made from freshly harvested blueberries. Her broccoli, this year, rivals that of the best of commercial farmers. We even enjoy fresh figs! She grows much more, including asparagus----with none of it a bargain, but we enjoy the results, and I'm very proud of her for the wonderful garden she creates each year. 

Having never pursued gold in nature, I can only imagine the thrill of finding a little color in the pan! I'd never discourage anyone from the sport, but, like e scrap, you can do one hell of a lot of hard work with little reward. Neither of them are a good way to make a living.

Harold


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## Rag and Bone (Sep 6, 2008)

Chasing gold is human nature. It might not be the smartest thing but some lives find purpose in the pursuit. It's a right and an honor to intercept usefull metal and technology from the landfill.


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## Oz (Sep 6, 2008)

Rag,
Landfills will be the mines of the future.

Harold,
In my youth I would roam the countryside gathering the edible delights that nature provided free. It certainly did not make economic sense, but at that age I did not care at all, but I liked the independence it provided. Looking around today it may be handy to know what I learned 35 or so years ago being an independent and at times obstinate youth. There is nothing to compare in this world to what one has wrought from their own hand.

Sad to say I had no time for a garden this year, but my non-hybrid seed will be fine next year. 

In general I abhor dependence.


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## jimwig (Sep 6, 2008)

i am with oz and gonna eat at Harold v.s with he and his wife. boy !!!that takes me back to my mom and dad and their wonderful kitchen of earthy delights......


probably where i got my idea that the journey and not necessarily the destination is most of the reward for going.

i don't search for treasure when i am hungry. just a immediate solutionl 

having said that i agree that just being out there in the overly beautiful outofdoors is a treasure in and of itself.

i am not a "religious" man - but in the wilderness (or just my shed in Walter's backyard for that matter) is as close to deity as i can imagine.

thanking ye all for the times......i am still


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## jimwig (Sep 6, 2008)

'scue me i digest - >burb< back to the topic

dig it guys (and ladies) - i sorta lied. i have dug for the elusive shovel full of bearing material. and then washed --one way or the other and could hardly wait to look for the little shiny flakes and bb's!!!! most often not to find anything.

behind the rocks above the current level of rivers. in the middle of cow pied pastures in the middle of wyoming. (atlantic city and ?) on a remote supposed claim of the gpaa in northeern californiay..... 

behind those rocks always got a pretty nice return. QUOTES nice return unQUOTE.

best single pan i have ever seen was gotten that way. it was not my pan but i helped move that monster flat boulder so that the root infested goblet of dirt could be farther panned down. and wow there was discernible gold - all small flakes and very very pretty.

yes you need to get with another miner or many miners and learn from them. they will know where, when, who, what and where - 'scuse me i already located this claim didn't i ?

and when you are 60 you can sit here and pretend to know something just like crazy jim wggns......!!!!


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## geubrina (Oct 7, 2008)

Talking about digging,.... maybe picture talks more than words.....

Enjoy! 8)


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## lazersteve (Oct 7, 2008)

Nice photo! Thanks for sharing!!

Steve


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## jimwig (Oct 7, 2008)

twenty meters thirty meter !!!!

wow you better have a back hoe and a couple cases of dynamite, friend.

you are on a totally wrong scale here. what you describe is a professional hard rock effort costing in the mega bucks to put together, run and manage.

and that's just the edge of the table..... if IF you find gold.


how and where to dig? that's the question.... 

YOU LOOK FOR GOLD WHERE IT HAS BEEN KNOWN TO EXIST IN THE PAST.

cause finding a "NEW" deposit is way beyond your means. but i am assuming a lot.

if you were here in the united states go to one of several know areas to have produced gold - in paying quantities. 

pan the streams, move up stream until the pay, lessens or dies out all together. then determine which bank of the stream has the deposit. and post a grid and start digging small holes (down to bedrock) and pay all those. this will inevitably lead to the deposit. then go to the bank after you lease the property and borrow - oh say about three million u.s. dollars and fence the area and buy a bucketfull of liability insurance, and file a plan of operations with all the affected government agencies and find someone who knows what the heck they are doing and start doing more exploratory digging and blasting and panning and seperating and classifiying and assaying and a myriad of stuff i have no idea of.


but keep it simple and fun. just pan the streams. and have fun.

se ya in the riva!!!!


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## Seamus (Oct 7, 2008)

Tunneling in the hard rock is extremely hard work and pays well if your in great gold country. However, placer mining can be just as rewarding in great gold country. Getting back to your question of how to dig, Join a club near you to learn the basics and you will do better if you decide to go out on your own later. A club is full of members that can tell stories of what works best and what doesn't work well. Learning the ropes is also partly trial and error. Thats why a club can get you through that stage faster.

I hope you see a lot of precious metals in your equipment. Good luck and happy hunting.


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## jimwig (Oct 7, 2008)

yes mr. SEAMUS -you right on the button.

i remember in the Weekend Recreational Goldminers Club (of which i am a charter member) there were indivuals who had backhoes and trommel operation in a shallow valley. now they dug some dirt. they could get to bedrock and a little more with their equipment. i never heard anything more to do with this so either they were embarrassed and quit or they got stinking rich and quit. I doubt the latter happened.

but all that trommel business is placer mining because the gold is displaced vein gold long ago redeposited as allluvial sediments. a course in geology would not hurt anyone looking into extractive metallurgy.

then there's the recover process of which these guys here on GRF are especially well informed with.

most gold from experience is so microscopic that only a chemical 
recovery can be successfull.

ALSO the history of any one gold producing district could only help. 

it is sorta like trout fishing. to be any sort of success one must no the trouts habitat, its behavior, it food types and sources and that food types habitats, life cycle, etc. 

well with gold its the hydrologic cycle and redeposition with placer and faults and vein enrichment with hard rock gold.

gold is elusive but it is out there. goo ggoogogohahhahahhhah hahahha


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## geubrina (Oct 7, 2008)

The picture I posted is a gold mine picture belong to somebody else. The depth of the tunnel is varying from 20 metres to more than 100 metres.

Usually, they make tunnel in the area, where it has a history of gold mining in the dutch era (Indonesia is under Dutch for 350 years and Japan 3 1/2 years before Independence).

The Gold Vein they found usuall is relatively high grade, 2 - 5 gram per 30 kg of stone. But, now, the percentage is going lower. It is difficult for gold mining now, because the high grade gold vein is gone.


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## Rag and Bone (Oct 7, 2008)

VBS has a cool video piece on primitive gold mining in Venezuela. It's not a scientific report and the reporter is a NY City fancy pants...but it's still pretty interesting.

http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=626874836

Also, a good documentary from Independent Lens called "The Devil's Miner" about child labor in Bolivian silver mines. Excellent film.


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## jimwig (Oct 8, 2008)

I WISH YOU TO BE PRECISE in your question. because right now i am no longer sure just what you want to know.

to answer your question on the face of it and therefore the question being somewhat vague i will give the vague and or obvious answer as follows:

you place the tip of the digging utensil in the soil in an area you believe might contain gold, you place the dirt and rock from the shovel full in a container and you pan the diggings.


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## anycreekdrift (Feb 25, 2009)

Photo looks like hardrock mining, nice shot could be from a drift too. The cribbing is set at angles in hard rock mines as well as drift mines. In drift mines it's to allow more sq ft of bedrock to be cleaned and minimal head room removal. It's also for support.


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## jimwig (Feb 27, 2009)

primitive yes but it is exactly the same process that so called modern industry uses to recovered gold from large desiminated deposits. main difference is that the motors are larger and the whole process is scaled up as large as possible.

and that is how you dig for gold mi amigo!!!


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## Richard36 (Sep 1, 2009)

Eric said:


> 1. How far do you dig in the ground? 20 feet(3 metres) to 30 feet(3.5 metres)?
> 2. Do you need a metal detector? If not, where do you find gold?
> 3. Can vaccuums replace digging?
> 4. If you go super high tech with your prospecting, will that increase my chances of finding gold? Lets say I spend $6,000 on the world's best metal dector (whatever the brand may be), the Gold Exorcist, and a powerful vaccuum, would I find more gold?
> Thanks guys. Los Angeles is my home city, by the way.




Well, I am surprised that you did not get any better answers than you did. 
So, I will do my best to answer them for you. 

1. A metal detector is useful for hunting nuggets, but not all that great for locating producing placer pockets, I have tried. 

2. Going "High Tech" will do nothing but put you in debt, unless that equipment is being used in a region that you have already sampled, and know that it contains recoverable values, then it might be worth the cost. 

3. A "wet dry vac" can be useful for removing sediments from ground out potholes in bedrock, and they are the spots that I would recommend that you concentrate on. Dig those large rocks out, and pan, or sluice those sediments. At your skill level, they will give you the greatest yield for your efforts. They did for me when I started out. 

4. When working gravel bars, Concentrate on those on the inside of a bend in a river. Bends at an angle of 45 - 75 degrees are the most productive. Of these type of bends, the ones flowing over bedrock, or over compacted clay, or clay and gravel Conglomerate are the best types of underlying ground for holding, and concentrating particles & nuggets of Gold, Silver, Platinum, and native Copper. Look for Quartz, Agates, and other silicate minerals, as well as Tire weights, fishing sinkers, nails, wire, Buckshot, etc. mixed in with the black sand within these bends. They are prime indicators that conditions are correct for precious metals to have been concentrated there. Sluice, pan, or dredge from the surface down in these areas. If you wish to dig, then do so, but make sure that you work all gravel from about 14 inches above the "Hardpan" (Rock or Clay soil River or stream bottom). 

5. Gravel concentrations on the upstream, and down stream side of logs crossing the flow of water are good places to check as well. 

There are other areas, but these are the most productive for beginners. If you or anyone else have any questions, make a post under "The Rock Man", and I will do my best to answer them. Sincerely; Rick...


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