Gold Prospecting and Rock Hounding

[Lori Dee ✅]

I have been prospecting in Colorado and here in the Black Hills, SD since about 2010. I also do metal detecting, so maybe it is a treasure-hunting thing. I mostly use metal detectors as a means to find gold. If you are interested in gold prospecting, I have several articles I have written as "How-Tos" as well as a photo album on my personal website. You can find that link in my profile.

In the process of shoveling gravel in a creek, I find some interesting rocks that I bring home with me. I love Rose Quartz. It is the South Dakota State Mineral, and it's PINK! I also hunt for the rare Fairburn Agate, which is the South Dakota State Gemstone. Maybe I have those two backward.

In the winter when creeks are frozen over or the water is about 33 degrees F, I stay indoors and do research. In the summer I am out mining gold or picking up rocks.

I just ordered my second 2-barrel rock tumbler for polishing rocks and I am learning how to do wire wrap jewelry with them. I have found that I enjoy doing this and I can do it indoors with no heavy lifting involved... until I "need" another bucket of rocks.

Here is an example of what I am doing:

Rough Stones to Jewelry 🔗 [Link: imgur.com/a/rX0k4Ho/]

[Northern Star Girl ✅]

@LoriDee
Dear Lori:
Thank you for posting and sharing your experiences with Gold Prospecting and
Rock Hounding. 
The description of your endeavors in those task is very interesting
for sure.  I am looking forward to your future postings regarding these subjects.

I followed the picture link that you had posted....  beautiful work that you
have done turning rocks (rough stones) into very pretty jewelry.
          Click Link-->  Rough Stones to Jewelry 🔗 [Link: imgur.com/a/rX0k4Ho/]

Again, thank you for sharing.
HUGS, Danielle

[Yvanektara]

My grandfather taught me lapidary when I was a child and still have a trim saw, a cabbing wheel, and hand tools. My grandfather was a rock hound specializing in fire agate back when the desert was largely open. Unfortunately, where I live today, all the good sites have either been claimed by commercial developers or otherwise closed off to the public. I did have an Afghan supplier of lapis lazuli, but that source is no longer available to me. I've since lost interest in pursuing it anymore.

[Gina P]

Wow, very nice work, Lori. I was going to say I really like .... but they are all so beautiful.
Gina

[ChrissyRyan]

It appears the largest gold pan is in Quesnel, British Columbia.

Chrissy

[Devlyn ✅]

I think I found Lori's prospecting rig. 

[Lori Dee ✅]

I think I found Lori's prospecting rig. 

I love it! 

[ChrissyRyan]

Heavy duty machinery.

[Lori Dee ✅]

Heavy duty machinery.

And is fully capable of dispatching claim-jumpers!

[ChrissyRyan]

And is fully capable of dispatching claim-jumpers!

You bet!

[ChrissyRyan]

Lori,


Have you looked for any gold in the past few weeks?


Chrissy

[Lori Dee ✅]

Lori,


Have you looked for any gold in the past few weeks?


Chrissy

No, I have been unpacking. I am almost settled in. I have a repair tech coming tomorrow to do a warranty repair on my new loveseat. I almost have my workroom finished, but I will need to get some supplies.

Right now, we are under a heat wave. Temps 100 - 103+ this week and could break a record. So I stay indoors as much as possible.

When the weather cools down, I plan to do some scouting. I have four locations that I have researched, but I need to put boots on the ground and look at the river to see how the water is flowing. If it looks good, I will do some sample panning and figure out where to go from there.

I'm from Northern Colorado, so I am not very familiar with the geology down here in the south of the state. There are some places that I want to go back to up north, but that may not happen until next summer. In the meantime, I spend my winters reading geology maps, old mining journals, newspapers, and researching abandoned gold claims. Then I can form a plan for the following summer.

[ChrissyRyan]

Gosh, brand new furniture with a flaw.  Ugh!  I am glad they are fixing it.

Perhaps an extended warranty may be worth the money on some of your furniture, esp. if an item's price was significant. 

[Lori Dee ✅]

Gosh, brand new furniture with a flaw.  Ugh!  I am glad they are fixing it.

Perhaps an extended warranty may be worth the money on some of your furniture, esp. if an item's price was significant. 

LaZboy came with a one-year warranty. I noticed the problem on Day Two.

I had bought a two-year extended warranty and a five-year protection plan that covers the fabric. That covers rips or tears, seam separations, unusual wear, and even stains. I like that if I spill my coffee and stain the fabric, they will send someone out to clean it.

They gave me a free gift as part of the Extended Warranty. It has a general-purpose cleaner, glass cleaner, upholstery cleaner, and fabric protection spray. When I run out, anytime in the next two years, I just go back to the store with the empty bottle and they will give me a full one to replace it. I think that's a fair deal.

[ChrissyRyan]

LaZboy came with a one-year warranty. I noticed the problem on Day Two.

I had bought a two-year extended warranty and a five-year protection plan that covers the fabric. That covers rips or tears, seam separations, unusual wear, and even stains. I like that if I spill my coffee and stain the fabric, they will send someone out to clean it.

They gave me a free gift as part of the Extended Warranty. It has a general-purpose cleaner, glass cleaner, upholstery cleaner, and fabric protection spray. When I run out, anytime in the next two years, I just go back to the store with the empty bottle and they will give me a full one to replace it. I think that's a fair deal.

Sounds like a practical plan for your furniture.  Better than a free oil changes when you buy a car from a dealer as each time you take it in they seem to find some service related thing they try to sell you.  I datestamp most of my filters and know whenever any expendable was replaced.  I keep my service records in an organized fashion and a spreadsheet.

This woman does not want to be taken advantage of.

[Lori Dee ✅]

A while ago, I did some scouting out at Cache Creek, up near Granite, CO. I brought my Garrett AT Gold Pro metal detector because it allows me to cover a lot of ground quickly. I'm old, so the less unnecessary digging I do, the better.

I focused on areas that were not already being hit hard by local prospectors. There is an area there called "The War Zone" because of all the prospecting pits that look like bomb craters. I wanted to avoid that area.

I found an area that looked good to me. It was quite rocky with a lot of old river rocks. The metal detector sounded on two rocks, so I threw them in my bucket, then dug up about half of a five-gallon bucket worth of rocks and gravel to sample later.

The testing on the rocks, I explained over in the Metal Detecting thread (with pics).
https://www.susans.org/index.php?topic=251912.msg2319794#msg2319794

Today, my job was to screen all the dirt and rocks to eliminate the junk so I can focus on the paydirt. My set of screens goes from 2-mesh down to 100-mesh. #2 mesh means there are two holes per inch in the screen, so each hole is about 1/2" in size. It isn't exact due to the width of the wire, but it is close. Thus, a #4 mesh is 1/4" holes, #8 is 1/8" holes, and so on.

I screened everything through the #2 and #4 to get rid of the biggest rocks, leaving just river gravel. The next job was crushing the rocks. I use a 3-lb "Persuader" (machinist hammer) to break them into small enough pieces that they will fit into my small rock crusher. That took quite some time to go from this:

🔗 [Link: flic.kr/p/2rLuf1R/]

To this:

🔗 [Link: flic.kr/p/2rLuf1W/]

Then I continue screening all of the dirt down to 100-mesh size, which is very tiny.
I first check the screen to see if I can see any gold that I can pull out with tweezers. Then I pan that material to be certain that I did not miss any.

I found nothing of value in the #8 mesh screen.

I found a few colors in the #12 mesh screen, and some got past me, but I caught them when I panned that material.

🔗 [Link: flic.kr/p/2rLsZdy/]
🔗 [Link: flic.kr/p/2rLuf2h/]
🔗 [Link: flic.kr/p/2rLuf1L/]

The same thing happened with the #20 mesh screen.

🔗 [Link: flic.kr/p/2rLtVoQ/]
🔗 [Link: flic.kr/p/2rLuvoa/]
🔗 [Link: flic.kr/p/2rLotcA/]

The #50 mesh screen is getting pretty small, so I don't bother looking for "pickers". I just dump it in the gold pan and get it that way.

🔗 [Link: flic.kr/p/2rLsZe5/]

Then the #100 mesh material.

🔗 [Link: flic.kr/p/2rLtVp1/]

There was some Minus-100 material (gold that fell through the #100 mesh screen without getting caught), but it is so small, and the water in the pan was too murky to get a pic.

Now the only question is how much is there? Tomorrow, I'll dump it all in the gold pan and clean out the little bit of black sand, dry it out, and weigh it.

Stay tuned.

[Dances With Trees]

Awesome photographs and a beautiful description of the prospecting process! The dime was cool, too.

[Lori Dee ✅]

Awesome photographs and a beautiful description of the prospecting process! The dime was cool, too.

Thanks, Dances. It's an Indian head cent, just there for scale.

[Dances With Trees]

Thanks for the clarification, Lori. Of course, now that I know it's a penny instead of a dime, you didn't find nearly as much gold as I initially thought.

[Lori Dee ✅]

Thanks for the clarification, Lori. Of course, now that I know it's a penny instead of a dime, you didn't find nearly as much gold as I initially thought.

That is true. But I wasn't expecting to find that much since it was just a scouting trip. Now that I have an idea of the potential, I will be back next summer for an extensive dig. It is a three-hour drive to get there, so I will likely make it a camping trip. I may stay for a weekend or possibly longer. The Bureau of Land Management allows 14-day stays. There are no "amenities," so it will be "primitive" camping.