Sedimentary with quartz veins

Any pointers on where to start here guys?..

A gold bearing mountain mostly consisting of sedimentary sandstone and fine dark quartz veins ( hairline - 1" so far ) with vughs about 4mm open bearing tiny quartz crystal on the plates. Signs of dark "sponge" iron in the quartz.

A large milky white quartz vein outcrop 3 meter wide x 2 meter high is exposed about 50m north east up hill further. So the string veins at the base may seep off this larger vein.

Im currently looking for a much wider vein than the rest thats dark quartz or a dark fissure about 4" wide, and hopefully one intersecting it closeby.

Theres shafts nearby but they target alluvial.

Am I on the right track with looking for the "X" or should I start sampling the exposed quartz outcrop? By the looks of it, theres not one chisel or hammer mark anywhere on it, very rounded.

You could possibly try taking a series of loam samples across the slope from around the base of the hill below the outcrop, and check them for fine colours. then work up slope from any that prove positive.

How big are old timers loaming spots? The hill already seems to have a pattern of small scrapings all up it, about 2 meter wide by a meter deep into the hill. Im guessing theres a shaft nearby I have not found yet by the sounds of it.

Im more interested in the hard sedimentary with quartz veins rather than the quartz outcrop at the moment. Is it still loaming when you get rock samples and crush them in the same pattern? Or should I be sampling the soil on the sedimentary.

Cheers for the reply

gold sheds down hill you would save a lot of busting your gut if you do what jethro said and loam from the bottom of where you can see the reef parallel to the hill I would do a 2ft long by 1 foot wide by half a foot deep or as deep as you like small costean/trench. parallel to the reef on the hill but about half way up the hill. I would also suggest if you can see the reef for a long distance in the ground I would go more of these types of loam trenchers that I've explained above. I would dig them say every 5 to 10 meters parallel to the reef and on the side of the hill until you can not see the outcropping reef anymore. because there is not much use digging holes that are vertical to the reef because you wont get the results your after if you dig up hill in a strait line. dig across the hillside or parallel to the hill. NOT up/vertical to the hill/reef

cheers HTC

Its a quartz vein exposed not very much, I'll do some loaning and get some results, cheers