Crevacing advice needed

[BoydWilliam]

Hi all,
Im still quite new to the prospecting game, and have been spending a bit of time in a local creek sniping some crevices. At the moment im working an area with exposed bedrock, and ive been digging in between the crevices with some pretty good results. Most pans are giving me between 5 - 20 specks of gold.
Im just not sure how far down between the crevices to dig. After digging out the usual dirt, stones and sand im digging down to some kind of sticky clay.
Ive found it quite difficult to break it down and pan it out successfully. Usually i dont find much gold in this sticky clay, as most of my finds are coming up above it in the crevice.
Should i persist digging into the sticky clay, or is this where i should stop?
Has anyone had any success in finding any small nuggets whilst crevicing? All i seem to find is small specks and flakes, not that im complaining!
Cheers!

 

[Reeks]

Found a nice picker in a crevice just last week. You need to go to the bottom as that's where the bigger pieces will be.
The clay needs to be thoroughly liquified before being panned. Sieve with a 1/2 " and then work your hands through your pan.
I have found sometimes the clay has no gold, but usually the blue/grey stuff does. But that could be totally different in your area.
Clean those crevices untill you could eat off them!
Reeko

 

[20x]

Hi all,
Im still quite new to the prospecting game, and have been spending a bit of time in a local creek sniping some crevices. At the moment im working an area with exposed bedrock, and ive been digging in between the crevices with some pretty good results. Most pans are giving me between 5 - 20 specks of gold.
Im just not sure how far down between the crevices to dig. After digging out the usual dirt, stones and sand im digging down to some kind of sticky clay.
Ive found it quite difficult to break it down and pan it out successfully. Usually i dont find much gold in this sticky clay, as most of my finds are coming up above it in the crevice.
Should i persist digging into the sticky clay, or is this where i should stop?
Has anyone had any success in finding any small nuggets whilst crevicing? All i seem to find is small specks and flakes, not that im complaining!
Cheers!

are the crevices(foliation of the bedrock) running across the creek or parallel?

 

[BoydWilliam]

They run across the creek, ill try and take a few photos whilst im out today

 

[Paydirt]

I usually crackafat when I start digging up grey clay. It has hidden the goodies at most places I've dug. Green/grey even better. Dont stop til you've bottomed out, at least then you wont die wondering what if I had........

 

[G0lddigg@]

its been said already but go to the bottom at least in a small area and test pan the whole way down, usually theres layers of gold wash stuck in the clay and often nice pickers stuck to the bedrock below

 

[Goldtarget]

I'm a x2 on the above post from paydirt. Don't die wondering. In some stream beds the best chunky little pickers come out of the clays, they get tapped in there and wait for someone to dig them out. Breaking up clays has been covered in other threads but don't discount it as a bonanza even if early results aren't too encouraging. Not all gold is in clays, not all clays hold gold, but somewhere there id put a dollar to a speck that you'll find a little spot of treasure for your trouble. Gold has a knack of working itself into some really tight areas, so hunt deep and throughly, often looking at the strata and matrix of where gold is coming from will help you find more. But its tricky, you'll go from barren to patchy to chunky sometimes within a few inches, often sampling the gold line is helpful. I recently scrapped back the top two inches of a clay bench where someone else had worked the gravels on top, processed it for around a gram in a 30x30 cm square. If in doubt dig more. Clean out a spot before moving on, sometimes the best gold isn't the easy gold. Good luck.

 

[jamie]

clean it out and sample it all mate, i had my first gold find last weekend on my first outing playing in a crevice, i spotted a crevice someone had already looked at and just moved along to the next one that looked better to my limited knowledge and got gold, i got gold above, in and under the clay so dont rule any part of it out, best of luck with it mate

ps what local creek did you say it was again? lol

 

[Paydirt]

Bit like pulling out of a drillhole 110m down without punching thru the bottom of the orebody - learn't the hard way. I was young and inexperienced, boss was pissed and the drillers didnt like having to reposition over a hole they had already made. And from memory the hole was pushed down another 20m - thus increasing the resource estimate = more chaching

 

[Goldtarget]

I must admit I'm alot less helpful to those outside the inner circle on my haunts. Doubt you would ever catch me saying "oh yer dig deeper" out on the fields to guys i don't know, or just met, and i tend to hide the snuffer bottle if anyone approaches. All to often you see evidence where someone has given up or moved on, especially crevicing, now i won't claim I've ever hit the big deposits from someone else doing the dig before me but my eyes light up when i see the job half done. Of all the thoughts i have while chasing alluvial there's one that underpins them all......dig it out until its done. That's the only way to be sure. And by doing that it forces you to find a new spot. If you're going to the trouble to find it get it all.

 

[G0lddigg@]

I love finding crevices that havent been cleaned properly. Easy gold :|

 

[TenOunce Tone]

On GT's point, if you are digging into something that someone has started, make sure you test it as you go, you dont want to be digging into someones half ar$ed attempt at back filling.. on second thought the lack of sandy or loamy material should be a giveaway that the spot is new or back filled.

Cheers and good luck in the crevices.

Tone

 

[backcreek]

Hay Boyd,

Here's a similar thread I stared some time ago. Lots of great replies.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3289

Hi all,
Im still quite new to the prospecting game, and have been spending a bit of time in a local creek sniping some crevices. At the moment im working an area with exposed bedrock, and ive been digging in between the crevices with some pretty good results. Most pans are giving me between 5 - 20 specks of gold.
Im just not sure how far down between the crevices to dig. After digging out the usual dirt, stones and sand im digging down to some kind of sticky clay.
Ive found it quite difficult to break it down and pan it out successfully. Usually i dont find much gold in this sticky clay, as most of my finds are coming up above it in the crevice.
Should i persist digging into the sticky clay, or is this where i should stop?
Has anyone had any success in finding any small nuggets whilst crevicing? All i seem to find is small specks and flakes, not that im complaining!
Cheers!

 

[20x]

I'm a x2 on the above post from paydirt. Don't die wondering. In some stream beds the best chunky little pickers come out of the clays, they get tapped in there and wait for someone to dig them out. Breaking up clays has been covered in other threads but don't discount it as a bonanza even if early results aren't too encouraging. Not all gold is in clays, not all clays hold gold, but somewhere there id put a dollar to a speck that you'll find a little spot of treasure for your trouble. Gold has a knack of working itself into some really tight areas, so hunt deep and throughly, often looking at the strata and matrix of where gold is coming from will help you find more. But its tricky, you'll go from barren to patchy to chunky sometimes within a few inches, often sampling the gold line is helpful. I recently scrapped back the top two inches of a clay bench where someone else had worked the gravels on top, processed it for around a gram in a 30x30 cm square. If in doubt dig more. Clean out a spot before moving on, sometimes the best gold isn't the easy gold. Good luck.

excellent response mate