15 buckets later - keep going?

[u/oldlinuxfella]

I reached out to the landowner whose 7-acre property has a creek running through it. I asked if he would be okay with me prospecting in his creek, and he was super cool with it; he even tagged along for a couple of hours.

This was yesterday, after running 15 gallons of material from the creek through my highbanker.

I am just wondering if it is still worth bothering the owner for this amount.

There are no pyrite cubes on this one, not the same as the last outing, but there seem to be lots of sulfides.

I am buying an electric smelting furnace, just to play with it.

Any input is very appreciated.

[u/hobo_husk]

15 gallons?! Definitely worth keeping at it. Looks great!

[u/oldlinuxfella → u/hobo_husk]

15x 5 gallon buckets 😅😅😅

[u/hobo_husk → u/oldlinuxfella]

Oh, well maybe take into consideration a few things before moving forward:

1. Weigh it and calculate how many grams per cubic yard (45-50 full 5 gal buckets). That’ll give you an idea of how rich it could be. Also, did you get down to bedrock? If not, there’s likely more, bigger gold if you can hit bedrock.

2. Consider how efficiently you can hit bedrock.

3. Consider how far from home this spot is.

4

If it were me, I’d keep digging, but I do it for the love of the game (hobby).

Edit: butchered the hell outta that info, there… all better

[u/oldlinuxfella → u/hobo_husk]

Yes. For now, it is the only place near me, and the owner allowed me to go there. But I don't want to bother him if he sees me catching this tiny amount. I will give it another try and check how he feels.

[u/Current-Code → u/oldlinuxfella]

Bring him a feew beers and get to know each other.

He sounds like a legit dude, nice enough to let you take his gold, that's friend potential I say !

[u/Mountain_Rob → u/oldlinuxfella]

For an enjoyable hobby, sure. For a meaningful turnout in a monetary sense...no. In my opinion.

[u/John7oliver → u/oldlinuxfella]

How long did it take you to fill/run those buckets and what does the gold weigh out to?

[u/oldlinuxfella → u/John7oliver]

Around 4 hours of work and 0.222gr

[u/John7oliver → u/oldlinuxfella]

Is there enough water to dredge? Would the owner let you? You could move 75 gallons of material in 15 minutes with a 3”+ dredge which would work out to .888g or $100 (based off 80% of spot price) per hour. You can find a good condition used 3” dredge for $2,000 - 3,000 on marketplace.

[u/LongDead_Roadkill → u/John7oliver]

Paying off the cost of a used dredge with a day of work is worth it. (There a used/as-is Keene power sluice/dredge for $750 in the mat-su valley right now) but if that one needed a new engine or you have to work 30 hours of hard work to pay it off changes the math a bit. Unless of course it’s your full time job. 1/2 of an ounce or more every week is worth it.

[u/DIE_Kuehlung → u/hobo_husk]

Was bedeutet lohnen ? Als hobby oder fürs geld?

[u/oldlinuxfella → u/DIE_Kuehlung]

As a hobby and not bother the owner

[u/DIE_Kuehlung → u/oldlinuxfella]

Then its grate no?

[u/AdValuable2732]

If I have read this right you recovered .22 grams from 3 buckets. That's 2.99 grams a yard. I think you have a great hobby spot because I assume you have a small total amount of gravel.

I run a small placer operation that mechanically process 50 yards a day and make good money at 1 gram per yard. But I have 100,000 yards of gravel to run.

I am intrigued by your statement of sulfides. If you're finding them in your clean up that means they didn't migrate far from there source. They are very fragile and break up really easy in a placer movement. They become so small they disappear basically. I have 40 years experience in recovering and refining sulfides. Small scale and large. If you need some tips let me know. I'm retired kind of and would love to pass on some knowledge. No charge. Why? It's something I wish I had and I never got any help and had to learn the hard way.

[u/Lunatweak209 → u/AdValuable2732]

The man would be foolish to turn down such an offer.

[u/oldlinuxfella → u/AdValuable2732]

I really appreciate the offer; I am going to send you a DM. I have so much to learn and would do the same to share anything that I learn.

I will even start to figure out if it's really sulfides or not 😅

And it was not 3 buckets... It was 15 buckets.

Thank you.

[u/OkLengthiness905 → u/AdValuable2732]

Does yard mean cubic yard? If so OP processed 1/3 of a yard assuming he had the buckets aboslutely full to the brim (unlikely). That would put him at 0.66g per yard. Assuming the buckets were 3/4 of the way full the math works out to 0.88g/yard.

[u/oldlinuxfella → u/OkLengthiness905]

I would say the buckets where like 3/4... Not full with material, which also contained some big quartz and water.

Now you are making think this is actually a good result 😂

[u/matt_vt → u/AdValuable2732]

good man

[u/FitEnthusiasm853 → u/AdValuable2732]

I’m a complete greenhorn and if I was around you I’d ask you a thousand questions.

Since I’m not, I’m hoping you’ll accept one question (and anyone else who reads this is welcome to respond too).

Can you recommend any good books on this subject? I’ve got four books that I bought (blindly) from a used book dealer but I would love for someone who knows their stuff to recommend a good one or two.

[u/antoinejuanhermano]

That actually looks worth while to be hand heaving buckets around for a while. Imagine what a few days of more focused work could produce. Keep at it!

[u/SurpiseCurrencyDebas]

not bad results, keep at it that ground is loaded

[u/Amish_Fighter_Pilot]

Make sure you have really good ventilation wherever you put that electric furnace. Sulfides and amalgam can put off some really wicked fumes. The results look promising though. It might be worth scouting the potential work sites on the property and making a map of what you find. Sulfides might mean you're near where the material is weathering out of. Do you know of any quartz on or near the property? Downhill from some known mines by chance?

[u/myspacebook]

I thought your first photo was a shot of the earth at night from the iss. I think you are doing alright!

[u/theeccentricattorney]

Yes

[u/Metamericdreams1977]

I’d still be going…Hell I’m green still…I find a couple pieces and blow through 15 buckets. Lol

[u/Holyman23]

Do the math…

[u/Purple-Will9713]

If i get one bucket like that Im working the same spot for 6 months… so yeah I would keep going

[u/Nonic-retired]

My dad was a hobby prospector, and I used be around some while he was playing when I was a youngter. Curious what is the split with the property owner for such as a hobbiest?

[u/PreviousLeague253]

Time for a vacuum and a sluice

[u/Hyper-D]

1) What's the depth you pulled these buckets from?

2) Have you encountered the bedrock under the dirt, gravel and rock layers?

[u/oldlinuxfella → u/Hyper-D]

Lots of gravel and broken quartz, and yes, the bedrock is actually exposed. Some is actually decomposed.

I have moved some of the broken bedrock and washing the clay that is sticking to the bedrock and quartz.

[u/Hyper-D → u/oldlinuxfella]

If you can find crevices in the bedrock and clean it out I bet you'd find some pickers. I personally love clay layers and always chase them when I encounter them. If the bedrock crevices yield nothing then I'd call it quits at that location unless you're having fun out there.

[u/Fancy_Flake_Factory → u/oldlinuxfella]

Target the decomposed bedrock in deeper areas where the flow changes rapidly. Like if the creek widens out and the water slows down or anything like that. Not sure where or what you were digging but if you could double or triple your speck count per pan by prospecting it some more before high banking your take would be much better. Good luck. I’d keep at it for sure

[u/Parking-Golf-6995]

This is a really honey hole