Crevice clay question

[Marked]

Funny - that rings a bell. Not sure from where, or if there is any truth to it.

 

[WalnLiz]

Walnliz, I have watched a heap of your youtube videos wal. Liz is the queen of rock crevicing. I really enjoyed watching them thanks. Wal, what do you mean by clay crevices? thanks roscoe

G'day Roscoe, A lot of crevices in modern day streams have a sticky layer of clay at the bottom of the bedrock crevice. This can be from a few cm to over 20 cm thick in the local streams we prospect.

On top of this clay there is usually a layer of hard pack which on many occasions contains iron stained minerals and decomposed bedrock. On top of this there is the usual flood wash overburden. We find that 95% of the gold sits at the base of the hard pack and on top of the clay.

Cheers Wal.

 

[Roscoe]

Thanks Wal, All of the crevices that i have done have clay on the bottom. I don.t think i have had a crevice that hasn't had clay on the bottom, Does this mean anything? Sorry Wal that's why i posed the question to you. The way you spoke suggested to me that in your area you have clay crevices and non-clay crevices? thanks roscoe

 

[WalnLiz]

We have as many non clay bottoms as clay bottoms in the Tuena, Sofalla, Hill End region. Some of the non clay bottoms can be confused as clay in that they comprise tightly decomposed bedrock mixed with compressed silt. The latter usually needs only some light rubbing to break down in the hi-banker. You certainly would not need to puddle this.

If every crevice in your area has clay bottom this would have been layed down during a much earlier geological period. I would be very keen to see how much gold you recover from the very bottom of these crevices. To get a true idea scrape the first few cm in to a separate bucket, and then take out the rest of the clay and puddle it.

I would be surprised if your ratio of 95% top layer and 5% for the rest was different to mine. But in saying that you never know, in some areas gold always has a knack of proving you wrong.

Cheers Wal.

 

[mdv]

I think Wal has identified an interesting point in that there is a difference between clay in a crevice and compressed silt in a crevice. In my limited experience, I have found next to nothing in 'proper' clay - that clay being the stuff that does not break down in the sieve when classifying, no matter how much you roll/rub it around. On the other hand I have found some nice little pickers in compressed silt - where the silt comes out of the crevice looking and feeling a bit like clay (but not so sticky) but it breaks down in the classifying sieve with not too much effort.

On one particular small crevice (20cm long, 5 cm wide) I worked recently, the old timers stopped about 15cm down when they hit the compressed silt. I dug down a further 10cm purely out of curiosity trying to reach the bedrock base and extracted 8 little pickers totalling about 1 gm.

On my last crevice, again I found gold scattered at all depths of the compressed silt going down about 60cm. Admittedly, I found more gold at the top of the compressed silt, but digging deeper there was always sufficient colour to encourage going down further.

 

[Roscoe]

Thanks Wal that clears things up. Wal, i have puddled this clay and like you have found bugger all in it. Looking back i remember crevices with this decomposed bed rock. It was always in slate and schist bedrock. When i puddle this it broke up easy, but it makes a strange looking rolling silt in the water. almost like its full of graphite. Sorry hard to explain. All i can say Wal is the more i dig down the less gold i get. I always thought that the chinese may have cleaned them out years ago.

MDV, Yes i think a lot of us are describing what we see as clay, but as Wal points out there is a difference. I will look a lot closer a what is down the bottom in future, thanks fella's

 

[G0lddigg@]

I would say its very hard to know, I've worked one particular crevice that has good gold on top and into the first 10 cm, then not much at all for about 30cm but after filling this crevis with water and leaving it for a few days i was able to push my hand really deep into the crevis and found that there was really good gold deep down. Unfortunately the next day after this find the water came up hard and fast and i've been waiting ever since on this day i got over 3 grams in only four two or three buckets of mud, its really blue mud

Like wal said gold can always surprise you, i tend to find most of my pickers sitting right on top of the clay

 

[Roscoe]

Thanks for the pictures Golddig some nice pieces from that crevice mate. I bet your itching to get back to finish it off. It does look like a good piece of bedrock to trap gold. You make me want to go out crevicing again

Oh, i forgot to say. Your correct dig to the bottom, we never know what each crevice holds, thanks.

 

[G0lddigg@]

I bet your itching to get back to finish it off. It does look like a good piece of bedrock to trap gold. You make me want to go out crevicing again

you have no idea /.... ive driven to this spot 20 times at least and the water is still running 1-1.5 metres hard i even got in there one day with my wetsuit now that was crazy

 

[Roscoe]

Well one good thing is Golddigg, least you know for sure that no one else is getting your gold while your not there.

 

[G0lddigg@]

yeh true, best bit is this was just one crevis they go for miles mind you this is the are athat the creek widens so expains why vthis one was so rich...is so rich

 

[xray1982]

Man that is some good crevice action! I reckon there is nothing more exciting than getting down to the fines in a pan and seeing whether its a winner or not. Nice colour there mate!

 

[headbut]

I found a nice layer of silt last week & you could here the bigger flakes hit the box as you rubbed the balls between your fingers. Big one is .3 gram

 

[G0lddigg@]

that's awesome!!!

 

[headbut]

Not as good as your haul mate , but thanks

 

[Roscoe]

Some real good bits there Headbut

Do you fellows just pan your sieved material or use a gold wheel, sluice? Do you process it on site or take it home or back to camp? Just curious of some of your methods, thanks roscoe.

 

[WalnLiz]

Some nice little klunkers there mate ....makes me want to get the Banker back onto the creek again...good luck on the next crevice.

Cheers Wal.

 

[headbut]

Some real good bits there Headbut

Do you fellows just pan your sieved material or use a gold wheel, sluice? Do you process it on site or take it home or back to camp? Just curious of some of your methods, thanks roscoe.

Hi Roscoe , I take the cleanout home in a bucket & pan off. Then to be sure , I redo through the mini sluice to pickup anything that escaped the pan, which are only very fines if any at all

Cheers Paul

 

[headbut]

Some nice little klunkers there mate ....makes me want to get the Banker back onto the creek again...good luck on the next crevice.

Cheers Wal.

All 3 of us heard that one hit

 

[G0lddigg@]

Some real good bits there Headbut

Do you fellows just pan your sieved material or use a gold wheel, sluice? Do you process it on site or take it home or back to camp? Just curious of some of your methods, thanks roscoe.

i tend to take a cordless drill with a modified paint mixer attachment I can only get about 4 buckets done before both batteries are dead but its well worth while when you know the gold there. I tend to pore water into the bucket till its clean then pan whats left, light work with the super sluice.