The Art of Loaming

[Deepseeker]

I couldn't find a category for an article on this topic that I just came across from a 1934 Newspaper Titled "Old Hands Hints On Loaming".
It has some great hints and insights regarding the origins of samples found in a pan when searching for gold.

OLD HAND'S HINTS
ON LOAMING

Every Prospector Should
Study the Art

"'BE OPTIMISTIC AND
THOROUGH"

These hints on the art of loaming, written specially for
'The Daily News,' are the fruits of many years' experience
by a prospector who is himself a living example of the
optimism, patience and thoroughness which he recommends
to others. He desires to remain anonymous.

Everybody mining talks about
loaming, but very few know much
about it. A knowledge of this means of
locating gold is of the utmost import-
ance to the prospector, especially now
that all the more obvious outcrops have
probably been tested.

The ground to be prospected may be
covered with 'floaters' (small particles
of the country rocks lying beneath the
soft loam or outcropping -further up the
slope) and it is usual first to test these
by dollying. The gold, however, may
not be in these. It may be in a soft
lode material, which has frittered away,
leaving no outcrop showing, and a few
loams will tell if there is any gold with
in reach.

Even the hardest rock will
shed a few colors of gold, which will
show in the dish.

EQUIPMENT
For loaming it is no good using the
small dish usually used for panning-off
samples. A large 12in. or 15in, dish and
a cyanide drum and small tank of water
are necessary. Plenty of clean water
must be to hand.

Loams constitute the first inch or two
of the surface soil- It requires a fair
amount of force to wash gold down by
water. It is first freed by decomposition
from the ore carrying it. Then the action
of wind and water carries downhill the
earth upon which the gold rests, and the
gold also falls towards the lower level.

The heaviest particles, once in motion,
roll farthest, hence the coarsest gold is
found at the bottom of the slope.
To start work, take a slope of ground
and near the bottom, carefully scrape
up about a foot square and about an
inch or so deep of the surface, first carefully
removing the largest pieces of
stone. As the metal will lodge on the
topside of these, knock them together
over the pan. Now wash your loam off,
carefully panning-off down to as fine as
you can get it. Don't worry, the gold
will not wash out of the dish if you are
not too rough.

FOLLOWING UP RESULTS
Remember, it is not a sample of ore
you are trying. There will possibly be
only a color or two. If you get seven or
eight you are near something worth testing.
A good trace generally means a good
thing, though hard ore will not release
much gold, while soft stuff washing away
in slides will release all it carries.

If you get gold (or even if you don't),
try loams right and left about 10 feet
apart across the slope or round the hill.
Mark the result of each one by putting
white pebbles for gold and- black ones
for blanks. You may now have a line
showing white pebbles. Try another line
10 feet or less up the slope. Keep your
loams going until you get only blanks.

You, may find you have an area of white
pebbles forming a definite shape, a track
or a V with the point uphill. Go to the
last top loam where you got gold. Now
take loams at intervals of two feet each
side and uphill until once more you get
only blanks. If there is no permanent
country showing take deep loams. This
is to find where the gold is rising from
underneath.

DEEP LOAMS
To do this, clear away the top soil
carefully down to a depth of six inches
or more, making potholes of the loam
patches. Take a dish of soil from the
bottom of each hole. If you show any
colors, deepen the hole and try again
until you get to the spot from which the
gold is shed.

All this will take days, and the job
must not be shunned. Loaming is a
slow, tedious, but sure business.

FINE POINTS
Take a dish of loam carrying colors and
gold and ask any loamer "Where did that
gold come from?" Not many can answer.

There are several forms of the metal.
If it is bright, yellow and runs heavily,
but with a rolling, 'tinkly' motion it
comes from quartz. If it is scraggy, honey-
combed and red, it is shed from ironstone
or ironstone and quartz. Flat, dragging
colors come from schist, and very fine,
'mustard' gold from a mineralised vein.
Gold from haematite of iron will hardly
move and is very fine. If it seems to
have little weight and moves easily, it
probably comes from mineralised soft
country. In this case there will most like-
ly be one of the other types with it from
some vein in the lode. A magnifying
glass will show these characteristics.

The surface may be covered with stones
which are floaters of the hard country
rock, generally greenstone, diorite or iron
stone. When the loam is washed out of
the dish and the residue inspected with
a glass you will generally find that there
are other materials present, and these
may indicate that the lode matter has
been covered by this detritus. In that
case a costeen at the head of your loams
might open up a good find.

GENERAL ADVICE
Don't be too anxious with the pick and
shovel at first. Give the dish a chance.
There are plenty of places were gold can
be found without digging useless holes
in barren country.

Remember the old Cousin Jack's
axiom, 'Where it be, there it be!' Try
everything if you get colors and never
mind the know-alls. Pump anyone that
you can see has had good experience.
Ride your luck and don't chase it away
by being a pessimist.

 

[RM Outback]

Excellent post erfect: :beer:

So can I assume you are now going to change your monica to Shallowseeker :goldnugget:

Might be worth shifting it to the Members group of threads , Meet Ups, Epic Projects and make it a sticky :Y:

 

[Deepseeker]

No, not a shallowSeeker yet RM.

One of the things that frustrates me is when I go detecting I usually only get about 8 to 10 hours at a time to do it, fitting it around business and family responsibilities, and then not again until sometimes many weeks later. I've often thought of how I would love to be able to sample areas, follow Flyshite back to the bigger stuff etc., but as with Loaming that all takes time, and unfortunately I'll most probably never even get two days in a row to have a crack at an area. I admire the true prospectors though who devote their time to such pursuits. They deserve every piece they find, from Flyshite to humungous nuggets.