CAauhuntr
New member
For two months (October-November) of last fall I made many all-day (5 hour round trip drive) prospecting trips checking mine dumps, dry ravines and any dry creeks that were not private property. During this two-month period I was getting frustrated digging up trash, in total 118 pieces of lead with some copper and aluminum. I even had access to private property twice with the owners and neither one of us found any gold. Mariposa County is known for nuggets and rich patches, but all are on private property. Detectors used: Garrett Axiom and a Nokta Gold Finder 2000
About the middle of December, I was taken up to an abandoned mine (Adit) with a very large dump pile by a few of the local Mariposa detectorists and was told that this location had been worked over hard for the last ten years. But the stories of the specimen gold that was found here kept us digging all day. I went up to this location a total of three times with them and did not find anything.
I went back to the location by myself with just my Nokta Gold Finder 2000 to check for any possible overlooked areas that still might have some unworked material. I had no idea what the dimensions of the Adit, waste pile was before it had been worked and there were so many “cuts” where layers had been detected then pushed over the edge. At the far end of the waste dump pile there was a dead tree that was partially covered with rock material. I was pretty sure that this tree was here prior to the more recent prospecting activity. I moved rock material away from the tree for several hours to get to the base of the tree and then started digging horizontally into the bottom of the waste pile. I worked a section approximately 4 feet wide by 3 feet deep, detecting as I was pulling material out. I was about 10 to 12 feet below the current top of the pile and about 30 feet from the center.
I started seeing a different type of material and areas with a red sticky clay (Which closely resembled the stuff I have to scoop up in my backyard but doesn’t smell as bad) when I found my first small piece of gold. I had been getting non-ferrous targets that looked like blasting cap shrapnel prior to that. All of the detected targets are covered in a dense red dirt clay mixture, so I just put whatever in a bottle and clean everything up later. After a long day I ended up with about 12 lead targets, 2 very small gold pieces and two small quartz rocks. I couldn’t see any gold on the two rocks, but my detector screamed at me in a good way. So, I was hopeful that I had found two specimens.
After cleaning the quartz rocks, I could see some gold on one edge and while cleaning with a stiffer brush the quartz started breaking up. Since the gold was in a decomposing quartz I decided to crush the rocks. I used material from old pair of Levis placing the rock on it then folding it over a couple times to keep pieces from going everywhere. Then I just give it a healthy whack with a 5-pound sledge. I only hit the rock once which seems to help retain the unique structure of the gold contained inside and if I need to take more quartz off of a piece, I use vice-grips or a similar tool. I was amazed at how much gold was in a few of the specimens
Once a week I drove up and continued working this spot averaging 4 to 7 specimens a day for three days. On the fifth day I found a different type of quartz containing gold (Actual Specimens) however didn’t know it until I got home and cleaned them up. On my sixth trip I found 2 one-gram pieces of gold and 12 specimens like the first ones. On my last day I worked the spot for just over 9 hours, and I didn’t find anything but lead. Two days later the transmission went out in my truck, so I haven’t been able to do any prospecting since. With the weeks of coming home empty handed it was nice to have a win, which proves again you have to think differently and work a little bit harder than everyone else that came before you. There will be disappointing days or even weeks, but when you find the gold that nobody else could find it is all worth it.
Went back three times after I got a new truck, found another 12 grams.
My total from this location is now at 1.4 Ounces, gold weight
