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Under Water Gold Placer Finds

IdahoGoldGettR

IdahoGoldGettR

Active member
With a plexy-glass 5 gallon bottom bucket, I have provided close-up pics of my past Summer's under water gold placer experiences. Re-live my thoughts & excitement on such a find. This one shows a bedded penny weight nugget next to a quartz vein.
 
This same nugget find would prove to be one of my better days with the pick, pan & shovel method (I suppose I should include tweezers). First picture illustrates the bedrock crevice floor for which the day's gold was cleaned from. Roughly 10 hrs. of placer work resulted in 9 grams of gold. Not much for some but a bonanza for me. Also, a memory of rich proportions.
 
Thanks Steve, I'll take that as a compliment. If you liked those pictures, then perhaps you'll like these as well. I'll have to admit it was a warm summer day when I took these photos. Under water with no gloves - I guess I didn't want to lose this nugget to another bedrock crack.
 
Try a small hand held suction device.... You can clean all the crevices quickly.
 
Great finds! Thank you for sharing and making my evening Golden! - Terry

http://www.TerrySoloman.com
 
Thx Terry! I never leave home without my hand held pvc gold sucker. When I am not photographing gold in its natural state, I am sniping the bedrock floors and cracks for gold (see first photo). Also, here are a couple photos of the me and the gold sucker at work.
 
The "underworld" sure looks different when you strap on a snorkel and mask. Beneath the stream's surface, I play a game of hide & seek with the gold. I lightly fan the river's bottom with my right hand, then await with anticipation of what gold may be revealed when the murky water clears. Seconds later, a separation between two stones appear. Tucked away slightly amidst this crevice is a trail of shiny gold. A picture or two with the camera and the sniping of this crevice, completes the game. Fortunately, this happens more often than not and I am always happy to share the moment with others. Here are a few more photos of that occurrence. On this particular outing, I cautiously retrieved a stone that showed signs of color. Clinging to the clay surface was the presence of gold (shown in photo 3). The last photo: a few minutes of crevice sniping can yield good gold.
 
I think a few more pics of my under water placer finds are in order. *First 3 Pics.* While snorkeling (obviously done this past Summer's outing), I noticed this picker resting peacefully amongst some bedrock stones. Rather than use my trusty DeserDog Gold Sucker, I chose to photograph it and retrieve it with my tweezers. Not a large nugget, but a colorful picker non the less. *Picture #4.* After removing several shovels of stream bed gravel, I noticed this small pocket of gold. It held nearly a full gram of gold. *Last Photo.* I could not bring myself to leaving this stone on the bottom. So, after spotting some gold pickers, I hoisted the rock and its sediments to the surface. Fortunately, the gold pickers clung to the corner and were deposited into my snuffer bottle. In the end, "Gold is where you find it." May it always find its way to your snuffer bottle! Cheers - Randy
 
With new camera in hand, I decided to pick up where I left off at. A week ago I had worked a nice hole and decided it was worth another visit. This stretch of river (which can be seen on the recent post: Winter Prospecting In Idaho) seems to have a nice pay streak and may hold some promise to a few nuggets. A short time into working the outer portion of this hole, I slid my pry bar into its first crevice (PHOTO 1). The rock moved easily and so did most of the gravels. With the rock placed out of the way, it was now time to have a look at the exposed bedrock area. A quick peek through my plexy glass "box viewer" told the story. There resting in its natural state was a small golden nugget (PHOTO 2). I smiled, took another photo and gave thanks to the man above. It was a great start to a wonderful day. Last photo: gold retrieved from the outer portion of this hole.
 
I know the month of March is a fry cry from the warm summer days of gold prospecting but it is a good time to reflect and share those incredible memories with others. Each visit to the claim can be an extraordinary one - especially if a nugget is found. Below is another underwater placer experience that took place mid August 2010. (1st photo) With a little hard work and a shovel, the overburden is removed exposing the bedrock flooring. (2nd photo) All streams are made differently and that holds true with its bedrock flooring. For me, the best flooring are those bedrock slabs that resemble jig saw pieces. In this photo, I removed a small rectangular slab and found some color beneath it. (3rd photo) A snap shot displays a golden nugget in its natural setting. To finally rest several inches from its entrance is quite a feat for a substantially heavy piece. No telling how far it traveled prior to this landing. (4th photo) A look of gold, quartz, garnet, and mica schist. (5th photo) A nice nugget that would have remained hidden if not for my interest in bedrock removal. (5th photo) Not all big rivers yield nuggets like this. Some of the smaller creeks can be just as productive.
 
I really enjoy sharing my prospecting ventures and particularly like posting the underwater photos on this thread. It isn't often you find gold staring you in the face, especially when much of the work is done with a No. 2 shovel. However now and then when peering through my wooden/plexy glass box viewer, I am blessed with such opportunity. For me, photographing this moment is not only rewarding but it can also show forum miners the actual whereabouts of river gold. What better spot to look for gold then next to a few large boulders. With my prospecting equipment in check, I decided this location could hold great promise. Photos 1 & 2 show prospecting location with up-stream look. Now for those that know me, I am not much of an overburden type guy. Typically, if there isn't much color in those gravels, it gets tossed to some far away place; lol. However when it comes to pan sampling an area, those first shovels of gravel are of the utmost importance to me. To my surprise, not only did I find color in that first sampling (as seen in photo 3) but my third shovel found bedrock at a depth of 12 inches! Ten minutes later my shoveling efforts would soon pay off. There resting in my quarter inch classifier was a nice flattened gold piece (see photo 4). As the day went on and the bedrock began to reveal it's self more and more, the wooden boxer viewer played a great part in discovering its own gold as well. Photo 5 shows an underwater placer find. Soon after that, the sun began to dip in the far western sky. I could not have felt any better about my placer findings (picture 6 shows the total gold taken this day). A wonderful new spot, great gold, and plenty of sunshine made this for a memorable Spring day.
 
Thanks for the comments Steve & James. I returned to work the boulder patch area. Memories are fun to relive and so out comes the camera once again. Photos 1 & 2 show a closer look to the bedrock for which the overburden was less than a foot deep. During my diggings, I discovered this nugget lying in the country bedrock area (pic#3). Photo 4 shows a close up of the same nugget and this day's earnings.
 
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