What does your gold resemble?

[IdahoGoldGettR]

Every once in awhile you find a piece of gold that resembles something of this world. Looking back, a few years ago I was fortunate to find a nugget that I now call the “Van Halen Nugget.” This .9 gram nugget displays a prominent “v” and an “h” (hence the Van Halen nugget) on its surface. The nugget itself was found hidden beneath the pictured boulder with numerous other smaller pieces of gold. A very pleasing find on that cool spring day. I’ll be posting other similar finds when the time permits. In the meanwhile, if anyone else has a particular piece of gold that you think resembles something interesting, please feel free to share it!

 

[nagant]

Goose egg

 

[sprchng]

 

[Listener]

After looking at it a while I think it resembles a little Pooch knowing on a bone. LOL

 

[Listener]

Meant knawing.

 

[BobOso]

I find gold, copper and silver all in the same area. In this photo the gold is in the middle, the piece on the left is still in the host rock, the top and bottom is copper.

 

[sprchng]

This what a crow's brain looks like

 

[Odanscoils]

Man I need to get out and find some Gold.

 

[IdahoGoldGettR]

Here’s a piece of gold that I call my “Ace of Spades. “ By the way, the above is nice looking gold.

 

[IdahoGoldGettR]

Another piece of gold resembling that of a seahorse or possibly a duck for that matter. Lol. Depends on one’s imagination.

 

[MattBullSummerville]

I find gold, copper and silver all in the same area. In this photo the gold is in the middle, the piece on the left is still in the host rock, the top and bottom is copper.

That gold hasn’t moved far from the source BobOso.

 

[autopilot42]

Another piece of gold resembling that of a seahorse or possibly a duck for that matter. Lol. Depends on

Here’s a piece of gold that I call my “Ace of Spades. “ By the way, the above is nice looking gold.

What detector or our you high banking or both if you don't mind me asking

Take care
Bob

 

[Ronstar]

All my gold looks the same, still looking….

 

[IdahoGoldGettR]

What detector or our you high banking or both if you don't mind me asking

Take care
Bob

Hi Bob. I use to use an old Fisher Gold Bug but I found it was easier getting the gold out of the stream the old placer way (shovel, pick, pan, sluice, pvc suction, or high banking) then to dig up the banks when a possible signal was detected. Don’t get me wrong, metal detecting has its place and perhaps with a newer more sophisticated detector, I may do well if given that chance again. The old gold bug did find some unique history and that in itself, was worth the purchase. As for high bankers, here again I tend to not purchase the newer stuff. In fact, I have found that building your own high banker can be very beneficial if done right. As seen in the photo, my homemade high banker version suits me just fine. Larger nuggets greater than the quarter inch punch plate holes can be spotted instantly during the washing of gravels. The finer gold is caught in the rib matting and the lower sluice box which contains a diamond mesh with blue miners moss. Where it is permissible, a high banker is a plus+ when processing a lot of ground. However when bedrock is located and it’s cracks are unveiled, my preferred method of gold recovery is sniping with a 1 inch pvc sucker. The results of such sniping can be see in the last photo.

 

[autopilot42]

Nice gold . Great HI banker I use a smaller aluminum one from rcm enterprise. I also use rib matting on top and blue miners moss. The 71khz gold bug is probably a beast . Always wanted one . The pinnacle for small gold .

 

[autopilot42]

Fisher audio is much more pleasant than minelab to my ears

 

[autopilot42]

I have to pre classify to .25 inch . With yours it falls out the back and down the shoot what is the diameter of your metal with holes on top

 

[autopilot42]

It looks like your sluice is about 4.5 ft long shouldn't lose any fines

 

[IdahoGoldGettR]

I have to pre classify to .25 inch . With yours it falls out the back and down the shoot what is the diameter of your metal with holes on top

It looks like your sluice is about 4.5 ft long shouldn't lose any fines

The home made wooden high banker in question began as a primitive sluice box and through trial and error,,, progressed into an effective portable high banker. The thought process was to build a more efficient “Long Tom” that could capture fine gold as well as the larger pieces. To assist in a better recovery, I chose to include a 1” drop within the sluice box. As seen in the pic, this 5 foot sluice began with a diamond mesh grizzly. While this was a step above panning, it was adequate at best for separating larger gravels which caused many plug ups. In addition to this, the use of a small bucket to wash the gravels was a bit time consuming not to mention back breaking work. This experience was short lived as the grizzly (diamond mesh) portion was quickly replaced with round metal bars and a ”wash plant” built with PVC spray bars, a bilge pump, and adjustable stanchions for support. One again, these metal round bars (as seen in photo 4) proved to be a nuisance as they too caused plug ups. In the end, I resorted to 1/4” (.25 inch) punch plate holes which solved the plug up issue. From start to finish, it was quite a transformation that all took place within a single season.

Over the years this sluice box has produced some outstanding gold and has made a name for itself as “The Long Tom IdahoGriz.”
If anyone is interested, I can provide detailed pictures with measurements of the grizzly and how it performs.

 

[autopilot42]

Nicely done.