New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

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Cleaning bedrock

1864hatter		Posted : Sunday, 24 June 2012 2:13:59 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 4/08/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,007 Location: Auckland.... Thanks: 49 times Was thanked: 566 time(s) in 269 post(s)		Howsit folks, Me and my brother along with my partner spent friday and half saturday cleaning down some bedrock that was under some shallow gravels. The result was 3.6 grams which isnt my best day but it was mlore or less expected. We stayed the night in acabin and everone had a great time. What more could you want. Edited by user Sunday, 24 June 2012 2:17:06 PM(UTC) \| Reason: Not specified File Attachment(s): IMG_0205.JPG
		And now....On sandy beaches and muddy soil, rings and coins await my coil!

x-terra steve		Posted : Sunday, 24 June 2012 2:21:41 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 7/04/2010(UTC) Posts: 224 Location: Nelson NZ Thanks: 103 times Was thanked: 69 time(s) in 42 post(s)		Good one Hatter, yep thats what it is all about,out there doin it!! Areal bonus if you find some AU, Just goes to show that it is there for the keen. cheers Steve

Streeter		Posted : Tuesday, 3 July 2012 10:08:06 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 15/08/2011(UTC) Posts: 27 Location: Oamaru Thanks: 2 times Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)		thats awesome!! most of the gold i find in the danseys isnt nice looking solid smooth pieces like these but when you magnify it it looks rough like its about to break up, still flat but rough what technique do you use to get the last layer of the bed rock? hit some bedrock last weekend but was scratching my head on how best to get the fine layer off the top efficiently... a brush?
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simon		Posted : Tuesday, 3 July 2012 10:44:50 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 7/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 789 Location: Central Otago Thanks: 33 times Was thanked: 239 time(s) in 150 post(s)		hi streeter, the bedrock is where the gold is all right. not only on it's uneven surfaces but also with the bedrock. the gold gets in the cracks, or it could be hosted in the bedrock itself (reef). i know a lot of people will break the bedrock up and wash it off to get any gold trapped. it is tough work. and it depends on how solid the bedrock is. a lot of schist can actually be easy to break as it comes off in layers. you will need a good pick. to get the gold sitting on the bedrock you need a snipe tube of some sort. these can range from the obvious cheap disposable jobs (ie. an old detergent bottle) to something a bit flasher. i bought one of jw's snipers made from pvc pipe. i also bought a gold n sand sniper that can fill to a bucket or dump straight into a crash box. both are great for different areas. i find the gold n sand one a bit more bulky of course so don't carry it everywhere, just take it in once i have an area cleared down close to bedrock. a grease gun is another option. these are 2 way so you want to use it's sucking capacity i think! you can find more about these on google / paydirt etc. i started with just a little plastic bottle. if you put something like a stiff piece of tube in thru it's little top, when the gold is sucked up you don't risk losing it back out. you can use the bottle over and over and not lose the gold back out until its time to empty it. of course you need to remove as much overburden as possible before sucking up the cracks with something like the gold n sand sucker. with a little bottle or grease gun you are really only using these to suck up bits of gold you can actually see on the bottom. the bonus of the gold n sand sucker is you don't need to get underwater so can still use in winter. maybe a bucket with a perspex bottom (or a smaller pvc pipe with perspex in one end) would help to see thru the water to see the gold. i would clear a spot down to the bedrock and remove any visible gold first before breaking up the bedrock. then you can more likely figure if the bedrock has gold within it when you come to break up the rock. otherwise it could just be gold that was already just sitting on the rock that has fallen into the rock debris. would be a shame to break your back thinking gold is in the bedrock when its just falling down. hope that helps.
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Streeter		Posted : Tuesday, 3 July 2012 1:08:38 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 15/08/2011(UTC) Posts: 27 Location: Oamaru Thanks: 2 times Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)		thanks simon!!!, dont really get bits that big to snipe in the danseys, well not that I have seen, mind you I havent really had a decent look thus far but id love to be proved wrong lol... I have a keene back pack crevice sucker but have yet to get the hang of it as its not really sucking up much, maybe worth getting a sniping tube then I can try wave off the fine sand and check in the areas i have dug down to bed rock on at its probably sitting their in that fine sand and in the spots my trowel cant get into, will have a look this and try having a better look in weekend if the weather holds up
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simon		Posted : Tuesday, 3 July 2012 1:41:21 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 7/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 789 Location: Central Otago Thanks: 33 times Was thanked: 239 time(s) in 150 post(s)		streeter: using your hand to wave off the final lot of sand on th ebedrock is the way to go. the action should remove the sand and leave the gold however fine. under water the gold always looks a bit bigger making it easy to see. if you find an accumulation of fines your keene sniper can just as easily pick that up. something like a screwdriver will help to pry apart the bedrock cracks. i got a 3 pronged little handtool from the warehouse and angle grinded off the 2 side prongs. a good cheap tool that gets into all the more difficult nooks and crannies. a trick with the snipers is to soak them in water first i think. this wets the rubber ring inside allowing it to slide more easily. prob not as important if rubber but a must with the leather rings used in the likes of the gold n sand brand sniper. they use leather as they reckon it has a better seal than rubber. i think it sure does. as when dry it is a good work out to get it going.
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Lammerlaw		Posted : Tuesday, 3 July 2012 5:07:18 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 24/05/2011(UTC) Posts: 1,721 Thanks: 72 times Was thanked: 579 time(s) in 396 post(s)		Streeter - one of the best devices to use to clean off bedrock is your hand, gently fanning the gravel away to leave the gold behind. When you are left with only gold then you can pick that gold up in a device called a 'Snifter' - this is the traditional name for a piece of equipment designed to suck up the gold - the bigger they are then the more volume they have and the more gold/dirt they can hold before you have to empty it into a pan and pan the concentrates. The bigger the nozzle and tube up the nozzle then the bigger the pieces of gold you can suck up. Back in the 1960s there was not one vintage brass car tyre pump in the second hand shops because we were buying them all up to make into snifters - took out the bottom end and brazed any holes closed then drilled one central hole in the middle of the bottom into which was inserted a brass pipe about one third the diameter of the pump itself - it went up about six inches into the body of the pump and protruded maybe a foot or 30cms out of the end of the pump - that was the nozzle. Vintage tyre pumps are worth too much to do that with now but rally good ones can be made out of PVC tubing. The tyre pumps generally got dinted easily though the PVC ones can break - carelessly thrown rocks can do a great deal of damage as I can testify at the cost of facemask, glass bottom boxes and sundry other implements. The sucker on the handle rod was turned upside down so it sucked instead of pumping out. Sometimes when I found small cracks in the bedrock I pumped hard down on the handle to send a blast of water into the crack to force the gold out - in a small crack that I could get no tools into I once got 1/2 an ounce in one blast of the Snifter. In an overhand I once got 2 ounces in a few minutes by the same method - this particular spot was in such a position that I could not see into it and I could not lever the bedrock apart with even the largest crowbar. Even the very smallest cracks can have gold in them and a bent screwdriver is a great aid to getting into them - a pair of tweezers can be handy as well. As someone above mentioned the little plastic bottles with plastic tube nozzles can be useful to pick up really fine stuff - but woe is me when I have to go to that level - as I get older I get more Scroogey and where I once threw away fine gold I now keep it. Gone are the days when I would pan out the days takings, put all the nuggets in a bottle and throw everything else into someone elses pan or throw the really fine stuff away. It is also amazing just where gold is found - I have found it inches down in what appears to be solid bedrock where it is only by looking hard you notice that there is even a crack there. I would never in a million years have found any gold there if it had not been for the metal detector locating it and betraying its presence and even then in a couple of cases last year I refused to believe it was gold but just 'had to find out' - and it was. In one case the detector made only the barest sound and nothing at all showed up on its read out, no numbers, no nothing - just a faint change in tone - it turned out to be a small flake down in the smallest of crack and even then it took a huge effort to get it out. Edited by user Tuesday, 3 July 2012 5:12:39 PM(UTC) \| Reason: Not specified

1864hatter		Posted : Wednesday, 4 July 2012 10:30:03 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 4/08/2010(UTC) Posts: 1,007 Location: Auckland.... Thanks: 49 times Was thanked: 566 time(s) in 269 post(s)		Anyone want to buy the gold found on this trip plus a bit of extra bits? total around 4.3g
		And now....On sandy beaches and muddy soil, rings and coins await my coil!

Streeter		Posted : Wednesday, 4 July 2012 10:36:26 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 15/08/2011(UTC) Posts: 27 Location: Oamaru Thanks: 2 times Was thanked: 1 time(s) in 1 post(s)		pm me
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