labyankee

Thanks for the kind comments folks. It never gets old when you find these nuggets... No matter what size they are, they’re all trophies in my book. Boulder Dash: Correct, most aren’t too big…but I did find a 33 gram piece nearby. Homefire: Most of the nuggets in this area have a spongy or crystalline appearance as I suspect they’ve not traveled too far, but they can be challenging for a PI unit. Steve.

I got out for a short time this Saturday morning before it got way to hot, and snagged this little one. It tipped the scales at a “whopping” two grams, and was about eight inches down. I haven’t posted much as it’s been raining a lot here in New Mexico, and that has put a real dampener on my beeping. I’m happy to see that the old 4500 and I can still sniff these out. Can’t wait for the cooler weather… Take care all, Steve.

AzNuggetBob, Thanks for the geological tip. This area was underwater at one time, so your theory on the formation of this pocket makes sense. We’ve recovered a bit over 5 grams of leafy stuff from that hole, and are following the seam up the hill. I keep finding small, garnet/quartz/calcite (tactite?) outcroppings laced with this type of gold in the bedrock. No “bonanza” yet…but hope springs eternal!

Don’t walk away from a weird target. I went back to a spot I found late last year that left me somewhat confused. This small area of exposed bedrock sounded off as a strong target with my GPX4500 but not a peep with my Eureka Gold VLF. At first I thought it was a strange hot rock area, but with no response from the VLF (a notorious hot rock detector), I was perplexed. To make matters worse, no matter what timing setting I tried on the PI, it still registered as a target in solid rock. The fact that the VLF didn’t respond made me think the target might be beyond the depth sensitivity of that machine so maybe a second look at this spot was in order. …Turns out that this was correct. The target was located in a small garnet-laced seam (about 6 inches wide) sandwiched between limestone bedrock. I managed to convince my much more “motivated” son to chip away at this garnet seam with a mallet and chisel for a few hours until he broke through to a small, red clay-filled cavity located underneath; about 7-10 inches down. There we found many delicate, paper-thin pieces of gold locked in the clay. To date, we recovered about 3 grams of the good stuff but I’m still panning out the clay from the hole. I’ve never seen this type of leaf-gold in this area. I wonder if it was originally formed in a hydrothermal event with the gold being deposited between cracks in the garnet rock. But over the years, maybe the rock in this pocket deteriorated into this red clay stuff leaving the gold still trapped in it? Here are some pictures of our finds, and my son’s handy excavating work.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to your family. Steve and Pam.

Rob, Thank you for being so gracious and taking the extra time on Saturday to teach an old dog some new tricks! I had a blast with you and Dennis at Rich Hill...I day I'll long remember with new friends. As this was the first time we've met, I can say that Rob is one of the best technical and practical instructors I've come across. He's knowledgeable and passionate about nuggethunting. I'm glad you had a chance to pull out the big nugget that day...It's a keeper! I will be sending some real Hatch green chili (for both of you) when I get back home! I hope to see you again next time. Thanks, Steve.