u/oldlinuxfella

I did it! 😂😂😂

Well, it's not 2 grams in one outing, but it's the result of a few months of learning and getting out there.

And the whole thing has been incredibly fun. Finding new creeks, testing rocks (which hasn't resulted in anything so far), more creeks, a few snakes here and there, a few creeks with no water at all, and trying to reach out to landowners to see if they will allow me to prospect their property, which 90% of the time I get no answer.

But I've learned a lot. And for many of the spots that I considered bad because I didn't know much, I'm now eager to get back to those same spots and try what I know.

Anyways, I wanted to share that I may have enough for a ring for my wife, but I want to keep going and can't wait for the weekend. 😂😂😂

I may end up creating a YouTube channel with the bad adventures, as if we don't have enough of them already. 😂😂😂

I reached out to the landowner whose 7-acre property has a creek running through it. I asked if he would be okay with me prospecting in his creek, and he was super cool with it; he even tagged along for a couple of hours.

This was yesterday, after running 15 gallons of material from the creek through my highbanker.

I am just wondering if it is still worth bothering the owner for this amount.

There are no pyrite cubes on this one, not the same as the last outing, but there seem to be lots of sulfides.

I am buying an electric smelting furnace, just to play with it.

Any input is very appreciated.

This is so far the best outing so far.

Not that I can leave my job and have my own discovery channel show 😂😂

But it is always fun... At least when we are cleaning up.

And for the first time I have found pyrite cubes, lots and lots of them. Some even yellow.

Also found a nice crystal.

Starting to know where to dig and look for.

Got back to the same location after the flood.

Yes it moved lots of material, but I also had to look deeper.

And yep... The same app helped me again 😁😁😁😁

The first and third photo is one week apart.

This is a creek close to my house in NC.

The volume of water was incredible, the third screenshot I took today while using the Lodeline app with the elevation feature.

And it seems to use the LiDAR data to measure.

So, from the bottom of the creek or water all the way up to the sides is around 10 feet in elevation.

I'm wondering, after such an event with this amount of water moving, is it valid to check the same spots again?

Lots of bedrock exposed, but I didn't have much luck, neither the tools or time.

I have been spending some time around my place in NC and finally head to Uwharrie National Forest.

After a few hiccups, I'm trying to reach some spots and have no clue how to reach them 😂

But we can always learn something. And this time I learned.

- Go light; only take what you are going to use.

- Download the maps before leaving the house.

- Watch for poisonous water snakes eating frogs.

After testing some pans with zero luck, I use the feature for the Lodeline app to check for better spots up/down the creek. And dang, it worked 😂😂😂👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

I still have 1/3 bucket to work on it.

The place was kind of dry, but a great finding.

So far I'm really enjoying the Lodeline App.

The gold fever is real 😂😂

Prospecting on my own land in NC, Carolina Slate Belt area, northeast along strike from a historic gold mine that produced back in the 1800s.

On the hill: Multiple old prospect mounds. Tons of quartz on the surface, some iron-stained, some with pink/purple staining.

In the creek: Exposed layered argillite bedrock with natural crevices. Gravel-clay contacts. Weathered rusty material that I think is saprolite/gossan.

When I pan:

Massive amounts of black sand, maybe 30% magnetite

- Lots of small red/brown garnets after magnet

- Using Jet Dry

- Digging to bedrock, cleaning crevices, screening carefully

Barely finding gold. A few tiny flakes once, then nothing on follow-ups

With this much black sand and this much iron-stained material, what am I missing? Wrong spot? Wrong technique? Should I be crushing saprolite instead of quartz?

I want to also say that I just started. All the fancy names are from research and YouTube videos 😅

Photos: creek, bedrock, dig spot, sieved material, gossan chunk

Prospecting on my own land in NC, Carolina Slate Belt area, northeast along strike from a historic gold mine that produced back in the 1800s.

On the hill: Multiple old prospect mounds. Tons of quartz on the surface, some iron-stained, some with pink/purple staining.

In the creek: Exposed layered argillite bedrock with natural crevices. Gravel-clay contacts. Weathered rusty material that I think is saprolite/gossan.

When I pan:

Massive amounts of black sand, maybe 30% magnetite

- Lots of small red/brown garnets after magnet

- Using Jet Dry

- Digging to bedrock, cleaning crevices, screening carefully

Barely finding gold. A few tiny flakes once, then nothing on follow-ups

With this much black sand and this much iron-stained material, what am I missing? Wrong spot? Wrong technique? Should I be crushing saprolite instead of quartz?

I want to also say that I just started. All the fancy names are from research and YouTube videos 😅

Photos: creek, bedrock, dig spot, sieved material, gossan chunk

.