Is there really a vein here?

[Harry Lipke 13]

I discovered a piece of quartz with gold while detecting.  Further detecting revealed pieces of quartz with gold every 10 or 15 feet for a distance of maybe 300-400 feet. One containing an ounce of gold.

All were found in a straight line and not more than maybe 4 to 6 inches deep.  This line was running straight downhill.

In digging down to try to uncover a vein of quartz, I find a hard pan layer down about a foot.  Not the hardrock I was looking for.  No signs of quartz.

Why are all these pieces more or less lying at the surface?  Does gold ever form like this or is there a vein down there somewhere.?

 

[Reno Chris 101]

Likely there is something there, but you have given me so little to go on its real hard to say. If it were me I would dig around above the spot where the upper most piece was found. I dont know exactly what you mean by hard pan - caliche? Hard clay? hard bedrock? If its possible to dig through the "hard pan" I would do so.

The upper most piece could be 2 feet below the location of the pocket or 20 feet below it or something in between. Its also possible that all the pocket has spilled out and no more of the quartz in place remains.

The density of gold bearing quartz is much less overall than the density of solid gold. So the quartz specimens tend not to sink so far into the soil. They also give a weaker response than solid gold, so you may not be detecting them as deeply.

[Harry Lipke 13]

I would say that the "hardpan" is like a hard compressed clay.  Can be broken up with a pick.  I suspect that it may be several feet to hard bedrock(probably a "bluestone?")       Maybe I'll do a little picking.

Thanks.

 

 

[Reno Chris 101]

Focus your pick work in line with the quartz from where you found the last piece to maybe 10 feet above that.

 

[Harry Lipke 13]

Chris.... all the quartz was found in a straight line running straight down a 52 % slope for a distance of 500 feet  and about 10 feet wide(further than I thought).

I will add that at top upper end of this "line" is a gold bearing quartz vein that runs perpendicular.  But, I can't imagine something bleeding downhill that far without spreading out. It is a very uniform slope. no swales to keep it together.

[Reno Chris 101]

I found one a while back that was maybe 300 feet long down the side of a hill and it was surprisingly straight down the hill. Your line of gold may be a pocket in the quartz vein that has eroded out and freed to roll down the hill. Knowing that there is a vein, I'd detect and dig in the vein where your line crosses the vein.

[Harry Lipke 13]

The old timers did dig there but not to much depth.  Maybe 4 or 5 feet.  Little "pickers" in their tailings.  4 or 5 grains.

I'm thinking they did not go deep enough.

Where they did put their adit was in a strange location.... not related to the intersection and no signs of gold in their tailings. They were in bluestone and the area of the intersection has some igneous material.