Gold Prospecting in Black Hills! (pic heavy)

Squishy

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Joined
Jul 18, 2009
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397
I'm back from my gold prospecting trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota and had a blast!! I met up with a new friend named Randy in Sioux Falls, SD and rode the rest of the way with him and his daughter. We also picked up one of her friends along the way. Both of the girls were great. Very polite and helpful.

We camped at the site and there was a prospecting club meeting on Saturday. I have not camped in many years, and I have to admit that I was not properly prepared. The temperature dropped down to the low 30s F and it even snowed a little one night before it switched to a cold rain. It was miserably cold at night and my sleeping bag was only rated to 40F, so it did not keep me warm at all. The days were beautiful though, so all in all, it was a good trip. Here's my tent!

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The Black Hills are beautiful!!! Where we were camped was right at the edge of the forest that had burned several years ago. So behind us was a barren landscape, and in front of us was beautiful forests.

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There is a lot of stone pushed up in the hills which makes the landscape very dramatic.

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My friend, Randy, and I went metal detecting first; looking for nuggets. No luck with the nuggets but we found a couple interesting sites.

We found what appears to be an old fireplace. We haven't detected the area yet. We found them when we went hiking around and did not have our detectors with us, but we will go back.

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We later found a gulch and thought we saw part of an split rail fence so we went up the gulch and found, what appears to be, the site of some old miner's shack. There is no structure, but there is a well. The nails in the fence look small in the picture, but there were as big as tent stakes and very thick.

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We set up a sluice and I began digging and classifying the material while Randy ran classified material through the sluice. Here's the hole. You can see we dug to the bedrock.

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We ran it through a sluice and when we were done, we cleaned up the sluice and saved the concentrates. It was fun though!!

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When we were not panning and sluicing, we metal detected and explored. We found lots of garnets in the stone.

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OK.. I need some help with these. While metal detecting I found these. My detector went crazy. As I sweep over the stones with my Ace 250, it hits on many different types of metal, but most strongly on gold.

Randy used his Minelab on it and it completely overloaded the detector. Another guy used a White's on it and it hit hard on gold. It looks like petrified wood to most people who looked at it but it would not make sense to have metal in that.

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My first thought was that those black lines were hematite or iron, but my pin pointer does not hit at all on the surface, so that material is not metallic and whatever is metal is inside.

Any ideas?????

Thanks!
-Mike-
 
Looks like fun....Here's my idea....bust that sucker open:D

Ha! Yeah... that was my first thought too. After I thought about it for a while, I decided that it might be better to find a masonry saw and start cutting slices off of it.

I did drop the big one on the way down the hill and a piece that was about 5 inches long, 3 inches wide and a half an inch thick broke off. The metal detector did not react to that piece at all.

Also... These things weigh at least double what you would expect them too based on their size. Everyone that picked them up was really surprised about the weight.

I have a call in to the geology professor at the local university to have him take a look at them before I start cutting but my curiosity is rising. I suppose I could start looking for a masonry saw while I am waiting for the call back.

-Mike-
 
Great photographs.. thanks... super interesting site. If the stone broke that easy, I would just tap it with a stone pick... it will open up to the metallic portion. Not sure what you have, but sure is interesting. Please let us know... RickO
 
I suspect its possible you have big ol fat gold nuggets buried deep inside those little rocks. Crack them things open!
 
I suspect its possible you have big ol fat gold nuggets buried deep inside those little rocks. Crack them things open!

They tell me it is rare to find nuggets in Black Hills but there is always a chance. I'm really trying not to get my hopes up, but I can't help but imagine what "could" be in there. Ha Ha!
 
Hope you found the big nugget and just not telling. :grin:

Nope... still don't know. The professor has not returned my call and I'm not sure who else to ask. I took them out in the sun today and I can see little gold flecks in the rock, but they could be pyrite.

If those little flecks are throughout the whole stone, I have no idea how you would ever get them out.

I was just searching for rock shops and there aren't any near here. I'm going to Minneapolis on business on Thursday, so I am hoping I can find one close-by so I can stop in and see what they say.

If anybody has any other ideas, let me know!

Thanks!
-Mike-
 
if you see specks of gold on the outside try putting flame on them. mica has a low burning temp and will turn to carbon. i know when i am cooking moistures in soils i have to watch the mica cause it is really easy to burn and will alter the moisture content.

i havent tried when it is gold. maybe this will point you in the right direction.
 
if you see specks of gold on the outside try putting flame on them. mica has a low burning temp and will turn to carbon. i know when i am cooking moistures in soils i have to watch the mica cause it is really easy to burn and will alter the moisture content.

i havent tried when it is gold. maybe this will point you in the right direction.

That's a great suggestion!!! I'll give it a try. Thanks!

-Mike-
 
Sounds like my kind of trip!!!.........Nothing better than mixing camping with prospecting!! Very Cool!!
 
Wow!!! how many tons of gold you got? you guys are great. and you do even have nice camera to take great pictures!!! I know new way of digging golds now... digging golds on the web and make money on the internet... using your internet connection you can even work at home...
 
Very nice pictures. Those rocks kinda look like petrified wood. The main thing is,,,,,,,,,Did you have fun???? That is all the really counts :goodpost:
 
We had a great time! I believe we have identified the rock as "banded iron". I stuck a magnet to it, and it clamps on tight. I don't know why my pin pointer doesn't signal metal on the surface. I'm going to cut it into some pieces today to see what I can see inside. :D
 
Well, I borrowed a friend's lapidary saw and cut a couple slices off if the rocks. No sign of any gold. Oh well... it was fun. I'm going to cut the rest up and see if anything shows up at all, but it seems unlikely.

-Mike-
 
Well, I borrowed a friend's lapidary saw and cut a couple slices off if the rocks. No sign of any gold. Oh well... it was fun. I'm going to cut the rest up and see if anything shows up at all, but it seems unlikely.

-Mike-

Thats what stamp mills and mercury tables were for.
 
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