It's Never Too Cold To Dig Silver And Gold!

John-Edmonton

Elite Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
2,564
Location
Way up North, Canada


Edmonton is a unique northern city. It started out originally as a Fort in the late 1700's - early 1800's with a Hudson's Bay Trading Post. As most large cities, a large river runs through it, to support a main mode of transportation at that early time. The river, also contains flour gold from past glacier deposits. Gold can be found everywhere. Downstream and upstream for about 100 miles contains the heaviest concentrations. The river has been mined for about 100 years. Every year with the melt of snow from the mountains causes a minor flood, which re-distributes more gold. Now, back in the day, one could easily get an ounce. Today on a good day, one can usually get around a gram.



The river started to freeze last week, forming ice from the river's edge out to about 4-5 feet. I hauled my equipment down to the river last Thursday, and had to cut a section of ice away from the river's edge, so that I could get my highbanker set up in shallow water.



The following day, my buddy and I cancelled out prospecting outing, and replaced it with a hike in the river valley with our metal detectors, which we have done many times before. We dug up some interesting relics and my buddy score a silver dime!



Here are the rewards we reaped from out hunt and dig. The gold was from about 4 hours worth of digging in the river.

That's it for gold prospecting for the year. I will run all my black sands a second time during the winter to extract, hopefully the rest of the gold.

Dang it.....another 6 months until the river ice breaks up again. :coffeetable:
 
Nice post John! Sounds like it was a fun outing in the "cold." That's some nice history you've got to enjoy.

Must have some big dogs up there if those are injectable ;) Or do you keep moose for pets [emoji2957]

A gram of flour gold sounds good!

All the best in your winter hobbies and tasks [emoji846]
 
Your living the life John. So have you ever weighed up you panned gold for the year. I know you still have the black sand to do yet but I'm a bit nosy.:yes: Trapper
 
Great post except I disagree with the title. I always enjoy reading them. Glad to see someone living their life.
 
Fantastic Post John.. You combined a Little History, Some good Flour Gold Eye Candy and some wonderful Dirt finds..

Appreciate the effort you put into your posts as they are always entertaining and informative !!
 
I see a "GoldRush" TV show in your future !
 
John,

for those four hours of gravel digging, that seems like a decent amount of gold. Of course, the pan size has a lot to do with how much gold that "looks like". Can you give a frame of reference next to the gold in future pics, such as a dime?

Also, have you weighed that amount? Would love to know how many grams you're pulling out in a 4 hour period. That could be anywhere from 0.5 to 4.0 depending on the size of the pan! :)
 
Nice post John! Sounds like it was a fun outing in the "cold." That's some nice history you've got to enjoy.

Must have some big dogs up there if those are injectable ;) Or do you keep moose for pets [emoji2957]

A gram of flour gold sounds good!

All the best in your winter hobbies and tasks [emoji846]

Monster polar bears.....
 

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Your living the life John. So have you ever weighed up you panned gold for the year. I know you still have the black sand to do yet but I'm a bit nosy.:yes: Trapper

I will probably weigh it next month when I get it all together. Below is last years batch.
 

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Fantastic Post John.. You combined a Little History, Some good Flour Gold Eye Candy and some wonderful Dirt finds..

Appreciate the effort you put into your posts as they are always entertaining and informative !!

Thanks......it's always about the hunt, no matter what you are looking for.
 
John,

for those four hours of gravel digging, that seems like a decent amount of gold. Of course, the pan size has a lot to do with how much gold that "looks like". Can you give a frame of reference next to the gold in future pics, such as a dime?

Also, have you weighed that amount? Would love to know how many grams you're pulling out in a 4 hour period. That could be anywhere from 0.5 to 4.0 depending on the size of the pan! :)

In four hours, on a good day, at a good location with good stamina, I can get about a gram of gold. Every location is different, just like metal detecting. I am using my macro lense on most of my photos, so that should give you a partial size of flour gold.
 
In four hours, on a good day, at a good location with good stamina, I can get about a gram of gold. Every location is different, just like metal detecting. I am using my macro lense on most of my photos, so that should give you a partial size of flour gold.

That's better results than clad hunting at 97% pure gold. :)

Well done!
 
That's better results than clad hunting at 97% pure gold. :)

Well done!

In the big picture, easy silver coins have mostly been depleted, relics are far in between, and many more detectorists compared to 25 years ago.

It was just a natural progression to share my time previously devoted strictly to metal detecting, to prospecting. A win-win situation for sure!



I bet most people on this forum are not even aware of how close gold producing areas are to them. The only state without any gold is Florida.
 

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Another fine report, John. You are probably the last one working the gold gravel this time of year, and the first one back at it in the spring! You always do good, but I can still wish you better! So best wishes for next year already!
 
Another fine report, John. You are probably the last one working the gold gravel this time of year, and the first one back at it in the spring! You always do good, but I can still wish you better! So best wishes for next year already!

Sometimes going that extra mile gets better results!
 

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