New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

I hope this isn't a dumb question, but any of you wise dudes know if it's worth still digging down in a gravel bank when you reach the water table level?

I am guessing its a conditional situation, so interested in knowing when to and when not to keep digging.

The reason I ask is I have noticed a few times when digging gravel banks in streams that there can be consistent placer gold in a gravel bank until I reach the water table. Once my hole starts to fill with water it starts getting pretty sparse to nil. I'm pretty careful not to be washing rocks in the hole.

Its almost like once the water table is reached the water has been washing the gold out over time and the consistency goes. Is this just me or anyone seen this also? When is it worth washing rocks below the water table line?

I suspect that getting down to the bedrock or false bedrock like a layer of clay might hold the gold washed down but while it made sense in theory, I found that pretty hard in practice, not knowing how far to go and its hard to dig in water as it gets deeper! Even if I got to a bedrock layer I suspect it would be hard to get anything off it under dirty water without right tools?

Would be interesting to know what situations its worth digging further down.

Thanks!

Hi Elcrazy, not a dumb question. Here's my take on it, digging deep is always the rule of the thumb. Gold is heavy and will sink to the lowest level it can, ie. bedrock or clay bottom. What sits in the upper layers of a gravel bank is usually fine flood gold and in my experience have found that the gold sometimes disappears and then as you dig deeper suddenly reappears. The best gold is usually the gold you have to work hardest to get.

Gravel banks where there are large cobbles are more rewarding than light gravel or sandy banks. Gold likes to hang with other heavies, rocks and boulders. So it can be hard work to move large rocks but it is sometime worth the effort. Public fossicking areas require that you stick to the active stream bed, but if you are having your hole fill with water I guess you are in the general area covered by "active stream bed".

https://www.youtube.com/....com/watch?v=hqVY1uXgByk

That clip is typical of my approach... dig big and go hard out.
Have fun and stay Golden,
Cheers Ken.