Tag Archives: nugget

Running Dirt

Finally got up and running.  Working the bugs out of our trommel.  She likes to jam up with rocks sometimes right where the hopper chute goes into the trommel.

We tilted the angle of the trommel and it helped a great deal, though occasionally one works it’s way in there and then things get exciting.  You have to try to clear the jam before burning the belts and fast enough that a bunch of material doesn’t build up and overrun the sluice after the drum starts turning again.  Wish there were a way to avoid this but we haven’t found any so far.

We have been getting a little gold.  A lot of overburden came down over the winter.  There is gold in it, so we ran it.

 

 

Overburden goldOverburden gold 2The dig site is looking pretty promising.  Just removed this huge rock. Started uncovering it last year. We discovered it had a halo of gold around it. Can’t wait to see what it has under it.

 

 

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Yes that’s a nugget!!!

Because of our areas glacial history.  It’s pretty uncommon to find nuggets.  We get large flat flakes, yes, but no nuggets.  Near that big rock I featured in the last post, we found one!

Came in at a tenth of a gram, not a life changing nugget but maybe his big brother is in there somewhere.  Here’s the picture of our week total and you can see the nugget towards the bottom.

Is there gold there, I think there is.

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This nugget my wife picked up just walking by the pile of dirt we stage for processing.  There is gold up in them there hills!  Maybe we could get on a TV show, just a small family operation, having to fight nature and breakdowns, no big wallet to fund the operation just two grandparents(Elaine and Antonio),Two Parents(Robert and Teresa), and a three year old(Lyra).  Add in a bit of creative and inventive personalities, some wishful thinking and the fever for gold.  I think it would make a great reality TV show.