gold prospecting, sniping underwater, bedrock cracks

Good sniping video,is that a gold vein?

no, (I wish)it is just a bedrock crack at the base of a small ( 2 foot ) waterfall. We found three little nuggets here the biggest about one gram. My friend has his digital camera in a water proof box and held it under the surface to film these shots. it is a compialtion of three shots. The water is extremely low, this crack is inaccesable at any other time during normal flow rates

where is this?

This is in BC in the Kootenees… top secret

So did you find any gold? How lucrative is this? Enough to support it self as a hobby?

Yes we found gold here, about 3grams with two 1 gram nuggets. two guys working three days for three grams of gold …. you decide if it is lucrative. It supports itself way better than golf as a hobby ! We have been working this creek now for about 18 years and have worked out most of the good areas.

i was wondering if there was any gold found in the midwest, say missouri area?

I really do not know about that area… sorry

Hi icgold2, are there any area in California that I can go find gold? I live in San Jose City. Thanks

There are more gold places in california than you can shake a stick at! Any of the creeks or rivers in northern california have good gold.

While it may make more money than golf it cant pay for itself in the method that they use in this video, unless you get lucky and hit a nugget. Dredging is very profitable in done right in the right place. I know half a dozen friends that pull over 100 ozs per summer (3 months). You decide if thats profitable. We've just started in a river that pulls about an oz per day and more if we team dive.

why is thier way not profitable? besides the obvious reason?

wow you are right at a good spot where the bedrock layers come to the surface of the streambed. You can see the layers even. Good geologial terrain. Nice scouting. If you can get further into those layers you might find a load

They simply cant move enough material to make the money. The more material you move the more money you make. no doubt there was gold that they didnt see down there. But sniping is a fun hobby. If youre sniping for gemstones and nuggets it might be profitable.

I don't know much about geology. What do you mean by further into those layers? and what is a load?
Robin

Hi Hondadrift
we did get lucky, in 1997 we found a 3oz nugget, it has kind of kept us comming back year after year looking for it's momma and or papa!
I would love to hear more about your dredging operations. If you have time. ( 4",5" or what size, how deep to bedrock, how deep is the water, what covers the bedrock, is it boulders or sand or hardpacked gravel,what kind of heavies do you find)

Wow thats an impresive nugget! Congratulations! On my operation i use a 4" homemade dredge. Its got a keene sluice box and a commercial t-80 dive compressor. Where we worked last in Silver City Idaho the bedrock was about 3-5 feet from the surface covered in hardpack. We knew we were in a paystreak when we would find a very heavy dense gray clay underneath the hardpack. Usually the clay would fill the crevices and hold much of the gold as well.

Once we got through the clay we would usually find a bunch of pickers sitting on the bedrock. Currently the other half of our team is dredging with a 5" north of Boise and pulling over an ounce per day. Its not uncommon to pull more than 100 ounces per 3 mo. dredge season. Some of the rivers are year round but not always as profitable. Where are you guys from?

we are from Edmonton Alberta, but we do our sniping in British Columbia. Dredging is not legal here so we can only snipe… I would love to get a dredge in our favorite creek but too many fishermen and fish cops.
our heavies are galena and hematite with most large gold in hard packed cracks.

So whats illegal? the motorized dredge or the whole concept of dredging? If its just the engine you can make a gravity dredge that has no motor, no noise, no cops. It doesnt always have the best suction but it still works quite well and you get down to the bedrock much faster while still running all your material over a sluice box so you dont lose what you cant pick out or see. My suggestion would be to get on the similkameen and come over the border into the states to dredge. Big gold there!

Thanks

from the video there appear to be layers of different colored bedrock. It looks like you are working your pick on the ends of the layers in the beginning. Sort of like looking at the pages of a book from the side not the flat. When gold was forms it creeps into these natural fissures in super heated vapors cooled and was deposited. If you are in gold bearing rock. It's likely that the gold came from between those layers or at some point along them. Just speculation.