FLOAT GOLD
By Gary M. Livermore
Float gold, as it is called is a cross between placer and hard-rock. In the mountains, on
the slopes, quartz veins (outcrops) sometimes break through to the surface. Many times it
is hardly noticeable on the surface, but the outcropping can go down into the mountain a
long ways, just like any other quartz vein.
As it pushes up and becomes exposed to the elements, it begins to decompose, breaking
apart and rolling down hill. Anytime you find a chunk of dirty rusty looking quartz just
laying there on the side of a hill, examine it for traces of gold or silver. The logical
thought would be “if this is laying here, it must have come from higher up the hill and
there must be more around here”. So true!
If there is any gold or silver in this sample you picked up, your next step is to locate the
exact place where it came from… the outcropping. You know it is up hill but where?
Starting where you found the sample, work laterally to the left and right looking for other
quartz that appears to have come from the same “source”. Using wire (such as metal
coat hangers) with a little yellow flag works wonders for marking the areas that you find
the quartz float. At some point, you will not find any more float to the left or right.
As you begin to work your way uphill you will find more and more float, but it will not
be as far apart laterally as the float that was found at the lower levels. It tumbles down in
a reversed V pattern for the most part, where the upward pointing V would be where no
more float is found but only the exposed outcrop.
All this could take days or even weeks in some cases to thoroughly search the whole side
of the slope. Once the main outcrop is found (and assuming it has not completely
decomposed and nothing left of the vein) you can begin to do some more serious
sampling of the actual outcrop vein. If it’s rich, and there seems to be enough to warrant
the expenditure of labor and cash to work it then go ahead! This is where hard-rock
mining comes in, the digging, tunneling, blasting, etc. which I’m not going into in this
section.
If there is a river, stream, creek or wash at the base of this hill, you would also want to
have a look there for float rock that has made its way into the waters. Sometimes this is
where one starts! Finding quartz in the water and it has veins of gold or silver, it either
had to come from upstream or just up the hill from where it was found in the waters. If
the quartz rock found in the water is water worn, it is a good indication that it had been
there a long time, or it had traveled some. If there is not float on land uphill from where
you found it in the water, then it came from upstream. One then needs to follow
upstream looking for more of the same quartz until they don’t find anymore. At that
point, then one only need turn uphill from that point to look for the origin of the quartz
rock you found in the river.
While looking up hill or out in the distance that is not a hill, keep in mind that many
rivers cut across ancient river channels. If one ever finds a point in a river or stream
where they “were” finding placer, but nothing else up stream, look in the areas to the left
or right of that spot, and perhaps you may find some benches where the river once flowed
more wider than the current river, or perhaps it will have “flood zones” where the water
at certain times can flood the area high above the current river levels. Perhaps you will
find water worn rock and boulders, even if just a small patch of water worn rock where
no river seems to have been, THAT could be an exposed part of an ancient river system,
and is virtual virgin territory!
Happy hunting!