Reading the Ground for Gold Prospecting

by Maheo
(Honduras)

I'm wondering if there is any information on reading the ground in order to find gold. I live in an area not far from several gold mines which are not in use anymore for some interesting and superstitious reasons. I know there is gold but what can I do so as to not waste too much time searching for nothing?
Maheo

Stan's response: Hi Maheo, I have gold prospected all over Honduras. There is a lot of gold in your country. It sounds like you may be speaking of the Old Olancho area near Juticalpa.

Being able to "read the ground" on an alluvial deposit depends a lot on if you are on an ancient channel or on a live river. It is also common for a new river to cross an ancient channel, thus giving you both types of deposits.

Alluvial deposits are usually "spotty". Gold concentrations move during flood seasons. There are two primary methods that I know of to find these concentrations of gold.

1. The poor man's technique (my favorite) is to dig (dredge or drill) test holes in a grid formation across the deposit. The tighter the grid, the better the resulting information.

2. Gradiometry (double magnetometry). I took a course in Toronto and then purchased a gradiometer (about $30,000) from Gem Systems. This instrument accurately detected shallow concentrations of magnetite on an ancient alluvial channel system. The magnetite is heavy and very often deposited in concentrations with the gold. It worked like a charm.

I hope that helps you Maheo!