Never had much luck on tailing piles but it is a start, for one thing take a look at the composition of the rocks in the tailings, rounded are river run, blocky chunks are the bottom or bedrock material and this is what you should be interested in, once in a while too you will see blocks of dirt that were chunks of clay that didn't break up going thru the dredge, these should be scanned carefully..Another item I use is a garden tool called a cultivator it has long curved tines and I use it to pull rocks around or break up dirt clods etc most helpful anywhere moving rocks around they are inexpe