jim straight 187 Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 #108... thanks for the good words, but it all of the posters on this forum who are keeping this sub-forum going so strong with their facets and tid-bits of knowledge which we must give Bill full credit for pinning "jim straight here." But it is not about me... All I do is encourage all of the posters to put another log on this electronic campfire (Dan Taylor gets full credit for calling this an electronic campfire which it is and Not jim straight here.) Look how this subforum is growing. Over the pages there is a lot of knowledge all of you have posted... Gosh I really thank Bill Southern for paying the bills and I'm just a pit-stop in the sands of time and there is a lot of knowledge that all of the past contributers have posted... tailgate Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nugget108 1,746 Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 You are 100% correct, this forum is great. Lots of people with lots of helpful tips and tricks. And I do thank Bill for keeping it rolling for us. Great place to hang out lol. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
snakejim 39 Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 Hi Jim!I was re-reading your book "Successful Drywashing" last night. It was nice to see photos of some of the old timers that I had met over the years. I'll never forget meeting ole Dowie Critenden out in the Dale District back about 1988. I was with Woody Woodworth and Jack Ward. Dowie had his little dry washer with him.Time sure seems to go by faster as we get older.Re-reading your book "Advanced Prospecting and Detecting for Hard Rock Gold", hoping to glean some info from it to aid in my search for overlooked veins and pockets here in New Mexico.I hope you are doing well.Best wishes to you and yours!Jim Sumrowaka:Rattlesnake Jim or snakejimRoswell, NM Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted April 30, 2015 Author Share Posted April 30, 2015 Jim... I remember you well... You are truly an ICON and please don't be a stranger. You are an oldtimer and your experiences and knowledge will add depth this forum... jim 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
snakejim 39 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Jim, thanks for the undeserved complement. I don't get on the forums as often as I used to. But, I do enjoy reading the posts and helping folks when I can.RSJ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Nugget Shooter 4,617 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Hey Snake Jim, just started re reading the same book... Always seem to pick up some more usefull info for locating new prospects and it is getting tougher out there these days. Knowledge is power....Thanks Mr Straight. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
snakejim 39 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Hey Snake Jim, just started re reading the same book... Always seem to pick up some more usefull info for locating new prospects and it is getting tougher out there these days. Knowledge is power....Thanks Mr Straight.Bill, as you stated; knowledge is power. Doing one's homework and research is the key to being successful. Jim Straight is a virtual encyclopedia of knowledge on mineral deposits and mining, and I thank him for sharing his knowledge with us.. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted May 13, 2015 Author Share Posted May 13, 2015 Rattlesnake jim... You are busy posting good stuff on the icmj forum. Infrequently I check it out as a guest but have never posted on it; however I try not to miss any of your posts. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 I have never been to the Australian gold fields but I have read about lateritic soils that are found there. From what I understand they form a shallow impervious cap rock known in Australia as "ironstone" which I understand is magnetic and brick red and has value such as making pottery and building bricks. As I have already mentioned this layer is encountered at a reasonably shallow depth and being impervious the surface vegetation cannot penetrate it. Thus the Australian lateritic soils as found in parts of the Australian goldfields are know as a "Cap Rock"; or also being magnetic as "ironstone" as I have previously mentioned in the above paragraph. The Australian term "ironstone" became slangly (romantically but erroneously known as a another hot rock) in the American gold fields. So far this in my understanding regarding the term "ironstone" and I have no quarrel or bone to pick with anyone on any of the forums who use it. (So far so good? Peace be with us.) However there is a question I would like to ask: Since most of the Pulses and many of the Minelab VLF's are sold in Australia and setup to handle the Australian lateritic cap-rock soils which require effort to "chip-away" with quality digging tools. I understand that that it can take up to hours to hammer and cold-chisel a nice-size nugget free without damaging it. My Question: The American hot rock environment and Australian lateritic soil environment are somewhat different... Thus a detector that is setup for the mineralized (magnetite black sands) in our typical southwestern soils will be noisy if they are setup for the laterites of Australia. Any comments Please... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fredmason 1,135 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Hi, Jim;I think the laterite is a surface stone that may be iron based...the capstone they refer to is what we call caliche...when you get a signal under the caprock it is time to get excited!fred Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Fred as you remember it was Peter Bridge who started and made popular using detectors to find eluvial free-milling gold in the Australian goldfields in the late 1970's using a Garrott VLF Deepseeker. At this time the goldfields were rich with plentiful gold... Most any detector would find the shallow surface gold... Being first was the key to success About 1985 Minelab developed the GT-16000. It featured the ability to ground balance and slowly track the soil matrix under a 8-inch circular DD searchcoil which gave "great-depth" for larger nuggets, but was not sensitive (it operated at about 6.5 kHz) toward the ubiquitous small "bread and Butter" gold... However the slow tracker GT (Ground Tracker) raised the bar as far as other manufactures, most of them in the USA. (And they really never caught up to Minelab). By 1989 most of the easy gold had been found.... more later 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted May 31, 2015 Author Share Posted May 31, 2015 Fred, Your memory and writing skills are awesome. I'm glad you stepped up to the plate and hit a hope run as you are correct... However between the Ausie slang dating back to Peter Bridge and the entry of Minelab into the USA by the Gold Dust Twins, the term "ironstone" was coined. Thus you are absolutely correct that laterite is a surface stone that may be iron based. and the capstone they refer to is caliche... when you get a signal under the caprock it is time to get excited. All is good. However, I personally knew the Gold Dust Twins Richard and Elizabeth. We met at the early GPAA Gold Shows and became friends. They were early distributors of Minelabs. Thus as I was field testing for Western & Eastern Treasures I became aware of the slang terms which being a trained geologist bothered me... The caprock was also known as "laterite, cement, coffee rock or kaolin" Fred all is still good... You are correct. I field tested a prototype Fast Tracker(FT-16000) for W&E and became good friends of "Hoss" Blackman and we hunted together once at Quartzsite and in the El Paso Range near the LDMA Duesinburg private property... But I am still confused regarding the laterites in Australia at they do not exist in the desert goldfields of the southwestern USA... ??? jim 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Swampstomper Al 1,336 Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 (edited) Hi Jim,Would you mind going into more detail about something you said on another thread, please..? I didn't feel there was the right place to further discuss it..I speak of Prospecting Associations / dues-paying members / no miner right's protection / ass'n = illegal / no rights to their claims / in-house claim 'jumping' etc..I never gave any of this much thought, any thought actually..This needs to begin somewhere, so let's start here: Are you saying clubs have been / are being allowed to register claims under a club name..? I ask this more from the claim-holder's POV, because I can't believe a prospecting club would be silly/dumb/stupid enough to even want to register a claim in such a manner.. I can understand wanting to avoid a possible future "this is MY claim not OUR claim" situation.. But really..? They were/are allowed to register under a club name without any ties to an individual / individuals..? Do you think someone on the 'inside' allowed this to happen and continue for ease of possible future DOI take-away..?From this point any of the others carry about equal weight, although the claim 'jumping' in conjunction with dues-paying has my interest..Thanks,SA Edited May 31, 2015 by Swampstomper Al Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Al... Gosh after reading you above post... I thought it best to go to the otherthread and post once more on it... It is truly a can of worms and it can becomehostile and like religion, politics and sexual orientation very abrasive...Thus check out my post on the other thread... I will say no more on the forumsregarding the subject you mention... as I said too much already.... Will try to PMyou... feel free to PM me too... jim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Reno Chris 427 Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 (edited) But I am still confused regarding the laterites in Australia at they do not exist in the desert goldfields of the southwestern USA... ??? jimLaterites are a product of long term stable soils that have had most of their silica and silicate minerals leached out. They are typically rich in iron, aluminum and clays. The exact character of the soils depends on the underlying rocks the laterites form from. They are an important ore of aluminum. If formed over rocks like serpentine / Peridotite / Dunite - they can be rich in nickel. They form in tropical environments where the weather is hot and humid with annually cycling periods of very dry weather and monsoon very wet weather. They also require very stable land surfaces as they are removed by erosion. In the western US deserts are not tropical, are way too dry, not often very humid and the landmass, because of repeated mountain building episodes is not very stable to allow this slow leaching - so true laterite soils are very unusual in the western US. The laterite soils of Australia have been stable for many hundreds of millions of years with the last major mountain building periods occurring in precambrian times.for more on laterites see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LateriteMost of the capstones of Australia are different significantly from North American caliche. Caliche is a cemented soil held together with calcite / limestone. Equivalent materials in OZ are what the Aussies call calcrete. The capstones are mostly cemented by silica released by lateritic leaching processes. Edited June 1, 2015 by Reno Chris Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Chris Ralph... Thanks for putting another log this forum... You are well known and highly respected... Questions: I understand that the lateritic soil can be used for bricks? That the "mineralization" (ferrous/ferric iron) content in the Australian "eluvial" gold fields are different versions of our desert south western USA gold fields. Can you comment on this? Fred Mason: Back in about 1989 I had the opportunity to become in contact by e-mail with Mr. "Bob" Sheppard in Western Australia, He authored a booklet "The GT 16000 Owners Manual". It was currently then available through the Warrigal Press. At this time I became aware that there was a language difficulty while reading Australian publications. I'm glad you stepped posted your thoughts. More later... jim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
fredmason 1,135 Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 No worries, Jim...the technical aspects of caliche vrs calcrete were well explained by Chris. You and he are walking books of knowledge...The important part to me is calcrete/capstone is very hard and when the target is below that level; happy days, usually. The areas of Western Oz that I have visited had very little trash.however you never can be sure until you dig it up!Mr Straight, I have to tell you that one of my biggest regrets is not meeting you in person and never having a chance to detect with you...fred Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Fred... We live about 100 miles apart. The Rand Mountain Slopes (Randsburg), the Summit Range on the south side of the Garlock (right lateral)fault and the Benson and Goler gulches have been my stomping ground since about 1962. Do you have a copy of "Three Hours to Gold?" Read pgs 27-29. Also pg 39 and 45-46. An example of the early primitive dry-washers is on pg 72. Today (pgs 42-46) the remnants of the hundreds of shallow rich epithermal eluvial electrum (silver gold alloy) are waiting for you with your 7000. I have several close friends who are always willing to take me to the area. I did great out there until a few days after my 80th birthday... I still have most of the references on pgs 114-115. I personally knew J A Carpenter as I was a student in his "Introduction to Mining" class in the Fall of 1948 (Mackay school of mines) Gosh Fred Send me an e-mail. You are my Mentor!!! jim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted June 1, 2015 Author Share Posted June 1, 2015 Catcha later Chris... Thanks for posting... Bless You... Mackay was a miner lol. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jrdemaris 23 Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Thanks Jim, 30 bucks at Batteries Plus! 3500 is up and running.Jess Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted June 13, 2015 Author Share Posted June 13, 2015 Great Jess... let us know how you are doing with the 3500... jim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jim straight 187 Posted July 4, 2015 Author Share Posted July 4, 2015 Good Morning Everyone. Today is the 4th of July. I have a tall flagpole in my front-yard and already the sun is shining brightly on the flag barely waving in a WSW 3 breeze. Here in the Inland Empire (Rialto CA) area we are in a severe drought. I'm no longer watering my yard-grass and it is turning into ugly straw. We are facing a water shortage. I'm a relic already... We did not run out of stones during the stone-age; nor iron during the iron-age... Today we are in a swift technical-age. Back in 1930 when I was born, there were about two billion people on Earth... Today I understand there are now over seven billion people and most of them are living no better than the Neanderthals in the Stone-age... Problems gallour. The saber-tooth has been replaced by... Hey just turn on the news! Wow what a mess... But while we are temporarily floundering we will eventually get our Act together and move on into what the Future will be... Change, change, change... My poor head's spinning While at the Mackay School of Mines; University of Nevada (Reno)1954) one of my classes was Historical Geology. As a sidebar, sadly the Mackay School of Mines no longer exists as a separate identity. It slowly died beginning in 1948. My curriculum no longer exists. (But I'm a small-miner and NOT recreational). Mackay was a Miner! The Mackay School of Mines died when the post-WW-2 1950 staff mostly retired by the late 1970's. The School curriculum was now again obsolete... Getting back to the subject, the History I referring to is that of the birth of our Earth as recorded by the oldest dated rocks found in the Earth's Physical History. More about this later as it is time for me to take my Meds and have a bowl of oatmeal... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Joe Z 25 Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Happy 4th of July Jim The way this earth is getting beat up i can only hope to make it to your age (and i am only 20 years your junior) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Swampstomper Al 1,336 Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Happy 4th, Jim..!Great to see you posting..SA Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nugget108 1,746 Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Hello jim. Happy Independence day. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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