Why Successful Placer Miners Dig to Bedrock: The Secret to Finding More Gold
Why Bedrock Matters: The Placer Prospector's Final Frontier Ask a group of old placer miners where the gold is, and sooner or later you'll hear the same answer: "Get down to bedrock." It's simple advice, but it has guided successful prospectors for generations. Many newcomers spend hours working surface gravels while the richer gold remains hidden several feet below, resting where gravity finally brought it to a stop. Gold Doesn't Like to Travel Forever Gold is heavy. Very heavy. When rainstorms, floods, and erosion wash material down hillsides and through stream channels, most rocks and gravel continue moving with the current. Gold behaves differently. Because it is much denser than ordinary rock, it quickly seeks the lowest point possible. Over centuries, gold particles and nuggets work their way downward through loose gravel until they encounter something they cannot penetrate: bedrock. Think of bedrock as nature's riffle box. Just as riffles in a sl...