I FINALLY Found The Golden Reef Hidden in the Hill!

After weeks of searching, sampling, and persistence, I have finally located the true source of the rich talus gold found along the hillside.

It began several weeks ago when I recovered a piece of gold-bearing quartz among the talus at the base of a steep slope. The find was significant: fine gold distributed throughout the quartz matrix, hinting at a nearby source. Despite repeated trips and careful surface inspection, I couldn’t locate where exactly it had come from. The hillside was blanketed in loose material, broken rocks, and soil, masking the potential source reef.

Today, everything changed. Returning once again to the same slope, I decided to dig more aggressively into the hillside where quartz fragments appeared slightly concentrated. Beneath roughly 10–20 centimeters of soil, I exposed what at first seemed to be a regular, slightly oxidized rock. Upon splitting it open, I found it hosted a veinlet of quartz. When I broke a piece in two, the result was immediate and unmistakable: fine visible gold distributed through fresh, unoxidized quartz.

This wasn’t a floater. This wasn’t just a random fragment washed down the slope. This was in-place, semi-weathered quartz reef material, shedding fragments downslope. The reef was shallowly buried but still largely intact.

The exposed fragment matches the angular, sharp quartz float previously sampled, further confirming the connection between the talus gold and this newly exposed reef.

Geological Context

The reef lies on the flank of a larger anticline system, part of the folded sedimentary sequence controlling mineralization in the broader area.

Quartz appears moderately fractured and oxidized near surface, consistent with long-term weathering.

Iron oxide staining (limonite) surrounds some vein margins, suggesting historical sulphide content, likely arsenopyrite.

Gold occurs as fine particles within the quartz, visible under direct light but not easily panned due to its attachment.

This find strengthens the overall model that the fold hinges and adjacent structures in this corridor are feeding significant gold mineralization into nearby host rocks and surface environments.

Next Steps

Expand trenching: Widen and deepen the initial exposure to define the reef's thickness and continuity.

Channel sampling: Collect systematic samples along the exposed reef to test for grade variability.

Structural mapping: Determine strike, dip, and plunge of the reef to predict its continuation upslope and downslope.

Fine gold recovery: Develop chemical extraction methods to recover gold that gravity methods miss.

This discovery marks a major step forward: from chasing float to putting a hand on the living source rock. With careful excavation and methodical testing, I’m confident this reef will yield both gold and critical geological insights into the broader system.

A hidden story in the hillside — and today, a new chapter begins. I still can't believe my eyes when I look at that huge "blob" of gold at the bottom of the rock. Truly unbelievable. Better pictures will be taken of it with my proper camera instead of my garbage phone camera but I couldn't help myself. This just HAD to be documented.