Vaquero makes its 1st awesome find-A NATIVE COPPER NUGGET

[kaolinwasher]

[size=large]finnaly it warmed up to the 40.s and the 1st thing to thaw is the gravel road, the gravel is from the superior region upper wisconsin and is known to host lots of agates & copper , native copper nuggets, so the vaquero got its chance using the 5.75" concentric in all metal i set the threshold at 12:00 because i only need about 4" depth as its froze bond that and it helps ignore the junk , I was finding several hot rocks that set it off pretty good but then i got a hyper signal and when i turned up 3" of gravel I seen the bright green and knew what it was , a nice copper nugget this is a great find i covered about 17 paces of gravel road , this will now be the 3rd copper nugget . - who knows maybe I will find a gold one [/size]

 

[homebre]

Great find. There is supposed to be some copper around Hillsborough, NC, but I have yet to see evidence of it.
Andy

 

[tabman]

Gunnar it won't be long before you'll be out doing you videos again. I bet your Vaquero sounded off on that nugget with conviction.

tabman

 

[Scanman]

Thanks for sharing, now I will be able to identify if I come across a copper nugget.

 

[Bleaver]

Same for me, I've never seen a copper nugget before. Hopefully, I'll recognize one now if I see it.

 

[KennyD]

Very cool find! Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[kaolinwasher]

andy it may pay off to find out some geology of the copper in NC- their is no place like NC where the bedrock has been saprolized to kaolin like your beautiful state when this happens it leaves behind . gold , & all kinds of cool gemstones, and the cool thing is the granites in NC had huge grand structures NC is a potters dream. Tab it did hit very hard like a coon hound with a raccoon up a tree, Scanman I have place another picture of the nugget i found last year with the outlaw its still in the basalt stone i found it in I was going to make a video but i figured i would not find anything , WRONG' maybe next dig also i found an agate you can see its nice color , lots of agate in this gravel to

 

[kaolinwasher]

Andy this is a great work on north carolina copper deposits do a search Google ( METALLIC MINERAL DEPOSITES OF THE CAROLINA SLATE BELT, NORTH CAROLINA BY P .albert Carpenter 3 if a man was to detect the old spoil piles you just may come up with something interesting and maybe some gold as well .

 

[BarryL]

Nice find glad the Vaq is working well for you

 

[homebre]

Thanks for the advice; I will look into it. Can you explain your pictures you posted. I wasn't sure what I was seeing. The last 2 looked like thin quartz being held up to a light, so I must be looking at it incorrectly.
Andy

 

[Scanman]

I need a course in Geology lol. Thanks for sharing the additional pictures and info on the subject. I really like the nugget in the stone, awesome find!

 

[kaolinwasher]

the thin thing is a flat agate they come in all kinds of sizes, probably the most interesting one i seen was one my brother found it had beautiful rings and right in the middle was a solid copper center

 

[JimmyCT]

Great find Gunnar! Never seen a native copper nugget. You should of been a Geologist as you sure know your stuff. Thanks for sharing - Jim

 

[Neil]

Now that is pretty cool. Is copper usually found by itself or is it sometimes mixed in other rocks/minerals like gold is?

 

[kaolinwasher]

Neil, up hear it is mixed in with the glacial till , nuggets up to 500 pounds can be found , and 40 to 80 pounders are not uncommon. but the gravel on this road is -3/4" so i am limited to that size and smaller until i find the pit they get it from but most of the gravel comes from the lake superior basen and has lots of copper and agates, i would say 75% is basalts and lesser granite and quartz, as i have found the nuggets are in the basalt so its almost like looking for gold nuggets - every so many sq ft and a nugget pops up its very entertaining.

 

[Sven]

Way to go Gunnar..............there's other items besides coins to hunt for and your one of the lucky ones to find an item that has
potential, besides you don't have any competition from other hunters.............
Hope to see a pile more....