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Thanks for the info.
I wish I paid as much attention at school.
Scotty
I wish I paid as much attention at school.
Scotty
12 Weeks To Find First Gold (Persistence Pays).
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Hi All,
I want to share another section of workings that I know of and went back there yesterday to take some pictures for you all and hopefully I can show some examples which may be of use, maybe area's near or close by to you have similar techniques
A majority of the ground here has the conglomerate overlying auriferous gravels on top and below this hard compressed material
1. In these images we see the hole goes underneath the hard layer to the auriferous wash material
2. Directly behind this hole is a undulated trench type area - they have either followed this up and traced the source under this rock, or they have originally sunk a rectangle hole found gold then followed it under the hard material then downwards on the slope, they may have also made this track to gain access to process material faster rather than bringing the pay dirt all the way up the hole then down on uneven ground - the quickest way to process the better - always sit back and think of the easiest ways that they would have transferred the dirt and where they would have taken it to process
3. When we inspect the workings stand back and take a look at the grounds as mentioned in previous posts - why is this area only 500 or so meters away from the other workings directly on the other side of the hill so different - it is the water flow depositing the the alluvial gold from the primary source - it would have followed the current to this exact spot until the gold found its exit point through the soft material and wedging into the hard places
In the first 2 images you can see the big section from the upper level has all been removed this would have been due to the paydirt was good through this whole area on that level and they have traced it back as far as needed - then when you walk around you can see the little pockets they have dug under the conglomerate and softer auriferous area's of clays and sandstones - these flat area's are great to detect as the miners could only see the gold if they washed it or processed it
In the last image you can see the layers in the wall to the left side of the picture looks to be some detector holes right at that level where the upper washed material hits the harder level keep your eye out for these holes and study why they are in this section - you will start to learn why just from the geological makeup
4. When reading the grounds take into account the amount of holes that are around from more modern operators with detectors - we like to study these and you will also see a pattern in the fields - we have all types of people and I wont specifically go through each type because this post will end up being really long
- what we see here in these images are people who dont take consideration of their miners rights - not filling holes, targets still in the ground, then we see some reasonably larger scraped area's they may have found a small piece of gold got very excited then scraped the ground in hope they may have found a spot which must have more so they scrape the ground with no more luck and they just walk away
Dont ever be deterred by other detector holes - study them as well - we always take our targets as long as its not a half of a car body we usually take them away so when we return we are not wasting time on our old targets that we have simply discarded
I always fill my holes to look as if it is natural ground and keep searching - some area's are hard like rock piles with slight grass but as long as we fill the hole then local authorities DPI etc should be ok with it - leaving your holes helps us all see a pattern
Another thing that I really like to do and never say "Oh someone has already done this area and must have found all the gold" NOT POSSIBLE - I like to find targets around or near these detector holes, one it makes you feel accomplished when finding targets they missed, and 2 its even better when its Gold - a thorough search will show you if they may have heard a large signal and just presumed it is junk - when you see a detector hole that has a branch fallen across a test hole dug next to a tree on the lower side of the tree so they would have needed to swing on a ridiculous angle standing on very uneven ground on the edge of a round shallow test hole with the hole covered as best as could be generally indicates a good operator. My point is while prospecting study the old workings as well as the new dig holes in the area
5. Further along is another test hole under the conglomerate - runs in line with the surfaced area wall from the previous images - this again was a rectangle test hole straight down - found good gold and its easier because of the incline of the slope to remove all dirt from the front side and channel under the conglomerate - a lot more efficient on pay dirt removal - you can see the overburden washed in over the last 70 or more years
6. Here we see they followed the gold along and it split both ways with the hard Conglomerate with soft material still on top of this hard material right through the middle - why is it still there? and why didnt they process that material in the middle? - remember the miners were exceptionally smart in the fields they may have traced a small rich trail only 1foot in width but removing the extra 1 foot or 2 foot each way - hence it will leave this material - Can there be gold in there?? Yes most definitely trapped in a little pocket - in the walls at your feet or even where the wall meets the floor. Too many stick and branches tree's - we spend only a very short time to remove the sticks,
This section I wanted to show you is on an incline/hill there is no lead or gully and is elevated from the lower part maybe 30 feet on a 30 degree incline and it has 2 of these shelf levels where they surfaced back as far as needed - millions of years ago it would have been a gully at sometime - we dont need a visible sign that there was water flow because we know that 95 to 99 percent of this world was covered with water, and today we are about 71% Covered
So now we have studied the area, we can see the dirt removed by the old miners, the style of processing, some modern operators with detectors, in these area's when you see processed washed material in piles pick up a few rocks from these piles - then when you go back to the walls with the holes in the first images classify the rocks against the walls and this will show you the level of most interest to the old timers - we know its the bottom where they have dug to but some area's their is multiple levels - rock processing classification is best when you look at the piles and look where the rock came from in these walls
Find yourself a little pocket at these levels - dont be afraid to dig a little in search or clean an area - eventually you will begin to see a pattern because your studying all the time in real time in the field - so when these little indicators appear in other fields or area's they will just jump out at you. And hopefully speed your efforts into more Gold
Hope this helps - and good luck on your next adventure
I want to share another section of workings that I know of and went back there yesterday to take some pictures for you all and hopefully I can show some examples which may be of use, maybe area's near or close by to you have similar techniques
A majority of the ground here has the conglomerate overlying auriferous gravels on top and below this hard compressed material
1. In these images we see the hole goes underneath the hard layer to the auriferous wash material
2. Directly behind this hole is a undulated trench type area - they have either followed this up and traced the source under this rock, or they have originally sunk a rectangle hole found gold then followed it under the hard material then downwards on the slope, they may have also made this track to gain access to process material faster rather than bringing the pay dirt all the way up the hole then down on uneven ground - the quickest way to process the better - always sit back and think of the easiest ways that they would have transferred the dirt and where they would have taken it to process
3. When we inspect the workings stand back and take a look at the grounds as mentioned in previous posts - why is this area only 500 or so meters away from the other workings directly on the other side of the hill so different - it is the water flow depositing the the alluvial gold from the primary source - it would have followed the current to this exact spot until the gold found its exit point through the soft material and wedging into the hard places
In the first 2 images you can see the big section from the upper level has all been removed this would have been due to the paydirt was good through this whole area on that level and they have traced it back as far as needed - then when you walk around you can see the little pockets they have dug under the conglomerate and softer auriferous area's of clays and sandstones - these flat area's are great to detect as the miners could only see the gold if they washed it or processed it
In the last image you can see the layers in the wall to the left side of the picture looks to be some detector holes right at that level where the upper washed material hits the harder level keep your eye out for these holes and study why they are in this section - you will start to learn why just from the geological makeup
4. When reading the grounds take into account the amount of holes that are around from more modern operators with detectors - we like to study these and you will also see a pattern in the fields - we have all types of people and I wont specifically go through each type because this post will end up being really long
- what we see here in these images are people who dont take consideration of their miners rights - not filling holes, targets still in the ground, then we see some reasonably larger scraped area's they may have found a small piece of gold got very excited then scraped the ground in hope they may have found a spot which must have more so they scrape the ground with no more luck and they just walk away Dont ever be deterred by other detector holes - study them as well - we always take our targets as long as its not a half of a car body we usually take them away so when we return we are not wasting time on our old targets that we have simply discarded
I always fill my holes to look as if it is natural ground and keep searching - some area's are hard like rock piles with slight grass but as long as we fill the hole then local authorities DPI etc should be ok with it - leaving your holes helps us all see a pattern
Another thing that I really like to do and never say "Oh someone has already done this area and must have found all the gold" NOT POSSIBLE - I like to find targets around or near these detector holes, one it makes you feel accomplished when finding targets they missed, and 2 its even better when its Gold - a thorough search will show you if they may have heard a large signal and just presumed it is junk - when you see a detector hole that has a branch fallen across a test hole dug next to a tree on the lower side of the tree so they would have needed to swing on a ridiculous angle standing on very uneven ground on the edge of a round shallow test hole with the hole covered as best as could be generally indicates a good operator. My point is while prospecting study the old workings as well as the new dig holes in the area
5. Further along is another test hole under the conglomerate - runs in line with the surfaced area wall from the previous images - this again was a rectangle test hole straight down - found good gold and its easier because of the incline of the slope to remove all dirt from the front side and channel under the conglomerate - a lot more efficient on pay dirt removal - you can see the overburden washed in over the last 70 or more years
6. Here we see they followed the gold along and it split both ways with the hard Conglomerate with soft material still on top of this hard material right through the middle - why is it still there? and why didnt they process that material in the middle? - remember the miners were exceptionally smart in the fields they may have traced a small rich trail only 1foot in width but removing the extra 1 foot or 2 foot each way - hence it will leave this material - Can there be gold in there?? Yes most definitely trapped in a little pocket - in the walls at your feet or even where the wall meets the floor. Too many stick and branches tree's - we spend only a very short time to remove the sticks,
This section I wanted to show you is on an incline/hill there is no lead or gully and is elevated from the lower part maybe 30 feet on a 30 degree incline and it has 2 of these shelf levels where they surfaced back as far as needed - millions of years ago it would have been a gully at sometime - we dont need a visible sign that there was water flow because we know that 95 to 99 percent of this world was covered with water, and today we are about 71% Covered
So now we have studied the area, we can see the dirt removed by the old miners, the style of processing, some modern operators with detectors, in these area's when you see processed washed material in piles pick up a few rocks from these piles - then when you go back to the walls with the holes in the first images classify the rocks against the walls and this will show you the level of most interest to the old timers - we know its the bottom where they have dug to but some area's their is multiple levels - rock processing classification is best when you look at the piles and look where the rock came from in these walls
Find yourself a little pocket at these levels - dont be afraid to dig a little in search or clean an area - eventually you will begin to see a pattern because your studying all the time in real time in the field - so when these little indicators appear in other fields or area's they will just jump out at you. And hopefully speed your efforts into more Gold
Hope this helps - and good luck on your next adventure
SC75 said:
Thanks SC75 much appreciated - it's always good to associate explanation with images, some find it hard to picture what one is talking about without a clear image to help.
I always carry my camera while detecting just in case I come across something of interest for future reference
Enjoy the weekend
Thanks Minelab Gold! Very informative and interesting reading, definitely learning more about this exciting hobby. I'm finding myself reflecting more than ever on the land around me and types of ground underfoot.
I was out today with my 2 boys, took them for a little bush walk through an area I used to chase lizards in back in my earlier years. The area was known to have gold and a small reef was documented there back in the early 1900's, though unprofitable so no further mining took place. I never thought there would be gold and even after looking today the area has no evidence of classic quartz and ironstone structures. Now reading your posts it makes me think and realise what your saying about gold is where you find it, and not always with visible indicators. I think I'll be heading back with the SDC and have a wonder around - with a new mindset. Thanks for the inspiration.
I was out today with my 2 boys, took them for a little bush walk through an area I used to chase lizards in back in my earlier years. The area was known to have gold and a small reef was documented there back in the early 1900's, though unprofitable so no further mining took place. I never thought there would be gold and even after looking today the area has no evidence of classic quartz and ironstone structures. Now reading your posts it makes me think and realise what your saying about gold is where you find it, and not always with visible indicators. I think I'll be heading back with the SDC and have a wonder around - with a new mindset. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thanks JD - if there are gold workings to search for alluvial from that reef makes you wonder what is actually below the surface that was not obtained - the only real way they would have confirmed is digging the fault on the correct side and to what depth.
Usually the indicators of high mineralization iron ore iron oxide pyrites etc right beside the quartz vein - they follow these indicators down into the ground and try to find the cross sections where two or more indicator lines meet with the quartz or other mineral. As we know Quartz is one of the most common minerals from memory it is second in line of feldspar.
Many people see the quartz reef or line of quartz and think it must have gold the key spots are the intersecting highly mineralized line of minerals along side this. most indicators quartz and high mineralized contain some form of gold - it may only be microns but usually it is there.
If your ever in a mine hole or see exposed quartz reef in side wall - follow the vertical indicator downwards until you see the horizontal intersect - think of it like a soft crack and the minerals have to come upwards until the pressure is that high that the minerals cant break through anymore because the amount of pressure needed is the same pressure it would take to lift the amount of earth that sits above when it hits this horizontal plate. Once it has filled the void hopefully it has brought the gold into that pocket and created a nice specimen for you.
Remember highly mineralized beside the quartz vein - horizontal intersecting with the vertical - not exactly north south east west - but usually on angles
Whenever we have seismic activity - we see that fault lines move creating voids - the pressure released from this movement brings the minerals upwards - in the mantle below the crust rocks are almost moving like plastic and the further up they come in these voids they become more brittle as they cool - they come up as far as the void will allow if they cant sustain more pressure than the earth above them it simply stops if it cant find other routes to fill - what we want is for the minerals to find as many voids as it can when these events occur, bringing it as close to surface as possible
If you study Seismic activity look at the events and look at the areas of this activity compared with the gold area's Australia Wide - its quite fascinating the orogenic gold process/science/geological studies
All the best and good luck prospecting
Usually the indicators of high mineralization iron ore iron oxide pyrites etc right beside the quartz vein - they follow these indicators down into the ground and try to find the cross sections where two or more indicator lines meet with the quartz or other mineral. As we know Quartz is one of the most common minerals from memory it is second in line of feldspar.
Many people see the quartz reef or line of quartz and think it must have gold the key spots are the intersecting highly mineralized line of minerals along side this. most indicators quartz and high mineralized contain some form of gold - it may only be microns but usually it is there.
If your ever in a mine hole or see exposed quartz reef in side wall - follow the vertical indicator downwards until you see the horizontal intersect - think of it like a soft crack and the minerals have to come upwards until the pressure is that high that the minerals cant break through anymore because the amount of pressure needed is the same pressure it would take to lift the amount of earth that sits above when it hits this horizontal plate. Once it has filled the void hopefully it has brought the gold into that pocket and created a nice specimen for you.
Remember highly mineralized beside the quartz vein - horizontal intersecting with the vertical - not exactly north south east west - but usually on angles
Whenever we have seismic activity - we see that fault lines move creating voids - the pressure released from this movement brings the minerals upwards - in the mantle below the crust rocks are almost moving like plastic and the further up they come in these voids they become more brittle as they cool - they come up as far as the void will allow if they cant sustain more pressure than the earth above them it simply stops if it cant find other routes to fill - what we want is for the minerals to find as many voids as it can when these events occur, bringing it as close to surface as possible
If you study Seismic activity look at the events and look at the areas of this activity compared with the gold area's Australia Wide - its quite fascinating the orogenic gold process/science/geological studies
All the best and good luck prospecting
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Awsome minelab, thanks very much mate.
Just goes to show how different the land is up my way, but how similar the techniques are!
Im working a very steep hilly area, lots of costeins and test holes. The area im finding a few little bits is riddled with test pits, and your info is now adding up, and giving me a clearer picture. The area im in is absolutly riddled with test holes, looks like a battle field.
Just goes to show how different the land is up my way, but how similar the techniques are!
Im working a very steep hilly area, lots of costeins and test holes. The area im finding a few little bits is riddled with test pits, and your info is now adding up, and giving me a clearer picture. The area im in is absolutly riddled with test holes, looks like a battle field.
Mr Minelab Gold, I also just wanted to add my sincere thanks for your writings and very, very informative photo's especially the layers of sediment, great work.
Regards
Mackka
Regards
Mackka
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Hi Minelab gold have just sat here for an hour reading this hole thread and loved it the information is great and very helpful I live in Bendigo and have the advantage of being able to be in the gold field in a very short time, and i will be looking at the places i have detected with new eyes and i hope to pick up some yellow stuff but the chase is also good fun ,Thanks for the info ,and by the way if you decide to run trips out I am in lol.
Pirate pete said:
Thanks Pete, glad you liked the thread and hopefully has inspired some more or you picked up something of use. Sounds like you live in a prime position within the Golden Triangle - Bendigo has an awesome large field to prospect
I will let you know when we are looking to head towards the Bendigo, Dunolly, Inglewood area next
All the best - Happy Hunting
Hi All,
I just wanted to update this thread with some more images and details on findings etc - and hopefully cover some notes for all level operators
After reviewing my notes before heading out today I noticed a pattern which I had overlooked for quite some time, I guess sometimes weighing up whether to search and prospect new ground with the chance of finding virgin ground or studying recent finds that I have marked on my Google Earth files, I looked at a section which I had found numerous pieces over the years and looked at what are the chances of certain area's that I missed that I could focus my skills and abilities of my machine in these area's.
After making the decision to go out to this ground to study some more I noticed in my earlier days that I had overlooked many spots - hopefully this can also help other to see what I mean and help in grounds that may be of similar minerals in your area - perseverance persistence and patience.
In the area that I didn't focus on much because many operators would understand it can be frustrating at times but as you get more experienced it becomes easier to define these signals
The ground is covered with ironstone rich and not so rich, red clay in some area's, charcoal, sticks, very uneven ground - when you put all of these into one area we get constant changes in the ground noises, wobbly sounds all over the place. Don't let this deter you and if you have these area's go back and let me tell you to "tie your shoe laces together" - use the sensitive spot on the coil and move very slowly trying not to lift the coil because as we know it will cause a signal much like a target, even when you run the coil across the marbles you will get a wobbly sound. Listen for that faint dip in threshold not so much a solid signal.
Its hard to explain its like a sixth sense that is obtained through experience in the fields. I also like to have the headphones in tighter than standard because it bring the sound focus level more balanced between your ears - the more you can focus on the sound of the coil rather than any inferior sounds from the environment, walking, sticks breaking, wind, vehicles etc anything outside of the earphones takes away some concentration of sounds. Thats why I don't use speaker and only headphones. Try it next time your out you will see what I mean when your detecting try putting pressure on both sides of the headphones applying more pressure against your ears and see the difference it brings on the clarity or quality of the sounds in these high mineralized iron patches
If you get a really noisy patch of ground where it wobbles all over the place no matter how much you balance the machine - due to iron levels it distinguishes these as faint soft signals - if the ironstone is solid then keep the rock a solid ironstone rock can have gold if solid enough. So now you have this noisy wobbly ground - get yourself a small lead pellet or buck shot/shotgun pellet and bury it 1 inch or 2 inches below the surface until you can only just hear the sound - now try to distinguish this will all the other wobbly ironstone sounds. Keep doing this until you tune your senses for these slight differences in the threshold dip.
Ok now I have explained that Hopefully it will help someone
Lets talk about today hunting and explain these pictures
1. In these images you can see that the ground is uneven, covered with conglomerate wash in area's - like little pebbles or marbles with ironstone and quartz, you can also see some coal from burn offs. I also in the 4th image is signs of other detector operators and others scattered but not focused - you can tell because the grounds are covered with overburden - many cleaned focused area's would be an easy sign of someone thoroughly searching
In the the images you will see my hole - with bits of coal and some top soil overburden in the shallow where I found the target - in the last image ironstone marble with gold poking out on one side - very faint but distinguished between wobbly and dip - turns out after cleaning 0.27g and it was roughly 2 inches down.
2. In these images you can see more iron stone marbles - this was only 6 feet away from the previous piece - I had to move a large branch to get an easy slide of the coil but the sound I could only just hear with the branch in the way - you can see the black coal marks where the branch was on the ground - still solid enough to notice it wasn't ground noise. When I dug the target out roughly 8 inches deep was another nice piece of gold -
Its great to see yellow through the dirt. Now in this same section we always check our holes again I was getting a sound and I don't know why maybe its just instinct to scrape the top around the holes as well - this sound was not easily distinguished but maybe because my instinct tells me to scrape the ground around the hole - I heard the faint dip in the threshold and scraped some more to unearth a nice little specimen just up from this piece of Gold
3. I walked further down after the 3 pieces in the previous area, tomorrow will be clean thoroughly of the marble ironstone area in the shallows of the mullocks and scrape more from the top of the wash material - in this area is similar type minerals just less noisy more quartz with sandy type wash material - I came across another signal after kicking away some sticks - you can see how dirty the area is in these images, fallen branches, overburden, sticks, etc - I usually walk through these area's detecting an area, then moving sticks into that area, moving through as I clean overburden into each window that I have came from and when you look back it still appears the same much like no one has thoroughly cleaned and detected the area.
When you look at the hole where I found the first target here - have a look at the depth of the top overburden on the original workings - by scraping this away you can increase your depth considerably - here it was at least 4 inches over overburden top soil bark leaves. Now in this hole was some nice looking pay dirt type material - the sound was very wobbly but definitely a wobbly solid signal - I thought before digging from swinging both ways it sounded like 2 targets at different depth but close together - after removing the first target and a nice piece of water worn gold - again in the hole a second target 3 inches below and another piece of Gold
4. Total 5 pieces today - Before Cleaning
5. After semi cleaning - I crushed the little marble you can see the 0.27g piece in this image the other specimen I might acid brush to see if it is a nice gold top or whether it would be best just crushed to remove other minerals.
2 Hours out total Gold Weight 6.9g
Earlier when I mentioned about tying your shoe laces together keep this in mind when detecting on the speed to travel very small steps, focus focus focus on those dips in threshold - you will see what I mean when in noisy ground with that buck shot.
If there are area's where you found gold previously but noticed these area's of high minerals and walked away because you couldn't concentrate - go back and really give it a go - you may be surprised
If in doubt - scrape the top get closer to that sound that you may have thought was ground mineral wobble and find that target.
What this also does is increases your chance - any deterrent for other operators is always a benefit for the persistent
Look at ways to increase your chances always
Ask yourself why didn't I ever go back to this area when I have found good gold, was it because I thought I had covered the whole area, maybe that was the psychology when you went back 5 times and didn't find color, so in your mind there is no more gold and every time you went back your style changed, swinging faster, walking sporadically with no clear direction. Moving too fast in hope to find gold faster
Also some people get stuck in a pattern of testing the mullocks, walk a bit test another mullock, maybe a bit into the holes and no clear direction, I search as much as possible every part of the ground in and around the old workings can contain gold whether missed from wash, dropped in travel, or virgin ground - test it all and at every angle possible
If you are stuck in a pattern and wonder why you aren't finding gold - look outside the box and maybe you need to change this pattern and best way I can say is search all, mullocks, highs, lows, undulated areas, edges, around tree's, in the holes remember people get stuck in the pattern maybe you have found 5 bits of crap in the bottom of the hole and in your brain immediately a trigger is set to tell you not to worry about this part of the ground, maybe you think all people must just throw the crap in the test holes to search all other ground, why are the test holes there because the level of the most important ground is this depth thats why the old timers dug that deep to obtain the pay dirt
If your prospecting for virgin ground at no workings this takes extreme patience and persistence - think of your detector as an electronic loaming machine when looking for virgin ground - you may just find a good hillside and track a virgin gully - or take some samples from virgin gully and pan it to look for signs of gold
If you have this type of ground share your efforts here on the thread
All the best to all and hope you get something of use in this post. Good luck - Happy hunting
I just wanted to update this thread with some more images and details on findings etc - and hopefully cover some notes for all level operators
After reviewing my notes before heading out today I noticed a pattern which I had overlooked for quite some time, I guess sometimes weighing up whether to search and prospect new ground with the chance of finding virgin ground or studying recent finds that I have marked on my Google Earth files, I looked at a section which I had found numerous pieces over the years and looked at what are the chances of certain area's that I missed that I could focus my skills and abilities of my machine in these area's.
After making the decision to go out to this ground to study some more I noticed in my earlier days that I had overlooked many spots - hopefully this can also help other to see what I mean and help in grounds that may be of similar minerals in your area - perseverance persistence and patience.
In the area that I didn't focus on much because many operators would understand it can be frustrating at times but as you get more experienced it becomes easier to define these signals
The ground is covered with ironstone rich and not so rich, red clay in some area's, charcoal, sticks, very uneven ground - when you put all of these into one area we get constant changes in the ground noises, wobbly sounds all over the place. Don't let this deter you and if you have these area's go back and let me tell you to "tie your shoe laces together" - use the sensitive spot on the coil and move very slowly trying not to lift the coil because as we know it will cause a signal much like a target, even when you run the coil across the marbles you will get a wobbly sound. Listen for that faint dip in threshold not so much a solid signal.
Its hard to explain its like a sixth sense that is obtained through experience in the fields. I also like to have the headphones in tighter than standard because it bring the sound focus level more balanced between your ears - the more you can focus on the sound of the coil rather than any inferior sounds from the environment, walking, sticks breaking, wind, vehicles etc anything outside of the earphones takes away some concentration of sounds. Thats why I don't use speaker and only headphones. Try it next time your out you will see what I mean when your detecting try putting pressure on both sides of the headphones applying more pressure against your ears and see the difference it brings on the clarity or quality of the sounds in these high mineralized iron patches
If you get a really noisy patch of ground where it wobbles all over the place no matter how much you balance the machine - due to iron levels it distinguishes these as faint soft signals - if the ironstone is solid then keep the rock a solid ironstone rock can have gold if solid enough. So now you have this noisy wobbly ground - get yourself a small lead pellet or buck shot/shotgun pellet and bury it 1 inch or 2 inches below the surface until you can only just hear the sound - now try to distinguish this will all the other wobbly ironstone sounds. Keep doing this until you tune your senses for these slight differences in the threshold dip.
Ok now I have explained that Hopefully it will help someone
Lets talk about today hunting and explain these pictures
1. In these images you can see that the ground is uneven, covered with conglomerate wash in area's - like little pebbles or marbles with ironstone and quartz, you can also see some coal from burn offs. I also in the 4th image is signs of other detector operators and others scattered but not focused - you can tell because the grounds are covered with overburden - many cleaned focused area's would be an easy sign of someone thoroughly searching
In the the images you will see my hole - with bits of coal and some top soil overburden in the shallow where I found the target - in the last image ironstone marble with gold poking out on one side - very faint but distinguished between wobbly and dip - turns out after cleaning 0.27g and it was roughly 2 inches down.
2. In these images you can see more iron stone marbles - this was only 6 feet away from the previous piece - I had to move a large branch to get an easy slide of the coil but the sound I could only just hear with the branch in the way - you can see the black coal marks where the branch was on the ground - still solid enough to notice it wasn't ground noise. When I dug the target out roughly 8 inches deep was another nice piece of gold -
Its great to see yellow through the dirt. Now in this same section we always check our holes again I was getting a sound and I don't know why maybe its just instinct to scrape the top around the holes as well - this sound was not easily distinguished but maybe because my instinct tells me to scrape the ground around the hole - I heard the faint dip in the threshold and scraped some more to unearth a nice little specimen just up from this piece of Gold
3. I walked further down after the 3 pieces in the previous area, tomorrow will be clean thoroughly of the marble ironstone area in the shallows of the mullocks and scrape more from the top of the wash material - in this area is similar type minerals just less noisy more quartz with sandy type wash material - I came across another signal after kicking away some sticks - you can see how dirty the area is in these images, fallen branches, overburden, sticks, etc - I usually walk through these area's detecting an area, then moving sticks into that area, moving through as I clean overburden into each window that I have came from and when you look back it still appears the same much like no one has thoroughly cleaned and detected the area.
When you look at the hole where I found the first target here - have a look at the depth of the top overburden on the original workings - by scraping this away you can increase your depth considerably - here it was at least 4 inches over overburden top soil bark leaves. Now in this hole was some nice looking pay dirt type material - the sound was very wobbly but definitely a wobbly solid signal - I thought before digging from swinging both ways it sounded like 2 targets at different depth but close together - after removing the first target and a nice piece of water worn gold - again in the hole a second target 3 inches below and another piece of Gold
4. Total 5 pieces today - Before Cleaning
5. After semi cleaning - I crushed the little marble you can see the 0.27g piece in this image the other specimen I might acid brush to see if it is a nice gold top or whether it would be best just crushed to remove other minerals.
2 Hours out total Gold Weight 6.9g
Earlier when I mentioned about tying your shoe laces together keep this in mind when detecting on the speed to travel very small steps, focus focus focus on those dips in threshold - you will see what I mean when in noisy ground with that buck shot.
If there are area's where you found gold previously but noticed these area's of high minerals and walked away because you couldn't concentrate - go back and really give it a go - you may be surprised
If in doubt - scrape the top get closer to that sound that you may have thought was ground mineral wobble and find that target.
What this also does is increases your chance - any deterrent for other operators is always a benefit for the persistent
Look at ways to increase your chances always
Ask yourself why didn't I ever go back to this area when I have found good gold, was it because I thought I had covered the whole area, maybe that was the psychology when you went back 5 times and didn't find color, so in your mind there is no more gold and every time you went back your style changed, swinging faster, walking sporadically with no clear direction. Moving too fast in hope to find gold faster
Also some people get stuck in a pattern of testing the mullocks, walk a bit test another mullock, maybe a bit into the holes and no clear direction, I search as much as possible every part of the ground in and around the old workings can contain gold whether missed from wash, dropped in travel, or virgin ground - test it all and at every angle possible
If you are stuck in a pattern and wonder why you aren't finding gold - look outside the box and maybe you need to change this pattern and best way I can say is search all, mullocks, highs, lows, undulated areas, edges, around tree's, in the holes remember people get stuck in the pattern maybe you have found 5 bits of crap in the bottom of the hole and in your brain immediately a trigger is set to tell you not to worry about this part of the ground, maybe you think all people must just throw the crap in the test holes to search all other ground, why are the test holes there because the level of the most important ground is this depth thats why the old timers dug that deep to obtain the pay dirt
If your prospecting for virgin ground at no workings this takes extreme patience and persistence - think of your detector as an electronic loaming machine when looking for virgin ground - you may just find a good hillside and track a virgin gully
- or take some samples from virgin gully and pan it to look for signs of gold If you have this type of ground share your efforts here on the thread
All the best to all and hope you get something of use in this post. Good luck - Happy hunting
Just a follow up from yesterday - I went back to the same location in some old workings today for a couple of hours.
Again concentrating on the area's of high mineral signs of ironstone quartz marbles - the area you can see the different classification of the rocks from either wet wash or dry. The big mullocks are a crushed smaller type of quartz, sediments, sands, ironstone. This is the top layer above area's of conglomerate and what holds the harder conglomerate together, when looking at the next size of the piles is the marble size conglomerate where the old timers have done their best to break it apart leaving 5 to 10 cent piece sizes and larger.
The larger size are the ones they would have run through the process and formed a tailing pile which have the gold in the more compressed conglomerate - the formation of the conglomerate is a sedimentary consisting of various hardness from sediments, sands etc - the ones that were more solid the miners would tail off and getting all of the loose alluvial in between - as we know the miners couldnt see inside the compressed rock so they were going by weight in some instances - if there was a rock left in their riffles they would check based on weight or visual signs of gold.
So today was another good couple of hours swinging low and slow and kicking away windows of opportunity, when I first started detecting the limited training available and in depth knowledge was only ever obtained by going into the bush and we teach ourselves, many things that the pro's dont want you to know so most available information is not accessible - the information that is available is only very basic. Swing low and slow but actual technique cross over half coil at a time blah blah
Having the knowledge of reading the grounds, where the richer pay dirt was mainly concentrated, the way the material has been processed, where it has been processed in old worked area's tells the tail. Sit back and really look at the ground your working
1. 10-12 Inches down - Sandy wash mixed with sands, ironstone, quartz, sediments - As I am working through as previously mentioned kicking away stick, rocks, etc anything that will hold your coil off the ground even by 10mm we want to get right on the ground
2. 2-3 Inches down - again see the marble area's of the harder conglomerate rock piles in these images - see in the first is the marble size clean washed tailing of the conglomerate - in the second image if you look at the top of the picture the piles are almost out of the picture - you can see these are higher mullocks with very small quartz, ironstone, sands etc
3. Semi Cleaned the smaller bits - the larger piece Ironstone crushed off
There is a special technique that I use with these high mineralized marble type conglomerate area's and has proven very well over the many years, anyone interested just shoot through a PM
Thanks to all for your likes, and taking time to read my thread - means a lot - as always be safe and well - Happy Prospecting
Again concentrating on the area's of high mineral signs of ironstone quartz marbles - the area you can see the different classification of the rocks from either wet wash or dry. The big mullocks are a crushed smaller type of quartz, sediments, sands, ironstone. This is the top layer above area's of conglomerate and what holds the harder conglomerate together, when looking at the next size of the piles is the marble size conglomerate where the old timers have done their best to break it apart leaving 5 to 10 cent piece sizes and larger.
The larger size are the ones they would have run through the process and formed a tailing pile which have the gold in the more compressed conglomerate - the formation of the conglomerate is a sedimentary consisting of various hardness from sediments, sands etc - the ones that were more solid the miners would tail off and getting all of the loose alluvial in between - as we know the miners couldnt see inside the compressed rock so they were going by weight in some instances - if there was a rock left in their riffles they would check based on weight or visual signs of gold.
So today was another good couple of hours swinging low and slow and kicking away windows of opportunity, when I first started detecting the limited training available and in depth knowledge was only ever obtained by going into the bush and we teach ourselves, many things that the pro's dont want you to know so most available information is not accessible - the information that is available is only very basic. Swing low and slow but actual technique cross over half coil at a time blah blah
Having the knowledge of reading the grounds, where the richer pay dirt was mainly concentrated, the way the material has been processed, where it has been processed in old worked area's tells the tail. Sit back and really look at the ground your working
1. 10-12 Inches down - Sandy wash mixed with sands, ironstone, quartz, sediments - As I am working through as previously mentioned kicking away stick, rocks, etc anything that will hold your coil off the ground even by 10mm we want to get right on the ground
2. 2-3 Inches down - again see the marble area's of the harder conglomerate rock piles in these images - see in the first is the marble size clean washed tailing of the conglomerate - in the second image if you look at the top of the picture the piles are almost out of the picture - you can see these are higher mullocks with very small quartz, ironstone, sands etc
3. Semi Cleaned the smaller bits - the larger piece Ironstone crushed off
There is a special technique that I use with these high mineralized marble type conglomerate area's and has proven very well over the many years, anyone interested just shoot through a PM
Thanks to all for your likes, and taking time to read my thread - means a lot - as always be safe and well - Happy Prospecting
Hi All,
I just noticed another user post within the forum alluvial gold so I posted this link to assist in their thread and thought to post it here as well - anyone looking to increase their knowledge base on Gold Geology and gain some extremely valuable information - I highly recommend you watch all of the video's in this channel, if you haven't already.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClcZXBMeHSw-4BwOfVQPK_g
Enjoy
I just noticed another user post within the forum alluvial gold so I posted this link to assist in their thread and thought to post it here as well - anyone looking to increase their knowledge base on Gold Geology and gain some extremely valuable information - I highly recommend you watch all of the video's in this channel, if you haven't already.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClcZXBMeHSw-4BwOfVQPK_g
Enjoy
Hi all,
just updating thread to help show some ground that I have stumbled across, the area is perfect for detector work having such a large area of auriferous ground on top of red clay - the depths found are very shallow - there are also workings around with very shallow signs and towards the top which look to be workings to find the primary source - which are only 3 feet deep at most - no gully/lead found yet
In the first images you can see the depth of the red clay being only 1 foot down, then the wash dirt above it - and finally some slight top soils/overburden.
In other area of the shallow workings looks to be that they have found alluvial gold and surfaced the material down to the red clay level. With many spots not touched and no detector holes. Be interesting to scout over these larger surfaced red clay top area's - surfaced area's generally contain the gold close on top and can scream
Today I was more so exploring and walked maybe 1km to find this location as it is not accessible by any tracks - getting swarmed by mosquito's and flies along the way
When I finally found this area on a slight hillside - not a very steep decline maybe 15 degree's 20 at most - I trailed some workings while reading the grounds - always looking at the change in ground, this whole area seemed to be of similar makeup - very shallow
I was exploring mostly South East and North West side and hopefully can check out the lower North South area's
Just what we all want to find - shallow ground, auriferous material above red clay - and best of all 2 pieces of gold
I was pretty much walking detect a bit, walk some more detect and not paying attention to a specific area just seeing what is around and reading some prime spots and managed to find the good stuff. The area ticks all the boxes for high prospects - GPS Marked
See the layers here Top Soils not too thick - then the material which we all love to dig through then finally target at the bottom just on the clay
Inside here somewhere
See how its all the way at the bottom pretty much in soft red clay with the gravel wash
Very waterworn - found 3/4 down the hill
Cleaned a little - also the first piece alluvial but found at the top section what looked to be the primary source area more rough like reef - big quartz stones around and found maybe 1/2inch down
This was the first target - screamed and was roughly 8 inches down - It would have been flat in the ground because it was constant sound in each direction - much like the sound of a worn down 12 gauge shell - this is the 4th Chinese Coin I have found over the years - definitely the best condition
Another interesting find which was a fair way off where I was - just stumbled across them on route - a few old deep holes still have ladders, one more modern and a couple still covered with tin - one has pick and shovel and other tools, this one no cover but as you can see has the old hand pump and ladder still in.
All up was a great day - even just to stumble across the old shafts in working order was excellent - and this older style with the pump - very cool, I didnt snap pictures of the other 2 shafts because I was getting attacked by about 15 mosquito's and 6 or so flies all at once
Looking forward to further prospecting this ground - can only hope, and the signs of not one detector hole is what's most impressive.
just updating thread to help show some ground that I have stumbled across, the area is perfect for detector work having such a large area of auriferous ground on top of red clay - the depths found are very shallow - there are also workings around with very shallow signs and towards the top which look to be workings to find the primary source - which are only 3 feet deep at most - no gully/lead found yet
In the first images you can see the depth of the red clay being only 1 foot down, then the wash dirt above it - and finally some slight top soils/overburden.
In other area of the shallow workings looks to be that they have found alluvial gold and surfaced the material down to the red clay level. With many spots not touched and no detector holes. Be interesting to scout over these larger surfaced red clay top area's - surfaced area's generally contain the gold close on top and can scream
Today I was more so exploring and walked maybe 1km to find this location as it is not accessible by any tracks - getting swarmed by mosquito's and flies along the way
When I finally found this area on a slight hillside - not a very steep decline maybe 15 degree's 20 at most - I trailed some workings while reading the grounds - always looking at the change in ground, this whole area seemed to be of similar makeup - very shallow
I was exploring mostly South East and North West side and hopefully can check out the lower North South area's
Just what we all want to find - shallow ground, auriferous material above red clay - and best of all 2 pieces of gold
I was pretty much walking detect a bit, walk some more detect and not paying attention to a specific area just seeing what is around and reading some prime spots and managed to find the good stuff. The area ticks all the boxes for high prospects - GPS Marked
See the layers here Top Soils not too thick - then the material which we all love to dig through then finally target at the bottom just on the clay
Inside here somewhere
See how its all the way at the bottom pretty much in soft red clay with the gravel wash
Very waterworn - found 3/4 down the hill
Cleaned a little - also the first piece alluvial but found at the top section what looked to be the primary source area more rough like reef - big quartz stones around and found maybe 1/2inch down
This was the first target - screamed and was roughly 8 inches down - It would have been flat in the ground because it was constant sound in each direction - much like the sound of a worn down 12 gauge shell - this is the 4th Chinese Coin I have found over the years - definitely the best condition
Another interesting find which was a fair way off where I was - just stumbled across them on route - a few old deep holes still have ladders, one more modern and a couple still covered with tin - one has pick and shovel and other tools, this one no cover but as you can see has the old hand pump and ladder still in.
All up was a great day - even just to stumble across the old shafts in working order was excellent - and this older style with the pump - very cool, I didnt snap pictures of the other 2 shafts because I was getting attacked by about 15 mosquito's and 6 or so flies all at once
Looking forward to further prospecting this ground - can only hope, and the signs of not one detector hole is what's most impressive.
After some research, found the coin to be minted 1644-1661 in the Qing or Manchu Dynasty
Reference
Circulated all that time and eventually resting here in Australia - also read that - earlier one cash coins were between 27mm to 35mm - and the multiple cash coins marked on the coins were 10 to 500 cash from sizes of 35mm to 55mm
Reference
Circulated all that time and eventually resting here in Australia - also read that - earlier one cash coins were between 27mm to 35mm - and the multiple cash coins marked on the coins were 10 to 500 cash from sizes of 35mm to 55mm
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Count me in too, happy to hook up anytime wife permitting solo or group, would love to get first hand tips and pick your brain...Love your thread going to read it al over again...Your advise is very similar to reading that of Lomar , you're not the same person are you ? not that it matters though still love the info please keep it coming I'm hooked.
Mickkat12 said:
Thanks Mickkat12,
Its amazing what we find in the bush. Hoping to keep some interest with my post's and continue a great thread for people to enjoy and hopefully pickup on some handy advice.
Gravity said:Count me in too, happy to hook up anytime wife permitting solo or group, would love to get first hand tips and pick your brain...Love your thread going to read it al over again...Your advise is very similar to reading that of Lomar , you're not the same person are you ? not that it matters though still love the info please keep it coming I'm hooked.
Hi Gravity,
Thanks for the reply - not the same person, but usually most with a certain degree of knowledge you will find divulge similar information. I like to take in the surroundings and the full adventure when out.
I will try to get some more pics tomorrow if the rain holds off - I think we are due
As for a group day/weekend that would be excellent - would need to pick a central goldfield location for others also to meet up - had a lot of interest for a training knowledge detecting type day in real time in the fields. As we know reading as much as we can still isnt as good as hands on in field. I will need to compile a list of people interested in knowledge base field day detecting - and who knows we may find color for all at a specific location
All the best
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