Dug to bedrock

Hey all was out with a mate today at a creek we have panned some pickers out of we decided to dig an inside bend about 10 meter from the water. We dug about 5 feet down to bedrock removing some big rocks but never found a wash layer. Their was a old timers water race (i think thats what it was) on the high side of us. Why was there no wash? Any suggestions please.

Hi mate always good to find a race..Cant help you with your question as could any number of reasons..But I do feel like I've read this thread before :Y:

Hi there Bumbags. By 'wash layer' do you mean a layer containing Gold?

Sorry for the double up. Yes rusty there was 3 distinct layers. 1st was topsoil then a clay reddish yellow then a tiny layer of blue clay ontop of bedrock. Sampled all. Nothing. But what we were looking for was some round river pebbles and sand "wash". The old creek bed

No wash layer = no ancient creek bed, so what you've learnt is that regardless of how the modern terrain looks, either it didn't run where you were digging, or any wash deposited there by the creek was later scoured away when it changed course.

Remember that today's topography may give little or no clue to where/how water flowed through the landscape thousands/tens of thousands/millions of years earlier, under very different climatic conditions. Today's hills can even be yesterday's valleys and vice versa.

It's not easy figuring this stuff out, but I guess if it was, the old-timers would have left even less behind for modern prospectors.

follow the water race down you may find it leads you to the surfaced and alluvial workings areas that wore once the old river beds now high and dry and possibly already sluiced/mined.

Grubstake- I was more looking for the recent creek bed but on the other side of the gully.
Hunting- ok i will see where it leads. What will i be looking for for signs of surfacing?

I used a yabbie pump to get the colour out of the crevices when most of the rocks have been removed

There are so many factors to take into consideration of the location itself. And then you use the general principals of where gold deposits in higher in concentration than say just randomly in the creek.
I will post a link of a good video that shows finding the "Ribbon/pay streak" of gold in a creek bed" I wouldn't recommend this procedure where the bedrock is deep digging.
But it dose open your eyes up to the concentration amount of gold within a meter.
working a heavily worked site changes the game, and you can work this to your advantage.
Im working an area simula to yours. At my location there are several deposits of fine tailings, orange in color mostly. High Ancient river bed workings. Dont be shy to process this stuff. It can produce nice gold, due to primative processing etc. It can be very hard to break up if dry, but ofen with a soak turns to a nice mush.
In the immediate area of the creek to where the processed wash has run into the creek, can hold some of the missed gold as well. This part of the creek would of been choked in tonnes of washed material. Good flooding over the years has washed the lighter material down stream, leaving this missed gold close by.
I myself avoid sandy inside bends, never had any luck with sandy gravel that has no dirt/soil in it. But at the average water level to that creek, just below it, I usually can find the right mix of material.
I think gold can just sink straight to the very bottom of any clean fine sand and gravel.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Im just a little confused that there was no pay layer. Did the oldtimers dig it all already? Why was there no pay layer? Some one has undercut the bank recently(last couple of years) and i could see the layer that they were after thats why i dug inland looking for it

Can be many reasons. Getting down to bed rock generally is the go, but bed rock in the pay streak is the best. It mite only be a foot wide! Two feet off it and get zip in comparison.
If the area is an old worked site, chances are the did strip back, and whats there now could be overburden mixed in with a bit of later flood gold. Hence some spots might only have gold at the top layer. Overburden dumped in the creek can hold a false clay layer at times too. This is from tailings and un wantecd top soil etc being dumped and washed into the creek over years from them digging the top soil away to get down to the old wash.
Thus on the upper flood level on the bend you will often see a wide flat band of silty sand etc. Im sure this is just left over waste from them digging obove.
I have found gold in this sandy stuff. Low yield, but it was quick and easy to dig, and the high banker (back then) could handle a high volume feed as it processed so easily. But mostly fine gold.

The orange colored tailings i mentioned can be messy to pan off, but if you can use a high banker in your state, use spray bars with finer slots, and less of them, this improves cutting power.
at a higher pressure, the volume of water can be made up in a higher pressure. Put this stuff on the classifier, and let it break down at its own pace, dont force it through,. If your are
seeing the color of the clay stripping off in the water up top, all is good. If you dont see colour from the clay spraying around the hopper, it isnt wanting to be broken down and the clay level amount is too high. Flick out, wasting your time with it.
I wont waste my time with the grey clean clay.
The punched sheet we have today was almost unheard of then. A few holes punched through a sheet of tin was pretty standard back then as a classifier. And no high pressure pumps either.
So a lot was missed within this orange clay.
It just ran over the top if they didnt puddle it.

Where the gold was good, it was a case of greed and speed,
and my best two nuggets I've found in my sluice came from Chinese tailings.... in the orange clay.... and they say they missed nothing!

This is the video I mentioned earlier. This bloke dose know his stuff. And I recommend watching his other videos.
https://youtu.be/afFHK0lnCyw

aussie bloke prospector

mudgee hunter said:

This is the video I mentioned earlier. This bloke dose know his stuff. And I recommend watching his other videos.
https://youtu.be/afFHK0lnCyw
aussie bloke prospector

Click to expand...

Maybe. His 'main creek + tributary' sketch below, showing two mid-creek gold leads merging into one, ignores the wisdom of the old-timers who often called such a junction a "jeweller's shop", with the eddies and cross-currents at the merging point causing the gold to drop out of the flow and be concentrated right at the junction, as indicated by my red scribble:

Thanks mate very interesting vid. Would love to try that at the spot. But with 5 feet of over burden it is a hell of a lot of digging. I will have to contemplate that one.

Yes, I did mention earlier it would only suit the creeks with a shallower build up.
I usually find a spot or crevice that I can knock over in a day, so I can clean the bed rock out 100%.
I've even put some heavy Guage 25mm mesh off cuts in some crevices that are in the main flow areas with a couple of decent rocks on them. Dig them up again after a serious flow.

grubstake said:

mudgee hunter said:

This is the video I mentioned earlier. This bloke dose know his stuff. And I recommend watching his other videos.
https://youtu.be/afFHK0lnCyw
aussie bloke prospector

Click to expand...

Maybe. His 'main creek + tributary' sketch below, showing two mid-creek gold leads merging into one, ignores the wisdom of the old-timers who often called such a junction a "jeweller's shop", with the eddies and cross-currents at the merging point causing the gold to drop out of the flow and be concentrated right at the junction, as indicated by my red scribble:
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/4012/1525826692_jewellers_shop2.jpg

Click to expand...

I call it a Teer drop, no need for junction, every one I've sampled the best is each side of the point

YouTube would be a good place to start with answering your questions, try aussieblokeprospector or adventure gold for good videos

But with 5 feet of over burden 12 feet down and still going..

Wow thats a decent hole. Is that all over burden? Are you chasing a reef or ancient river? Either way i hope you are rewarded for your effort

bumdags said:

Wow thats a decent hole. Is that all over burden? Are you chasing a reef or ancient river? Either way i hope you are rewarded for your effort

Click to expand...

I think some people just like digging holes.