Hi All,
We have just come back from doing a couple of weeks fossicking around some common sites in NSW. The first week was pretty enjoyable and we found a couple of nice specimens, which I hope are sapphire. But the second week was a disaster!
Started out hiring a simple detector and taking it up to Sofala area where we headed to some old diggings at Wattle Flats and spent the entire day wandering around the bush like a couple of lost children not really knowing what land formations we needed to be looking at as the area was pretty well disturbed by previous diggings. I did however manage to find half a horse shoe, a few bullets and two hot rocks that have since proven to be lumps of iron. No luck but still feeling excited we headed to Wee Jasper for maybe some gold, but really looking for sapphires. Apart from driving around the area and not really knowing where to set ourselves up, when we finally did, it was very apparent that the areas we had chosen had nothing but a lot of jasper, river pebble and not much else.
So my question is, as a starting point, what are the outstanding landforms/ features or geology that make a site viable for further inspection?
We both really enjoy the idea of prospecting, but the reality was that we were very unprepared and clearly unaware of what we should have been looking for. (Apart form quartz and ironstone that is) lesson definitely learnt the hard way, and probably a very common trap for anyone who is heading out for the first time.
I am hoping that I might be able to gather enough info so the next chance we get to head off fossicking again, we can feel confident that we stand a small chance of success.
Any suggestions from the knowledge pool would be very much appreciated
Cheers
Kev
We have just come back from doing a couple of weeks fossicking around some common sites in NSW. The first week was pretty enjoyable and we found a couple of nice specimens, which I hope are sapphire. But the second week was a disaster!
Started out hiring a simple detector and taking it up to Sofala area where we headed to some old diggings at Wattle Flats and spent the entire day wandering around the bush like a couple of lost children not really knowing what land formations we needed to be looking at as the area was pretty well disturbed by previous diggings. I did however manage to find half a horse shoe, a few bullets and two hot rocks that have since proven to be lumps of iron. No luck but still feeling excited we headed to Wee Jasper for maybe some gold, but really looking for sapphires. Apart from driving around the area and not really knowing where to set ourselves up, when we finally did, it was very apparent that the areas we had chosen had nothing but a lot of jasper, river pebble and not much else.
So my question is, as a starting point, what are the outstanding landforms/ features or geology that make a site viable for further inspection?
We both really enjoy the idea of prospecting, but the reality was that we were very unprepared and clearly unaware of what we should have been looking for. (Apart form quartz and ironstone that is) lesson definitely learnt the hard way, and probably a very common trap for anyone who is heading out for the first time.
I am hoping that I might be able to gather enough info so the next chance we get to head off fossicking again, we can feel confident that we stand a small chance of success.
Any suggestions from the knowledge pool would be very much appreciated
Cheers
Kev