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Colin&Lee said:
Heatho said:
Nice haul Joe, we were at the bridge last week and did'nt do anywhere near that well, just using sieves also. Is it still possible to access the other fossicking area on the private property on the other side of the road?

The farmer who used to own the fossicking area passed away a few years ago. No harm in asking the new property owner better to get a polite no than a shotgun in the ear.

Great haul Joe we got a few on Saturday right at the bridge will be back out there again real soon.

Cheers

C&L

Thanks Col, must catch up soon, water level about medium not the best for deep places
 
Yes, nice going MTM :) Well done with the big picker that's rare for GG
 
went to gg on saturday, met with mat magic man and colin&lee, i come prepared with lousy diy seives, did cleanup sunday, panning seems to take longer than digging, very time consuming, this is what we got
1376297510_p1060023.jpg
 
charlie123 said:
did cleanup sunday, panning seems to take longer than digging, very time consuming,

Nice going Charlie, I got 2 sieves that I use "2mm and 5mm mesh" and two buckets . shovel dirt into 5mm sieve inside bucket #1 filled with water shake till all <5mm falls in the bucket, clear off larger stones and then 5mm sieve takes about 10seconds to concentrate all the heavies to the middle of the sieve follow by flipping sieve over and pick gems from centre. After bucket #1 is full with gravel smaller than 5mm take your second bucket and 2mm sieve follow the same process. Anything smaller than 2mm -run through cleanup sluice for yellow.

cheers,
 
thanks joe, basicly we used bunnings garden pot base wich was raised in the middle and didnt center the spinels so was like looking for needle in haystack, and we were a long way from the bridge so i decided to just quarter fill 2 buckets classified down to quarter inch, i may need to get more time at gym, my opinion is if your after sapphires pack yourself light with 2 seives, folding shovel, small crevesing tool and small hand shovel, test test test, then when good spot is found stay there throw the waste from all your 1/8 seives into bucket and at the end of the day take home couple of buckets with leftover from 1/8 seive, just in case there a little gold, pan it, i seem to get more tourmaline through panning than with sluice
 
Not a bad haul for your first outing Charlie you'll only get better at it the more you go ;)

Look forward to seeing you out that way again soon mate

Matt that's a honking bit of gold for out that way I'll take that any day

Catch up soon dude

Cheers

Col
 
I would not have half as much if it wernt for col & lee, they showed me where to look
 
Thanks guys, Tourmaline hmmm looks good to me, I'll most likely be there on Sunday with 2 mates having a scratch around. Yep we are addicted too after last visit. Just bought 2 new sets of sieves and a Garret panning kit.
 
I am a wanna be fossicker and have been browsing this great forum for a couple of months now. I would like to contribute to this subject of minerals and gems but as I have not yet found any myself I would like to share with you some photos of gems and minerals which I have been collecting from National Geographic ROCKS Gems and Minerals books which I buy once a fortnight. I will add the photos now and then as I get them. I appreciate all the photos and stories that are posted here and I hope that my entries are not too boring for the experienced diggers here.
The first photo is of a DESERT ROSE, it is a mineral structure that forms on the surface of the ground. It forms in hot, arid sandy places such as deserts. Mostly they are formed from gypsum, which is precipitated out as bodies of water on the surface dry up. As the crystals form they trap particiles of sand. This specimen is from Mexico.
I find these books very interesting and enjoy handling the gems and minerals, it just makes me want to go out and find my own.

1376462423_desert_rose1386474576.jpg


Cheers Debra
 
yes, good seives and a good pan makes all the difference, i met a guy from lapidary club and he was using I think a turbo pan with the spiral riffles, and that was fast, real fast, I dont even think he was using the seives to often either, incredible!
 
ok this is the load of last weekend
1377682288_p1060031h.jpg

keeping in mind im still learning the river, every time i go i seem to do a little better than the last
 
hey, anybody keen to head out to GG on Monday..looking to have a day off and try and find myself a fathers day pressie (albeit 1 day late!).
I have only been out a couple of times, with no real success..would be good to get an idea of where and what I should be concentrating on
would like to try a test run of the Ikea-banker, see what works and what needs changing.
 

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