Fossicking an active waterway

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Nicko98

Nick
Joined
Dec 10, 2016
Messages
41
Reaction score
67
Location
Blue Mountains, NSW
Hey guys, its been a while!
I'm going to be heading out around oberon tomorrow with a mate of mine to try our luck at finding some shiny things.
I havent had much luck in waterways before, having only found sapphires and zircon at sapphire bend.
I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share where to look in an active creek for some gems or gold.
What im wanting to know specifically, is where to look to find and how to get the best gravel from an active stream.
We'll be hitting up sapphire bend first, then we'll head out to the surrounds like little river to try our hand at some gems that are a little less back breaking.
Any information is really appreciated, thanks guys :)
 
Mate, I don't think there is any real secret to it, pretty much all the waterways down there will hold gems. If you find gravel you should find gems. I don't know if there is much to it but Native Dog Creek for me, I tend to find gems if I'm working clay. Sometimes you will be lucky and find a sapphire or two in your wash, zircons are pretty much guaranteed. My kid was finding them down there before she was really even remotely interested in fossicking and prospecting, different story now though, she brought home over a gram of gold from crevicing last week lol.
Black Springs, Sapphire Bend, Porters if you are anywhere down there you will find gems, of course, if you had a time machine and could go back 30-40 years well.........

Here is a pic of my very fashionable doofus pulling faces, if she can find them...well then there is hope for us all.

1525514845_img_1238_doofus.jpg
 
From my understanding, at least how I took it, there is a pay/wash layer down that way all through Vulcan state forest and surrounds. There are some small creeks/rivers that are intermittent at best. I'm guessing Nicko intends to wash gravel in/from some of the more reliable creeks rather than cart pay ==> water ==> pay. Like I said earlier if you cant find zircons there is something wrong, but you cant expect large sapphires hand over fist. Although the ones you do find are very pretty and remarkably clear.

I know myself that even puddles of water can be a godsend down there. I have a couple of 40L portable tanks I got cheap at a garage sale, they sure come in handy.
1525590040_61dc3ja-sl._sy355_.jpg
 
What I mean by an active waterway is a flowing creek or river! Or at least partially flowing. In fact, I would even love to know where to look in a dry creek bed! Any links or advice is much appreciated!
Got out to sapphire bend and little river today. A few small bits and bobs picked up at sapphire bend, but most of our time was put in to trying to find stuff around little river with no luck.
Maybe next time!
 
I've been out to Sapphire bend and further into the Vulcan on a couple of occasions in the past year; the sapphires we were finding were small but clear. I don't think there has been enough rain lately to create flowing water. The first time my friends went out they needed gumboots due to amount of water but its been dry there each time unless you count a snowfall experience. Nicko98 I'm planning a trip out to Oberon area for Sapphires (and whatever else we find) within the next month with the Blue Mtns lapidary club. would you be interested in coming along?
 
Nicko98 said:
Hey guys, its been a while!
I'm going to be heading out around oberon tomorrow with a mate of mine to try our luck at finding some shiny things.
I havent had much luck in waterways before, having only found sapphires and zircon at sapphire bend.
I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share where to look in an active creek for some gems or gold.
What im wanting to know specifically, is where to look to find and how to get the best gravel from an active stream.
We'll be hitting up sapphire bend first, then we'll head out to the surrounds like little river to try our hand at some gems that are a little less back breaking.
Any information is really appreciated, thanks guys :)

A stream, creek or river will need a slightly different approach to somewhere like sapphire bend, at sapphire bend you have an ancient wash layer that was deposited over a large area and can be worked in different spots as it is close enough to the surface to dig down to by hand.

in the Oberon region, this widespread deposit is intersected by many creeks and rivers which wash the sapphire bearing layer out of the ground and accumulate it in the creeks and rivers.

the easiest places to start your search in streams/creeks is to look for any obstructions to the flow the same as you would for gold, the heavies (gold, sapphires, zircons etc) will drop out of the flow of the creek in areas of slower water created by the vortexes behind, below and around obstructions. think inside bends, big boulders, sections of bedrock, trees and bushes. look for these where the gravels have built up on the downstream, look for the dark shiny ironstone as these are a good indicator that heavies are dropping out.

Other places to look are in the cracks, crevices and depressions in the bedrock these also cause vortexes and allow the heavier minerals to drop out of the flow and accumulate.

As Aussie Chris said where you find gold you can also find gemstones and most streams and rivers on the oberon plateau hold both, find a creek or river you can legally access and go for it.

have a look on you tube for Adventure Gold, he has a few videos finding gemstones in the area as well as some good videos about where to find gold and how to identify the areas heavies have dropped out. although he mainly talks about gold all the same principles apply to fossicking for sapphires and zircons in creeks & rivers.

a couple of other good you tube channels for learning where heavy minerals drop out is Vo gus prospecting, and two toes prospecting (he is in the US but the same principles apply here)

good luck
 
Good advice Rod, but something I always take into account with zircons and sapphires down that way is even though they are heavier than a lot of the stuff your gravels are comprised of, they have a very low specific gravity compared to gold 4-4.8 so never limit your area of exploration to that of finding gold deposits or a line of gold. They tend to turn up in unexpected places like the grey looking clays in Native Dog Creek and sometimes in gravel devoid of the yellow stuff.

I have a standing invite to go work some material (from all accounts several tens of cubic metres) on private property that was pushed up with an excavator and dozer at Burraga, so I think I might get on it and take up the offer.

If any of you feel like catching up for a day out down there sometime, scratch around a bit for some shiny stuff together and maybe cook a few snags (and sink a coldie when it warms up) zip me a pm.
 
Years ago when living in that area we used a 4' length of 3/8" steel rod, flattened at one end and a Tee handle on the other.

Many of the creek systems, especially in flatter areas, moved from their original course in an ever widening arc on bends.
We used the rod as a "drill" to get down through loam/silt on the inside of a creek bend looking for gravels at a diggable depth.

Never found much in the way of stones at Burraga (garnets) but did ok on fine gold before the mine was opened.
Mike
 
im not sure how to pm on this forum yet Nicko98n or Aussie Chris. However, we are meeting at Oberon (no doubt at the pie shop) this Thursday morning the 24th of may at 8am before heading to Sewells creek and then onto Native Dog creek for a play in the dirt if either of you want to come along. sorry about the late notice for a mid week session.
cheers
Nikki
 
well at least I know now....thanks Lone Wolf i'm sure it told me that somewhere in the rules and regs too.
:)
 
Yes it is ,but We all know We don't read those sort of things.... Just like 'User Agreements' we just click and proceed... ]:D

LW.....
 
Thanks for the invite Nikki but Im unable to get away on weekdays!
Thanks very much to everyone, the information is wonderful. Im looking forward to getting back out in a week or two to put it into action!
 

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