- Joined
- Oct 26, 2013
- Messages
- 37
- Reaction score
- 84
Thanks Macca and Jethro for your vote of confidence.
A bit of alluvial gold was not what I was looking for. I wanted to find enough to justify a mine. A bit ambitious you think? My Dad used you to say, "If you aim at nothing you'll always hit it."
Some years ago I was invited to speak to a group of gold prospectors in LA. I was used to speaking to groups in California on Opals but never gold so this was something new. I turned up at what seemed to be a church hall expecting about 10 - 20 people max. The place was packed - standing room only! What to do? Instead of a lecture I tore into it like a wild dog!
My opening sentence: " I saw on your notice board as I walked in that there's a trip planned for next weekend. You are warned not to forget your small glass phials to keep all that gold in you're going to find. Ha! Ha!" In Australia you are warned to go in a car or ute with decent springs. We often find big ones. "Aussie bullshit".This from a huge bloke sitting in the front row. Long hair, tattoos , a nose ring and I reckon, hairs on his teeth.. In the deadly silence that followed , I ignored him, turned and put in my first slide. Behind me there was a growing mutter. The first slide hit the screen and there was an audible gasp. They were staring gobsmacked at a couple standing in the backyard of a house. The husband was holding an enormous lump of gold : the Hand of Faith. I rubbed it in. Young blokes, old blokes, kids all staggering under the weight of fair dinkum Aussie nuggets. The Welcome Stranger, the Holtermann Nugget taller than the chap steadying it.
I switched off and turned. It started slowly at first then built up until the entire hall has on its feet clapping and cheering!
I told them about the WA goldfields, about the miners at Hill End smashing huge lumps from a collapsed wall because they were too heavy to get to the surface.
Those blokes had gold fever. I've gold fever and I'll bet you do too.
I decided to get some science. A mate suggested Radiometric data. I looked it up. Data collected by planes with high tech gear measuring the natural variations if the gamma rays which result from the natural radioactive decay of potassium uranium and thorium. I was about to give up. But I remembered my Dad and decided to keep going.
I'm glad I did.
A bit of alluvial gold was not what I was looking for. I wanted to find enough to justify a mine. A bit ambitious you think? My Dad used you to say, "If you aim at nothing you'll always hit it."
Some years ago I was invited to speak to a group of gold prospectors in LA. I was used to speaking to groups in California on Opals but never gold so this was something new. I turned up at what seemed to be a church hall expecting about 10 - 20 people max. The place was packed - standing room only! What to do? Instead of a lecture I tore into it like a wild dog!
My opening sentence: " I saw on your notice board as I walked in that there's a trip planned for next weekend. You are warned not to forget your small glass phials to keep all that gold in you're going to find. Ha! Ha!" In Australia you are warned to go in a car or ute with decent springs. We often find big ones. "Aussie bullshit".This from a huge bloke sitting in the front row. Long hair, tattoos , a nose ring and I reckon, hairs on his teeth.. In the deadly silence that followed , I ignored him, turned and put in my first slide. Behind me there was a growing mutter. The first slide hit the screen and there was an audible gasp. They were staring gobsmacked at a couple standing in the backyard of a house. The husband was holding an enormous lump of gold : the Hand of Faith. I rubbed it in. Young blokes, old blokes, kids all staggering under the weight of fair dinkum Aussie nuggets. The Welcome Stranger, the Holtermann Nugget taller than the chap steadying it.
I switched off and turned. It started slowly at first then built up until the entire hall has on its feet clapping and cheering!
I told them about the WA goldfields, about the miners at Hill End smashing huge lumps from a collapsed wall because they were too heavy to get to the surface.
Those blokes had gold fever. I've gold fever and I'll bet you do too.
I decided to get some science. A mate suggested Radiometric data. I looked it up. Data collected by planes with high tech gear measuring the natural variations if the gamma rays which result from the natural radioactive decay of potassium uranium and thorium. I was about to give up. But I remembered my Dad and decided to keep going.
I'm glad I did.