Digging small alluvial shafts - info needed

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AtomRat

AtomRat

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Hi, Ive been digging some small shafts no deeper than 2 meters n half around some alluvial grounds.

( Before anyone complains, they all get filled in and only the layer of interest is removed )

Some of them have been in sandy ground which gives the walls of the hole a very daunting slip eventually going to happen at some point or even just at times ive been unsure if a wall will hold.

Ive been looking for any information on collars, diggin mine shafts, boarding shafts or tunnels and timbered designs with not much luck.

If anyone has info mostly on sinking shafts / making a collar and using support boards, beams and walls, it would be very useful. Text, photos or diagrams / drawings are very useful, anything related to sinking a shaft from the surface.

( Digging shafts, tunnels or entering abandoned shafts and tunnels is not recommended and is a very unsafe practice that only the experienced should attempt, if they feel thier life isnt already at enough risk.. )

I see no point digging deeper as for dangers, but in case I hit a pit or shelf in the bedrock, I may need to go two or three meters further and needing wooden or metal supports.

Theres also a bit of argument as to what shape holes to dig, square, rectangle, capsule or circle. I prefur the capsule and then extending to a square if something of interest is hit.
 
A simple collapsible RHS frame to support the top 1.5m and a heap of wooden slats that can be pulled out easy one at a time to shift into another location' that would make me feel more comfortable, giving you half a chance from being burried alive, well giving yourself somewhere to escape to helps the most.

I can't think of what the doco was called but it was about a OHS officer inspecting shallow gold mines in Mongolia and towards the end develops a simple solution to help the many deaths each year from cave in's, most shallow mines where within 3m depth to the pay dirt.

I think it was called: Toughest place to be a miner...
 
Zuke_Lynzy said:
A simple collapsible RHS frame to support the top 1.5m and a heap of wooden slats that can be pulled out easy one at a time to shift into another location' that would make me feel more comfortable, giving you half a chance from being burried alive, well giving yourself somewhere to escape to helps the most.

I can't think of what the doco was called but it was about a OHS officer inspecting shallow gold mines in Mongolia and towards the end develops a simple solution to help the many deaths each year from cave in's, most shallow mines where within 3m depth to the pay dirt.

I think it was called: Toughest place to be a miner...
Click to expand...
Yep that's what it was called, I watched that. I think it was on iview from memory.
 
Ion Idreiss's book on gold prospecting has a little, but not much relevant info, Atom Rat.

There is also some very useful diagrams in And There's Gold Out There, by Ed Waller. This book is mainly fiction, but has lots of relevant info. I'll get a scan of the pages and post it up for you.

Both of these books relate back to the days when this kind of thing was much more common. Stay safe, mate.
 
Thanks soo much for the info guys, and I would love to see any pages of info DrDuck, id really appreciate the effort!

Ill take a look Luke_Lynzey for the doco, thanks for giving me something! Its very similar to what ive been watching, illegal south african mines etc

Ill have to re-use boards and transport them myself as well, hopefully enough to fit a trailor load should do.

Will also look into collapsable collar
 
ive got a good pdf file on it mate you'll like it tells you how to mine and support the ground sent me a pm with email and ill sent it to you via email I've got some books on mining and different methods and timbering as well
 
Doing some digging down also interests me, having a chat to an old'timer and he had this to say regarding some property he owned up in NW Victoria. (I took some pics of workings coming down a small gully that were stacked on top of each other)

"These pics are absolutely typical of old shallow alluvial workings in Victoria where there are literally millions of holes just like these. On my place at Talbot there would have been five hundred and all at twelve foot centres because the claims were issued at 12 feet x 12 feet square back then. Groups would get together and amalgamate their claims so maybe four or more would then be bigger but if you measure the hole centres they will always be twelve feet apart .

We had 27 acres all old workings. I got hundreds maybe a thousand nuggets from it over 15 years (With a detector) but no fine gold as it had all washed out millions of years ago."

Before I sent him a pic I was just talking about some stuff I had seen there, trying to describe it, and asking if he thought they were capped shafts or just a few meters depth.

"These are very likely shallow shafts down onto a shallow lead sometimes only six feet or so down . On my property at Talbot the lead was about eight feet deep to perhaps ten feet and thats pretty usual. This is prime metal detector country as it was nuggetty gold they were after not fine alluvials. As to starting a new hole probably not as the oldtimers did a pretty good job as we found out on my place and in other mining projects I have been involved in."

I guess my question is - have you been having much joy with your digging? and are you re-working old spots, or trying to pick somewhere that simply looks likely? Ha! is it rude to ask if the time/reward ratio is on the plus side?

Anyways i thought his comments were of interest.
 
Sorry, didn't get to reply last night, the kids on the thread stopped my phone working for some reason.

Back creek - watched their painful vid a few months ago, its at least a hint from YouTube.

Gday Sniffy, it certainly is fun and a change from other prospecting digging a shallow shaft. Its no different to any other hole though, its still hit and miss, but sometimes easier to see where the gold lays in the shaft.

Keep away from sands, dirt and loose clay as they make the walls collapse within 1meter.

Not all my test shafts have been where old timers had been but with little result. Next shaft will be between two old shallow alluvial pits.

If a good layer gets hit, usually specks still but the size can vary in each hole.

I'm mostly interested in how to identify a loose wall before it drops and use timbers to hold up loose falling material.

And I never mind getting asked. A lot of what I do is not targeting easy gold or a gold deposit, but diggings shafts along points of interest I find. More kind of like geological surveying. Of course if gold is involved it makes it more fun and I pickup half to a gram in each dig I go out easily.
 
I was talking to a Lady in Ballarat not long ago about this.
She is the regional inspector for that area.
If contacted, They would be only to happy to help and advise you on what to do.
Do not be frightened to contact them. They are there to help, Not hinder.
 
1477817349_screenshot_2016-10-30-19-46-35.jpg
 
As you can see dowels on either end entrap a smaller board tight against the wall. In return the smallar board entraps the bigger board. Hardwood is a must
 
The net recons Coates hire rents them out . Hire some and if what u want build u own . Or just go look at theirs then build em
 

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