Garrett ATX gold finds

[Metamorphic]

Mine lab marketing.
Your all brainwashed that's all.
If you can walk over it, a Dick Smith detector would have picked that up.
Hand of faith was found with a tandy electronics detector.

 

[Metamorphic]

Where's the pics Matt?
We can all talk the talk, but you have been on the forum for 5 minutes.
Can you support what you say against our valued members of proven status?
Look forward!

Regards

 

[WalnLiz]

Good morning outboard, I use an ATX because in my opinion it is the best tool for the job. I don't have any EM problems, I can use the Iron Check for bits of blade, and I get a very stable threshold using the DD coil. I should say that this is a virgin area that the old boys missed. We only have a small lease over it that we have been waiting for years to get granted so we can push it. Primarily we are professional prospectors and only look for new ground.
There were about ten or so kilos that I know of come off this spot previously with the biggest bit at around seventy something ounces, but most of the nuggets were multi ounce bits.
The place has been thrashed over the years by detectorists with every detector type that can work in that ferocious iron and manganese wash.
I just also need to say that we are not obligated to endorse any product or company.
Cheers everyone,
Matt

Welcome to the forum Matt. I for one recon the ATX is a great machine even though I run a GPX on a semi professional basis myself. I was even going to do a comparison on the pros and cons regarding the two machines after intensive testing against the GPX on a vid for our You Tube channel. Decided not to post it in case some viewers thought there might be some bias from myself running a GPX.

The vid is a great watch and in my personal opinion would have been an even better watch if the advertising for your mate was omitted. You say yourself that you are not obligated to endorse any product or company as is the case also with myself, but yet you choose to. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the net is getting flooded with comparisons on the ATX vs GPX and some are just getting bored with all the bias.

ATX is a great machine....talk to a registered Garrett dealer-----GPX is a great machine....talk to a registered Minelab Dealer. You Tube clips....use what "You" like and then the vid is all about the "gold only", and not an endorsement for a shop or product....just my own opinion.

Cheers Wal.

 

[Matt Duncan]

Hi Metamorphic
I think I can show you all some pics. As well as our youtube page we have a web page too. The address is (I cant post the link but it is matesandgold .com.auThere are some fairly recent gold pix on that. I would like to keep our pix on that page in the future but I will post some on here for you to see.
Our last big patch was about 18 kilos. It was a virgin run and was at the southern end of a line of about six kms we had been working for a couple of years. This was not only a line of new patches but a whole new area. We walk everywhere, we do many many kms. On the southern end of this line we found a lot of gold with the reef intact. Cam got the first bit off the hill so he got the naming rights and he called it Jackies Patch. One of my favorite pictures is of him getting the first bit off the reef. I will see if I can put it on here for you:

So you can see the hole where we lifted this out of the ground. It was sticking up like a big tomb stone. If you zoom in you can see all the gold running down in rivulets on the facing corner. We never weighed it... but my guess was about sixty onz. It just got better from there.
I need to post this and see if the pic worked.
Matt

 

[Matt Duncan]

Ok that works. So under that bit the ground just screamed and we dug out lots of stone and inside it looked like this:

The reef was quartz running ten degrees off north dipping to the east and plunging to the north. The contact between the hanging wall and the quartz was limonite, and it made fat gold. The reef was running at 12 onz ounces if we sampled where we couldn't see any gold. The mullock was going fourty three hundred grams. anyway the reef looked like this:

As a point of reference that is the same jack hammer that is in our new video.
It was a lot of fun while it lasted. We sunk a small prospect on it and in the end we pushed it. We got a white 20 litre bucket of specimen from the push but I cant remember the gold weight.
Cheers,
Matt

 

[Matt Duncan]

These ones come off a different structure. I cant tell you too much about it because we are still working there and it is a whole new area. The biggest bit was this one which was 595 gms:

We got led on to that by about a gram and a half bit. One of the other spots here was a little pepper and salt mound that was just covered in nuggets. One memorable one was I am guessing about a three ounce bit sitting on the top covered in lichen it looks like this:
Sorry guys I cant find it at the moment. I will look and post it later on. I will post some more tomorrow. I am off to bed night
Matt

 

[Matt Duncan]

Here is the gold covered with lichen which was just sitting on top of the ground :

 

[Heatho]

Thanks for posting those pics Matt, you just made my day. Very sweet finds, well done to you and your mates.

 

[Blind_Freddie]

Great work Matt, you certainly make myself and I think others a bit envious. Thanks

Cheers, Ron

 

[TTKooAu]

Cheers Matt, unfknblvbl!

Thinking maybe Lasseter was a bit off to the east with his directions :lol:

 

[Matt Duncan]

Good morning to everyone from sunny W.A.
This morning I want to post something that you may find useful next time you find that nice quartz specimen. This is the formula for working out how much gold is in Quartz. This is the working every day formula we use remembering it only works with quartz. There are different ones for other rock types but they get more complicated.
Here is a pic of two species that I sold a while back. I sold them total weight but I said there was this much gold in them and here are my calculations. If you sell on S.G. calculations include your calculations, that way you will never have a dispute.
Just heads up the 3.1 is the S.G. of quartz and the 1.9 is the 19 S.G. of Au.

enjoy,
Matt

 

[Jaros]

I think i will keep on taking my Rohypnol AAaaaagghhhh.....zzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[grubstake]

...Just heads up the 3.1 is the S.G. of quartz and the 1.9 is the 19 S.G. of Au.

Where is that 3.1 SG figure for quartz taken from, Matt? While the SG of an impure mineral is obviously somewhat variable, 3.1 is higher than any quoted figure I can reference - the usual range is only 2.59-2.72.

 

[Matt Duncan]

Grubstake you are exactly right, the SG for pure quartz is 2.72. The 3.1 SG for quartz that is used allows for a small amount of impurities in the stone. You could also say because of the impurities in the gold it doesn't have an SG of 19. Again, this is right, but this formula seems to work really well and It is the one we use. This is a really good every day working formula. A way for you to test it is if you have a nugget put it on a piece of Quartz and go through the exercise. It will work just the same as if it is a specimen. The hardest part for doing this SG is getting an accurate water weight. I have a set of Ohous dial a gram scales which are good for ten ounces or if you have a bigger bit I have worked out a way of doing it with digital scales. If anyone wants to know just let me know and I will take a pic of my contraption which consists of a tobacco tin and a bronze welding rod.
Good hunting
M@

 

[MJB]

Thats unreal Matt, thanks for posting those pictures and sharing your experiences. WOW!!

It would be very exciting to be part of discovering that sort of gold.

I think its fair to say we are all very envious

Cheers

 

[Matt Duncan]

I hope you all get some enjoyment from my posts, and who doesn't like looking at gold pix. I have been lucky over the years finding some really nice gold. I need to tell you all that I starved twice, which was a pain. Prospecting isn't the easy road to riches, but it sure is fun.
Before I go now that I have done 10 posts I can use a link. A bit of background first. We had taken a friend and his wife of old mates in Victoria out in the bush with us on a trip. Chris and Hazel, from Scotland. You will see Hazel on one of the videos on our youtube site finding her first bit of gold. Chris is the man to go to regarding anything IT. We were sitting around the camp fire one night talking about miners rights. Over here we should all carry our miners right with us when we are out in the bush prospecting. The trouble is they are paper and are destroyed quickly and easily. Now I know you guys are all on to it and say that is why we photocopy or laminate ours. I hadn't worked that out and just left mine home safe in a photo album.
Anyway we came up with an idea, (it is amazing what four litres of port can produce) I am going to put a link to our other website which shows what we came up with that night.
http://www.miners-right-cards.com.au/
They don't work for the states that have the permit system but any state that has a miners right can have one of these.
Cheers,
Matt

 

[Magilla]

I was going for a trip to Nth Queensland next year but after seeing your photos I may have to re-evaluate our plans. Keep the photos coming Matt, they are very inspiring.

 

[Wintersnake]

Hey Matt, Just checked out your tour website and noticed you guys seem to be the only ones selling the education side of prospecting. How in depth do you go ie: would you teach people to do what you do?

Also noticed your premium tour (level 2 I think) has a 50/50 split after the first 10oz ! I guess over 10oz is possible or you wouldn't offer it right ?

 

[Guest]

Hello Matt Duncan,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing some of your stories. There is a great bunch of blokes and girls in here, some extraordinarily intelligence flows through the forum and you are going to get the skeptics.

For example let's look at the obvious,

A post of a find of 2kgs of gold discovered leads into the following,

Your prospecting/mining with resources of the highest quality machinery at your disposal,
Admission of experience stemming from as far back as the 1970's,
Admission of tour guide for Garratt employers,
Admission of only mining large quantities of gold and leaving the pickers,
Advertising your support for Garratt,
Advertising your support for the prospectors patch stores in WA (who used to sell Minelab detectors until recently, now only dealing with Garratt),
Advertising your new venture of gold detecting courses (with the offer of splitting upto 10 ounces of Gold that the client finds. Lol, my favorite) and;
Advertising your side business for miners cards.

I think I covered it all, considering it all came from the one thread.

Thankfully your not a bias person and don't have added business interest anywhere else and it's just all about sharing your stories.

So again welcome and I look forward to reading more of your stories.

Cheers

Lambi

 

[Wintersnake]

Hello Matt Duncan,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing some of your stories. There is a great bunch of blokes and girls in here, some extraordinarily intelligence flows through the forum and you are going to get the skeptics.

For example let's look at the obvious,

A post of a find of 2kgs of gold discovered leads into the following,

Your prospecting/mining with resources of the highest quality machinery at your disposal,
Admission of experience stemming from as far back as the 1970's,
Admission of tour guide for Garratt employers,
Admission of only mining large quantities of gold and leaving the pickers,
Advertising your support for Garratt,
Advertising your support for the prospectors patch stores in WA (who used to sell Minelab detectors until recently, now only dealing with Garratt),
Advertising your new venture of gold detecting courses (with the offer of splitting upto 10 ounces of Gold that the client finds. Lol, my favorite) and;
Advertising your side business for miners cards.

I think I covered it all, considering it all came from the one thread.

Thankfully your not a bias person and don't have added business interest anywhere else and it's just all about sharing your stories.

So again welcome and I look forward to reading more of your stories.

Cheers

Lambi

B00M! what are you saying Lambi?

Just to clarify on the hi-lighted part, for the level 2 tour offered it's "you keep the first 10oz any Oz after that is split 50/50"

So even at worst case of 1200AUD an oz that's 12000AUD less 10%, less your fuel, less $4000 tour fee.
If you don't come out with 10oz then you pocket 100% less costs and gain more knowledge....

Not a bad deal really if you think about it you could let Matt and his partners do all the hard work, pay your 4K, pick up 10oz and pocket roughly 5000AUD profit Do that 4 weeks in the year and your up 20K.