WowTeemore said:Having been there and witnessed the amount of mining that has gone on in the past (150 yrs of mining activity/history) most of their gold seems to be in old river washes buried 100's of years ago .... the most efficient way of extracting that is, as seem on the Gold Rush shows, by removing the top soil layers to get down to the wash layers, then using the best available sluicing methods to extract it. Their gold is mostly finer alluvial gold .... not the large nuggets we dream of here.
Tony Beets does it with restored dredges .... much cheaper per ounce recovered and more efficient
Gold is panned from the rivers and creeks (have done that myself with some success) but not in amounts to warrant a professional operation.
Sluicing/panning is by far the most popular method, I assume because it's the most effective.
That being said there have been (very) limited finds of larger nuggets in old dredge tailings .... strangely probably because they were too large to be trapped in their sluices.
I'm sure that a detector would find gold amongst their diggings but again not the most efficient way of mining for them and, most of the areas are covered by leases. Detectors are used in the 'lower' states, Arizona/California etc etc ..... Garrett are a US detector maker and they are widely used over there (because they don't know any better).
The photos show the extent of their dreading, most of these were done pre 1940 .... certainly scares the landscape, there's mile upon mile of that type of scenery .... not pretty but pretty amazing.
Cheers Tom
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Gold Rush TV Series information
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DeepThoughtCycle said:
Because it's not big gold, that's why the process it the way they do. How long have you been interested in gold prospecting and what experience do you have.
Steve Herschbach has written quite extensive and very interesting accounts of his experiences over many years detecting in Alaska:
http://www.detectorprospector.com/steves-mining-journal/steves-mining-journal.htm
http://www.detectorprospector.com/steves-mining-journal/steves-mining-journal.htm
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RM Outback said:
My grandfather spent some time in Alaska doing that and told me about it as a kid. Growign up in Colorado I used to love going through the old mining sites. Ive always wanted to have a detector, and must admit guys like Jeff Williams really wetted my apitite...
Then seeing Aussie Gold hundtes, I started to watch the first two seasons of Alaska Gold Rush, ... well combined with my real life tragedry of comedy/life of challenge, personally I am trying to make a life changing even happen for my family. REally all or nothing.
But I have just asked this question with reguards to the Gold Rush Alaska show... because it seems their slucis and machines are all geared towards fine gold, and seems inefficient, like their tailings alone would have larger nuggets. I realize there is so much fine gold but was thinking surly when the get to bedrock this fine gold mush be coming from larger nuggets/sources... and as laid up as they always are with things breaking, I have yet o see ne person in their entire camp/crew walk around with a detector. Just found it a bit odd...
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Awesome resource!grubstake said:
Tough I am trying to prepare for Australia, I will read this. Its sad though its liek reading about another planet...
I have read his experiance with the f75 before http://www.detectorprospector.com/s...sher-f75-special-edition-and-gold-nuggets.htm
But, I didnt see the link you had with all the other articles. Cool.
Its amazing you cant find anyone resouce in Australia except the youtube guy on the empty fisher channel Australia....
talking about discrimination...
But there are literally no positive VLF accounts comming from Australia....
When I read Steves account of Finding nuggets It is kind of soothing, yet when I read and look at everyone useing GPX in Australia, I feel bi-polar a bit...
There are many many detectors out there and many that never never find any gold. I have found more by hand than with a detector. You tube is great to watch but it's a bit like a gambler who only tells you about the times he won, remember they only usually make a video after they find something and the people who don't don't make any videos at all. I think your dream is cool but you can still have a great chance, actually slightly better to find that ambitious target with out risking your life by combining the two ambitions. How about get a cheap car and drive out to a caravan park in the gold fields with all the supplies you need then spend time learning about the area and the best way to extract the gold. This will give you a much better chance to find gold.
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DeepThoughtCycle said:
You don't have to have a GPX to find Gold but it will make life a lot easier and improve your rate of success, All ML PI's will give you the best chance next in line is a good VLF, I would rather use a VLF than another brand of PI,
When it comes to finding Gold with a detector you need note what models have been the most successful, which in OZ is ML and in the rest of the world would be the MXT, GMT and the Goldbug 2 in that order, The GB II is the king of the specs,
As for your F75 if you want more depth in mineralized ground then you need to buy the 6x8 and the 10x12 and the 12x15 coils because they are not as hot as the factory coils so they will handle the ground a bit better, I know in prospecting we need hot coils but in mineralized ground they actually work against a VLF depth abilities, where turning down the Gain does not do enough but what is does do is loose depth and a lower setting creates a loss in sensitivity but the SEF coils allow you to run higher gain without picking up the minerals at peak levels.
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Ol crap, you banned him, what did I miss Lol.
John.
John.
Yeah I think it all depends on the ground you are working, gotta remember these big guys around Dawson are clearing 2-6m of overburden out of their cuts before they even get a hint of colour, and happy to recover $11-15 per yard (think about how much that is in comparison to what you might run through your banker on the weekend for 1-2grams). I lived in Canada for a while and did some prospecting up in the Yukon and I certainly did see plenty of guys dirt fishing up there. I'm sure you have all seen every episode of Gold Rush as well, but remember when Freddy Dodge was a bit further south at Carmacks working his brother's claim, the nuggets were palm sized there.
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AussieChris said:
Nice one Chris, that's what it's all about.
John.
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I can remember a mining operation in Alaska, back in the early days of gold prospecting detectors. The problem was it depended on prospecting tourist with gold machines to find the nuggets. Then the claim owner had cabins set up for them to stay in because of the bears. Sooner or later one of them is going to get off away from the main group of detector swingers. Usually the loner will either climb a tree or come running back kicking heels.
For the claim owner, he will bulldoze new cuts, you must blade down some to detect the gold nuggets. Most prospecting tourists want to keep all the gold they found, except a few will sell a large nugget to the local prospecting shop. Every year the nuggets, are in a new location, because Mother Nature moves them for you, so need to guess where to hunt each time.
For the claim owner, he will bulldoze new cuts, you must blade down some to detect the gold nuggets. Most prospecting tourists want to keep all the gold they found, except a few will sell a large nugget to the local prospecting shop. Every year the nuggets, are in a new location, because Mother Nature moves them for you, so need to guess where to hunt each time.
AussieChris said:
From what I can gather and told if working on grams per ton then alluvial ground weight does vary depending on amount of gravels ,clays & rocks.
Therefore when calculating how payable alluvial ground is it should be calculated in grams per cubic metre due to such variation in ground weights.
In regards to $11-15 per yard what would that be equivalent too in grams per cubic metre?
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About .25 gram a metre lol
Can anyone tell me when the new series airs on Discovery Channel.
Jaros
Jaros
Teemore
One foot out the door
Only just started airing in the States ..... we get treated like shite and usually seem to have to wait 3 - 6 months,
looking forward to it .......
Cheers T.
looking forward to it .......
Cheers T.
Then they wonder why we look at alternative measures to watch these shows 
Teemore
One foot out the door
Or as Tony would say ..... "just make it %^&*ing happening" in that weird accent of course.
Cheers T.
Cheers T.
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