Not sure who you are asking. For example, I said "So in the main, nuggets will simply be downslope from the quartz veins that are their source". So that is what I am calling the source, the quartz veins that originally contained the nuggets before they were weathered out.DykeHead said:
Golds Path Down A Slope.
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Sorry it was directed at 20xWater and his current prospecting area. Yes that's what I call the source also, although I wouldn't go calling a reef on a hill the source unless there were records of gold mined from that reef right at that location or I had obtained gold from inside the quartz from that reef. In 20x's case I was just wondering.I guess hoping that the supposed source only looks to be the likely source. I believe it's fairly common for there to be very little eluvial gold between the source and the alluvial gold especially in steeper country there is likely only to be a trace of fine gold.
Ha! When you wrote "20x you write "few old workings up to 5m below the source" , I thought you meant someone had written it twenty times - which seemed rather an exaggeration. :8 What you say about the gold sometimes being limited between the source and the creek below, that can be so. However (a) any nugget probably came from a quartz vein, (b) on a "young" (Cenozoic) hillside the source of the nugget will usually be uphill. So quartz veins uphill of the nugget are the likely souce. Nuggets are heavy and tend to stay around, so any gold shoot in a quartz vein may have been eroded away so not be obvious in the quartz reef, and there will sometimes be no workings on it as a result. However few decent nuggets are found below quartz veins that have no signs of even surfacing on them.DykeHead said:
Haha! yeah I guess it does sound like that the way I wrote it. Yes quartz veins uphill are the likely source. I have found that often only one or two veins are carrying gold so I would call those the source not call all the veins on the hill the source. Otherwise I could be in a gully between to slopes both traversed by quartz veins and point at either hill and call those reefs the source. When in fact the gold was and is only shedding from one vein on one slope. I think I'm just being more specific about what I would call a source of gold. Am I right in doing that or where am I going wrong?
Hi DykeHead, i have been schooled in the art of loaming by a old fossicker who no longer is with us,but a silly question from a pick and pan fossicker, who does not own a gold dectector, can you use the loaming method with a metal detector,i know you would miss the flour gold but the .01 gram and higher bits if found and the loaming method applied ,would that plot the downfall of the source or are i just giving myself a headache 
Well...you are assuming that you can interpret more than you probably can. Usually a bunch of adjacent veins formed at the same time, and although there may be gold in all of them, only some will have their gold shoots exposed at surface at the moment. Others may have had them eroded away, and this might have supplied the gold downslope and be the source of the eluvial gold that you are finding. All I bit academic I feel. If there is gold downslope I would run the detector over ALL likely veins upslope.DykeHead said:
I.e. I would not overthink it, simply detect everything likely - then move on.
Hi Sand Surfer. A detector can be a great help and some detector operators follow gold right to the source with them mainly where the upper soil horizons have been weathered away so a detector can reach a nugget encased with quartz in situ. When you detect or pan some gold that's rough or has quartz attached and you believe the source is not to far away I would search for it. Start with a detector first if that's how you found it to start with but I would swap to a pan pretty quickly myself if nothing is turning up.The fine gold is the best guide to follow and see whats happening,it may even point you to somewhere worth swinging a detector a bit more. I have a detector but rarely use it.
Goldierocks I understand this topic is under metal detecting for gold but Stocky made the topic of Golds path down a slope. Which is something I'm very experienced at following. For me to read I.e. I would not overthink it, simply detect everything likely - then move on. I'm gobsmacked.
I completely understand what your saying that some are shedding now and some have stopped you are correct in most cases. I guess I haven't given a lot of thought to veins that aren't shedding because why would I? I certainly wouldn't recommend sinking a shaft on one in hope it might become enriched again.
I completely understand what your saying that some are shedding now and some have stopped you are correct in most cases. I guess I haven't given a lot of thought to veins that aren't shedding because why would I? I certainly wouldn't recommend sinking a shaft on one in hope it might become enriched again.
You asked me the question "Am I right in doing that or where am I going wrong"? and I suggested that you should not overthink it (i.e. that you are trying to interpret the unknowable in such an instance). I am a gold geologist but cannot solve issues such as you are postulating - at a certain point I say to myself that I cannot interpret further and I just detect anything that could be the source.DykeHead said:
i.e. you asked what I thought and I told you what I would do - I was not advancing it uninvited.
My topic 'is it worth it' in hard rock prospecting, that's what I'm calling the source.DykeHead said:
A piece I got from the mullock heap is prickly/frosty, tiny bits to small to take pics from samples that I've taken from the rust Viens are also prickly.
It's the only evidence/hands on knowledge I have so far of this topic..
There are 3 adits together with mullocks joined so now you ask the question I can't be sure which one.DykeHead said:
The bit was amongst a country rock section of mullock with minimal quartz.
The rest is loaded with quartz..
There is 2 shallow and parallel digs directly below the adit of interest approx 5m long and dug in the down hill direction of an approx 10 degree slope.
This all leads to a point just below the top of a saddle.
The 3 adits are in the highest ground..
thank's DykeHead :beer:
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