Hunting for "REEF" Gold....an approach for beginners.

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Great write up on reef gold Wal.

Thanks Rick, Just trying to expand the horizons for the newcomers who invest quite a few dollars on the latest detectors. Too many out there say all the "good gold" is gone , but that negative attitude doesn't help when there is in fact plenty of gold out there for those who do some homework and are prepared to search outside the box. Many flog the ground that has been easily accessed by everyone else and they are the ones that say all the good gold has gone. If I only flogged that same ground I would agree with them and probably take up golf instead. 🤔

The other side of the fence is too many watch shows like "Aussie Gold Hunters" and think that is reality. They couldn't be further from the truth and if they invested their hard earned earnings on a detector thinking the gold is as abundant as on that show they are up for a rude awakening. 😢
 
Thanks Rick, Just trying to expand the horizons for the newcomers who invest quite a few dollars on the latest detectors. Too many out there say all the "good gold" is gone , but that negative attitude doesn't help when there is in fact plenty of gold out there for those who do some homework and are prepared to search outside the box. Many flog the ground that has been easily accessed by everyone else and they are the ones that say all the good gold has gone. If I only flogged that same ground I would agree with them and probably take up golf instead. 🤔

The other side of the fence is too many watch shows like "Aussie Gold Hunters" and think that is reality. They couldn't be further from the truth and if they invested their hard earned earnings on a detector thinking the gold is as abundant as on that show they are up for a rude awakening. 😢
Exactly. The gold is there, it will always be there. Its just about how hard and smart you look for it.
People who give up are usually looking in the wrong places or short of patience. I have one place that I have put in over 120 hours of work.
Sometimes it pays off, most of the time it doesn't. But reef gold can be a pain to read, especially when a lot of the indicators (eg. reef gold nuggets) have been removed in the past by detectorists. It leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

I can go to a couple of places where I have found good gold in the past, a couple of ounces, and spend hours there now and find nothing. A new comer to that spot might detect it for a few hours, and deem that there is no gold there, or was only small. But the truth is there was good gold there, and those indicators, I removed, might keep some searching harder.
It also opens up what similar surrounding areas with similar geology to look for. Finding gold in it's natural resting place is more important than people think.
But don't get too excited on your find, the old timers moved a lot of stuff, and people have been know to drop a nugget or two from their pockets. So sometimes gold is found where it shouldn't be found. Hunting gold is so much like detective work.
And that is what I love about looking for gold.

PS.I just wish my state wasn't so restrictive but thats another topic on itself.
 
This was my Loaming experience

Detecting up a Shallow Lead, digging in the Gully stopped, then walked up on the slope till I discovered the reef lodge and bingo outcome the shot of gold Specimens Photo Attached.

Reef Description was as the Quartz's vein changed to Lamination and this is where the shot had spilled from.

Chewton Victoria
Congrats! - what was the total weight?
 
Exactly. The gold is there, it will always be there. Its just about how hard and smart you look for it.
People who give up are usually looking in the wrong places or short of patience. I have one place that I have put in over 120 hours of work.
Sometimes it pays off, most of the time it doesn't. But reef gold can be a pain to read, especially when a lot of the indicators (eg. reef gold nuggets) have been removed in the past by detectorists. It leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

I can go to a couple of places where I have found good gold in the past, a couple of ounces, and spend hours there now and find nothing. A new comer to that spot might detect it for a few hours, and deem that there is no gold there, or was only small. But the truth is there was good gold there, and those indicators, I removed, might keep some searching harder.
It also opens up what similar surrounding areas with similar geology to look for. Finding gold in it's natural resting place is more important than people think.
But don't get too excited on your find, the old timers moved a lot of stuff, and people have been know to drop a nugget or two from their pockets. So sometimes gold is found where it shouldn't be found. Hunting gold is so much like detective work.
And that is what I love about looking for gold.

PS.I just wish my state wasn't so restrictive but thats another topic on itself.

You hit the nail on the head Rick with the statement "Similar surrounding areas with similar geology". Our new area is not a kilometre away from where we shot the above video, but if you had seen the new area you would have sworn it was the same location.:)
 
How much more specific do I need to be... 🤔 🤣🤣🤣🤣..could paint an "X" on the ground but too many using drones these days to suss out spots. Even plead guilty myself. 🤔
That's the bit I struggle with ............. finding that X . Daily I stand looking at the kilometres of land spread out in front of me thinking where today ? 🤔 🤣 That's what makes post such as yours so helpful Wal ........................... as it helps one narrow down the field a bit 👍👍👍 Pretty sure the lack of years available is going to get me before I get it all done ;):oops:
 
Ps to last ............................ also tried the drone ( Mavic Air) but the batteries don't last long enough, had to keep going out and retrieving when it doesn't make it home. Found the swinging time was getting sucked up by the recovering time 🤣
 
Back when Wattle Mine was extracting the Quartz's lodge off specimen hill on the east side of Vaughan -Chewton rd the Haul trucks would drive out off Morgan Track and cross Vaughan-Chewton rd and onto Jacobs track and if you were driving up from Chewton as you got to the chest of the hill you had to be careful you never run into the Haul truck, there Traffic Management was not that great then. I spent alot of time around Specimen Hill location and I was amazed just how much Quartz's Specimen I would find I would work the Speciman Hill line south to Prince of Wales Reef and north back down to Chewton and you had no choose but to use earphones as the Haul trucks and the crusher was that loud it was hard to listen to faint targets. Two foot lost gully was very rewarding.

Lady Flats as its call is the location behind the Grave where the Dam is and this was the southern end of Speciman Hill Reef and was surfaced area and was Cemetery Reef and boy did we suck gold of this location back then with the SD2000, I bet there would still be gold to be taken from the area with the 2300 and the 60000.

I have never sold any of my gold finds from the past 30 plus years as I thought it would be good back then to start a second super fund and glad I did with the gold price it was then to today.

Don't thing you would find gold Quartz's Speciman just sitting on the ground in these area's these days. Great Memories for me from that time.

All the Best
 
Back when Wattle Mine was extracting the Quartz's lodge off specimen hill on the east side of Vaughan -Chewton rd the Haul trucks would drive out off Morgan Track and cross Vaughan-Chewton rd and onto Jacobs track and if you were driving up from Chewton as you got to the chest of the hill you had to be careful you never run into the Haul truck, there Traffic Management was not that great then. I spent alot of time around Specimen Hill location and I was amazed just how much Quartz's Specimen I would find I would work the Speciman Hill line south to Prince of Wales Reef and north back down to Chewton and you had no choose but to use earphones as the Haul trucks and the crusher was that loud it was hard to listen to faint targets. Two foot lost gully was very rewarding.

Lady Flats as its call is the location behind the Grave where the Dam is and this was the southern end of Speciman Hill Reef and was surfaced area and was Cemetery Reef and boy did we suck gold of this location back then with the SD2000, I bet there would still be gold to be taken from the area with the 2300 and the 60000.

I have never sold any of my gold finds from the past 30 plus years as I thought it would be good back then to start a second super fund and glad I did with the gold price it was then to today.

Don't thing you would find gold Quartz's Speciman just sitting on the ground in these area's these days. Great Memories for me from that time.

All the Best
De track you must be an ole gunny from the sounds of it? Did you ever do out moonlight flats past the pennyweight cemetery and Nobbies farm ? Curious may have raced you down Elephant hill in a billy cart some time ;) 😂 😂 😂
 
Dirty Dicks Gully, Pennyweight Flats when the grass was not long bits every were as you know the full length of the gully from Castlemaine to chewton as all diggings from the old times now all the flats have been leveled out now. we all should be plucking buckets of dirt out of there and taking it home for a pan.
 
Reef or "Eluvial" Gold is in my opinion not given the attention it deserves amongst many detector operators. Finding the tell tail signs requires a different approach to hunting "Alluvial" gold nuggets within water courses. For Alluvial nuggets one mostly looks for bedrock within the range of the coil size being used. The main search zones are within only a few metres of the high flood level zone of the creeks being worked. The biggest problem with chasing these nuggets is it's very easy to clean out creek beds of these nuggets. One needs dramatic flood activity to replenish nuggets, as the floods have to be severe enough to erode usually a significant amount of soil from the streams bank to get nuggets back within the "new" detectable range for these nuggets.

View attachment 4285

Reef or "Eluvial" gold, is best chased by "Loaming" the high flood water levels, starting from as little as a few metres above any high flood level, and thus searching in ground where only "shedding" gold has travelled. It usually hasn't travelled far from its source, hence has not necessarily worked deep down to bedrock. True "Loaming" is a technique that would require a very lengthy post to explain properly, and there is quite a few good books on the market where this method is explained in great detail. In short when working a stream for alluvial gold one often comes across sections where " Prickly" or "Specie / Reef" gold is encountered. This gold has not come down the stream but instead shed down from a nearby reef in the surrounding hillside. These locations are where the old timers used "Loaming" techniques to chase the gold up to its source. They took soil samples from around the base of the hill from where the ragged gold was found and panned them to find where the most "colours" prevailed. They repeated this along the contours up the hill until either the gold ran out or a "visible" reef was encountered. If no visible reef was found they dug down from their last sample and usually found a smaller "Stringer "reef not far below the surface. These are the "Reefs" we like to chase with the detectors as they had very little attention back in the day. Most are indicated by what looks like a "grave" and the gold soon ran out. Loaming was so successful that there is hardly a significant exposed reef left that wasn't discovered by the old timers using this method. 😢

Pretty well all the Goldfields in NSW have both Alluvial and Eluvial gold within them. Research, especially identifying shafts, on the field you are working is a must and plotting these shafts on the GPS is your first point of call. In most cases where major reefs have been found, smaller "Stringer" reefs very often occur in close proximity. Remember that the old timers were not too interested in the spoils from reefs while "Loaming" but instead were concentrating on the bigger picture, which was the source of the gold and the "mother load". We are unfortunately not going to find many "Mother Loads" these days but the "spoils" from the old timers haste to get to the reef is more than enough to keep us satisfied and the jar rattling. A degree of fitness is also required as no longer are we working the easier river flats, but instead the sides of hills and sometimes mountains.😮 Remember to keep hydrated as physical exercise from working some of these areas can catch some by surprise.

View attachment 4286

Us detector people generally don't run around with a gold pan in our back pack so we tend to loam "electronically." The principal is still the same but what we do is generally use our most sensitive coil and work via contour lines up from where we find "Prickly" or "specie" gold. Most of the time the gold nearer the creek is very small as it has shed the furthest, getting larger as it gets closer to It's source. Species are the main give away and sometimes a piece of quartz may only show a speck of gold. Extreme care and concentration is required to hear some of these faint signals as we are not looking for "Screamers" in these situations. Machines like the new 6000 will certainly open up this type of detecting big time, and I'm imagining many stringer reefs will be exposed by those prepared to correctly look for them. I've found most of mine using my 5000 but recently Liz's 2300 has outgunned me.:oops: I hate saying this but unfortunately either a 4500, 5k, 6k, 7k or 2300 are a must to be successful at this type of prospecting with any sort of real consistency.

One piece of personal advice when hunting "Reef" gold is make use of your GPS and pin every piece of gold you find in an area. Not only can it give a useful map of how the gold is shedding but also shows you where to give additional attention once you have taken the obvious and easy surface gold. When I talk about "Additional attention" what I mean is, where I find a piece of "Reef" gold I go back to that spot later with a shovel and take 20cm off the surface for a couple of metres around where each nugget / specie was found. On too numerous occasions to mention there has been more gold at this new detectable depth, and generally larger pieces as well. Make sure you fill in these depressions and rake the top flat as the last thing you want is to advertise a possible find to others. Too many people find a shedded reef, take the obvious easily detected gold, and then walk away thinking they've got the lot. If only they knew what they have possibly left behind. ;) If bedrock is within a reasonable depth then this surfacing can be extended further down. You don't generally do this all at once so it gives you a much longer period to work that patch over many trips. I worked one such patch for three months finding gold on every occasion.

This thread is mainly directed at the areas I work in NSW but the principal is the same everywhere. In WA this particular "Loaming" principal is not quite as effective given the size of the ancient water courses and distance between reefs. Good luck to all who persevere and stay safe out there on those gold fields. Cheers Wal.


Hi. Might seem like a silly question but is it best to be near running water? Are there deep shafts and diggings near where you are in the video? I have loads of diggings near me and only one running creek but its very flat area and lots of old diggings next to the creek. Lots of reefs also, so should i be detecting near but not on these reefs looking for jagged gold and specimens?
 
Hi. Might seem like a silly question but is it best to be near running water? Are there deep shafts and diggings near where you are in the video? I have loads of diggings near me and only one running creek but its very flat area and lots of old diggings next to the creek. Lots of reefs also, so should i be detecting near but not on these reefs looking for jagged gold and specimens?

Running creeks are not necessary as most shafts / reefs are along fault lines and ridge lines that were quite often derived from earth movements way earlier in time than the modern day water courses. The only handy part of having flowing creeks below shafts is it makes it easier to identify where indicators first enter the creeks. Some areas indicators [ jagged gold ] can best be located by panning as the gold very often is borderline small in size if larger pieces have been removed by previous operators. Reef gold and alluvial gold is very distinguishable even If extremely small in size.

I've never done well close to shafts themselves, but prefer to work the region from the creek / gully to maybe halfway to the shaft. The main creek in the vid has only got alluvial gold in it and the gully we were working is where the ragged gold shed down. There was no shafts in this area but many small stringer reefs visibly exposed, one of which by chance had gold shedding from it.

When you say the creek near you has many diggings next to it they will more than likely be alluvial diggings and being flat ground the alluvial gravels can be quite wide. You say there is lots of reefs in the area, but is there shafts amongst any of them. Shafts are a sure give away that shedded gold is nearby, but quartz outcrops are not a certainty to have gold in them, in fact very few contain any gold at all.

If you work your area quite regularly a few days with a pan can be beneficial to see if only alluvial gold is present. History of the type of gold in the area is also worth chasing up. The area we are now working has no water at all, only dry gullies with very little sign of work done by the old timers. Hopefully some small indicators will show themselves for you as that's when the real hunt begins. Best of luck...Wal.
 
Running creeks are not necessary as most shafts / reefs are along fault lines and ridge lines that were quite often derived from earth movements way earlier in time than the modern day water courses. The only handy part of having flowing creeks below shafts is it makes it easier to identify where indicators first enter the creeks. Some areas indicators [ jagged gold ] can best be located by panning as the gold very often is borderline small in size if larger pieces have been removed by previous operators. Reef gold and alluvial gold is very distinguishable even If extremely small in size.

I've never done well close to shafts themselves, but prefer to work the region from the creek / gully to maybe halfway to the shaft. The main creek in the vid has only got alluvial gold in it and the gully we were working is where the ragged gold shed down. There was no shafts in this area but many small stringer reefs visibly exposed, one of which by chance had gold shedding from it.

When you say the creek near you has many diggings next to it they will more than likely be alluvial diggings and being flat ground the alluvial gravels can be quite wide. You say there is lots of reefs in the area, but is there shafts amongst any of them. Shafts are a sure give away that shedded gold is nearby, but quartz outcrops are not a certainty to have gold in them, in fact very few contain any gold at all.

If you work your area quite regularly a few days with a pan can be beneficial to see if only alluvial gold is present. History of the type of gold in the area is also worth chasing up. The area we are now working has no water at all, only dry gullies with very little sign of work done by the old timers. Hopefully some small indicators will show themselves for you as that's when the real hunt begins. Best of luck...Wal.
Thanks for that Wal. There are several shafts from what I've read that were over 100m deep that were owned by the bigger companies in the 1860's-90's. I have detected small jagged reefy gold near some shafts that were maybe around 5-10m deep. What does a stringer reef look like and where should I get the soil to pan? I have taken a few shovel loads of soil before in the past to pan, after finding small smooth water worn nuggets, but have never found a speck. I gave up in the fact that I didn't know what I was doing basically. As you said they are mostly old alluvial diggings and the only miners that stayed in the area had the finances and investors to stay longer and dig deeper. I assume you are in NSW whereas I'm in Vic and almost all the gullies in my vicinity have workings around them and have been no doubt hit pretty hard by detectorists over the decades. That's why I am trying to improve my chances in my local area. Thanks again.
regards
Aaron
 
Thanks for that Wal. There are several shafts from what I've read that were over 100m deep that were owned by the bigger companies in the 1860's-90's. I have detected small jagged reefy gold near some shafts that were maybe around 5-10m deep. What does a stringer reef look like and where should I get the soil to pan? I have taken a few shovel loads of soil before in the past to pan, after finding small smooth water worn nuggets, but have never found a speck. I gave up in the fact that I didn't know what I was doing basically. As you said they are mostly old alluvial diggings and the only miners that stayed in the area had the finances and investors to stay longer and dig deeper. I assume you are in NSW whereas I'm in Vic and almost all the gullies in my vicinity have workings around them and have been no doubt hit pretty hard by detectorists over the decades. That's why I am trying to improve my chances in my local area. Thanks again.
regards
Aaron

Thanks for narrowing down the location Aaron. The fact you have shafts means sheddded gold is in that area. I would guess that the jagged gold you got from the "shallow reef" was some distance from the main deep shafts. That shallow reef is what we mostly refer to as "stringers". There is other definitions but for the sake of keeping it simple we will stick to that for now. Generally a deep vertical shaft will have horizontal leaders running from it and because of folding or associated earth movements many of these leaders become disconnected from the main reef, some by very long distances. You have to remember we are looking at a time line of millions of years of erosion and a reef that could have been hundreds of feet higher originally.

Many ask me should I be looking for "mineral" indicators other than quartz or ironstone and to that I say generally you are wasting your time as our detectors are no good at picking up this kind of ore. Don't spend much time around "White" quartz outcrops which have no visible signs of mineralization...they are nearly always devoid of gold.

You mention that you have taken samples with a pan after finding water worn nuggets. These alluvial nuggets would generally only have other finer alluvial gold travelling with it, and very rarely jagged gold. Reef gold doesn't have to travel far in a stream to become water worn. I concentrate on levels "above" the top flood lines and especially in crevasses at these levels if they are available. Remember one needs to find the ragged gold before it enters the creek or gully. Very often you need to test lengthy sections keeping in mind that the shedded area is not necessarily strait below a shaft. That "current day shaft" had hundreds of feet of weathered material above it and most of that has made it's way to the present day creeks and gullies, hence can be further from it's source than you might think.

Remember Aaron that in Vic almost half of all the gold came from reefs, and it is the least hunted for by the detector operators, as it requires more effort than hunting alluvial nuggets. Admittedly most of it is beyond our reach, but enough is still there for the taking. May good luck and success follow you around....Wal.
 
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