mullock heaps - where to work?

[garnethawkins]

Hey guys, Im heading back out to the alluvial mine in coolamon tomorrow (weather permitting) with the intention to pan a couple of the mullock heaps and was wondering if anyone may know the best point of attack, ie do i start at the top of the heap considering that would have been the deepest point of the mine or do i start at the base and work around the edges considering gold tends to head for the lowest point?
Cheers in advance
Garnet

 

[Nugget]

Personally I would start at the outer base and dig inwards.

It would depend on how old the mullock heap is as to whether or not the gold has had enough time to settle from the top to the bottom. But then again there's no guarantee that there was any "deep" gold extracted, so you probably have as much chance of finding anything whichever way you decide to tackle it.

If you have a metal detector, it'd probably be worth giving it a quick run over as well.

Nugget.

 

[garnethawkins]

Yeah already been over the area with the at gold, found alot of bullets lol. Hoping there may be some small stuff they missed, and yeah the mine was active in the late 1800s so its had plenty of time. Cheers

 

[Nugget]

I guess there's no harm test panning the top first to be sure, if that shows nothing then I'd focus on the lower section.

Nugget.

 

[Colin&Lee]

I'd hit the lower sections and look for little run off areas were the Gold would concentrate and if you find a decent mullock heap hit it with the high banker, works for me

Cheers

C&L

 

[garnethawkins]

Well just got back, i am now convinced the mine was a lead mine was finding pin head sized grains of lead as well as decent sized nuggets, only question is does lead form alluvial nuggets or not?

 

[Tommtb7]

I can't weigh in on this conversation but one thing I can say is if you google aluvial mullock heaps your avatar is the first pic that pops up lol

 

[garnethawkins]

Bahahaha! Really? I am so checking this out!

 

[Colin&Lee]

I would be interested to see some pic's of the lead and nuggets if your working an old alluvial mullock heap the old timers may have been using mercury and that can look like lead after 100 plus years in the ground. I get a bit in the heap I'm working at the moment and it has gold in it

Cheers

Col

 

[Diggerdude]

Hahaha, classic .

 

[garnethawkins]

LMAO ITS TRUE! Im FINALLY famous!

 

[garnethawkins]

Here ya go col pretty sure its just lead

 

[Colin&Lee]

Yah that's lead mate the bits I get are heaps smaller

Cheers

Col

 

[Dozer]

Very funny

 

[garnethawkins]

Oh i got alot of tiny stuff as well but wasn't bothered to bring them home

 

[Hunting the yellow]

wach out for cynide and mercury too they wore used to treap the gold
and if you find quartz allways grab it it dolley it up later because they could be gold in them too

 

[garnethawkins]

Lol id be dollying for a while out there mate, 25% of the rock out there is quartz :lol: