Panning out mullock heaps

[Kaiser Soze]

Hi all, I'm new to this whole game and just spent my first few days detecting up around Wedderburn and Kingower with a hired detector. Thing is I found 3 little nuggets in the top couple of inches of different mullock heaps in a particular gully. The question I have is, if you were to take this material away with you and pan it, would you be likely to find some good finer gold that a detector won't hit? Sorry if it's an obvious question...

 

[silver]

I think your only supposed to remove concentrates Ks unless you mean just down to the water source in the creek, but someone with a fuller understanding on it all may have a more concise view on the matter !
I'm merely a treasure hunter not a fully schooled up yella fella !

 

[stoyve]

Gday Kaiser Soze,
There is one main thing to consider KS, and that is that the gold bearing layer on the mulloch heaps will most likely be in the top few inches as that is the level they reached to fina8get to the gold.
When they dug shafts it was to reach an ancient river bed where the gravels holding the gold were or all the way to the bedrock where the gold was trapped.
Cheers Steve

 

[Swinging & digging]

Hi all, I'm new to this whole game and just spent my first few days detecting up around Wedderburn and Kingower with a hired detector. Thing is I found 3 little nuggets in the top couple of inches of different mullock heaps in a particular gully. The question I have is, if you were to take this material away with you and pan it, would you be likely to find some good finer gold that a detector won't hit? Sorry if it's an obvious question...

As per the Victorian Miners Right you must repair the damage to the land while prospecting!
I am assuming you would be in breach of that by processing the mullock heaps.
I have come across heaps that have been hacked apart by prospectors and they look ugly and are giving those that oppose prospecting more ammunition to shut us down and exclude areas from detecting.

 

[Occasional_panner]

Sounds like someone needs a dry blower,,,,,,,,,,,, then fill the hole back in.

 

[GaryO]

If there is water near by it wouldnt be a bad idea to scrape of a layer and test it. Id say there would definitely be finer gold amongst the bigger bits.

 

[Guest]

Where I go its mostly clay on top of the heaps.

Thinking along the same lines and I have test panned a few heaps for no gold or only a few specks at one spot.

I don't think the effort for reward would be there?

Found lots of tiny nuggets in these areas and makes me wonder what it must have been like when they first struck the pay dirt layer!

I have a feeling that on an individual claim level the old timers did not have it that easy and there was not as much gold as we would like to believe. We only read about the big strikes and exceptionally rich areas.

All the best, let us know what you discover.

Cheers

RS

 

[GaryO]

For years people detecting mullock heaps have found nuggets gram + size with early model vlf machines and now even smaller bits with the SDC , i just think it stands to reason that there will be smaller bits again undectable .
Worth a shot as long as you dont leave a mess i recon.

 

[Kaiser Soze]

Thanks for the responses, guys. With the weather being so wet there was a little water in the gully/creek, so I was imagining scraping of a couple of inches of the top of a heap where I'd already detected a small nugget, then panning it and filling up any holes with the tailings. Said tailings could be brought back if there was no water in the gully at the time you did it... maybe. Sounds like it might be crossing the line to take a couple of buckets away with you unless you were to be coming right back.

 

[Guest]

Mate take a few inches off the top, just keep it neat, then scrape some bark and leaves over the area and it will be fine. Much better than the unfilled holes I see everywhere

It will restore its self in a few weeks and after rain.....

Cheers

RS

 

[Occasional_panner]

If you only want to sample a few pans just take a big tub and some gerry cans of water 40L will be plenty for that.

 

[Phoenix76]

Actually all these rules about mullock heaps etc, are the greatest load of codswallop I've heard in a while.

These new rules that you must leave the ground as you found it is crazy. If the original miners had left things as they found them, there would be no mullock heaps. In fact there would have been very little gold mining, which was much encouraged back then. Unlike today where the authorities do everything in their power to stop you mining at all.

The green influence in this country, state doesn't matter, is breaking us. Certainly issues like Adani are costing this country $B's,and the greenies don't give a damn. In fact, they would shut done every mine in the country if they could. You don't need to be Einstein to work out what that would do to the country.

You know, we might not have our currency tied to the gold standard these days, but when markets are down, guess what goes up. Yep, gold. Certainly it fluctuates in price, but as a standard of wealth or value, it is still the major measure.

So my view is that until somehow we get rid of this green power, we aren't going anywhere. And that means that engaging in our little hobby gets harder every day. And their power is irrelevant to their size and the number of representatives they have in parliament.

 

[Outback]

Also the old dry blower heaps can be very rewarding , yep most have had every detector know waved over them BUT you would be amazed the amount of fine gold some still hold that no detector can see

I use a manual dry dirt concentrator that can reduce down any amount of material to one pans worth of heavies for a water saving clean up .

I'll say that those who wish to get enough gold to pay all the costs involved with small time prospecting & come out with a decent profit each season should reassess just using a detector !