The 1 that got away

[whitey1987]

So today I was at this spot ive been working for a couple days. This spot ive found my biggest gold to date (still pretty much a newbie). I was digging my hole out bigger and working the flood layer in an exposed gravel bar. Classifying into my big pan and then sluicing. After my 3rd handful of material sitting at the mouth of the sluice was the biggest flake ive seen in my sluice. In my excitement I decide to lift the sluice out and clean it out. Wash the sluice into my pan but in my haste I miss half the pan. Decide to pan off anyway and to my disappointment...nothing. I then decide to dig the side of the stream where I had washed out. After nealry an hr NO flake. Devastated to say the least. Anybody else got similar stories?

 

[Nugget]

Moved to Alluvial Gold Prospecting

 

[Tige]

Oh dear.. feel sorry for ya mate the worst thing I did was hire a gpx 5000... went to the whipstick, was detecting for an hour ( first time ever) came across a quarts rock that made the detector waver... I said to myself this must b what they call a hot rock n tossed it mmm .. :| .. don't think that was very smart :8

 

[whitey1987]

The what could ofs. Gotta hate that.

 

[Goldtarget]

Haha Gold fails...I've had a couple of memorable ones, left the snuffer behind after pulling an 8 hour day about two weeks ago, right next to a quartz pile that had been highbanked....that's the most recent in a few fails, dropped a glass bottle on the shed floor, that had a million pieces of aluminium swarf on it (doesn't come out of moss too good let me tell you) stepped on a bucket of cons shattering it next to the river flow... Plenty of hoffmanlike moments, helps you learn I guess.

 

[whitey1987]

Haha Hoffman moment. We cant be that bad can we? Lol. Can only learn.

 

[Reeks]

I had a few crumbs in a shot glass soaking in acid to try to dissolve the mercury which was attached to some of the gold.

Put the shot glass under the tap and turned it on very slightly to flush the acid away.
Instantly the gold came out and most went down the sink. :/

Was only around 0.08 of a gram i reckon..
I will have to pan the S- bend one day!

 

[grippsy25]

Haha that totally sounds like a euphemism: "Just off to pan the s-bend...if you know I mean". Bahaha. Oh my, I have nothing of value to add here it would seem.

 

[Paydirt]

Had been collecting my gold in a Masterfoods spice bottle until a friend noticed my collection was getting smaller. Every time I screwed the lid off flakes would get stuck in the screw and so I'd put in one flake and lose many. When I finally worked out what happening and finished cursing I swept and vacuumed the concrete driveway - got some back, but I like the idea my driveway is paved in gold and if I get real desperate I can always re-clean it. Have also had the s bend off.

 

[Heatho]

I dropped a 10-15ct Zircon in a big washtub and couldn't find it after an hour of sieving the mud in the bottom, that stone would have been easy worth $1000 after cutting.

 

[whitey1987]

It makes you wounder how or why thats for sure. Oh well mite be there next time if we are lucky lol