G
Guest
HINTS TO PROSPECTORS.
Gold Is Where You Find It.
"John,"-Allow me to give a little advise to the uninitiated or unexperienced prospector. He -need not study geology. All that is required is plenty of luck and he must be a thorough optimist, fond of walking and must never get tired of breaking stones. If he has luck he may go blindfolded, get bushed and his horse may kick him or his foot may kick against a stone that has gold in it. Some good shows have been discovered that way. No doubt hick is a, great asset in most everything, particularly so in prospecting for gold.
There have been men who have never been outside of a town or away from a farm, have gone, to the fields not knowing one stone from another and have found a good show. Within a few months they were looked upon as being great authorities on gold ore geological formations and have blossomed out into what was generally' called mining experts. Coming back to town they were sought out for their opinion or advice. They were introduced everywhere as the men who found such and such a show and disposed of it at a really high figure, even speculators took them in.
Therefore, prospectors, I can tell you that you never know how' far you can get by simply following the game. Many have taken it on and never left off until they struck it rich or died. Some of them are still going on the outback fields. It is a very fascinating game you never know when and how you strike it, therefore never be idle. If you go prospecting let it be alluvial or reefing. If the latter, go anywhere. Keep any stone be it white, black or otherwise and have a good look at it. You may see spots. All that glitters is not gold. Dolly the stones and if there are any prospects look for more:
If you find anything to work on start on your best looking spot. Put in a costeen, that is a trench, across the country east to west as most of the reefs or lodes strike a northerly and southerly direction. Very few east to west carry gold. If you strike a reasonable or good show the experts can tell you their opinions and all the technical terms of rocks and they will be able to tell you where gold would be most prevalent. They will look wise and will tell you that you will have to do more work. They will put the compass on it and tell you how the lode or reef is bearing and when they see your prospects they will tell you to get an assay taken to make sure. I can tell you that these experts are really clever once you find the gold. If you do not strike it rich keep on knapping more stones.
If you are looking for alluvial-that is free gold laying about in the soil or otherwise look first at every little watercourse in a dip or little basin or on a bend and if you locate fine gold go further up as the gold at the source is always coarser, (not as someone who issued a book on prospecting had told his readers to go downhill for the coarser gold). If the gold by the agency of water eruption or wholesale movement, found its. way more into flat country there is more or less what is called a deep lead. The further you go out from the source the deeper you have to sink to where the deposit occurred or to the bottom of the lead. Again if you are lucky you may make good and strike it in your first shaft or hole, but if the lead strikes a bar or stronger cross course it may turn off into somebody else's ground. If the ground around you is hot taken by others you can drive or crosscut down below or sink another shaft. If you strike it first go you can tell others that it was your judgment and you can again become an expert.
I give all the foregoing information free and let me tell you there are hundreds of thousands of ounces of alluvial gold buried about Kalgoorlie alone for you or the experts to practice on. Be an optimist and have good luck but you have to Work and work hard.
GUS LUCK, Victoria Park.
P.S.-In sinking, driving or any other work on. reef or lode formation or for alluvial, whenever possible scratch up the fines on the floor and pan that off. If you do not get any gold prospects in that there is not much in the lode. etc. Alluvial scrapings should be left in air for some time.-G.I.
Western Mail
May 1941
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/
Points for Prospectors.
(BY BARCAY SMITH.)
Men only search for gold when the more comfortable ways of earning a livelihood fall them. It was this driving force of economic necessity that sent men from the towns and cities In the past, and led to the discovery of many of Australia's richest gold fields.
History is now repeating itself. Almost dally news comes of another gold discovery, and lured by the success of others, thousands of men throughout Australia, who are not content to merely hang about the cities and towns and eke out an existence on a Government dole, are leaving for goldfields, old and new, in search of the precious metal.
In support of the statement that gold-seeking is the last resort of men made desperate by unemployment, I advance the following Interesting figures:
In the "gold rush" year of 1852, Australia's total gold production was valued at 12,279,000. In the following years It steadily declined until It reached 5,231,000 in 1891. This decline was due to the fact that In the cycle of prosperity prior to 1890, men renounced the hardships of mining camps for the comforts of towns and cities, where work was available.
Then came the last great depression In Australia-commencing In 1890. It was world- wide In its ramifications. Prices of wool fell alarmingly, and on top of this came the great drought of 1892, and the following year the "bank smash." But the point that interests us to-day Is that as soon as depression set in, men went back to search for their first love-gold. It is claimed that over 100,000 men in Australia were engaged in gold production back in the 'nineties. New reefs were discovered almost every day, including the Wyalong field (1893), which yielded in six I years 181,268 ounces, valued at 712,358; the Hillgrove field (about 1892), which in seven years produced 251,991 ounces of free gold valued at approximately 900,000; and the Wentworth goldfield (near Orange), which gave a total of 224.703 ounces, worth 796,000, from 1892 to 1899, and several others. Properly directed labour will lead to further valuable developments over the whole length and breadth of our auriferous areas.
This intense gold-seeking activity In New South Wales was typical of all States after the last economic depression, and the happy sequel was that Australian gold production in- creased at the rate of about one million sterling per year until it reached the record figure of 16,302,000 in 1902. From that year a very gradual decline set In, and as the new cycle of prosperity gathered momentum, gold production went down and down until it reached the miserable figure of 1,807,000, In 1929-the lowest recorded since the discovery of gold In 1851.
GOLD STILL WAITING.
Some may conclude that this decline was due to the fact that gold production Is based on a law of diminishing return. Many authorities, on the other hand, hold the view that the mineral resources of Australia have scarcely been "scratched." The 629,659,000 worth of gold that has already been won from the fields of Australia is a mere bagatelle, they affirm, compared with the gold that still awaits the Midas touch of the prospector and the gold-mining company. The geology of Australia bustles with indications favourable to persistent gold production. Briefly, these Indications are in the age of our sedimentary rocks and the abundance of igneous intrusions over wide areas.
It is quite reasonable to assume, therefore, that there are still vast gold resources in Australia awaiting development. The chief reason for the great falling-off in Its production was undoubtedly the "borrow, boom, and bust" policy of successive Governments, which lured men away from the comfortless life of the open spaces to the soft cushions of the cities. This policy also Increased production costs to a point that made the working of scores of mines unprofitable. Gold production decreased in the same ratio as Australia became puffed up with bogus prosperity.
THE PROSPECTOR'S CHANCES.
Thousands of men In this State to-day are turning to the quest for gold as a means of tiding themselves and their families over the lean years ahead. All classes will again unite in the camaraderie of the goldfield, from the basic wager to the brief less barrister, the skilled artisan out of a Job to the young doctor whom the Great God Depression has denied a practice. All these, and more, will be caught up In the gold fever that seems to come just as regularly as the cycles of prosperity and depression.
These men are reading every day where some fortunate prospector has made a small fortune, but their first and greatest question is whether or not they will be able to make a bare living.
Thirty years ago (1901), gold production gave employment, officially, to 70,972 men, and unofficially, to another 30,000, but in 1928 gold seeking only gave employment to 5686. It Is not unlikely that 100,000 men throughout the Commonwealth will be earning a livelihood in gold production within the next two years.
Let me at the outset of these articles sound a timely warning to those who possess no practical knowledge of prospecting for gold. The men who go away, ill-equipped with no experience, to search for this precious, but illusive, metal in some remote reef are courting disappointment. Reef mining calls for knowledge based on practical experience, and every party of amateur prospectors should have at least one practical man among their number to save them from misdirected effort and ultimate failure.
KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED.
Before setting out in the actual search for gold, men should make themselves familiar with the following points:
1. How to use a prospecting dish correctly, i.e., how to pan alluvial gold.
2. How to Identify, broadly, Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, particularly such igneous rocks as granites, diorites, feldspars, porphyries, and felsites.
3. How to identify gold, and be sure that it isn't "new chum's gold," pyrites or golden
flakes of mica.
4. The specific gravity (weight) of minerals and rocks.
5. How to sample ores for assay purposes, so that the portion taken may fairly represent the whole body.
6. How to construct a cradle and sluice box for washing alluvial deposits.
The Department of Mines at George-street North, Sydney, gives demonstrations on most of the above points every day, and is doing great work to cope with the host of inquirers after information. To those who cannot avail themselves of this export advice, I suggest that they get In touch with some competent prospector In their locality, who is generally only too happy to pass on, to the best of his ability, all that he knows.
Of course, while a certain amount of geological knowledge Is advisable, one must not over-emphasise Its Importance. Neither geologists nor experienced prospectors possess powers of divination, and do not pretend to know exactly where payable gold will be found. At most, they can only Indicate where gold is likely to occur, or even say authoritatively where it will not be found In payable quantity. The slogan of the old prospectors was that "gold Is where you find It."
The element of luck plays a tremendous, and a romantic, part in gold finding, and the inexperienced might strike a rich alluvial patch or a gold-bearing shoot of quartz near where the most competent prospector, following all the orthodox Indications strikes a "duffer." i.e., a shaft that produces nothing. Still, this is the exception rather than the rule. As In every other field of enterprise, a "little training Is worth a world of straining." and the "new chum" on the prospecting field Is well advised to acquire all the knowledge he can with a view to making his chances of success more favourable.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday 21 February 1931
Alluvial Prospecting.
(BY C. B. SMTTH.)
The Immediate hope of thousands of unemployed men In this State undoubtedly lies in the winning of alluvial gold. Very little knowledge Is required to make a start, and
all the equipment that is necessary to begin with is a pick, a shovel, and a prospecting
dish Once a likely spot is found it will be necessary to construct a "cradle" or sluice box, but these can easily be made, at a cost of a few shillings. Where running water la available, hand-sluicing enables a man to put through about 10 times as much in a day as he will treat in a "cradle," and a hundred times as much as he will treat In a dish. The dish should really only be used for preliminary fossicking, to get Indications of "colour," and to wash the concentrates that collect in the riffles and cradle "apron."
Alluvial deposits are of great importance at the present moment because: (a) No capital is required beyond rail fare, a few shillings' worth of equipment, and a fortnight's rations; (b) the greater quantity of the world's gold has been won from alluvial deposits, and (c) the returns, though smaller than from reef ore, are more certain. In fact, provided two men are working In a field which has gold bearing wash dirt, a supply of water, a rude equipment, a knowledge of procedure, and the will to do at least eight hours' solid work a day, there is little doubt that they will make a living on an alluvial field. With luck it may prove a very good living, but the primary consideration at present is that the rewards should sustain them and their families in the necessities of life.
HOW TO SUCCEED.
At some time in the earth's history alluvial gold has been washed down from the parent reefs and deposited in the beds of rivers and creeks.
The prospector's first work is to carefully wash the gravels of streams to determine whether any gold Is there at all. Next, certain beaches along the course of the stream should be selected and shallow pits sunk through them until bedrock is met with, and all the material raised should be panned. Being one of the heaviest of minerals, gold will generally gravitate, In the course of time, to the very bottom of the river bed, and it is there that the heavier nuggets will frequently be found.
Follow the river or creek up the stream, especially when it is low, and clean out with a knife all likely crevices In the rocks in which gravel and sand have accumulated This should be carefully washed. in some cases large quantities of gold have been won by prospectors in a short time by prospecting in this manner.
In Western Australia and In certain dry areas of New South Wales, the rainfall is not sufficient to wash the gold for any distance from the reefs in such cases there are generally flats in which gold occurs through the surface soil for a depth of a few feet.
Surface deposits of this nature indicate that a gold-bearing reef or lode, from which they have been washed, is not very far away, and this fact gives the prospector great incentive to search for the parent reef in the immediate neighbourhood.
PERSEVERANCE ESSENTIAL.
The gold found in ordinary rivers, of course does not necessarily mean that the reef from which it came is in close proximity It may have been carried a great many miles from its original home by flood waters.
It is well to bear in mind, in searching the sand and gravel washed down by rivers, that if the bed of a river yields fine gold dust, it will probably yield larger grains of gold higher up the stream, and grains of gold will suggest nuggets nearer the source of the river. The water has simply washed the fine particles of gold a long way from its source leaving the heavier nuggets nearer the parent reef.
One cannot lay down any hard and fast rules for prospecting for the deposits buried in river beds, but a careful prospector will take particular notice of where the stream has altered its course slightly here and there leaving the sand and gravel that once formed it bed high and dry
A wise prospector, in cases such as this .will generally sink shafts through these gravels until bedrock is reached if the first shaft is not successful he will usually sink further shafts towards the channel. Here again the element of luck will play a large part The first three shafts may prove profitless, but the fourth may produce sufficient gold to make ones hopes "spring eternal ' In alluvial gold-seeking the rewards correspond remarkably with the intelligence and magnitude of the effort made.
It does not follow that a gully or river-bed is non-auriferous because a few holes have been sunk in it without results it cannot be said to have been properly tested until the deposit in its bed has been thoroughly crossed from side to side and panned in several places Very frequently, too, the gold occurs, not in the gully bed but in some deposit on one of the banks Prospectors are therefore advised to carry out their preliminary work thoroughly before finally abandoning any easily prospected locality as worthless, even should they see evidences of it having been tried and left by others, before them.
HOW TO RECOGNISE BEDROCK.
A very brief inspection of old workings will toon enable the "new-chum" to recognise the bedrock of a river when he reaches it in sinking a shaft. It Is usually soft and decomposed just where the alluvial deposits rest on it, and in that condition is often known as "pipeclay" on account of its whiteness. A few feet further down, however, the slaty structure become visible, the rock gets harder, and the colour changes to yellow, grey, and other darker tints.
Down to this bottom the prospector sinks and takes up the stuff immediately resting on it with a few inches of the bottom Itself, as gold often lodges down in the crevices. In very shallow ground open trenches in various directions, or a number of holes at short intervals, are sufficient to enable the ground to be tested, but in deeper ground it is necessary to open drives from the bottom of the prospecting hole so as to try the stuff along the bottom in any direction desired. The object is to test the gravel resting on bedrock, as that is the most likely to contain gold. In some ground not a foot should be passed over without panning it, as it is not at all uncommon for cold to occur in certain narrow "runs," while promising looking stuff on either side is valueless.
While the Importance of working the gravel on the river bottom is greatly stressed, It is always advisable to pan any layer of gravel passed through In sinking a hole.
Old, abandoned ground, If it has not been too often reworked, will frequently be found to afford a living, or an occasional patch or nugget, if again carefully worked.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday 28 February 1931
Gold Is Where You Find It.
"John,"-Allow me to give a little advise to the uninitiated or unexperienced prospector. He -need not study geology. All that is required is plenty of luck and he must be a thorough optimist, fond of walking and must never get tired of breaking stones. If he has luck he may go blindfolded, get bushed and his horse may kick him or his foot may kick against a stone that has gold in it. Some good shows have been discovered that way. No doubt hick is a, great asset in most everything, particularly so in prospecting for gold.
There have been men who have never been outside of a town or away from a farm, have gone, to the fields not knowing one stone from another and have found a good show. Within a few months they were looked upon as being great authorities on gold ore geological formations and have blossomed out into what was generally' called mining experts. Coming back to town they were sought out for their opinion or advice. They were introduced everywhere as the men who found such and such a show and disposed of it at a really high figure, even speculators took them in.
Therefore, prospectors, I can tell you that you never know how' far you can get by simply following the game. Many have taken it on and never left off until they struck it rich or died. Some of them are still going on the outback fields. It is a very fascinating game you never know when and how you strike it, therefore never be idle. If you go prospecting let it be alluvial or reefing. If the latter, go anywhere. Keep any stone be it white, black or otherwise and have a good look at it. You may see spots. All that glitters is not gold. Dolly the stones and if there are any prospects look for more:
If you find anything to work on start on your best looking spot. Put in a costeen, that is a trench, across the country east to west as most of the reefs or lodes strike a northerly and southerly direction. Very few east to west carry gold. If you strike a reasonable or good show the experts can tell you their opinions and all the technical terms of rocks and they will be able to tell you where gold would be most prevalent. They will look wise and will tell you that you will have to do more work. They will put the compass on it and tell you how the lode or reef is bearing and when they see your prospects they will tell you to get an assay taken to make sure. I can tell you that these experts are really clever once you find the gold. If you do not strike it rich keep on knapping more stones.
If you are looking for alluvial-that is free gold laying about in the soil or otherwise look first at every little watercourse in a dip or little basin or on a bend and if you locate fine gold go further up as the gold at the source is always coarser, (not as someone who issued a book on prospecting had told his readers to go downhill for the coarser gold). If the gold by the agency of water eruption or wholesale movement, found its. way more into flat country there is more or less what is called a deep lead. The further you go out from the source the deeper you have to sink to where the deposit occurred or to the bottom of the lead. Again if you are lucky you may make good and strike it in your first shaft or hole, but if the lead strikes a bar or stronger cross course it may turn off into somebody else's ground. If the ground around you is hot taken by others you can drive or crosscut down below or sink another shaft. If you strike it first go you can tell others that it was your judgment and you can again become an expert.
I give all the foregoing information free and let me tell you there are hundreds of thousands of ounces of alluvial gold buried about Kalgoorlie alone for you or the experts to practice on. Be an optimist and have good luck but you have to Work and work hard.
GUS LUCK, Victoria Park.
P.S.-In sinking, driving or any other work on. reef or lode formation or for alluvial, whenever possible scratch up the fines on the floor and pan that off. If you do not get any gold prospects in that there is not much in the lode. etc. Alluvial scrapings should be left in air for some time.-G.I.
Western Mail
May 1941
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/
Points for Prospectors.
(BY BARCAY SMITH.)
Men only search for gold when the more comfortable ways of earning a livelihood fall them. It was this driving force of economic necessity that sent men from the towns and cities In the past, and led to the discovery of many of Australia's richest gold fields.
History is now repeating itself. Almost dally news comes of another gold discovery, and lured by the success of others, thousands of men throughout Australia, who are not content to merely hang about the cities and towns and eke out an existence on a Government dole, are leaving for goldfields, old and new, in search of the precious metal.
In support of the statement that gold-seeking is the last resort of men made desperate by unemployment, I advance the following Interesting figures:
In the "gold rush" year of 1852, Australia's total gold production was valued at 12,279,000. In the following years It steadily declined until It reached 5,231,000 in 1891. This decline was due to the fact that In the cycle of prosperity prior to 1890, men renounced the hardships of mining camps for the comforts of towns and cities, where work was available.
Then came the last great depression In Australia-commencing In 1890. It was world- wide In its ramifications. Prices of wool fell alarmingly, and on top of this came the great drought of 1892, and the following year the "bank smash." But the point that interests us to-day Is that as soon as depression set in, men went back to search for their first love-gold. It is claimed that over 100,000 men in Australia were engaged in gold production back in the 'nineties. New reefs were discovered almost every day, including the Wyalong field (1893), which yielded in six I years 181,268 ounces, valued at 712,358; the Hillgrove field (about 1892), which in seven years produced 251,991 ounces of free gold valued at approximately 900,000; and the Wentworth goldfield (near Orange), which gave a total of 224.703 ounces, worth 796,000, from 1892 to 1899, and several others. Properly directed labour will lead to further valuable developments over the whole length and breadth of our auriferous areas.
This intense gold-seeking activity In New South Wales was typical of all States after the last economic depression, and the happy sequel was that Australian gold production in- creased at the rate of about one million sterling per year until it reached the record figure of 16,302,000 in 1902. From that year a very gradual decline set In, and as the new cycle of prosperity gathered momentum, gold production went down and down until it reached the miserable figure of 1,807,000, In 1929-the lowest recorded since the discovery of gold In 1851.
GOLD STILL WAITING.
Some may conclude that this decline was due to the fact that gold production Is based on a law of diminishing return. Many authorities, on the other hand, hold the view that the mineral resources of Australia have scarcely been "scratched." The 629,659,000 worth of gold that has already been won from the fields of Australia is a mere bagatelle, they affirm, compared with the gold that still awaits the Midas touch of the prospector and the gold-mining company. The geology of Australia bustles with indications favourable to persistent gold production. Briefly, these Indications are in the age of our sedimentary rocks and the abundance of igneous intrusions over wide areas.
It is quite reasonable to assume, therefore, that there are still vast gold resources in Australia awaiting development. The chief reason for the great falling-off in Its production was undoubtedly the "borrow, boom, and bust" policy of successive Governments, which lured men away from the comfortless life of the open spaces to the soft cushions of the cities. This policy also Increased production costs to a point that made the working of scores of mines unprofitable. Gold production decreased in the same ratio as Australia became puffed up with bogus prosperity.
THE PROSPECTOR'S CHANCES.
Thousands of men In this State to-day are turning to the quest for gold as a means of tiding themselves and their families over the lean years ahead. All classes will again unite in the camaraderie of the goldfield, from the basic wager to the brief less barrister, the skilled artisan out of a Job to the young doctor whom the Great God Depression has denied a practice. All these, and more, will be caught up In the gold fever that seems to come just as regularly as the cycles of prosperity and depression.
These men are reading every day where some fortunate prospector has made a small fortune, but their first and greatest question is whether or not they will be able to make a bare living.
Thirty years ago (1901), gold production gave employment, officially, to 70,972 men, and unofficially, to another 30,000, but in 1928 gold seeking only gave employment to 5686. It Is not unlikely that 100,000 men throughout the Commonwealth will be earning a livelihood in gold production within the next two years.
Let me at the outset of these articles sound a timely warning to those who possess no practical knowledge of prospecting for gold. The men who go away, ill-equipped with no experience, to search for this precious, but illusive, metal in some remote reef are courting disappointment. Reef mining calls for knowledge based on practical experience, and every party of amateur prospectors should have at least one practical man among their number to save them from misdirected effort and ultimate failure.
KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED.
Before setting out in the actual search for gold, men should make themselves familiar with the following points:
1. How to use a prospecting dish correctly, i.e., how to pan alluvial gold.
2. How to Identify, broadly, Igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, particularly such igneous rocks as granites, diorites, feldspars, porphyries, and felsites.
3. How to identify gold, and be sure that it isn't "new chum's gold," pyrites or golden
flakes of mica.
4. The specific gravity (weight) of minerals and rocks.
5. How to sample ores for assay purposes, so that the portion taken may fairly represent the whole body.
6. How to construct a cradle and sluice box for washing alluvial deposits.
The Department of Mines at George-street North, Sydney, gives demonstrations on most of the above points every day, and is doing great work to cope with the host of inquirers after information. To those who cannot avail themselves of this export advice, I suggest that they get In touch with some competent prospector In their locality, who is generally only too happy to pass on, to the best of his ability, all that he knows.
Of course, while a certain amount of geological knowledge Is advisable, one must not over-emphasise Its Importance. Neither geologists nor experienced prospectors possess powers of divination, and do not pretend to know exactly where payable gold will be found. At most, they can only Indicate where gold is likely to occur, or even say authoritatively where it will not be found In payable quantity. The slogan of the old prospectors was that "gold Is where you find It."
The element of luck plays a tremendous, and a romantic, part in gold finding, and the inexperienced might strike a rich alluvial patch or a gold-bearing shoot of quartz near where the most competent prospector, following all the orthodox Indications strikes a "duffer." i.e., a shaft that produces nothing. Still, this is the exception rather than the rule. As In every other field of enterprise, a "little training Is worth a world of straining." and the "new chum" on the prospecting field Is well advised to acquire all the knowledge he can with a view to making his chances of success more favourable.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday 21 February 1931
Alluvial Prospecting.
(BY C. B. SMTTH.)
The Immediate hope of thousands of unemployed men In this State undoubtedly lies in the winning of alluvial gold. Very little knowledge Is required to make a start, and
all the equipment that is necessary to begin with is a pick, a shovel, and a prospecting
dish Once a likely spot is found it will be necessary to construct a "cradle" or sluice box, but these can easily be made, at a cost of a few shillings. Where running water la available, hand-sluicing enables a man to put through about 10 times as much in a day as he will treat in a "cradle," and a hundred times as much as he will treat In a dish. The dish should really only be used for preliminary fossicking, to get Indications of "colour," and to wash the concentrates that collect in the riffles and cradle "apron."
Alluvial deposits are of great importance at the present moment because: (a) No capital is required beyond rail fare, a few shillings' worth of equipment, and a fortnight's rations; (b) the greater quantity of the world's gold has been won from alluvial deposits, and (c) the returns, though smaller than from reef ore, are more certain. In fact, provided two men are working In a field which has gold bearing wash dirt, a supply of water, a rude equipment, a knowledge of procedure, and the will to do at least eight hours' solid work a day, there is little doubt that they will make a living on an alluvial field. With luck it may prove a very good living, but the primary consideration at present is that the rewards should sustain them and their families in the necessities of life.
HOW TO SUCCEED.
At some time in the earth's history alluvial gold has been washed down from the parent reefs and deposited in the beds of rivers and creeks.
The prospector's first work is to carefully wash the gravels of streams to determine whether any gold Is there at all. Next, certain beaches along the course of the stream should be selected and shallow pits sunk through them until bedrock is met with, and all the material raised should be panned. Being one of the heaviest of minerals, gold will generally gravitate, In the course of time, to the very bottom of the river bed, and it is there that the heavier nuggets will frequently be found.
Follow the river or creek up the stream, especially when it is low, and clean out with a knife all likely crevices In the rocks in which gravel and sand have accumulated This should be carefully washed. in some cases large quantities of gold have been won by prospectors in a short time by prospecting in this manner.
In Western Australia and In certain dry areas of New South Wales, the rainfall is not sufficient to wash the gold for any distance from the reefs in such cases there are generally flats in which gold occurs through the surface soil for a depth of a few feet.
Surface deposits of this nature indicate that a gold-bearing reef or lode, from which they have been washed, is not very far away, and this fact gives the prospector great incentive to search for the parent reef in the immediate neighbourhood.
PERSEVERANCE ESSENTIAL.
The gold found in ordinary rivers, of course does not necessarily mean that the reef from which it came is in close proximity It may have been carried a great many miles from its original home by flood waters.
It is well to bear in mind, in searching the sand and gravel washed down by rivers, that if the bed of a river yields fine gold dust, it will probably yield larger grains of gold higher up the stream, and grains of gold will suggest nuggets nearer the source of the river. The water has simply washed the fine particles of gold a long way from its source leaving the heavier nuggets nearer the parent reef.
One cannot lay down any hard and fast rules for prospecting for the deposits buried in river beds, but a careful prospector will take particular notice of where the stream has altered its course slightly here and there leaving the sand and gravel that once formed it bed high and dry
A wise prospector, in cases such as this .will generally sink shafts through these gravels until bedrock is reached if the first shaft is not successful he will usually sink further shafts towards the channel. Here again the element of luck will play a large part The first three shafts may prove profitless, but the fourth may produce sufficient gold to make ones hopes "spring eternal ' In alluvial gold-seeking the rewards correspond remarkably with the intelligence and magnitude of the effort made.
It does not follow that a gully or river-bed is non-auriferous because a few holes have been sunk in it without results it cannot be said to have been properly tested until the deposit in its bed has been thoroughly crossed from side to side and panned in several places Very frequently, too, the gold occurs, not in the gully bed but in some deposit on one of the banks Prospectors are therefore advised to carry out their preliminary work thoroughly before finally abandoning any easily prospected locality as worthless, even should they see evidences of it having been tried and left by others, before them.
HOW TO RECOGNISE BEDROCK.
A very brief inspection of old workings will toon enable the "new-chum" to recognise the bedrock of a river when he reaches it in sinking a shaft. It Is usually soft and decomposed just where the alluvial deposits rest on it, and in that condition is often known as "pipeclay" on account of its whiteness. A few feet further down, however, the slaty structure become visible, the rock gets harder, and the colour changes to yellow, grey, and other darker tints.
Down to this bottom the prospector sinks and takes up the stuff immediately resting on it with a few inches of the bottom Itself, as gold often lodges down in the crevices. In very shallow ground open trenches in various directions, or a number of holes at short intervals, are sufficient to enable the ground to be tested, but in deeper ground it is necessary to open drives from the bottom of the prospecting hole so as to try the stuff along the bottom in any direction desired. The object is to test the gravel resting on bedrock, as that is the most likely to contain gold. In some ground not a foot should be passed over without panning it, as it is not at all uncommon for cold to occur in certain narrow "runs," while promising looking stuff on either side is valueless.
While the Importance of working the gravel on the river bottom is greatly stressed, It is always advisable to pan any layer of gravel passed through In sinking a hole.
Old, abandoned ground, If it has not been too often reworked, will frequently be found to afford a living, or an occasional patch or nugget, if again carefully worked.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday 28 February 1931
