OK, headed to a new creek on private property on the weekend. Wasnt expecting much as its not in in the heart of the local mineralisation and I've never seen much said about it. I was expecting it to perform like other similar creeks in the area - tons of black sand but no gold. I pulled up on an inside bend gravel bar which was largely devoid of features but had some sizable freestone boulders. First pan showed 2 specs. Second pan showed 20 specs

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I'm still in exploration mode so I moved up the creek about a km and did another couple of test pans. 10-20 specs per pan. Time to through the sluice in. Had some trouble getting it set up to operate well. I think I need some legs on it. I made a classifier screen for it and it was great. So much better than classifying in a bucket and double handling. Anyway it worked OK and I ended up with some decent gold, some garnets and I think a sapphire. Very happy considering my low expectations. And I've now got what looks like a really productive creek on my books.
Test pan
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Sluice running
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Gold in the matt
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Sapphire?
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