Hi Lads,
If you have been following my thread you will know the area that I am talking about here, it has been thoroughly gone over with the GP3500 and DD Pro coil - so what you are about to see are targets that the GP3500 with DD Pro just couldnt see at all.
So today was another great day in the fields, same location as my previous posts, hole of Gold and other pieces scattered in an area that is quite large, I have managed to google earth all of my finds and there is quite a large distinct pattern of the gold flow, this helps me to focus more on this area and then slowly venture towards the outer limits. Also keeping in mind when I venture further out I will be looking for signs of a low area or dips on the upper side of the hill. This area is not a steep degree running down from the highest point would be maybe 10 to 15 degrees.
So when I arrived today at roughly 1:30pm the weather was excellent. The usual drink break on arrival and suited up ready to see what the day will bring.
I was searching for roughly 45 minutes with no targets at all, not even the general ground noise or false target. The machine was dialed in so good and humming excellent - When I started today I was on the right hand side which I hadnt spent much time with the 4500 - more so focusing on the left hand side. Well to start with, when I first took the 4500 and elite out yesterday my central start point was the area where I discovered the hole of gold, and downwards to the left hand side. And yesterday was a great success.
Today I walked from the top section down the right hand side where I havent hit any of the ground with the GPX4500 and Elite Coil for roughly 45 minutes without one target, as I continued further along an area where I left off yesterday maybe within a few meters of the last gold found yesterday was a nice little solid signal.
1. Check this out - as you guys all know target acquired, scrape the top, dig some more and get it out - well being so use to the GP3500 and DD Pro - I could generally gauge the depth based on the signal response, also roughly how big the target is going to be. With this Elite coil it is quite a new thing to guess the size/depth at this early stage - still training the RAS on all these new sounds - when I dug the piece out it was in the large clump because the signal appeared to be at least 2 inches or possibly deeper.
2. Second target today was right next to a tree. This was after I had finished with the top left hand side and ventured down heading over to the area where I had hit another patch previously with the GP3500. I worked the top left side all the way down for roughly another 2 hours today with no more little sounds jumping out. All day yesterday and a couple of hours today.
3. When I arrived to this other spot which is only 50 meters or so away from the lowest part of the left hand side, a fair few post ago I mentioned how I cleaned an area out with all the stick and it looked like a continuation area where the old timers followed a gold run. This is the area I was going back to. Well when I first arrived starting at the lowest point and working upwards and the sides of this gully type section. I swung the coil on the dirt removed from this area by the old timers and hit another little signal within a few minutes, right next to another tree.
4. Next target only meters away from the previous - again another nice little find. This complete area was hit with the GP3500 with extreme overlap on the DD Pro - I am talking 4 inch overlap on a 14" Coil - I use to use this technique for the smaller pieces of gold due to the pattern which the DD see's into the ground with the centre heel and toe. Which is good because I also use this pattern with the mono to ensure full depth coverage.
5. Again the next target - this was roughly 3 meters up from the previous gold target, working along the sides of the low lying area where the dirt had been thrown up and out forming the side walls - you could say mullock. In these images you can see the loose material when I dug into it, also the material being a clay type red oxide, with some signs of calcium clays, and some rocks mixed throughout. You can also see the depth here, and the angle which is pretty much the side wall. I also make a little shelf below my finds in these area's just so nothing tumbles down while I dig the target out, helps to catch the target so you dont have to sift through sticks or leaves if it falls. Good idea in those test holes that have feet of sticks and loose matter.
6. Roughly 4 meters up further along the same side of this undulated area, I hit another solid signal - very faint on the GPX4500 with the Elite but a target indeed, scraped away 1 inch - appeared louder, after the second scrape it was a nice solid sound. This exact spot is right next to where I found 2 pieces of Gold in previous posts - with the GP3500 on this undulated area, at the top where the dirt had been thrown out and partially processed.
Target out and in the hand a nice clump - looked to be a clay boulder with rocks, when I broke this open the actual Gold was in calcrete, I broke this open with the pick on a rock in the filed. And was very surprised to see that it was more than one target in this little cluster. Thats why it seemed louder than the previous smaller sub gram finds. Because of the concentration of sub grammers. Pretty cool though - again GP3500 couldnt see this at 5 to 6 inches
7. Check this one out - appears that this thing is super sensitive picking pieces up this small and the sound these things give when found is amazing. This is now all the way to the top of where I wanted to travel on the previous gold finds, all these pieces were found only because of the GPX45 and Elite Coil. This same tree you can see here again was another previous post where the GP35 found one on each side of this tree, but missed this piece.
8. This section was a little further up from the tree maybe 4 meters up and a few meters to the right, where the line of test holes run down, I havent swung in this section yet, but thought to just go down around the inside of a round test hole. And hit a little solid signal - you can see here in the images how I also formed a small shelf just so any targets didnt run down into the hole.
Turned out to be in this clump - very loose material formed together with grass roots
Broke it open into 3 clumps and the target dropped out somewhere here on the ground.
And there we are another little piece of yellow - in all this time from start to now - I cant even think if I dug any rust or lead, hang on yep there was a little wirey piece of rust and one buck shot pellet just before I got to this undulated area.
9. Well today was getting away so I ventured back near a section not far from where I discovered the hole of gold in the calcrete, this is the central point well the central line - and the hole would be 3/4 of the way down from my top line. Well I will be buggered yesterday when I found a piece of Gold there was a section which I knew I hadnt even swung the GP35 in because of the large amount of compost sticks leaves and everything else that has accumulated in this low area, I cleaned this out and swung away very slowly, and hit a solid sound. I !@#$ myself when I seen what the material was when I dug down. Check this out - in my google earth there is a line of travel distinguished and have worked this line - now where the hole of gold was found this line of calcrete compacted sediments runs exactly in line with the same angle of the material in the hole of gold. This is roughly 12 meters away - guess what I was thinking at this point.
Target out and on the coil - no more sounds in the hole, I even scraped a couple of feet in each direction down to this same level.
10. What I will do is go to this one first - this was the last target removed today, in a Mullock heap on my way away from the area maybe 10 meters upwards of the recent hole discovery. Very shallow maybe 3 inches deep. A nice little piece again. On the left hand side in these images you can see a freshly dug hole which was filled back in - this is the one I will save for last
Thats a lot of dirt removed and filled back in - whats that mean
So after a wonderful day and the second last target removed was quite this thing - today kept me going all day - a little sunburnt with the right arm having the Minelab Sunburn Arm Rest Mark.
Now this is what I have been looking for - I recently posted up that it was on a list of mine and now I can finally tick it off, these things around this area are as rare a rocking horse !@#$ - almost like trying to catch a 5lb Brim - almost as rare as a Dodo Bird well maybe not that rare because they are extinct but that just shows you in 15 years in all my travels around my local area and this new spot that it has been a challenge to find one. Believe it or not my very first find was a 0.8gram but I didnt class it as one.
Well I have talked a bit time to show you guys what I found - hopefully you like it because I absolutely love this thing.
11. Check this out good size hole and this thing was a nice loud signal roughly 1 feet deep. How cool is that all the suspense to see a bloody rock or 2 - how can this guy keep us going for all that time and show us 2 rocks. Gets better dont worry
12. Well time to head home and see what reveals - mozzies were getting bad at this time and the mozzie bite on the sunburned arm to say the least was annoying. When I arrived home - soaked the little nuggets while I crushed some others - took these images before the gold was cleaned.
13. Thought to show you the inside of a rock that was very solid on the response - this thing was almost blanking, well onto the last rock that was removed from the 1 foot deep hole.
14. Now this thing I had soaked up in warm water for roughly 15 minutes to soften up any loose material on the outside - only because I could see 5 or 6 specs of gold out the outside edges when I rubbed it with my hand. This thing cleaned up awesome just from a soaking and a light scrub with the toothbrush
Are you ready for it - I might sound overly excited here but if you could understand the much anticipated wait of so many years and finally getting this you would know exactly the feeling. Enjoy what you are about to see
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15. The wait for this specimen piece - second last piece removed today and this looks great - cant wait to microscope it up to see gold crystal formations - as we know there are 15 or more types of Crystalline Gold
All gold cleaned up 15 pieces for today - excellent day
Well that took longer than expected - I thought to get some close up pics of the Specimen for you all
Hope you all enjoyed the images - and another successful day out on the fields - persistence definitely pays off, dont ever discard an area after a couple of times, be persistent and thorough on your search. This is an example of what has been left from the old timers. And also not hit by detector operators in the past. Just imagine being that person who walks a line with no real plan that they action, wandering aimlessly and hitting every single target except gold - and then dismissing the area for future prospecting. Always know that if there was gold previously found then there will be more waiting
Search hard and never give up
Regards M.G