12 Weeks To Find First Gold (Persistence Pays).

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Thanks M.G. for the great report,, It seem like the 3500 is no slouch when fitted with the 14" Elite either, That's a great comfort to know, So I might place an order for one my self after Christmas,

To say that the 3500 can see nuggets smaller than 0.1 is incredible to say the leased, I did not think that they could hit them that small, It seems to breath new life in to the 3500 for sure,

Great Pictures and thanks for taking the time to piece all this together for us, Great Job, and you got a fair share of nuggets too, So well done,

And thanks again,

John.
 
Bjay said:
Well done on your new detector.by the looks of it your going to be very busy going over all the old spots.

Thanks Bjay,

Dig'n-it also mentioned to me about how it opens up all the old places I have been to, I was sitting there thinking today how much ground I have covered in the 15 or so years prospecting with the GP3000 and GP3500 then with the DD Pro

After todays results and the way this Elite performed - it certainly opens up every single piece of ground I have covered, more so that I know exactly where I have found the gold and the patches - so definitely hitting the area's of most success. And slowly dwindle to the area's where I have found a few here and there.

Thanks for the support :)
 
Dig'n-it said:
MG
WOW!
What a great day. Congrats.
You must be so excited to get back out there.
Good luck

Thanks A,

Means a lot - and yeah very happy with the results today - good to be back out at that spot.

Wanna sell your 11" Elite to me? Hah
 
Well mate welcome to the digital age lol ,I saw your face on the training day when everyone hit the targets easily with the 4500's sort off they shouldn't get them that easy lol ,as for me I have just put on my NF advantage coil was out around Ballarat yesterday didnt find any yellow but was really pleased with the way the machine ran, I think its the very first time i have had it running and not getting false signals,hummed along great have to try it out in hot ground as where we were was very gray soil and not high mineralized ground but was happy with the results ,found an absolute bucket load of bullets as big as my finger don't know what they were shooting with them they are big enough the drop a buffalo lol anyway picked up a target at about 14" and when got it out was a piece of steel about 3/4" diameter was happy to have picked it up as it was a very soft signal . By the way all these place you have been too if you need a hand covering them with your 4500 well I will be happy to give you a hand lol and congrates on your finds great start with your new toy many more to come as usual good on ya .
 
Another great post, comparison analysis with supporting photos doesn't get any better than that imo.

Congratulations MG, thanks again.
 
Minelab Gold said:
Dig'n-it said:
MG
WOW!
What a great day. Congrats.
You must be so excited to get back out there.
Good luck

Thanks A,

Means a lot - and yeah very happy with the results today - good to be back out at that spot.

Wanna sell your 11" Elite to me? Hah

Hi T
Don't want to sell the 11" Elite ...... Found 95% of my quantity of nuggets, which equates to 60% in weight, with it. This means my bigger nuggets were found with bigger coils, which makes sense. So the 11" Elite is my go to coil for shallow smaller nuggets and move up to bigger coils for search of larger deeper gold.
However, I do have times when the 11" Elite is just too sensitive to use and have to swap it out. You heard how smooth and sensitive the coil was on our training day. It was great. The following week I was at Goldsborough and with the same settings as I had at the training day I just could not get it to run smooth. I played with settings for 45 mins and then gave up and switched to a 14x9 Evo which ran beautifully smooth.
I do find my 11" Elite doesn't like the heat. Not sure if this is just my 11" Elite or all. It's a bit hard to return it as it is intermittent. I've just learnt to swap it out when it doesn't want to play nicely. However, when it's cool and running smoothly it's dynamite, as you saw.
Something to consider if getting one.
I believe the NF 12" is dynamite as well and has a valve to allow heat to escape from the coil. This may be the issue with the Elite ........ Heat induced pressure built up in the coil causes instability.
Don't really know but I bought the NF 14x9 with valve and it works better in the heat.
Something to consider.
Cheers Andy
 
What a day it was today,

I found something truly amazing for this area - along with some other targets which were also great to dig. All I can say is the 4500 and Elite kept me busy all day.

I will put together my general post on my findings - hopefully I can get it done in time so you can all check it out, if not I am sure you guys will take a look tomorrow. Got another pile of photo's to share. And will explain my findings and talk about how the 4500 ran today.

I am in such awe with the ore that I found today. Wait till you see the photo :)

Will write up the post now should be up within 40 minutes.

Thanks again to all for your support on the thread and following my ventures.
 
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Turned out to be in this clump - very loose material formed together with grass roots
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Broke it open into 3 clumps and the target dropped out somewhere here on the ground.
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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.
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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. :)
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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

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All gold cleaned up 15 pieces for today - excellent day
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Well that took longer than expected - I thought to get some close up pics of the Specimen for you all

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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
 
Congratulations on the Speci MG.
Yes, The years waiting for some thing
like that are well worth it.
Brilliant write up as well. :D :D
 
Mickkat12 said:
How ironic you got the piece you wanted ..... Another a+ post

Thanks Mickkat,

I have found some pieces of gold with very small piece of quartz inclusions - but not a real large amount that covers or has a lot of inclusions, the very first piece of gold that I found was a 0.8g with maybe a quarter of the gold had quartz inclusions - but to me that still wasnt a specimen. If you go by the book it was but I was more so looking for that piece that had multiple inclusions with at least half quartz gold.

This piece ticked more than one box because of the double inclusions and also the crystalline structure. After soaking it in warm water and then giving it a good soft brush submersed in the soapy water I could see gold glistening through the water the more I turned it and brushed it as the clays slowly broke away. When I lifted it out of the water - the look on my face would have been priceless. Spinning it slowly and looking at what was a nice piece of gold.

Most times when I do this it is either an ugly piece of calcrete, or gold trapped in a crap looking ironstone orb, or maybe the hard compacted clay which I get often, found heaps of specimens with ironstone and the common gold in conglomerate, the usual thing I do on them is to just crack it open to expose the gold, without damaging - if the gold is visible I will just leave them - Maybe I should look to soak all my crap looking ironstone ones in HCl. But this piece had that wow about it - after seeing the close ups and you can see the remaining clays trapped - I think another light soft brush would expose some more really nice looking gold and clean the quartz some more.

I just dont want to knock any of the Quartz off it - I noticed when I looked back in the sink a very tiny piece of Ironstone had fallen off and it had a powder size spec of gold on it.

I want to try to get any of the remaining clays out of the piece without disturbing the Quartz and Iron left on it - thats why I wont use HCl - hopefully a couple of hours in warm soapy water will soften up the remaining clays and hit with the soft brush.

Looking forward to the next outing on this area because this piece was found in processed mullock material - this mullock would be 5 feet high from the original ground surface - and would stretch about 12 meters - would be interesting to move this processed material to see if any others are hiding in there. But more so this now tells me that the Miners indeed hit a Primary Source in general location.

Regards M.G
 
Looks like it may have broken off a larger piece at some point, hopefully there's another there just waiting for you. Got 3 small species yesterday but no where near as pretty as that one.
 
Bjay said:
Looks like it may have broken off a larger piece at some point, hopefully there's another there just waiting for you. Got 3 small species yesterday but no where near as pretty as that one.

Well done Bjay,

Its such a great hobby, no matter what size the gold is - don't get me wrong it would be wonderful to hit large ounce/kg nuggets, you know the type that make history hah, or even a rich retirement reef. But just the hunt every time and getting even the smallest of pieces I think the thrill and excitement is more so in what will the next piece look like - not so much how big will the next piece be.

Its great looking at it when removed or cleaned.

All the best
 
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