12 Weeks To Find First Gold (Persistence Pays).

[Minelab Gold]

Hi Guys,

After chatting with Pete today and writing the previous post, getting some things out the way. Was time to hit the fields for a late arvo swing. Arrived at location roughly around 4:32pm

Time to walk 1.5km into the bush area - well day 29 lets see what it can bring. The odds as you know guys are highly in favor of finding something special, well I did find some special things, and just the general gold - but these targets were great, a piece of lead 0.22 Cal about 8 inches deep. It was under some pretty hard compacted clays and gravels.

When I seen the material I was busting through the guess was gold, but also the only way it could be rust or lead was if it was buried, there is no way in hell a 0.22 cal after being fired could make it that far into the ground through all those gravels and the clay was almost like rock.

What a target though - and guess what guys its now my piece of lead.

Some screamers on top and odd shaped lead - these bullets must have hit something pretty hard to form the way they were. Some looked as though they had grazed something in the travels, maybe one was actually through something that had been shot. Maybe a rabbit

After hitting a couple of rust targets on the way to a specific area I chose to work thoroughly - I set myself the window and worked it pretty good. Some targets found were not noticeable - after removing 3 or 4 inches of overburden and scraping the leaf matter away - or the thick compost type material I pinged a couple of good signals. Just goes to show always that a small amount of initiative goes a long way in the fields. A lot can go even further, Why take the easy road. But we ask ourselves sometimes can I physically turn the bush upside down. Some area's needs a good go over and some its just impracticable.

I will post up the vids later or tomorrow.

These were the gold targets hit today.

The bigger piece - very sharp - cleaned up nicely though. I will need to scope that one up as well, appears to be a leaf crystal structure.

Cheers - hope you enjoy - happy hunting always

 

[Pirate pete]

Well done mate you had another good day so did I found about 6 buckshots in 1 Hole not gold but still good think they may have been practicing there aim lol found a musket ball about 5"down and a 1829 coin silver sixpence I think , good find https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=20665 had a good day,I am off to a different spot today getting the good stuff I hope lol

 

[mardymoose]

Gday MG,
Your post about the frustrations of starting out would have surely resonated with a lot of us.
Thanks so much for giving us some inspiration to keep going.
I personally have found it challenging but the hope of finding some yella keeps me going.
You spoke of "The other big problem was walking creek side in the deep grounds, on the wrong part of the grounds." Could you please elaborate on that a little more as l am not sure of what you are exactly trying to say.
Looking forward to going out and learning some more from you this year
Thanks again MG

 

[Minelab Gold]

Hi Mardy,

Yeah its hard to go into too much detail, only because all area's are different and what you see in the fields can be so much different in the gully I am standing at right now and walk 100 meters further and the grounds change. So its not specific to all but only what is noticed visually while walking. But mainly around area's that I always hit first when I was detecting - deep leads where the top layers were 3 meters deep or more and not knowing how to read the grounds and study up on the main concentration levels.

Learning over the years about the layers and where it shallows out to become a more probable gold bearing material.

Golds a funny thing and surprises us a lot when we find it though, like mentioned in previous posts - all the theories on gold. If they knew exactly then there wouldnt be as much gold left. Even talking with Geologists they have a lot of respect for Prospectors, many say that they know how to tell you what a rock is but many still say that they dont know how prospectors find gold so well. If Geologists knew then again the gold would be gone.

Also some Geologists are astounded by the level of detail and thye accuracy on the old 1800's geological maps when the old timers never had GPS etc and the maps are so damn accurate, just amazes us to think it was all mapped by walking.

Anyway all that aside Mardy, the only way to get the abilities is by walking detecting digging, its nothing that can be learnt over night, but is a skill learned with determination. I mentioned about in my early days, just walking and digging everything - to the point I was enjoying it, but excessive amounts of junk.

After a while my focus level after finding gold was I had this theory that I knew what gold sounded like, hah how naive of me. Every time I found gold it was almost that nice soft mellow low signal you know just the sweet medium even sounds. That we know are 4 to 6 inches deep. So thats all that I was digging, forget the rest and move on, I also mentioned this to some veteran prospectors at the time, and they also said yeah you've got it thats the way.

Looking back on all this now - I just wished I had not been so damn naive and actually tested the gold at different heights. But this didnt occur to me because these veteran operators assured me that gold wont sit on top it will be deep.

How stupid to listen to anyone after proving wrong, I tested all size gold at all depths and wow what an absolute *****. I even had gold discriminate so after 3 years, not digging anything about a mild response - to walking away from anything large at 1 feet deep that discriminated when I put the coil almost on it without a visual, bloody *****. After that piece of gold discriminated on me, and it was only 4 grams - I then asked the question.

Thats it time to change, dig everything regardless - but how do I cope with the added amounts of crap. I structured my system to be if I find these junk area's make note of them on google Earth - because they will still be my junk patches that I can work. Every time I go back some have been cleaned out and it doesnt take as long as expected on some. So I dig 10 or so targets out each time, 5 deep 5 closer to surface. At least I know I am not walking away and continue on these spots every time I am back at the area.

Well after all these years have gone by I learned a lot not to listen and do it all myself, only because those words of being stubborn stuck in my mind, if I ask anyone really do you think they will help. Not likely and its understandable when we know gold does funny things to a lot of people. But only if you let it right.

So time for me to do it all and see how why when where, all of this stuff Mardy.

After all of the years, battling away it just sank in the more I found Gold - noticing everything around me and what the material was like, how deep, noted everything and it sped the learning curve up so fast. Because taking action as we know get results, we take massive action and we hope to see massive results right. So its was now speeding up at a very fast rate the way I was absorbing and learning - well teaching myself I should say.

Not only was I making mental notes, but the excessive amount of notes on paper, writing it down to transferring it to computer I was almost triple on the data input. So things just became clearer a lot faster.

Thats how these sign posts were standing out a lot more. I just dont think anymore I just do. You will get many times that will surprise you in the fields though, after making so many notes something will trigger a pattern change and you will sit and think how the hell did that happen, I havent made notes on that before at all, gold will amaze you on some area that it is found. Shape, Size, orientation, type, grounds, you will get some that have never been covered in your notes - and again you will ask how and why - but it all keeps adding to future findings and will paint the picture bigger and bigger the more you want to paint it. As long as this determination keeps moving forwards

So yeah it is hard to explain exactly on that one Mardy only because every area is different. It will come to those who want it but patience and persistence at the start is important.

Switch the focus level back to finding targets no matter what they are. This helps so much. Because a lot of people get so use to telling themselves it could be gold oh this is gold, this has to be gold - only to be let down when its a bullet, rust, copper or brass etc etc

Any bad habits - like mentioned in Group day - bad habits need to be removed - dont walk away assuming you know, like my junk area's its a system that works for me and I am happy with it, my historical data tells me its 100% junk so far but Im not assuming there isnt something good there. Create and develop a system and strategy that works for you, not everyone might like the same one but ideally the end result is all that matters, if this guy likes to walk left first then hey thats his strategy.

If your current strategy isnt working as why, and change it a bit some people dont like change and flip the coin they dont like defeat.

Train the RAS, the moment its triggered, then BOOM onto it.

80% of the time I say I reckon this one is lead or iron or something other, and the other 20% I say its a good chance that it is gold but who knows it could be a bullet. Rather than having high expectations all the time.

Half full not Half Empty

All the best - Regards M.G

 

[Pirate pete]

Well put MG well i have changed my thinking and I have a game I play when on a target I listen to the tone think for a second and guess how deep it is and try to work out what it is ie Bullet ,buckshot ,musket ball ,Rust nugget , keeps me entertained and I am pleased with myself if I get it wrong like the coin I found the other day thought it was a rust nugget at about 4" wrong lol coin at 1.5 "

 

[mardymoose]

Hi Mg
thanks for your advice, as you say just keep going
I hope to learn although the old grey matter doesn't retain as well as it used to
But none of us should be deterred as the saying goes"keep on keeping on" !
thanks again

 

[YellowFever]

Hi Mardy,

Yeah its hard to go into too much detail, only because all area's are different and what you see in the fields can be so much different in the gully I am standing at right now and walk 100 meters further and the grounds change. So its not specific to all but only what is noticed visually while walking. But mainly around area's that I always hit first when I was detecting - deep leads where the top layers were 3 meters deep or more and not knowing how to read the grounds and study up on the main concentration levels.

Learning over the years about the layers and where it shallows out to become a more probable gold bearing material.

Golds a funny thing and surprises us a lot when we find it though, like mentioned in previous posts - all the theories on gold. If they knew exactly then there wouldnt be as much gold left. Even talking with Geologists they have a lot of respect for Prospectors, many say that they know how to tell you what a rock is but many still say that they dont know how prospectors find gold so well. If Geologists knew then again the gold would be gone.

Also some Geologists are astounded by the level of detail and thye accuracy on the old 1800's geological maps when the old timers never had GPS etc and the maps are so damn accurate, just amazes us to think it was all mapped by walking.

Anyway all that aside Mardy, the only way to get the abilities is by walking detecting digging, its nothing that can be learnt over night, but is a skill learned with determination. I mentioned about in my early days, just walking and digging everything - to the point I was enjoying it, but excessive amounts of junk.

After a while my focus level after finding gold was I had this theory that I knew what gold sounded like, hah how naive of me. Every time I found gold it was almost that nice soft mellow low signal you know just the sweet medium even sounds. That we know are 4 to 6 inches deep. So thats all that I was digging, forget the rest and move on, I also mentioned this to some veteran prospectors at the time, and they also said yeah you've got it thats the way.

Looking back on all this now - I just wished I had not been so damn naive and actually tested the gold at different heights. But this didnt occur to me because these veteran operators assured me that gold wont sit on top it will be deep.

How stupid to listen to anyone after proving wrong, I tested all size gold at all depths and wow what an absolute *****. I even had gold discriminate so after 3 years, not digging anything about a mild response - to walking away from anything large at 1 feet deep that discriminated when I put the coil almost on it without a visual, bloody *****. After that piece of gold discriminated on me, and it was only 4 grams - I then asked the question.

Thats it time to change, dig everything regardless - but how do I cope with the added amounts of crap. I structured my system to be if I find these junk area's make note of them on google Earth - because they will still be my junk patches that I can work. Every time I go back some have been cleaned out and it doesnt take as long as expected on some. So I dig 10 or so targets out each time, 5 deep 5 closer to surface. At least I know I am not walking away and continue on these spots every time I am back at the area.

Well after all these years have gone by I learned a lot not to listen and do it all myself, only because those words of being stubborn stuck in my mind, if I ask anyone really do you think they will help. Not likely and its understandable when we know gold does funny things to a lot of people. But only if you let it right.

So time for me to do it all and see how why when where, all of this stuff Mardy.

After all of the years, battling away it just sank in the more I found Gold - noticing everything around me and what the material was like, how deep, noted everything and it sped the learning curve up so fast. Because taking action as we know get results, we take massive action and we hope to see massive results right. So its was now speeding up at a very fast rate the way I was absorbing and learning - well teaching myself I should say.

Not only was I making mental notes, but the excessive amount of notes on paper, writing it down to transferring it to computer I was almost triple on the data input. So things just became clearer a lot faster.

Thats how these sign posts were standing out a lot more. I just dont think anymore I just do. You will get many times that will surprise you in the fields though, after making so many notes something will trigger a pattern change and you will sit and think how the hell did that happen, I havent made notes on that before at all, gold will amaze you on some area that it is found. Shape, Size, orientation, type, grounds, you will get some that have never been covered in your notes - and again you will ask how and why - but it all keeps adding to future findings and will paint the picture bigger and bigger the more you want to paint it. As long as this determination keeps moving forwards

So yeah it is hard to explain exactly on that one Mardy only because every area is different. It will come to those who want it but patience and persistence at the start is important.

Switch the focus level back to finding targets no matter what they are. This helps so much. Because a lot of people get so use to telling themselves it could be gold oh this is gold, this has to be gold - only to be let down when its a bullet, rust, copper or brass etc etc

Any bad habits - like mentioned in Group day - bad habits need to be removed - dont walk away assuming you know, like my junk area's its a system that works for me and I am happy with it, my historical data tells me its 100% junk so far but Im not assuming there isnt something good there. Create and develop a system and strategy that works for you, not everyone might like the same one but ideally the end result is all that matters, if this guy likes to walk left first then hey thats his strategy.

If your current strategy isnt working as why, and change it a bit some people dont like change and flip the coin they dont like defeat.

Train the RAS, the moment its triggered, then BOOM onto it.

80% of the time I say I reckon this one is lead or iron or something other, and the other 20% I say its a good chance that it is gold but who knows it could be a bullet. Rather than having high expectations all the time.

Half full not Half Empty

All the best - Regards M.G

Not at all amazing when the majority HAD to do it just to put food on there family's table! Accuracy back in the old days wasn't just "beneficial" it was essential to most.

 

[Minelab Gold]

Hi Guys,

Just a follow up on the gold from yesterday - here are the close up images, some crystalline leaf structure found.

Under the microscope when the piece is rotated under the light you can see quite remarkable reflections off the structure.

Also in some of the images you can see how the gold flowed creating a waterfall appearance.

On another side is also the leaf structure

1. The piece on the bottom on this image.

2. Close Up of the inside of the goldfall area. It was hard to rotate and keep focus on the crystalline formation to show you reflection and shape.

Goldfall area

3. Outside edge - Crystalline Gold Leaf Structure

Thought to post them up for you all. I think this area needs a better than thorough search. Be good to get a nice size with better quality crystalline formations.

 

[madhatter]

WOW
that looks magic mate!!
such a beautiful creation and soooo rough and crisp when you see it that close up.
How powerful is your microscope you used?
And the crystallization inside is such an added bonus.

Fantastic piece MG

Cant wait to see its mates when you find them

 

[Minelab Gold]

Thanks MH,

The USB one is only 2.0mp and 50x to 500x Magnification. My other M/S is a lot better, I am looking to get the digital retina for that one to capture the images.

Yeah hopefully can find some others, ideally the mother would be a great find.

Usually can tell when they come out of the ground, but sometimes we just need close up for more inspection of the structures. Even cleaning with a toothbrush can scratch or damage a crystal formation or face etc.

Cheers

 

[Pirate pete]

great pic MG nice to see it that close

 

[Minelab Gold]

Hi Guys,

Just updating thread with some findings today - arrived at location for day 30 around 3:30pm - forgot to put the SD Card back in the camera last night - so didnt get a chance to capture any images in field.

After arriving and going back to the same area where I left off last, I managed to ping a little target, very faint not noticeable in Normal however Enhance did get this target.

After swinging for roughly 2 hours I had finished the window with 2 more pieces of Gold.

I ventured back to the start line which I have set the grid - to continue a new window, and hit a nice junk pile. First piece screamed - well most of these targets did, but this one was a large piece of lead maybe 2 inches down, looks like a 303 or larger - must have hit something pretty damn hard. It is the piece on the top left on the image, second piece to come out of this pile - which was pretty much 100mm away but deeper than the lead was another piece of gold, I actually thought it may have been a smaller piece of that same lead - broken off. Well to my surprise Gold - Its the larger piece in the images. I continued this small junk patch - and the different assortments of things contained in this small area of 2 feet by 2 feet was pretty surprising. So many different bullets, lead and bullet shell.

Another good size piece of lead - second from the left at the top. Again screamed, most of these targets were very loud - got them all out in about 15 minutes.

These were from the 2 feet area along with the gold.

Gold Before cleaning

Nice and clean - 1.23g for the larger of the 3

Some closeups of the smalls - they are 0.15g 0.19g

So yeah was good 5 or so hours out - plenty of targets to keep me going

Enjoy - happy hunting over the weekend guys

 

[Pirate pete]

well done mate that yellow looks really good in the close ups bet you love that coils looks like you have a wider window than you thought ?, will let you know how I go today now that I have joined the dark side lol.

 

[Minelab Gold]

Thanks Pete,

Nooo you havent joined the dark side lol - remember you have come over from it haha. Hope the elite treats you well.

I learnt over the years not to be finished with an area based on impulse.

Yeah it appears this area keeps giving on the edge of the main area that I worked, there are still small windows inside this area but some spots either have a fallen tree too large to move or get the coil under, or very dense prickles which make it another challenge.

One piece yesterday was under a very low lying prickle bush, and needed to show some extra initiative to keep it up while I detected and got the target.

The joys of hunting.

 

[Minelab Gold]

Hi Guys,

Bit busy so I will post these up quick,

Day 31 another success, thats 30 out of 31 now that have proven gold on each occasion. Persist and keep sticking to my R.O.E, Plan the Prospect and Prospect the Plan.

3 Pieces today - a touch under 4 grams - larger piece 3.22g with ironstone

Before Cleaning

After Cleaning

Smaller piece under the scope.

Enjoy

 

[YellowFever]

Love the video mate!

 

[Minelab Gold]

Hi Guys,

Up late - I ended up compiling something for you all, this video hopefully can inspire

It has been dedicated to all you guys who follow my thread - and leave comments and all the rest. As well as a shout out to Prospecting Australia Forum

Inspiration goes a long way guys.

Took some time getting this one together - but well worth the efforts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjTB8oGGYM0

Please also ensure to like subscribe and leave comments - but most important dont close down P/A - open in a new link and come back to the PA Site - would hate to steer traffic away from this forum guys.

Thanks again - and enjoy

Maybe if you dont feel like going out for a swing - you can watch this video and might even get you pumped.

Cheers Minelab Gold

 

[Minelab Gold]

Love the video mate!

Thanks YF,

Was a pretty involved effort that one, worked out well though.

Very much appreciated.

 

[YellowFever]

Brilliant I look forward to your next episode

 

[Pirate pete]

As usual great video should get a few people fired up lol , was looking at your videos and the one you did with the test hole thought this would tie in with that bit far for you I think and also dont think you need to train your ears for the targets lol , but I found it really helpful
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=20708. Let me know what you think .PP