12 Weeks To Find First Gold (Persistence Pays).

[Pirate pete]

Well looks like you have stuck again ,another great post ,Hope I do as well tomorrow when we get out I would love to be able to go out most of the time and pull a couple of bits of yellow with all the info you have provided on this thread I hope my poor brain can keep it all in focus LOL THE INFO I mean lol Thanks again for all your time and effort .

 

[Minelab Gold]

Today was a great day,

We all arrived at our destination safely for the group outing, the area was a first for all of the operators. After explaining some details and sharing some stories we ventured into a small test area that was prepared, targets at various depths to distinguish who could get best target recognition with their hardware and settings. All of the operators were able to get the targets and the key focus were those faint targets which we listen for. We all know that a solid target will be easily obtained but training the RAS for the slight changes in threshold is key. Also it was great to see in target area the Nugget Finder Evo Coils - big thumbs up for these coils.

I placed some hot rocks in area's for the guys to test these higher concentrated mineralized rocks, another section was the gold targets on the surface 5 pieces in various sizes attached to rock.

Another interesting target placed only inches below the surface, I wanted to test if any operators would normally walk away or dig the target based on their current strategy of prospecting. I had a few operators sweep across the target and then mardymoose kindly went over the target showing others via speaker. There were some mixed answers ranging from - high low, low high - too loud must be junk - dig everything. I really enjoyed the honesty which helps so many achieve wonderful things. the target was just over 1 ounce of Gold.

After the target area was complete by all operators we went for a walk to start the ground reading - Its always a challenge when we hit new grounds spending much time trying to get the overall makeup of the grounds from side to side of the gullies and how deep the area's are. After determining the levels in some areas, we picked a nice shallow rise where it dips down to the gullies on both sides of the rise. these area's are generally good where it shallows 3/4 to 1/2 way down the incline. As we know the deeper you go near some gullies the ground is just covered with feet of sediment/clay

Within 30 minutes after some ground reading RC Gold hit a 0.61g - nice find after reading the grounds and narrowing down on more potential area's of interest.

After the guys were detecting for just over an hour we went back to the vehicles and headed up to some historical sights, Puddlers and then to a mine area. Its always great when you can split the day and having the joys of historical gold field relics all in one area.

After we completed this, the day was nearing so we all went our own way and ventured back to the area's for some more detecting before sunset. I continued across further to another gully area and found some more potential grounds. Very shallow and signs of outcrops and the complete gully on both slopes has been ripped by dozer - in the images below you will see this area.

All up was a fantastic day - great group of operators - beautiful weather - mozzies held off all day until the end. Below are some images

1. Quartz/Gold Mine

One of the Deep vertical shafts at the quartz mine

Cross intersecting veins

Big erosion - the rock face sliding away opening access to a shaft area - this area was only accessible from the very top but this movement has exposed the hole and is accessible through this section now. 5 Years ago this wasn't there. The erosion in this area over the short period from weathering has caused the opening. Inside this opening the shaft goes up to the surface and large wood holding up the rock - this pocket area would be close to 3mtr x 3mtr

More erosion from the wall

The erosion here has almost covered a previous pocket area where the old miners would have followed the gold in - the section is roughly 2mtr x 2mtr pocket. In 5 years this will be covered for good. You can see the amount of erosion on both sides in these images - in the second photo I wouldn't be surprised if the entire wall face slides down.

Another hole which travels on 40 degree downslope and appears that it would link up to the adit entrance at the very base of this hill.

2 Puddlers side by side - still in reasonable condition

This was the other area of interest found - excellent shallow grounds, 3 gullies meeting around this area, incline upwards of the gullies are gradual and not steep with slight rise sections which could be a potential shelf. Outcrop in first image, there were signs of more just didnt want to take another 5 or more photo's of outcrop area's

Right to left of the landscape 2 gullies with slight incline rise

Directly behind these 2 left to right images - the other small gully which comes from another section the the north side of the hill intersecting into the other 2

A lot of this area has been ripped by dozer - I would presume the ripping of the crop running all the way through this gully area was to potentially expose gold.

Either way this complete area would be excellent for those shallow gold targets and having the angle of the incline with the bend causing a potential shelf opportunity for scattered gold.

This is why it pays to get your bearings on the area, by reading the grounds and focusing on higher probable area's of interest rather than just getting out and wasting a full day or even days of nothing in really deep ground. Add it to the waypoint and next time hit it hard for hours

Again I want to thank all operators who joined us today

Regards - M.G

 

[Leroy]

M.G. Is the 26th November still the date for 2nd group meet?

 

[Minelab Gold]

M.G. Is the 26th November still the date for 2nd group meet?

Hi Leroy,

Thats correct - the area will be near Scarsdale exact location still to be notified to operators, there are 7 area's of interest at the moment. I will post this in PM a few days prior.

 

[Minelab Gold]

As we venture out into the fields on our quest for the good stuff, Today was a day of changing up my normal strategy - the joys of prospecting being able to have such diversity within our system. Not always do we need to swing super slow to hit the bread and butter little sub gram pieces but having the option of swinging faster. The only thing this does is the potential chance of missing those little faint signals and missing the sub grammers closer to the surface

If you want to cover more ground and focus on the 1 gram 6 to 8 inches below or the ounce+ at feet below then we can swing a fair lot faster but still maintaining as low as we can - following all the contours of the ground.

Before going out today I chose a location which I had previously been to - my rules of engagement today were to work faster for any of the bigger targets.

I hadn't done this strategy for quite some time - my main strategy is swing slow with reduced overlap

Some signals today were easily obtained at 8 inches for a piece of lead or some rust - another target that was found the area was covered in grass and leaves was a nice mellow solid signal.

I unearthed roughly 8 targets, all being larger targets than my normal strategy which consists of everything from sub pieces of rust and gold to large.

When swinging faster than normal if your coil is low on the grounds and you find that piece of ground with gold you will get a response - next time you find a target in the ground and it is mellow but solid enough - stand there and test your swing speed - this will help you determine a speed which the target can still be obtained at - so when you unearth the target it will provide you with an understanding of speed vs size and depth achievable for that particular size target.

Many people wont take the time to study all of these parameters while prospecting they simply find the target dig and fill the hole and move on. To speed up your learning curve and increase some target response knowledge - take the time when you find these targets - they wont go anywhere until you dig it out - test your speed, change settings to see if you can increase the target response - when you dig it out make a mental note or note down the depth and size even if it is a rust blob. It could have quite easily been a gold blob

Every time you make mental notes it helps as you progress in your journey of gold prospecting, it will also help to develop a pattern of strategies and when you hit the fields you can change strategies just to break the day up.

Much like Man vs Machine - 2 guys - one man using his detector pulls out 2 1/2 ounces in roughly 20 or so pieces over 2 1/2 days by swinging away on his detector - the other operator dragging the large coil behind the quad bike and pulls out one nugget at 3 1/2 ounces

Speed can be debatable - too fast too slow - the most important thing to know that is if we choose to swing fast and low then we have the chance to miss the little bread and butter pieces. How slow is too slow and how fast is too fast - I dont reckon I could swing my detector faster than the quad bike and I would be happy with the 3 1/2 ounce piece at quad bike speed. In saying this I would also be happy what the other operator pulled out in 2 1/2 days

These systems come down to what you like doing and what is most enjoyable and rewarding - many area's just wont allow swinging fast with only 30% of the grounds being actually accessible to detect because of the amount of bush density.

Here are only a few images for today

1. Beautiful mellow signal - solid response - 1 foot down - nice piece of rust with rocks attached - the area didnt appear to be tailings but noticed when I took the top layer that it was rock pile.

2. And this is why we always ensure to take note of every little step we take and assess the grounds when we are working - look at this image - would you want to be walking backwards prospecting here - or even forwards looking over in the distance.

This shaft is narrower than most and was not easily noticeable until only feet away

No gold today but was happy with the targets that I hit - not as many as usual but the targets were larger in size good depth which is exactly what I was expecting going into the fields using the strategy I chose for today.

Give it a go next time you are out - test speed vs target response vs depth on your next targets - dont be afraid to play with your settings whats the worse that can happen lose some depth - then change it back - or better yet you may just increase your response and gain some inches.

All the best

 

[user 7222]

Thanks MG for Saturday's get together. You claried alot of stuff in my head. Great time and good learning ,for me.

 

[user 7222]

I forgot to post this from Saturday

 

[Bjay]

Bugger that that post holding up the roof looks like its slowly splintering

 

[RM Outback]

Bugger that that post holding up the roof looks like its slowly splintering

X2, be careful out there Patrick1 and photographer.

 

[user 7222]

It WAS a little sketchy. DID NOT stay long.

 

[Kaiser Soze]

Do people really detect on quad bikes? 8)

 

[Minelab Gold]

Do people really detect on quad bikes? 8)

Yeah mostly in area's which are large and open. Pretty sure the Man vs Machine video clip that I seen was old footage on Youtube - if you like I can look for the video and upload the link for anyone interested in viewing it.

Coilteks - 40" x 20" Anti Interference Drag Coil

 

[Kaiser Soze]

Wow, ok.

 

[Minelab Gold]

Hi All,

Well today was one of those days we all hope for - this is why it is critical to inspect all area's thoroughly - back to my favorite strategy - low slow with increased overlap. The day started with hunting in a particular area - and venturing off to follow a line of quartz poking out to the top of a hill area. When I stumbled across a section on the west side of the hill it looked promising. As I walked down into an area what appeared to be a shelf - but no gully just raised sides with a slight undulation on the ground - I stopped to inspect further as the quartz appeared to turn into a red clay base.

I wont post up all the images and explain in full detail as it is getting late - I will finish this post for you all in the next day or so.

The first target that I hit was very soft what appeared to be a buck shot size target - when I scratched 3 inches away from the top the target was in the pile

1. The target was here - as you can see Red Clay / high mineralized dirt

2. This was the target pulled out - very small indeed - well I thought that it could be either a small piece of gold or anything with the faintest target

3. As we do we always check the hole after target removal - and to my surprise was another faint signal not heard from the top surface level but only by putting the coil into the hole - and out came this sub grammer - and then another a few more inches below

4. All up this hole had 6 pieces and one very reefy piece which was an excellent size - when I got down to the depth of the large nugget which would have been 1 1/2 feet and placed it back in the hole the detector had no way of finding it unless I placed the coil 6 inches below the surface level. Each small piece led me to dig deeper and finding this larger piece

5. None of the pieces would have been found if I didnt find the small nail head - after I found 4 pieces there were no more targets - I scraped 100mm off the top around the edges of this hole - roughly 1 feet in each direction and this is how I got the other signals.

6. I also took a photo of the material and colors for you all to see - its hard to see in this image but the red clay you could see whites, red, thicker red in certain areas - many times when you hit red clay it is often a solid concentrated color.

7. After this hole had no more faint signals - moved a few sticks and other within close proximity of this area - no more signals. I continued to inspect the area and noticed towards the high side some larger rocks just where the broken quartz appeared to start - when I continued up to this area maybe 5 mtrs upwards - basically to work on slope angle we often picture water flow and also the analogy of if you had a ball where would it roll from to be here. From this hole I didnt get any targets at all - there was a lot of sticks, branches etc - so I moved sticks and branches just to where the ground level started to rise out of this shallow - originally no targets at all - after moving some sticks a faint signal after scarping a few inches signal increased - appeared to be a very uneven signal but definitely a target. After digging out around what appeared to be just a large rock in the ground - this thing was not budging at all.

I thought to scrape around it to pull it out easier, not a chance this thing was in there and not budging.

Cleaned the top area around this rock and noticed this was an extremely hard base - all soft material was removed and what I thought was the target was still in the rock - Calcrete outcrop.

Now this is where it gets interesting

 

[Tathradj]

Dang,
Now we have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Pirate pete]

great day MG and you left us hanging lol cant wait to see what that is, by the way what were the gps coords lol.looks a bloody good area, were you by where we did the training day ??? just thought it maybe the area you told me that you had found after we had finish good on ya anyway .look forward to see what the next chapter holds .

 

[Reef Rover]

Is it Tommorrow yet? great cliff hanger! I'm really looking forward to the results. Again great post MG. regards Richard

 

[aussiefarmer]

Dernt dernt derrr 8)
You should write story books mate this is a cliff hanger , can sense your passion in the description

 

[Minelab Gold]

Hi All,

Here we go then I will summarize a few things from early yesterday with some extra images provided,

1. These are the follow up images for the first 6 targets - after hitting that little nail head. Rather than writing description for each image I will explain my findings here for all of these images in the first group - after finding that faint little signal of the match head size nail head - it lead me towards finding all of these targets which could not be heard from the surface - after scraping away 3 inches there it was a faint little sound out of the hole - I was amazed by the size of this rusty piece being able to hear just that slight threshold break and getting it out - even though it was rust to get such small pieces is pretty amazing just how sensitive our coils are.

The day was excellent for EMI and the focus/concentration level was heightened hearing every little blip on the radar. After removing the target and going back to the hole just to double check I heard another faint signal - when this was out I was amazed to see some little color - there were 2 other targets very very faint in the first pile and second pile that I had removed. Again these 2 targets were again little pieces of color - after the hole was roughly 6 to 8 inches I went back in the hole to see if any more faint sounds were in there - and to my surprise was a solid target which appeared to be roughly 6 more inches below based on signal response - after removing this target it was a very nice looking reefy alluvial piece of gold.

As mentioned yesterday I didnt get any more hits in or around this hole or even in the dirt removed - I scraped upwards from the hole and hit the other targets after taking roughly 100mm of top soil away and was surprised to hit more targets. How deep do we go and how far should I scrape the top - this area is looking like the level may just be out of reach for the coil to respond - gaining that extra 100mm might be the key to getting many more hits.

After the hole was showing no more signs of targets - I placed the dirt back in the hole by scraping and inch in the hole off the top of the piles and continued this just in case there were those little faints halfway in the piles or even at the bottom. Just to be sure that there were no more in the dirt.

First port of call for an area like this is to get to the hard bottom - see what is below these softer reds. I will post any findings of the material levels after I dig deeper. All of the smaller pieces were great - pulling that bigger reefy was very interesting - I will choose another spots upwards from this hole when I dig below the red.

Ok that was the first little patch/hole - to me that was a great day - even one piece of color is rewarding no matter what the size or quantity is. We all know how much of a battle it can be in the Golden Triangle.

Like I said yesterday when I left this post - maybe you all were left in suspense especially reading these words - "Now this is where it gets interesting" and seeing a hole with a rock.

1. Firstly I want to share an image with you all to look at this area - showing you how I noticed it and what to look for - see how it is an undulated area rising at both sides and towards to top of the picture - the incline upwards through the centre would be only 10 degrees - very slight rise - when looking at this image look at the amount of over burden - just what we all love. I mentioned to our group members the other day takes only minutes to remove a lot of this overburden to have a good detectable base. After a few minutes I was back on the machine

2. As I moved towards the back of this area where it starts to rise on the sides - basically the back right hand corner - I had a target through the overburden compost that was 3 or so inches thick - when I scraped this compost away the signal increased but the signal was very wobbly swinging in both directions - after digging away I hit some rock on the ground and I thought it was just some large quartz rocks on surface or moulded into dirt from sitting. I tried to pry them up with the pick - with no luck these things were not budging at all - often you can see if a rock is going to move from movement. Not these ones. After further inspection and removing all top soils/dirts that were on top and around this I noticed I hit hard base material all the way around - when I checked again with the detector the signal was again very wobbly and hard for me to interpret - the detector had no problem it knew that this was a signal

I thought well this is 100% Gold unless somehow a piece of steel had worked its way into a rock hard base material - I have seen some pretty amazing things in all my years of prospecting - but the belief was still there that this was a gold target.

Here you can see the rock sticking out - well 2 large quartz rocks very water worn - and the hard base material was a mixture of calcrete with the signs and colors of iron oxide irontstone. Again the target was increasing with every little bit taken away - I had to make do with what tools that I had because the hours were getting away after the first hole. I only had my mid size pick and no tools for chipping rock - when I had found the softer spots and trying to work around the target was hard because the signal response wasnt clear enough to get an accurate centre point - my focus was the louder signal being the more concentrated of the target so I marked a circle and chipped around that area.

3. And there it is guys - a nice looking piece of gold successfully removed out of the calcrete hard base material with the mid size sharp end of the pick - by chiiping around in the softer spots and working it until this section just broke away clean. As you can see in these images the are multiple bits of gold in this one piece. And to me that was why it was giving out that wobbly signal response 2 or 3 targets all within a 100mm close proximity of each other. Well thats what I thought

4. After removing that piece no scrape marks perfectly executed - what comes next is just exciting - I also want to make note that anything here is purely for findings and what to look for when you guys hit a piece of gold in calcrete or a conglomerate mass. As many do when they first start prospecting they find gold, fill their hole - then detect maybe 2 to 10mtr radius around it and presume the gold is no more and walk on their merry way in search of the next piece. Study the ground study the gold it helps a lot, if you cant work out how the gold ended up there then take notes because one day in the future you may just work it out and then you can always visit those grounds again.

So here we go after removing that piece I picked the detector back up and the loud target signal was still in the ground and still wobbly like before - yeah thats right you know what I'm thinking after removing that piece, How many more and how deep - I was trying to pinpoint the best I could with the amount of targets coming from this small section so I worked away each piece making the hole maybe 1mtr radius just to remove the outer dirt and material from the sides - and when I did this there were more targets on the right hand side.

5. Firstly I wanted to remove the larger waterworn rocks here in this first image - after these were out gaining extra 80mm or so the targets increased.

6. After chipping away some more I managed to use the pinpointer when I got close enough to pinpoint the majority of this concentration - again ensuring that no gold was damaged on removal

7. And here it is another piece successfully removed there was only a little sign of visible gold - but the main piece which was making the pinpointer buzz like mad was in this piece. I placed this aside and again grabbed the detector to search the next target

8. After chipping away - the top cracked off this section exposing Gold still in its natural form in the base material

9. After more chipping away at the rock it just kept coming target after target - here are some more images of the material with gold and the hole. As you can see it not an overly big hole area - Im guessing it could be a small concentration - who knows only time will tell

I never thought that I would walk away from gold still in the ground - this hole still has multiple signals and looking forward to heading back out to see what comes next. After analyzing the findings and documenting a lot of things this has been a significant find and looking forward to opening up the section around this area and hopefully tracing the calcrete to the outer edge whether I can find the raise and this is the dip. If this is not quite the dipped area then maybe a richer pocket is still somewhere in close proximity.

Anyway that was a very exciting day yesterday guys and I am sure you will agree that something like this doesnt happen often - I really hope that the information can help in what to look for when you hit the crete. Not only were there good size pieces of gold but the tiny little bits that I wasnt expecting and only after bringing the pieces home and inspecting further while soaking the calcrete and breaking it up as necessary then I established the concentration of a lot of other small pieces through the mass.

All up I had removed 25 pieces and a small rusty nail head. With more still in the hole which will be tomorrow. Unfortunately today I couldnt get out but looking forward to tomorrow.

Here are some images of the cleaning process - some still look greyish due to calcrete still on them. I really love the reefy piece with the close up pics check out the quartz inclusions - I also left some pieces in the base material and other just fell out when cracked.

This was the larger piece that wasnt visual at all in the piece that I chipped out.

All Pieces together

A nice little quartz crystal when some quartz was smashed apart

This is some close ups of that reefy piece - very cool looking

I really hope you all enjoy this and get some insight - look for those undulated area's - follow the rocks and read the grounds. This was one of my most enjoyable days through my journey in the world of prospecting for that elusive metal. Can be challenging but also rewarding and most importantly enjoyable.

Will post up the final findings tomorrow after I return from the fields - if I cross my fingers and pray to the mineral gods then maybe this hole will keep going for a while.

Thanks for the comments to all - really means a lot

 

[Minelab Gold]

great day MG and you left us hanging lol cant wait to see what that is, by the way what were the gps coords lol.looks a bloody good area, were you by where we did the training day ??? just thought it maybe the area you told me that you had found after we had finish good on ya anyway .look forward to see what the next chapter holds .

Hi Pete,

No it wasnt at the area where we had the group day - cant wait to get back up there though and hit some of those untouched mullocks, - well all but one that I could see - how impressive was the amount of dirt moved by those previous operators - tell me they didnt find a nice piece or multiple pieces. Always good to inspect the area's and make notes. Even the large shelf area between those 2 main gullies would be great - lots of ground over there.

As for that large gully type area with the surfacing or dozer ripping through to expose the reefs that would be an excellent area to comb over.

All the best - I will have to check my GPS Way Point and send the Co-Ords through