2017 WA gold trip results

[user 794]

I've taken the gold I found in WA from this year's trip out of acid so I can post some pics.

All up I got about 70 nuggets and speccies. Not sure of total gold weight yet as I have to ascertain the specific gravity of a number of speccies. But anyway for now the tally is 38 nuggets for 24.3g, 10g of crushed gold and 22 speccies with the best ones weighing 21g and 18g of gold content. So that's 73g known and I should get a bit more from the other 20 speccies I have to decide whether to crush or weigh with specific gravity.

A bloke who does the demonstration of panning at the Boulder markets crushed some speccies and panned them for me. He used a drill with a homemade attachment (one of his mates lent it to him) that enclosed some chain links. The tool did a fast job of reducing the speccies to dust and made a lot of the gold into round balls which he then had to make sure didn't roll off somewhere. I had to use acid on the gold collected to remove the chain link metal. The crushing resulted in some extremely fine dust being tossed onto another mate's garden - too hard to collect and some of the dust was floating on the water.

Anyway some pics.

 

[BigWave]

Hey Detectist, for those of us detecting only as a hobby, and not planning to sell our finds, I love your speccies.
I etch most of the ironstone off, but sometimes leave a little to show character. Laterite I always etch off.
Some (maybe most) nuggets are more valuable to collectors in the real found (or near real found) state.
I couldn't bear to part with my finds, so my kids will inherit some goldish stuff?
Anyway, well done mate, and look forward to catching up sometime - possibly at Laanecoorie Gold Bash- or earlier?
Cheers
BW

 

[Dignit]

Detectist
Great write up and photos. You must be wrapped. I know I would be.
Now you can update your avatar with a bigger nugget or specie.
Cheers

 

[user 794]

Thanks guys

Yeh I won't sell the gold I've found, just yet (if ever) but want the experience of doing all aspects of metal detecting for gold. Some of the speccies do not "seem" to have a lot of gold in them and do not "seem" too attractive to me - but lots do. So perhaps I'll crush a few sus ones and learn a lesson or two. Having said that, a couple of the less likely speccies have rough gold sticking out of them so perhaps worth holding for the show and tell story.

Dig'n-it - thanks - the little bit of gold on the half crown in my avatar is to remind me just how lucky you can be.

Bigwave - Sept looks like the month I'll get down your way but not sure which part of it yet. I'll keep in contact. I also want to catch up with Reynard and Mrs Reynard.