A new respect for the prospectors of old

[jethro]

Hi all I turned up a nice looking sample from the side of an old shaft a couple of weeks ago. it was a very small sample as I only had a small geopic at the time, but when crushed & panned it showed a nice little tail of gold.
So I decided to go back (with a mate) and take a bigger one to see if it was just blind luck or was I really onto a good thing. My mate had something on yesturday arvo so we decided to head up in the morning as I estimated it would only take 15minutes to knock down a 30kg size sample with hammer & gad. Well an hour a good sweat, a couple of blisters and a sore back latter and I now have a better appreciation for just how had the old timers did it. :8
Below is the results of my labours. drying before running thru the flail mill.

The bucket on the left holds the limonite/ironstone ore, the one on the right is the solid quartz with ironstone still attached. The stuff on the sheets is the mullock that I will check also.
and a close up of the ore

regards jethro.

 

[AtomRat]

Lol @ the time differences. Gotta love what's 'meant' to happen on the day

Certainly looks very interesting mate and would love to see your results after a crusharoo!

 

[jethro]

Well all Ive done so far is wash the fines that I screened from the mullock on those two sheets of plastic, probably about a kg or less in weight & I already have a bit of a tail of fine gold in the dish although it is very pale, could have a fair bit of silver alloyed with it . Still Im getting a bit excited.
Yeah atom, the lode looked fairly soft but Ive got to say it was some of the hardest material Ive come across in recent times. Had to spend a bit of time barring down the hanging wall of the shaft as there was a fair bit of loose rock about ready to fall out. On the plus side access is really easy.

 

[magneticsand]

I'd love to see some photos of your shaft!

 

[dwt]

I'd love to see some photos of your shaft!

....................

 

[jethro]

I'd love to see some photos of your shaft!

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I see what you did there DWT. I thought I wouldnt go near that one so as the topic will stay on track, but hey lets have a bit of fun.

Perhaps if this show goes ahead I could call the "shaft." ""My Ladys Reward"" :lol:

 

[Chewy]

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/nFvRvSxsW-I[/video]

 

[jethro]

Sooo............ , Heres some pictures of the shaft..... just for magneticsand .........

In the top pic you can see the quartz vein, it is only about 35mm wide but on the left side is about 75mm of altered slate and on the right side is about 50mm of what appears to be ironstone / limonite. At this stage I have crushed and panned about 4kg of the mullock that came away with the lode stuff and have got a show of gold in every dish.

 

[AtomRat]

Lookin interesting Jethro! Getting signals with a detector or just crushing and sampling?

 

[nucopia]

Nice shaft Jethro
Hope you find some colour

 

[jethro]

Just crushing & sampling. Most of the gold in this field was very fine (with a few notable exceptions) however the average head grade was about 3 ounces to the ton.

 

[magneticsand]

Sooo............ , Heres some pictures of the shaft..... just for magneticsand

ohhh...its so veiny.
Is your gold coming from the quartz or from the surrounding material too?

 

[jethro]

The gold appears to be distirubuted right across the slate / quartz / ironstone as I have only crushed & washed the mulllock that got taken out with the lode when i sampled it and I am still getting a small tail of gold to every 300grm pan full that I wash. Im also getting a grey/ silver scum floating to the surface as soon as I wet the sample in my panning trough. Im 90% sure that this is graphite, as I have sprinkled some powdered graphite on the water & it behaves exactly the same.

 

[magneticsand]

Please keep posting. Very interested in this.
How did you start, do you carry around a dolly or pan some of the dirt?

Edit: Re-read your first post. So pretty much you are out and about getting samples and crushing them at home and this one had enough to justify it. Awesome.

 

[jethro]

Ok so now Im getting more than a bit excited, as I have just run some of the vein stone through my crusher and panned of a 1.75 kg sample for a very nice tail in the dish.

Funny thing is though I haven't seen any gold visible in the stone although the specs are quite coarse.

 

[AtomRat]

Gotta be happy with that! Dig away!!!

"What mountain?! There never was a mountain here, officer! I swear!"

 

[m@ttACT]

Looks the goods Jethro! Nice

 

[jethro]

Ive still not been able to see any gold in the matrix of the lode stone so Im not sure which bit is carrying the gold, The quartz , the ironstone on the left or the altered slate on the right. or all three. I will crush some ironstone & some altered slate this weekend.

Also getting what I assume to be graphite float to the surface as soon as the pan of fines is wet.

 

[XIV]

Have you tried looking at it under a loop.
Should be able to see it through that.
Cheers Kane

 

[jethro]

Kane, Yeah Ive had a good look at it under a lens from a rifle telescope, which is about the same as a 10x loupe. The gold is actually quite coarse and should be easily visible.