Alluvial Specimens

[navieko]

Hi all -- long time no see. Work/life has kept me away from my love of finding gold for too long these past few years... finally though I'm getting some time to re-capture the gold bug and get on the hunt again! :inlove:

Hoping you guys can help me with this one:

There's this creek that wraps around my property I'm currently at. It's a decent sized creek (capable of very high flood waters) which I've always thought to have very little gold. I've taken samples from various sections of this creek in the past and have only at best ever found a few tiny micro specs (in crevices where you'd typically expect a lot more if there was decent gold).

However, after seeing some Youtube videos of folks "sniping" underwater using snorkeling gear, I was inspired and grabbed myself some gear and thought I'd give it a test run in this creek, seeing as it's an ideal place to do it. Sections of bed rock, crevices, crystal clear flowing water, etc. And right in my backyard!

To my surprise within 5-10 minutes of hopping in the water and cleaning out my first crevices, I was sucking up tiny little chunks from the bottom of the crevices. Nothing much bigger than a match head but considering I'd only ever found micro specs it was a pleasant surprise to say the least!

On further inspection of some of the pickers under the microscope, I realised that the majority of the chunkier bits still have tiny bits of quartz attached. So I first went sniping further downstream to see how far this sort of gold was present, and though I found a bit more a short ways down, a little further (about 100m) I stopped finding anything of substance.

Did the same upstream, and though I did find some finer flakes, nothing resembling the tiny specimens a little further down.

So my question is... considering how isolated I'm finding these little specimens (in such a small section of the creek), is it worth getting a dolly pot made up and scouring the rainforest floor that slopes into that section of creek for quartz samples to crush? It's all pretty dense rainforest surrounding the creek and I haven't noticed any major quartz outcropping when exploring it but I have noticed in the crevices/slate bedrock which breaks apart underwater (where I've been finding some of the gold) there are quite a few small quarts veins which break up pretty easily. Could the gold be coming out of the veins within the water itself?

I've never really delved into hard rock prospecting/rock sampling yet but have been wanting to get a dolly pot for this purpose for some time. Any thoughts/tips on where I should start would be greatly appreciated!

 

[mudgee hunter]

Its always woth a shot.
Every creek varies, even of itself. Gradient over its full length rainfall in the area, etc.
These and a heap of other factors gives each individual creek a personality.
Hot spots, cold spots and a given average for it.
Once you have worked a creeks distance, testing every spot that a varies ( bends, water falls, crevices and up high)
You get to know it, and know your happy average for it.
Very rough, grainy and wirery gold is a good sign of the source being close by.
Check for a gully close by to this occurrence. It may well even be dry 99% of the time. Test pan along it. Treat it like a creek of where to test pan.

 

[user 4386]

Is there more to be achieved with a dolly pot than with a detector? Seems quicker.

 

[navieko]

Yeah true I suppose if there's any ore I come across worth crushing it'll give a signal on my Whites GMT... only issue is my GMT has an issue where it goes beserk (signal overload) soon as I put the gain passed 5. Initially was when I set it to 7+ so it's unfortunately getting worse.

Time for an upgrade soon I guess, just hard to justify the cost of a decent detector living up here in far north QLD where we have very few areas that have detectable nuggets.

Mainly though was just interested in finding out from those more experienced in looking for/mining primary gold deposits (reef gold) if finding a few tiny specimens like I have in a pretty small section of creek (that has no history of gold mining in area and barely any gold in other parts of the same creek) is possibly worth the effort to try and track down -- keeping in mind that the area where the gold is coming from more or less backs onto my property so potentially not a lot of effort in traveling/leg work (though plenty of dense undergrowth and wait-a-while to deal with which can be a pain).

 

[mudgee hunter]

Is there more to be achieved with a dolly pot than with a detector? Seems quicker.

The bulk of gold found in load is undetectable.
Even good gold yields found in quartz can be hardly seen to the eye sometimes.
Veins of gold are rare

 

[DykeHead]

Navieko, You need to thoroughly check the creek further up stream to be sure the specimens stop.
They do travel as they have a lower specific gravity to gold it's self. It is quiet possible that the gold is in the veins you mentioned.
If the finer flakes upstream still have any roughness to them I would continue upstream to search for the golden vein.
It must be there some where.

 

[20x]

Where you got the pickers, was it a flat/minimal fall or straight section of the creek?