Sheesh Meta, does a person have to spell it out, you were laughing at your own imagination. Answer.... Yawn, because........that was when I was a new chum and was all I had or knew about. Which naturally lead me to understand they were far from accurate. Which in turn lead me to get all the map info I could. Which in turn lead to my recent comment on them. You think of that? :lol:
Deciphering Doug Stone maps and trying to correlate that with GeoVIC
- Thread starter Oz_Gold
- Start date
Help Support Prospecting Australia:
Jon said:
Sure did mate, you know me...always thinking of a better way to do things!
Just saying that you don't need pinpoint accuracy in maps to find gold, a general direction is all you should need..... but you know this already.
Use them to get where your going, know your basic geology, read the ground and vegetation around the area when you get there (its always changing) and make your own determinations from here.
Tread your own path is what I always say.
Never give in Jon, gold has a funny inclination to turn up in places that you least expect.
I know you will be successful because your persistent, patient and diligent. Map or no Map!
Good luck dude
Edit...well maybe not so patient
but you will develop all skills needed if you keep at it.Maps are great and a useful resource for sure, but they alone will not put gold in your kick, no what I mean?
What these guys are doing with maps and software in this thread is superb stuff, research is the key, but always remember that the map your looking at for reference to help you find gold, so are 10,000 others.
Cheers mate.
WalnLiz
In remembrance, April 2024
10,000 others have seen them and 15,000 others have already swung a detector over Dougs maps. Good to revisit with a 2300 though.
Good to revisit with a 2300 though. 
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2014
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 1
I've used Doug's map as my primary info source for years. THey are in my glove-box on every trip. They may not be deadly accurate but they don't need to be. THey give you a very good idea of where to start looking and from there, once your 'feet on the ground' you can work out yourself the best spots to search. There is nothing to beat a short walk through the bush to see for yourself what has been happening in the area. The more you walk around and observe & ask yourself - "What happened here" or "What can I interpret from what I see" the more you'll learn to read the ground.
On a different topic you raised, the way to tell a reef mining shaft from a Deep Lead shaft, look at the overburden or mullock. Reef mines will always have jaggered broken rock from their digging into the vergin rock, Deep leads will include some river smooth rocks from the ancient alluvial stream bed.
On a different topic you raised, the way to tell a reef mining shaft from a Deep Lead shaft, look at the overburden or mullock. Reef mines will always have jaggered broken rock from their digging into the vergin rock, Deep leads will include some river smooth rocks from the ancient alluvial stream bed.
WalnLiz said:10,000 others have seen them and 15,000 others have already swung a detector over Dougs maps.
If finding 0.5g nuggs on a Sunday arvo is your thing, then yes for sure.
Im betting not many serious prospectors have loamed and sampled most of these areas for deeper deposits that may have been missed.
But that's another story for another forum section I guess.
Detect on my friends.
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2014
- Messages
- 271
- Reaction score
- 660
Maps are only points "but" they can be very helpful if you read them with the report of the area and it could be that 10,000 are not looking at them like that.
I would like to ask a Question or two
1. If you were on a hill and there was a line of shafts with large Mullock heaps then would that make the gold deep from the top to the bottom ?
2. If the Reef could be seen running up the slope of a hill and the reef line was open up from the base of the slope to the raise of the hill then would you think the gold was only in the rock that was extracted ?
3. If you see a north south reef line on a hill that had deep shafts on it then would you think that gold could be on the slope on the next hill north and south of that ?
Just want to know if you would think this would put you off, from Detecting there.
I would like to ask a Question or two
1. If you were on a hill and there was a line of shafts with large Mullock heaps then would that make the gold deep from the top to the bottom ?
2. If the Reef could be seen running up the slope of a hill and the reef line was open up from the base of the slope to the raise of the hill then would you think the gold was only in the rock that was extracted ?
3. If you see a north south reef line on a hill that had deep shafts on it then would you think that gold could be on the slope on the next hill north and south of that ?
Just want to know if you would think this would put you off, from Detecting there.
1. A line of shafts on a rise would indicate to me that they were chasing the reef on an anticline (older rock flow). Large mullock heaps (waste) would suggest they went deep with the the reef dipping almost vertically from the strike, and they would not have done this without sufficient gold in their samples on the way down.
The hill being way out of detector range on the reef with mostly fine gold shedding, however depending on the friable state of that reef, many sheds of coarse gold may appear directly downslope in the drainage gullies below....this is were I would be concentrating any detector efforts including the sides of that main slope on the way down.
2. No I wouldn't, if a gold bearing 'worked' reef was running upslope it is without doubt that it has shed some gold either side of the upward rise in the past before it was worked. The amount shed is again dependant on the friable nature of the existing reef. the trick here would be to loam sample either side to establish where the shed was most prevalent, and then focus any detecting energies to that area.
3.Quite possibly so if your following 'line of reef'......the best way to tell would be measurements of strike and dip from the original reef line in order to give you an indication of the reefs continuance along the suspected bearing.
After determining that this is so, test pan loams to ascertain possible gold content if any, and establish a numerical quantitative assay of grams per tonne!
The hill being way out of detector range on the reef with mostly fine gold shedding, however depending on the friable state of that reef, many sheds of coarse gold may appear directly downslope in the drainage gullies below....this is were I would be concentrating any detector efforts including the sides of that main slope on the way down.
2. No I wouldn't, if a gold bearing 'worked' reef was running upslope it is without doubt that it has shed some gold either side of the upward rise in the past before it was worked. The amount shed is again dependant on the friable nature of the existing reef. the trick here would be to loam sample either side to establish where the shed was most prevalent, and then focus any detecting energies to that area.
3.Quite possibly so if your following 'line of reef'......the best way to tell would be measurements of strike and dip from the original reef line in order to give you an indication of the reefs continuance along the suspected bearing.
After determining that this is so, test pan loams to ascertain possible gold content if any, and establish a numerical quantitative assay of grams per tonne!
Thanks for the words of encouragement Meta, one day perhaps I will find a bit. That's when I finally figure out all these stupid maps and what the X's are, ar, hang on those are little picks and shovels crossed over each other. So that's what they are, hmmm, I think I should dig there :lol:
Guys thank you for your input and help! It's appreciated...so we're back from Beaufort! No colour to show sadly but my technique has definitely improved (or the detectors better lol - we used GPX5000s) as I was picking up quite small pieces of shot etc from around 15cm or so deep. I've got lots more questions after having been out there but I'll save that for another topic. We're going to try again when the weather is a little more friendly - stinking hot out there today, and we'll probably head to another field. One point I noticed on GeoVic - there is also a shallow/deep lead alluvial deposit key (pink for shallow/red for deep) - would that help give an indication as to the depth of alluvial gold (obviously yes). What I mean by that question - in beaufort the alluvial is deep so, and please bare with me and correct me if I'm wrong, there'd be two ways of finding gold here:
1) knowing where the reef is and working the shed east and west of the reef (of which I couldn't find any mapping indication as to where the reefs are - is beaufort an older field than those further north in terms of geological age?)
2) working around the old deep alluvial diggings hoping that the old timers have missed some
Does that then mean that, let's take for example maryborough, I noticed some shallow alluvial leads (pink colouration) there, does that then mean that, in maryborough, there'd be more areas where the gold is within detectable range and you'd then be detecting more on reef shedding rather than hoping the old timers have missed stuff when working the deeper alluvial? It also seems the reef locations are a bit better known in maryborough too
1) knowing where the reef is and working the shed east and west of the reef (of which I couldn't find any mapping indication as to where the reefs are - is beaufort an older field than those further north in terms of geological age?)
2) working around the old deep alluvial diggings hoping that the old timers have missed some
Does that then mean that, let's take for example maryborough, I noticed some shallow alluvial leads (pink colouration) there, does that then mean that, in maryborough, there'd be more areas where the gold is within detectable range and you'd then be detecting more on reef shedding rather than hoping the old timers have missed stuff when working the deeper alluvial? It also seems the reef locations are a bit better known in maryborough too
Moneybox
Philip & Sandra Box
We spent good money on Doug Stone's WA maps and yes some of them led us into areas where we found good gold. Those were the ones that either had the coordinate scale on the perimeter or some reliable reference points.
Other maps seem to be designed to get somebody terribly lost in the WA outback. There are no coordinates anywhere, no mile markers, no reliable landmarks, no roads or creeks where they are indicated to be. In fact we're sure some were even reversed or upside down. I've received much better mudmaps drawn in the sand and I didn't have to pay for them.
Other maps seem to be designed to get somebody terribly lost in the WA outback. There are no coordinates anywhere, no mile markers, no reliable landmarks, no roads or creeks where they are indicated to be. In fact we're sure some were even reversed or upside down. I've received much better mudmaps drawn in the sand and I didn't have to pay for them.
Hey Detrack, I have now... That is one serious map... Any books on how to decipher it? Lol. I mean I can translate the colours etc from the legends... But what does it mean ? I can see the alluvial gold areas are correlated on Doug Stone & GeoVIC
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2013
- Messages
- 3,271
- Reaction score
- 4,827
Some more opinions on the new one
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9554
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9554
Similar threads
