Dry washing for Eluvial....Is it worth it?

[9od]

So I have a few places in mind but I will just use one as an example.

I've been detecting below a worked reef about 80m long, which was very rich and the area has been absolutely flogged with detectors. The gully was stripped bare also.
I managed to pull 6 small bits over two trips and a nice little chunk of quartz riddled with gold. Now as I said this area has been smashed yet I also got 84 shotty pellets over the same two trips. The ground is very shallow so I realise there isn't a huge amount of dirt I can move, but enough to keep me busy for a while.

The question is...
There is only about 20-30m from the reef to the start of the alluvial workings and the decline is roughly 15 degrees. Can much gold actually settle in this area. I know it will concentrate down further, but can we still maybe see good quantities closer to the source?

It doesn't seem that these areas were stripped very often, just test holes up to the source, yet we find many small nuggets. So is it possible for the fines to accumulate also?

I'm going to have a crack in a couple of weeks and dry blow some bulk samples and also sample the bottom separately, but interested to hear anyone else's experiences (if any) before I do.

 

[Shep]

Dry blowing is very worthwhile if there is gold there. Need to test pan to ensure its not a waste of time.
I am a big fan of my 140s and it can process dirt quicker then one person can shovel it.

Grid the area and test pan, that will tell you if its worthwhile. Last time I dry blowed in a flogged area was at the pine creek dump and
All I did was scrape out 4 x20L buckets from the bottom of a dry creek that runs through the middle of the goldfield and ended up with 12 grams.

 

[Dave63]

I am looking for a Puffer/bellows dry washer. I have only found one place in Australia that sells them. Reeds Prospecting in WA. Anyone got any ideas of other dealers in this type of dry washer.

 

[Nightjar]

9od,
The one most important with Dry BLOWING is you can almost be guaranteed gold in the jar at the end of the day. Find old dry blowings in your area, get permission from owner and go for it. Treat the old heaps, you'll be surprised what the young fellas left in the early days.
We once found an area that had been stripped and a large dry blower, probably not a bellows type and on average we retrieved an ounce of very fine gold from each heap.
Hard work with a shovel but we were younger then.
Dave63, try advertising in the Kalgoorlie markets, dry blowers appear from time to time. Wise decision going for a bellows type dry blower.

 

[Eluvial]

Are Dry Blowers illegal in QLD like the High banker or is the bellow type of Dry Blower ok? From what I've read its a no no. But thought id ask anyway as I know of some rich heaps id like to process..

 

[Shep]

Are Dry Blowers illegal in QLD like the High banker or is the bellow type of Dry Blower ok? From what I've read its a no no. But thought id ask anyway as I know of some rich heaps id like to process..

Hand crank bellows type should be ok.

Yesterday I had to drive to darwin and back so stopped at pine creek and grabbed two buckets from a crevice on a little creek near the town dump.
As most of the gold there is little species I ran the buckets through a crusher and then dry blew it.
Less then an hours work and the dirt is from probably the most flogged area in the NT and I still got just under 13grams.

I love my dry blower

 

[mbasko]

Are Dry Blowers illegal in QLD like the High banker or is the bellow type of Dry Blower ok? From what I've read its a no no. But thought id ask anyway as I know of some rich heaps id like to process..

Motorised type dry blowers are illegal in Qld & NSW. I won't go on too much about the rules only to say IMO they are BS.
Small hobby sized equipment should be allowed but then there would always be some people pushing the boundaries or just overstepping them completely, just like now, which stuffs it for the rest of us.

We need to get the "Jack Winder" into production https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=21526
Considered Go Fund Me Outback?

 

[Dave63]

The way I read the QLD rules is:

I have to manually retrieve my pay dirt. NO Machinery.

Once in a Bucket I can process that dirt anyway I like
Bellows Dry Washer
High Banker
Pan

Cheers

 

[mbasko]

The way I read the QLD rules is:

I have to manually retrieve my pay dirt. NO Machinery.

Once in a Bucket I can process that dirt anyway I like
Bellows Dry Washer
High Banker
Pan

Cheers

It's pretty much been covered before here:
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5460&p=1
In short from the Qld Fossicking Act:
"38 Use of machinery etc. prohibited.
A person fossicking under a licence must not use machinery or equipment (other than a hand tool) to fossick."
Under the Act the definition of Fossick/Fossicking includes the Collection of Fossicking Material. Fossicking Material is defined as gemstones, alluvial gold, ornamental stones, mineral specimens etc.
My understanding is that processing a bucket of dirt to retrieve Fossicking Material is considered Collection of Fossicking Material so the no machinery or equipment rule applies. Always best to make your own decisions based on info from the relevant state dept. though. You can bet their interpretation of the legislation won't match yours/ours!

 

[Dave63]

This has been mentioned above. Talk on the forum is that this would be legal in all states.

We need to get the "Jack Winder"

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=21526

If so how is it different to a hand powered dry washer (Bellows)

Or are we all suffering from the Fog of Interpretation

 

[mbasko]

A hand powered dry blower should be legal too so no difference in that regard. My posts are in regards to motorised dry blowers.
Outbacks invention operates on a different type of recovery to that of a dry blower but is hand operated too. A few people on the forum have witnessed it in action & were impressed by the fine gold recovery of it. It'd be very handy around here at the moment with the lack of water around. :Y:

 

[Dave63]

Cool
So this one should be fine also

https://www.reedsprospecting.com.au/shop/detail/keene-mighty-midget-dryblower/

Hand Crank Bellows version - Good

Add the Electric motor to drive bellows - BAD

The above Jack Winder would be good but, he seems to have dropped of the Forum

 

[9od]

Nightjar.... that sounds great but not sure there are too many dry blower heaps down here, though I could be wrong. I have been working plenty of small to medium size heaps around the gullies but only maybe avg bout a gram for a 5hr run. I'm starting to get better at identifying which ones pay better than others but am still very green and the area I go is quite diverse as far as the geology is concerned. Information on the old alluvial workings there is almost non-existent aswell.

I agree about always going home with gold when you process mullock/tailings and that's kinda why I do it, but now I'm really keen to try and use the drywasher to find deposits rather than just get someone else's scraps. Systematic bulk sampling untested ground is definitely something I want to try.

As mentioned in my first post, what I am really interested in trying is something like this:

- Large area was stripped to bedrock and reef mined out.
- Between the reef and the surfacing is approx. 20-30m of essentially undug ground (except for a few test holes up to the reef.) I THINK?
- This area has been thrashed and yet I got many, many shotty pellets, 6 little pickers and a screaming quartz specimen.
- I know heaps of little nuggies have been detected on this downslope by others.
- Basically no top soil except a scrape, and anywhere from 1 inch to 2 or 3 foot to bedrock.

My theory is that if I'm getting these little .1 and under nuggets with the sdc, and hundreds of other people have too, then does it stand to reason that there should be a butt load more just out of reach of the sdc which essentially no other detector will pick up either. Because its so shallow I figure I could process quite a good size area quickly due to basically no overburden.

Does any of that make sense or have a just totally missed the mark?

 

[G0lddigg@]

dryblowing can be super productive as has been said in old workings, but digging to wash leaving the wash out inthe open for a few weeks then running is also very rewarding. i miss dryblowing now living in SEQ its always just to damp to be productive.