Duffer or too early?

[spikegold]

So we decided to do a bit of digging today along a single narrow band of shallow diggings( Almost looked like original loaming holes). There was a reef about 100 meters up the hill and up the gully. Yesterday we were there and test panned some of the mullock heaps in the small gully, some were blanks but others had couple of specks then we got one that had 5 rough but small gold, this was from about 4 scrapings from the top of heap
. We we're pleased with this and decided to dig between the holes that had ok colour. We dug maybe 3 foot of topsoil. That changed to a mix of clay with quartz for 1 foot then we hit the wash that was about a foot of sharp quartz and mixed stone ( looked great we thought). And it was around the level you'd assume the old boys diggings were digging to. I did the digging and removing of the wash then whilst the missus test panned from the stuff out the hole, from all the test pans we didn't even get a speck.
Now at the bottom of the wash layer was a layer of say 5cm of finer very sharp quartz that was saturated with water and very clean with no clay attached ( almost like washed river sand). We put it down to the recent heavy rains soaking down through the earth and reaching the lowest point such was not bedrock but hard red brown clay then water couldn't penetrate so washed all material just above this point ( sandy sharp stuff) ?? Does this sound right ??? Or may there be other wash or bedrock not reached yet???
We dug down another 30cm or so but hard dry clay continued and digging deeper in that hole without widening sounded crap so we called it an early day and went home.
Tomorrow we'll return to dry blow all the material taken out but don't hold high hopes coz poor pannings from this hole so far.
Has anyone else come across this very wet clean sharp quartz wash directly above hard dry clay??? We dug the overburden from nearby holes to check depth and none seemed exceed ours,
Guess we will see tomorrow what actually comes out of it but just wanna see if anyone has had similar findings?
We thought it would be a certainty that if we had colour from left and right then middle must reflect those,
All replies very welcome.

 

[Tathradj]

Have you hit bedrock yet. ???
In the area you are working is there any recordings of what went on.??
Is there any evidence of a crusher or machinery and puddler nearby.??
If all of the above are addressed and no to all apart from the historic evidence, you may be on a winner.
There was a reason why someone dug all those holes around and you may be just digging into a missed pocket.
Good Luck and well done for being systematic.

 

[spikegold]

Haven't found history on this gully yet, gonna hit the local library Monday to get more info, the gt goldfields are littered with this scenario. Hard to know if worth continuing.
It may be a minor reef as it's off a track to a known reef.
Wash from old holes definitely have been removed and processed elsewhere,
Cheers for the reply

 

[spikegold]

Not got to bedrock.. Was under the understanding that the dark hard clay may be decomposed bedrock, any truth to this??as old boys didn't seem to go to bedrock, if it were there and gold was waiting, one would think they'd have dug the extra effort (within reason)

 

[Goldtarget]

All I know for sure is this mate there's a much greater chance of barren ground than not. I sometimes survey a spot that might number a few to many dozens and wonder which shovel load was a winner. Not surprising that in the end they went and sunk shafts where the gold was in abundance. One man can't help but be overwhelmed at times when you consider hundreds of holes being dug daily by just about anyone who fancied trying their hand. You may find you are a better chance trying on areas that were rushed or left due to things like drought and flood.

Lastly if you don't put the shovel in your chances drop to exactly zero so I applaud your tenacity and drive, if your in the right spot and not lazy your a good chance to cash in. To many times I see lazy in good areas by modern prospecting, like three feet of overburden being too much. That would be my recommendation, find a nice little watercourse and add the same drive and it will pay off.

 

[G0lddigg@]

That angular quartz is rarely the wash layer mate. Expect to hit several layers of angular quartz followed by loam (sandy drift) then more of the same and sometimes a layer of clay. When you hit white clay test above it. In it and below it to bedrock. Its already been said but knowing what gold was won from the area in the first place makes a huge difference.

Hats off for getting in there its hard work....

 

[spikegold]

Goldtarget you are spot on mate, we won't give up, 3 feet of overburden is a gift. It's the clear sandy stuff below wash that confused me, that's where I reckon it is but time will tell .
Might be round bendigo start of next week if you want to have a dig

 

[spikegold]

Cheers golddigg@ good info, but any idea why the original holes have no evidence of pipe clay? Is it possible they got colour in 1st main wash then followed it to the reef above without ever checking bedrock? Suppose past mining records may hold the key, I pray for their laziness

 

[spikegold]

Sorry golddigg@ but that layer where the pick head it sat, I thought it may have been what they were washing and testing, isn't that 1st wash?
Thanks

 

[G0lddigg@]

Only testing will tell mate. Often the area was gridded up and opened before any samples were taken meaning several pits would be dug without any decent pay being proven. Ive dug quite a few pits now and all of them have jad the beat gold on the bedrock. Look at the local geology and records mate they are your friend.

 

[spikegold]

We dug this last week, ended up around 6 foot deep, we got some gold from about 40 cm down in what we thought was 1st wash, then dug through hard red clay until we hit what we thought was bottom ( see pic) and got diddlee squat. Was that bottom by the look of it or have we dropped short?? All other diggings around this were shallower than our hole
Thanks again for the knowledge

 

[spikegold]

 

[G0lddigg@]

Looks like you hit bedrock did you get any clay on top? . Just like any other gully you may be on a high point. .. if you find a decent crevis you might do better.. study the area sometimes you can be 2 metres away from the deep point and there's bugger all. Sometimes its in a wash of mostly 2 to 3 mm pepples. Good luck mate

 

[spikegold]

No white clay on bed rock in pic, we then deg the bed rock another 2 foot just to make sure. Only yellow bedrock. No colour.
I reckon it's gonna be library first though. Thanks heaps for the input

 

[spikegold]

Deg? Not a word lol

 

[G0lddigg@]

Might be false bedrock mate... good luck with the research

 

[spikegold]

This is what came out after dry blowing

We got more from skimming the mullock heap next to our hole lol guess ya win some and lose some, always thrilled to see any colour in the pan at the end

 

[Oldfella]

That looks promising

 

[G0lddigg@]

Nice colour

 

[Hunting the yellow]

hey m8 this may help on loaming for the source

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=359