Ever Found Much On Old Diggings?

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G'day

Old workings can be a nightmare when it comes to metallic trash but its worth remembering that back in the day the old timers used to camp right on the gold so that's where the most trash still is, and in a lot of places its why gold can still be found there if you are keen enough to persevere, as many people will be driven away by the amount of trash causing the area to be only lightly detected.

I don't really have the patience for it like I used to and prefer to walk open ground now, but when I was young and keen I used to target those sorts of areas and did very well in the process with the highest percentage of my gold finds unearthed there, but of course I had to dig many holes for rubbish as well, but have pulled out some very nice specimens and good nuggets, another offshoot of detecting trashy areas is that there is also the coin and relic side to it as well, these days I will work trashy areas with a vlf coin and relic detector with good discrimination rather that with a pi machine mainly for the coins not so much for the gold.

Another thing to think about is back in the day everything was visual as obviously there were no metal detectors, so any spoil around a mine or working was visually gone through for signs of gold and a lot of gold was missed so in many places as its simply was not seen and discarded, I have found specimens with ounces of hidden gold in them with virtually nothing to be seen on the outside so its easy to understand how it could have been missed.

Also as Shep said you might even locate a source that the old timers missed, as many times they just gave up on a spot or took off when another rush stated to a new area, one of the biggest nuggets found was at the bottom of a shallow trench and barely covered with soil, the kicker was that it had a pick mark in it left by the digger of the trench who for some reason or another moved on.

cheers

stayyerAU
 
StayyerAU said:
G'day

Also as Shep said you might even locate a source that the old timers missed, as many times they just gave up on a spot or took off when another rush stated to a new area, one of the biggest nuggets found was at the bottom of a shallow trench and barely covered with soil, the kicker was that it had a pick mark in it left by the digger of the trench who for some reason or another moved on.

cheers

stayyerAU
Which was this? One of the biggest you found or just in general?
Poor bloke probably saw it and had a heart attack if its one of the really big lumps
 
G'day

No I didn't find it, the story was one I read it may have been in an old copy of gold gem and treasure magazine or something similar, they also said that it was common for diggers to up and scatter overnight when news of a new rush was heard so I guess it was first in best dressed when it came to getting some viable ground on a new gold field and also as there were outbreaks of typhoid in a lot of places due to poor sanitation, diggers crapping everywhere and when it rained the water sources were becoming polluted and making them all sick, so some would have also bugged out for that reason too I suspect.

cheers

stayyerAU
 
Probably half of my tally has come from old-timers overburden.
They have shoveled all the gravel from the creek/hole (down to bedrock) up on the bank then only processed the sweepings.
So the last few shovels come from right on the bottom..
Always worth a nice slow swing.

Single 'floaters' are far and few. This one I found alone on top of a mountain, arctic north Finland.
They don't come more FAR or FEW than that !
1583971251_dsc_0714.jpg

Cheers !
 
Its not about finding gold its about getting away from the rat race and a privilege to camp out in the sticks.Looking for gold keeps you occupied and stops you thinking about women constantly.
 
oldtimerROB said:
Its not about finding gold its about getting away from the rat race and a privilege to camp out in the sticks.Looking for gold keeps you occupied and stops you thinking about women constantly.

Totally agree Rob Its good to go out and enjoy nature and forget about rate race I going out tray to lose same weight if I find gold is a bonus :pickshovel:
 

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