Fine gold found in river bed < BUT Need advise?

[Zakman]

Well I got some fantastic training from Graham Ashton In Dunolly last week after which i proceeded to my self determined spots near Kyneton Vic.

I found a nice dried up river bed which had slate crossing at 90 degrees which my GMT picked up as a positive Gold Sound after exploring this spot i could not phyicaly see any gold expect the indications continued in each hand full of soil.

So I took the digging back to the farm and panned only to fine gold speck.

My question is after finding a location like this what the best way to proceed obviously I can pan more but the gold has come from up the river. There are a lot of mulik heaps around this spot.

Thks Zak

 

[TheSilentBugler]

Might be trapped in the slate, The water pressure of flood events can open crevasses enough to trap nuggets, then close them up again, they are ofte all but invisible, poke, pry, and detect again. Especially id the leaves of the slate are vertical.

Have a read of Lannys thead on treasurenet, a thoughroughly enjoyable read about his detecting experiences in Canada. No link handy, but its called "Bedrock and gold the mysteries" massive treat full of wisdom.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Grab a chisel or a pry bar and split a few of the pieces of slate open, you may find they are closed at the top and open at the bottom... water pressure will push the layers open ever so slightly allowing bits and pieces to be forced in. When the high water pressure drops the gaps will close up again.

If you can post a pic of the offending slate then more info may be able to be offered to you. If it looks anything like the slate in this pic you should be able to work it lose with the right amount of elbow grease and a good hammer and chisel.

Good luck

Tone

 

[G0lddigg@]

keen to see some pics as well, your in the right area for flat gold in slate crevices, sometimes you will find a 1 cm gap can open right up enought to put your hand in, is there water in the area that you can process in a highbanker?

 

[HeadsUp]

Grab a chisel or a pry bar and split a few of the pieces of slate open, you may find they are closed at the top and open at the bottom... water pressure will push the layers open ever so slightly allowing bits and pieces to be forced in. When the high water pressure drops the gaps will close up again.

If you can post a pic of the offending slate then more info may be able to be offered to you. If it looks anything like the slate in this pic you should be able to work it lose with the right amount of elbow grease and a good hammer and chisel.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...88/1377950926_2013-08-31_08.56.57_600x800.jpg
Good luck

Tone

hi tone

in your photo , is upstream to the left side of the pic ?

just curious

sexy bit of riverbed there

 

[TenOunce Tone]

HeadsUp, mate, this structure crosses the stream bed at about 30 to yhe flow. Not a true rock bar in the sense of 90 but more for illustration of slate that can be split open

Cheers,Tone

 

[Digit]

I found a bluebowl for gold 50 mesh and under is easer than panning
Don't get me wrong you can pan this fine gold by panning small amounts
at a time. As i have just learnt to be very patient with flat or flake when panning

 

[Teemore]

Hey, Well done Zakman,
Not sure but the experts may be able to advise further ...
If it's really fine is there a chance you can get concentrate from scrapping for the downside of the 'ledge' and from any crevices you can scrap (maybe after pulling some of the slate apart ....... assume a small Angus Mackirk type sluice would be appropriate (if you had water flow nearby).
Great start anyway.

 

[Zakman]

Thank guys this really helps. ( Hay GoldDigg. Whats a Highbanker? ) I cant get a picture for a few weeks as Im traveling again. The slat crosses at 90 degrees about 15 inches wide and only protrude above the sand by about 3 inches.

Unfortunately no water its a very dry creek even after a days rain. I will do as you suggest and slowly open the slate and the re-detect for larger peaces, then I just collect the diggings and pan them back at the farm.

In the 2 days after my training with Graham Ashton, I found an abundance of lead, bolts, can pull ties, so this river bed spot gold was a real mind bender as I was trying to find a test sample so I could use it for soil settings. Anyway I bought a .5 gm test sample which works well.

i will slowly work my way up this river / creek and check out the mulik heaps really slowly. Im very happy with the GMT its very good but I plan to pick up my GPX 4500 next week so I will have the best of both worlds.

One more question about permission on private land. i thought all land was accessible if you remain within 22 mts, thats one chain either side of a running river, Is this not the case ??

Appreciate you help guys . You make hunter more fun

P.s Thanks Teemore, I really appreciate your encouragement.

Zak

 

[G0lddigg@]

Hey Zakman a highbanker is a Sluice with a hopper attached to the top which has spray bars to break up and classify your material before running through the sluice (not always there's many variations. heres an example of one of mine, google highbanker and you will see millions of variations. not much good to you if there's not water to run off to process your material.

regarding crown land its a bit grey, i'd use the dse website myself its really easy to establish which areas are crown and which areas are under lease.
http://mapshare2.dse.vic.gov.au/MapShare2EXT/imf.jsp?site=geovic

 

[G0lddigg@]

ON a side note looking around your way this area looks particularly exiting to me, I wouldn't be surprised if the Coliban Campaspa Lead is depositing gold into Campaspe River around this bend, is there much water in there at the moment?

 

[Zakman]

Golddigg The Coliban is a good spot not a lot of water ATM. The Highbarker is cool i probably move that way in the future when i eventually find some gold near water.

Thanks for the map Web site that a real Plus after buying the Tully books I was wondering were crown land was but Im also confident that by the letter of the law one chain 22 ft either side of running water is free land. The owners might get pissy but that bad luck.

See you around Zak

 

[Teemore]

HZak,
Meant to ask ... are you selling the old detector? Quite a move up, you mentioned a 4500 os this a current model, could noly find reference to the 4800 and 5000.
Again you need water but check out any Angus Mackirk links for their sluices, probably slower than a highbanker but also possibly more portable (aren't there always tradeoffs.
Heading to Bendigo to check them out after a review a few locations to determine what size is suitable to the available water flows (think they're cheaper than the HB setup).
Cheers Tom

ps nice Tiger ... Tiger Canyon near Kanchanaburi? loved it there have great photos and vids.

 

[Zakman]

Hi Tee Yes its a Gpx 4500 Im going to get. But i will be keeping the GMT, my girl friend is also helping me hunt for gold so I'll keep it for her and use both depending on location and solid .

I check the Angus Mackirk link. Thks.

Im presently looking around for a hand held GPS. I have a forum post up and the guys have been giving me some good advice. But I'm still shopping around.

The Tiger photo's are taken in chang Mia Thailand a place called "The Tiger Kingdom" its an amazing place. Ive been there twice. Plus I like to face my fears

Just thing off my bucket list

http://www.tigerkingdom.com/Home.htm

 

[gcause]

Best way to proceed is to look up a process known as loaming.

Basically take soil / gravel samples at regular distances along the river bed and keep these separate, then pan each to determine numbers of colour. It doesn't need to be a large sample just a pan full of soil/gravel should do it.

The Old timers used to use a large cloth like a scarf and create a string of sausages by twisting the soil samples between the cloth where each sausage in the string represented a sample taken at regular intervals. The would carry this around their necks and shoulders as they went about loaming.

I use an ordinary yabbie pump for obtaining loaming samples when there is water available and separate buckets and a shovel and pick when there isn't water.

Once you find a lot of colour showing at one point just set up your Highbanker and go to town.

Suggest you concentrate efforts on inner bends of river where water slows enough for gold to be deposited. Remember also rivers change their course over millennia and the current river may be metres from its original course. So loam on either side of the river also. Hope this helps

 

[Marked]

The owners might get pissy but that bad luck.

It's always a good idea to keep property owners on-side - especially if you need to cross their land to gain river access. As the land-owner usually has some sort of investment in the land - either crops or forage for livestock - it is their livelihood that they see at risk when people start traipsing across their land unannounced; and I would think that they would be rightly justified in being upset. If you do the right thing and sell yourself to the land owner, you might get some inside knowledge...or access to more than just your one chain either side of the water...

And there is always that landowner that might decide to "just happen" to be out shooting vermin the day you were walking through their land...

 

[Zakman]

GCause. Thanks that good advise I was planning to do that when I'm next at the farm.

Marked. Yes i know you are correct its always better to have a a friendly chat and get permission. always do that but of course its hard when it a very large property with no farm houses near by to find the right person to ask.

Thks Guys ZAK

 

[headbut]

I found a bluebowl for gold 50 mesh and under is easer than panning
Don't get me wrong you can pan this fine gold by panning small amounts
at a time. As i have just learnt to be very patient with flat or flake when panning

Hey Digit , good to meet you and Mick today , hope you guys do well over the weekend & look forward to your reports

Cheers Paul

 

[Zakman]

Yeap good update thanks. Zakman