Flour gold only?

[Caesar]

Hey all, if I'm finding flour gold on a creek's bends, is it likely I'll find bigger pieces in the same creek?

Perhaps I need to dig deeper, or in different places in the creek?

Any advice for this newbie would be appreciated.

 

[silver]

If you work your way up the creek and find only flour gold... then it will be cutting in when it's cutting out.Use a loupe to get a good look to see what is going on as you work your way up the creek.Search well if it disappears.

 

[moeee]

Flour gold deposits in your situation is likely because the larger gold is either slightly deeper where you are digging or closer to the center of the creek.
Flour gold continues to be moved by the current that larger gold will drop out of.
As the current subsides , the flour gold can drop out where the larger gold has already settled

 

[Caesar]

Good info - much appreciated silver & moeee.

I'll persevere and try closer to the centre of the creek - that seems to be where a lot of large (often huge) boulders are sitting, which makes digging more difficult. Digging through stones and rocks to hit clay can be quite challenging. I'm learning heaps ang hopefully getting fitter in the process! ower:

 

[Mackka]

Get yourself a Pelican Pick and that way you can excavate round the big boulders.
Mackka

 

[Peko]

Get yourself a Pelican Pick and that way you can excavate round the big boulders.
Mackka

Not too many people will know what a pelican pick is, only old school gold miners will know

 

[user 4386]

Flour gold deposits in your situation is likely because the larger gold is either slightly deeper where you are digging or closer to the center of the creek.
Flour gold continues to be moved by the current that larger gold will drop out of.
As the current subsides , the flour gold can drop out where the larger gold has already settled

I agree with the comment about flour gold staying in suspension when coarser gold drops out, but suggest the most common reasons for flour gold are usually:

(a) that the hard-rock gold in the source area is fine-grained (so obviously alluvial gold derived from it can only be fine-grained), or

(b) that you are far downstream from the source of the gold, so the coarser gold is farther upstream (has already dropped out)

If you look under a hand lens, is the fine gold ragged or rounded? If ragged it is likely to be (a), if rounded it has hard to know which it is.

 

[mbasko]

Get yourself a Pelican Pick and that way you can excavate round the big boulders.
Mackka

Not too many people will know what a pelican pick is, only old school gold miners will know

They're still widely used in mining (not just gold mining) & can be picked up at a lot of tool stores https://www.totaltools.com.au/hand-tools/gardening-tools/37809-cyclone-pelican-pick-635298

 

[Mackka]

Many thanks mbasko, that is it to a tee. I think mine is a bit larger but I will tell you one thing, they are a great asset when looking for sapphires in a stream, I wouldn't have found anything without mine albeit 30 odd years ago. You never know, one day, yeah one day!
Cheers
Mackka layful:

 

[Caesar]

OK, it seems some creeks may only contain flour gold (Hoddles Creek, Vic for example). I'll need to continue exploring (digging) to determine if my current spot is also flour only. Maybe with a pelican pick added to my kit.

Thanks for all the great advice, folks. :Y:

 

[Mackka]

The Pelican is your friend!
Mackka

 

[Whisp]

The Pelican is your friend!
Mackka

Oh, I thought Google was your friend ..... now I'm all fusedcon

 

[Mackka]

Ah Whisp :lol: :lol: :lol: o :lol: :lol:
Mackka

 

[Occasional_panner]

If you are working Hoddles, then expect flour gold only. same as reedy ck beechworth.

 

[Dihusky]

Caesar, start looking for natural rock riffles then get into their crevices and follow the riffles to the bank, pan everything you scoup out of the cracks, also wash any plant roots into a bucket and pan the debris. You'll find colour and more even in well worked streams

 

[mudgee hunter]

Is the material in the creek very sandy?

 

[Caesar]

Yes mudgee hunter - the creek is sandy - quite coarse sand. And lots of rocks, ranging in size from pebbles to boulders.

 

[user 4386]

If you are working Hoddles, then expect flour gold only. same as reedy ck beechworth.

Good examples of the two different reasons for fine gold that I mentioned. Hoddles Creek has fine gold because the gold is locked as fine gold inside the mineral stibnite in the quartz reefs (Gem mine etc), so is already fine when it is released to the streams. Reedy Creek is the other example, it is far downstream from the gold source, which is at and south of Beechworth town (by the time it reached Eldorado the gold had travelled 26 km from the source, over granite containing no gold, and was quite fine, but the associated tin made it viable).

A general rule is that central Victoria (the "Golden Triangle") is best for nuggety gold. The area north from Melbourne (east from Heathcote-Lancefield to just east of Walhalla-Woods Point) is not quite as good for nuggets because gold is often locked in stibnite (can even occur as the mineral aurostibite). East of that is quite poor for nuggets, because gold is fine and locked in sulphide minerals (more often copper, lead, zinc minerals, and arsenopyrite which is more massive than further west in Victoria - some veins are almost massive arsenopyrite).

 

[user 4386]

Victoria can be divided into "geological zones" of slightly different geology, and Victoria and Tasmania can be divided into "mineralogical domains" based on the sulphide minerals that occur with the gold in the reefs (the domains mostly broadly corresponding to the geological zones). The coarseness of the gold (and therefore abundance of nuggets) varies in each mineralogical domain.

There are always a few exceptions, but that is the general rule. Staweel east to Bendigo is "elephant country" for gold nuggets

 

[SWright]

What creek are you in? if comparing to Reedy as only having flour gold then that is not the case. While The gold is generally finer or mostly flood gold in the upper layers the gold on Reedy is much coarser in the right places. Always go right to bedrock or to the top of some clay layers. I have been getting pickers and coarse flakes regularly and often in highbanker hold that have not been cleaned out properly.

Araluen