Flour gold only?

[DrDuck]

Similarly, much of the gold in the Shoalhaven is fine grained, reflecting its source in the Braidwood Granodiorite.

"Erosion of large areas of granite containing small but widespread gold deposits, similar to
those at Majors Creek, most likely provided the large amount of alluvial gold found in the
regional drainage developed in and around the Braidwood Granodiorite. Much of this gold
occurred in high level gravels in Tertiary basins and older terraces along the Shoalhaven
catchment ... Much of the gold in the Braidwood-Araluen
alluvials is reported to have been very fine-grained and widely distributed. This is consistent
with the character of the gold in the known lode deposits, which typically occurs as small
inclusions (generally <100 m and commonly 5-30 m) in pyrite."

see http://www.ga.gov.au/webtemp/image_cache/GA3699.pdf

Some nuggety gold came from around Nerriga and there were reefs mined up the hill from the ford in the Jacqua/Spring Creek fields.

I have personally seen small nuggets (less that one gram) found in the general vicinity of the Ford, but they are uncommon.

By by and large, there is not a lot of value to be had in deep excavations in the Shoalhaven, at lest in terms of the size of the gold you will find.

There are a few reports of decent sized nuggets (1Oz) detected within a few km of the Ford, too.

 

[Lucky leprechaun]

As a newby I'm a little confused by this. The pay streak is determined by where the gold drops out due to a drop in current and specific gravity. But reading this it seems that different size gold will drop out everywhere across the stream bed, the size of the gold across the stream bed is determined by flow, meaning there is no real pay streak, it will mostly all have gold, just different size gold across the bed?
I'm finding a mountain of flour gold, but didn't keep digging because it was off the running stream, and a bit higher gradient from the the stream, meaning bedrock was going to harder to get. I wondered if this is probably because of the lack of rainfall, but on the edge and in the water I'm not getting anything. Would it be fair to say that flour gold just of the stream is the best I will do and go for it? the returns would be pretty good with a sluice and probably worthwhile given how much I get in a test hole, but obviously I've been looking for pickers but only coming up with one here and there. The blue bowl is on the way, early Xmas present . I'm panning on the Murrumbidgee just outside the ACT, Michalago side if that helps, threre's not a lot of info on the web about gold in this region, plenty 30 mins to an hour away, but nothing on size or source.

 

[Goldfreak]

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.

Keep in mind it can travel a loooooong way so you might have to do a bit of walking.

 

[user 4386]

As a newby I'm a little confused by this. The pay streak is determined by where the gold drops out due to a drop in current and specific gravity. But reading this it seems that different size gold will drop out everywhere across the stream bed, the size of the gold across the stream bed is determined by flow, meaning there is no real pay streak, it will mostly all have gold, just different size gold across the bed?
I'm finding a mountain of flour gold, but didn't keep digging because it was off the running stream, and a bit higher gradient from the the stream, meaning bedrock was going to harder to get. I wondered if this is probably because of the lack of rainfall, but on the edge and in the water I'm not getting anything. Would it be fair to say that flour gold just of the stream is the best I will do and go for it? the returns would be pretty good with a sluice and probably worthwhile given how much I get in a test hole, but obviously I've been looking for pickers but only coming up with one here and there. The blue bowl is on the way, early Xmas present . I'm panning on the Murrumbidgee just outside the ACT, Michalago side if that helps, threre's not a lot of info on the web about gold in this region, plenty 30 mins to an hour away, but nothing on size or source.

Yes and no. The velocity of a stream varies across its width and around inside versus outside of bends etc. So it can vary with position, but from bugger all to suddenly heaps depending on position at a certain point along the stream. So usually at a certain point along a stream there will be a "slow" position that most dumps out, but stream histories are complex - you might get most where the stream slows - but gold that has been dragged along the bottom can be caught elsewhere in cracks as in a riffle (in other cases it will just flow on across a smooth and polished rock surface). Probably once you are some distance from the source, gold will tend to vary within a limited size range related to the average velocity of the stream, so subtle changes in flow rate will drop it out. There are other factors - near the head of a stream the gold will tend to stick around and it is the quartz sand that will continue on, so the light stuff is winnowed out (so not strongly influenced by position) - far downstream where the gold is fine it will be happily transported along and depends a lot on drop in velocity to drop it out (the heavier stuff is dumped). And of course velocity varies for different reasons, inside versus outside a bend, where stuff collects behind a fallen log or a rock bar crossing a stream, or a change from smooth to jointed rock. Lastly, streams are not constant and the active channel can change before versus after a flood - so a dry area can be a former channel and can sometimes contain more gold than the flowing stream now next to it. So look, and try and guess the history.

 

[Lucky leprechaun]

Thanks for that, that's helpful.
I went to this place to practice my panning technique before going to a reputable gold area, its very close to the ACT and convenient for a quick play. Problem is I started finding the odd picker so kept going back. The gravel bed I'm working is about 30 meters wide, you can see various spots along the gravel bed that are heavily pitted with boulders bigger than the ones in the stream, there's several large spillways during flood which is where I'm hitting a fair bit of flour gold, about 10 meters in from where the stream sits today.
Its a couple meters higher than the stream and wasn't keen to dig for bedrock in case it was a flop, and the sand is easy to dig once you move the smaller stones of the top so just ruled it out, but in saying that, that's where I'm finding the good stuff, can pull a quarter tea spoon of flour gold from a good test pan in the middle of the spill way, I just keep moving looking for the pickers expecting that to identify the pay streak but flour might be all there is.
I presume its flour gold anyways, it's usually all that's left in the pan and with the Alabama tap technique either sinks below the black sand or dances up the pan so expect its too heavy not to be, using the jewelers loop, its a mixture of course and rounded in shape, meaning their may be more than 1 source, or its travelling a long way. I cant really go much higher because its too hard to access the river without permission from the landowners, but given the amount of flour I can pull might have a bit more of a sample in the spillways and see what we can find and go further a broad when time permits.

 

[AtomRat]

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.

Flour gold definitely doesnt mean youll always find it that size. Hold hope :Y:

 

[WhiteyCQ]

Personally Id be over the moon with a quarter teaspoon per pan (newbie also). Not sure how it works down there but in qld the land owner only owns a chain each side of the flood mark in a creek. It does pay to know the area fossicking as well as getting to know the land owners. We dont need any extra lockouts

 

[goldtrapper]

Walking round the bush you find heaps of quartz reefs that you would think the old timers would have checked. Just out of curiosity I panned the surface of a creek bed down from such a quartz reef. After panning off the heavies there is a definite extra small metal there but is too small for my eyes. What would be the best sized loop to buy for checking flour gold in the field please?