Hey everyone just starting to get into prospecting I have access to a property along the Meroo ck with plenty of old diggings and gold prospecting history. Look forward to sharing my experiences and learning from the wealth of knowledge on here.
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Gday from Sydney
- Thread starter Meroo
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Good luck, Meroo
You have a golden opportunity with access to a property in that area. Just be careful who you invite to visit!
There is plenty of good info here. Are you interested in detecting or alluvial, or both!
You have a golden opportunity with access to a property in that area. Just be careful who you invite to visit!
There is plenty of good info here. Are you interested in detecting or alluvial, or both!
Bit of everything mate mostly detecting bought myself a goldbug pro to learn the basics with so looking forward to getting out there this weekend. Will post up a few photos after this weekend there's an interesting part of the property where a creek comes to a dog leg turn and the old timers have dug a massive trench to bypass this dog leg as well as a few test holes. Would be interested to see people's thoughts on exactly what they were trying to do and why. I'm a bit stumped myselff.
Welcome Meroo. Maybe a few overhead drone pics would be helpful.
Jaros
Jaros
Well funny you say that cas the spot is actually above a very steep hilly cliff so I pretty much could get an aerial shot by taking a photo from the top. There is also a very interesting rock formation going right up this steep hilly cliff it is vegetation on both sides but a big rock formation going straight up the guts almost like a fault line. Would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this aswell and whether it was part of what made them choose to dig/mine in this spot.
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Welcome Meroo sounds like your going to have great adventures, all the best
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If they've dug a trench to bypass the dogleg it is usually to divert the water away from the area of the creek/river they are working. To go to that effort would suggest that it may have been fairly rich.
A lot of that area had a lot of rock to remove from the top to get to the gold. You will see the rock piles around various areas. Most of the gold there is alluvial having been concentrated in the various gullies, creeks & rivers from reef sources.
Good luck with it & welcome to the forum.
Did you cop the storm out there this morning?
A lot of that area had a lot of rock to remove from the top to get to the gold. You will see the rock piles around various areas. Most of the gold there is alluvial having been concentrated in the various gullies, creeks & rivers from reef sources.
The rock formation your describing sounds interesting but depending on rock type could be unrelated to the gold there?NSW Dept of Primary Industries said:
Good luck with it & welcome to the forum.
Did you cop the storm out there this morning?
Yes that is exactly right there is massive piles of rocks either side of the trenches. You say they dug the trench to divert the water, exactly why did they want to divert the waterr? I always suspected that's what it may have been for but was always a bit unsure as to why.
Yeh I saw they got 50mm of rain last night I'm actually from Sydney I'm heading up there this arvo after work and spending most of sunday there so will b a challenge getting the old hilux in after all that rain!. Wwill be sure to take plenty of photos this weekend of exactly what I'm trying to describee and look forward to reading everyone's responses.
Yeh I saw they got 50mm of rain last night I'm actually from Sydney I'm heading up there this arvo after work and spending most of sunday there so will b a challenge getting the old hilux in after all that rain!. Wwill be sure to take plenty of photos this weekend of exactly what I'm trying to describee and look forward to reading everyone's responses.
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They divert water away from particularly rich areas so they could exploit the gold without delays from water ingress i.e. better keep the area dry. With water diverted they can dig all of the creek/river into the bed without being washed out although in torrential downpours they would have still had issues.Meroo said:Yes that is exactly right there is massive piles of rocks either side of the trenches. You say they dug the trench to divert the water, exactly why did they want to divert the waterr? I always suspected that's what it may have been for but was always a bit unsure as to why.
Yeh I saw they got 50mm of rain last night I'm actually from Sydney I'm heading up there this arvo after work and spending most of sunday there so will b a challenge getting the old hilux in after all that rain!. Wwill be sure to take plenty of photos this weekend of exactly what I'm trying to describee and look forward to reading everyone's responses.
I've seen a few examples of it & there are 2 pretty big examples I know of on the Turon River near Sofala. One being a river diversion & the other a tunnel under a point to keep the point of the river reasonably dry for digging.
I think, & will probably be corrected by someone with more geo knowledge, that pyrite & arsenopyrite are fairly similar although arsenopyrite will usually be more of a silver grey colour + can give off a garlic odour if heated or struck.
Don't lick the rocks & you should be fine.
G
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Welcome Meroo,
You are very lucky to have access.
As everyone above has said it seems like they diverted the water course to process the wash from a certain part of the creek.
Think of it like empting a swimming pool then cleaning up the bottom (of gold in this case)
If they have gone to that trouble surely have missed some gold and if its not assessable to "Joe Prospector" who know what will turn up.
One thing I do know is the Gold will still be hard to find, it always is!
Looking forward to the pics etc...
Cheers
RS
You are very lucky to have access.
As everyone above has said it seems like they diverted the water course to process the wash from a certain part of the creek.
Think of it like empting a swimming pool then cleaning up the bottom (of gold in this case)
If they have gone to that trouble surely have missed some gold and if its not assessable to "Joe Prospector" who know what will turn up.
One thing I do know is the Gold will still be hard to find, it always is!
Looking forward to the pics etc...
Cheers
RS
They did the same at Pound Bend on Victoria's Yarra River to mine the river bed for alluvial gold.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_Bend_Tunnel
Kids now use it for kayaking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_Bend_Tunnel
Kids now use it for kayaking.
Alright so just got back let the missus swing the coil most of the time and my role was mostly the dig bitch. didn't find any gold but found plenty of other things old horseshoes, 22 bullet, 22 shells heaps of nails some old massive tent peg looking thing and some random iron straps. Many of the targets especially the larger iron ones were 300-400mm deep so was good fun. One of the iron straps was under a gap sitting below a rock so we thought it may have been an old cache but no luck. I think I might have to downsize to the 5" coil for my gold bug I assume much of the gold here would only be quite tiny and I may have missed a bit with the 10". Still a great weekend the creeks were flowing strong the dogs had a great time swimming around too.
So I'll post photos up once I figure out how to rezise them on my phone
So I'll post photos up once I figure out how to rezise them on my phone
So the red lines are the trenches where they have bypassed the bend in the creek. The only thing that has got me stumped is that these trenches( there's 2 of them) seem to flow into the creek in the bottom right of the photo but on the upstream side which is the top left of the photo they finish well before the creek and are a good few metres away and quite deep here well over a metre. Did they perhaps hit a reef here? The blue circle looks to me like a mullock heap. Heaps of small rocks Inc quartz piled up definetly not natural. Would this be worth while detecting And if so what would have made them dump it all here? And the yellow circles are what look to me like test holes single holes some are 1m plus deep and just as wide.
So what everyone's opinion on what has happened here exactly . Did they hit a reef or were they trying to bypass the creek ?
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Looking at the picture & your description saying it doesn't join on the upstream side then they probably weren't bypassing the dogs leg. The landscape may have changed too though? There are a few other possible scenario's but it would be hard to say for sure without having an idea of the bigger picture there.
They could have been using that spot to wash material brought down from dry diggings? The mounds of quartz & other material may be a hint of what/where to look elsewhere on the property? The "trench" may have been some type of water storage or capture system to try to keep a water supply for washing? There may have even been some gold right there hence the test holes - do these continue along or just in that isolated area? Lot's of things could have happened there. I don't think they would have hit a reef though? Most reef systems around the Hargraves/Windeyer area were found by following alluvial/eluvial gold up higher. The trenches for these searches usually cut across the slopes nearby & there are many examples around the area. I have read however that the Meroo does cut through areas of gold bearing material (or did/has done for thousands of years) & much of the gold in the Meroo system came from this.
Best way to prove/disprove that there is gold there would be to take a pan & do some testing.
I also think that the 5" coil on the Gold Bug Pro would be better suited down in the creek but for covering mullock heaps or diggings the stock 11" x 6" or a 10" x 5" may be better. If you both want to detect hiring an SDC2300 would be good & easy to use. Central West Prospecting Supplies in Mudgee were hiring some machines but not sure if they still are & if so what ones? If there is gold there the SDC will sniff it out.
They could have been using that spot to wash material brought down from dry diggings? The mounds of quartz & other material may be a hint of what/where to look elsewhere on the property? The "trench" may have been some type of water storage or capture system to try to keep a water supply for washing? There may have even been some gold right there hence the test holes - do these continue along or just in that isolated area? Lot's of things could have happened there. I don't think they would have hit a reef though? Most reef systems around the Hargraves/Windeyer area were found by following alluvial/eluvial gold up higher. The trenches for these searches usually cut across the slopes nearby & there are many examples around the area. I have read however that the Meroo does cut through areas of gold bearing material (or did/has done for thousands of years) & much of the gold in the Meroo system came from this.
Best way to prove/disprove that there is gold there would be to take a pan & do some testing.
I also think that the 5" coil on the Gold Bug Pro would be better suited down in the creek but for covering mullock heaps or diggings the stock 11" x 6" or a 10" x 5" may be better. If you both want to detect hiring an SDC2300 would be good & easy to use. Central West Prospecting Supplies in Mudgee were hiring some machines but not sure if they still are & if so what ones? If there is gold there the SDC will sniff it out.
