Hanging Rock - Finally pinged a nugget!

[Ben78]

Have spent a fair bit of time researching and doing recon on the ground out at Hanging Rock since I moved here. From discussions with various locals I've been able to work out the mining style of the area - and its something I hadn't encountered before - Hydraulic Sluicing. Basically the old timers set up a sluice in a gully and then used powerful hoses to wash EVERYTHING above the sluice into the sluice, the ground was stripped bare to bedrock. This was a numbers game and a lot of gold was won but a lot was lost too. I picked this little piece up off some of the exposed bedrock in one of the hydraulic sluiced areas. 0.3g and was only shallow so could have been picked up by any detector. The ground is very highly mineralised in this area BUT because of the stripping of all the topsoil there is not a lot in the way of hotrocks.

The rock that the gold is propped against is a piece of chrysoprase from the Prase mine at Hanging Rock. Its not fully Chrysoprase but I liked it because the green was showing through the crystals.

Anyway at least now I have a location that I can work hard knowing that there might still be some more gold laying about.

 

[Ramjet]

Awesome Ben.
Great to see all your research and effort has paid off.
I hope you find all it's relatives

 

[Nugget]

Well done Ben. It's good to finally see some eluvial gold being found at Nundle. Now where exactly did you say you found it? lol.

 

[Still Looking]

Lovely looking piece mate

 

[loamer]

Very, very nice. Well done mate - did you do the 'I have just found a nugget dance' and have a big shxt eating grin??

 

[Nugget]

Very, very nice. Well done mate - did you do the 'I have just found a nugget dance' and have a big shxt eating grin??

I believe it went something like this :lol:

[video=480,360]http://youtu.be/RPv3npOfioA[/video]

 

[Ben78]

Very, very nice. Well done mate - did you do the 'I have just found a nugget dance' and have a big shxt eating grin??

You got it

Matt, the location is so extremely easy to get to I really don't want to share on the internet lol.

Will concentrate a lot of effort into this area now. There is a lot of trash items, bullets, casings, ring pulls, bottle caps, boot tacks you name it its there. I focused on the up tones today rather than dig everything so its possible I walked over multi-ounce pieces - that's my story anyway and I'm sticking to it

 

[loamer]

Will concentrate a lot of effort into this area now. There is a lot of trash items, bullets, casings, ring pulls, bottle caps, boot tacks you name it its there. I focused on the up tones today rather than dig everything so its possible I walked over multi-ounce pieces - that's my story anyway and I'm sticking to it

If you are in a bedrock area mate, you are spot on with your settings and strategy. Grid it and re-cross the grid to get a 360 swing pattern. Well done - time spent in research is never wasted. those 5000s never cease to amaze me.

 

[Nugget]

Matt, the location is so extremely easy to get to I really don't want to share on the internet lol.

That's fine Ben. I wasn't actually expecting you to, it was just a joke :lol:

 

[Ben78]

I've worked the area with the 11" coil and the Coiltek Joey and both were just far too noisy due to EMI. I picked up a 8" Commander Mono yesterday and fired it up and it settled into near perfect threshold only the occasional warble. Picked up some super tiny bits of tacks today. Also got my first shotgun shot up there too.

 

[OZDigger]

Hello Ben

Well done, first recorded detector find in the Nunde area.

 

[Ben78]

Cheers Ozdigger. It's a good feeling.

 

[spottedgum]

Good job mate. A bit of research pays off.
Let the games begin!

 

[Nugget]

I sense another gold rush starting 8)

 

[WalnLiz]

Congrats Ben, and good to see perseverance rewarded. One thing about nuggets is they quite often enjoy each others company, so some of his mates may be hanging real close. Hope your handle on the area nets you a bunch more.

Cheers Wal.

 

[gtol29]

Well done Ben
Your hard work and research has been worth it.
Hope you find plenty more.

 

[Heatho]

Good work Ben, well done! Would have brought a smile to my dial.

 

[Golddiggergirls]

Wow, nice nugget, well done Ben....!

Great to hear your research and chats with some of the locals has paid off for you. And I found it interesting to hear about the method of hydraulic sluicing, thanks for sharing this.

Bec (GoldDiggerGirls)

 

[Roscoe]

Good one Ben, That's a niece little piece and your research and persistence paid off. The Rock with the crystal in it looks good, i will have to check my minerals book to see what Chrysoprase is? I know a place that the rocks look similar, but the crystals are purple not green? Ben, were you in finegold timing with that 8" mono? I only just started using my 5000 and i have found already that, that timing seems to be more sensitive to EMI? I remember you discussing the 8x6 NF and the 8" commander was a fair bit cheaper, seems like you made the right choice in your coil, thanks roscoe.

 

[G0lddigg@]

well done ben nothing like outting the time in with some research and it paying off with some colour