New to gold prospecting Got a Great location!

[TomYarrambat]

Hi People!
I'm Tom I'm 22 years old and have wanted to start prospecting for years but haven't committed to it.
I have watched endless documentaries and shows so it about time I try it out.

My Friends family owns a property what has a gold cave what was opened around 1870 in Yarrambat Victoria by two men.
They searched for about 4 years before ending the project.

Just recently my friend and I have been really curious was he can find in there so we went searching and found 5 quartz deposits but we don't Really have much of an idea what we are looking at lol.

My purpose of joining this forum is to look for some advice, learn the basics and most importantly share my adventure!

 

[SCROUNGER]

Welcome to PA Tom.

 

[silver]

Gday tom,...imagine them digging a beautiful cave like that, and finding nothing(bugga). :/
Why not help your mate put a cellar door on the front of it, and go into wine production,.... that way you can use it for bottle storage, just dug some short off shoots with rooms at the ends.
Imagine those wine tasting tourists paying big dollars for that experience.
The Cave Inn Winery,... you could have rooms to stay in as well.

 

[Jaros]

Welcome to P.A. Tom. Very rocky area around Yarrambat from memory. I remember all of the stone fences around there when i was there in the 1980's. I never heard much about gold though??
Cheers Jaros

 

[TomYarrambat]

This one is hidden on private property behind a house not sure if many people have been here. There were a few upper scale mines around this one.

The Golden King Mine about 1km away and only shut in the 1980's
averaged about one ounce to the ton, but at one stage went through a very rich patch of ore that peaked at 80 ounces of gold to the ton.

 

[silver]

Sometimes the old fellas fell just short of the mark when they pulled the pin on it,... I know that with my dear old departed Dad, when he had some one drilling for water on his place,... he kept watching the depth they were at and working out how much cash it was gunna cost him,... eventually he told them to stop drillingand paid them up in cash,.... funny thing is though, they hadn't even gotten to the depth that the diviner recond the water was at.(was a bone dry hole)
What I'm getting at there is that sometimes the vision and thought of all those dollars disappearing can cause people to draw short of the mark,.... with the prize still only metres away.

 

[Macca50]

welcome Tom.

Enjoy.

 

[AtomRat]

Welcome Tom, hope you've got a hardhat at least on in them mines and watch out for the gasses that can drop you like a fly! ( sorry, ill be the one that sais it this time )

The mine looks cool though and has some great features. I like the way the roof has been cut, must be very hard and pretty stable. Have you spotted any tunnel collapses?

If there's a section with lots of timbering or scaffold along the walls and roof, be careful, it could be a soft **** which are always prone to collapse.

Do the walls have any pyrite? Sparkles?

 

[Pommy-Down-Under]

Lucky man, welcome to the forum.

 

[kawman]

I would be taking samples... sometimes there was gold but not anough to support any mining at that time...gold is worth much more now and may be viable if there is any in those old workings..

 

[GaryO]

Welcome Tom , im looking forward to future stories about the old mine. I hope they are very exciting and fruitful adventures ahead.
Please utilise all the help you can muster here to make sure all your time spent exploring is worth while and MOST importantly safe.
Cant wait to see more photos

 

[nicko61]

thats cool as mate,what a good head start, now for some side shoots

 

[Wally69]

Thanks for sharing.

Silver tells a common tail and many a prospector on this forum has won gold from ore left by the old timers.

I would dolly up some of that Quartz reef to see if there is any colour. If you can find a stockpile of Quartz outside, I'd do the same there.

Also, if you can borrow a SDC 2300, they are killers on fine gold trapped in rock and would be one of the best electronic tool for locating missed reef gold.

Enjoy the adventure

 

[TomYarrambat]

I went for an hour yesterday to grab some more samples I have located about 4 quartz veins a couple of really thin ones as well. Some of the thin Quartz has a charcoal colour to it. Also some sparkly specs through rocks around it.
Should I try to knock all the Quartz out? The tunnel is extremely stable no signs of any collapses and it's been there for 130years

I'll post a couple of pictures. Also can anyone recommend a detector new or used around the $600 -$ 1100 range what would give me some sort of advantage. Or somewhere where I can hire something good.I still need to explore the whole hill.

 

[the duck]

welcome to the forum looks like you have a project, look up what a gold indicator is on google this will start the journey and see if you can find the name of the mine as well

 

[TomYarrambat]