Newbie a tad confused. Yes another one..!

[Barney91]

G'day guys. Great forum. Been reading posts and what not for a while now and been trying my hand at panning. I'm in a known gold area and have had some great advice from a couple "old timers" and from what I've read and seen on YouTube.

The question I have is fools gold. (I think it's called pyrite or mica? Correct me if I'm wrong) as heavy as gold. I'm pretty sure that I've been getting it in my pan. The reason I think it's mica/pyrite is it breaks in my fingers and when pushed against steel. Also I'm sure gold isn't washed flat like this is.

I really have no idea what I've got but any help would be brilliant.
Thanks in advance barney

 

[Twapster]

Gold is SO HEAVY compared to anything else except black sand. If you use a reasonably ok technique while panning, the gold will be there and everything else will disappear. Gold will feel like its almost "magnetised" to your pan its that heavy. Mica will fall around and flow away easily with water. Do not be worried just use the teqniques on Youtube and it will be as clear as day as soon as you start seeing real gold you will laugh at yourself and think back at this question with a smile. Its a question that all newbies ask until they see how heavy real gold is. Hope that makes sense.

 

[Barney91]

Thanks twapster, makes sense another bloke sorta said the same thing in a round about way. I guess I'm just not getting the right dirt. Where I was this afternoon in a creek I could see someone else had been digging up against rocks so I must be sorta in the right spot. Then I found a log that was sitting on an angle to the bank and had filled up with silt. Started panning that stuff but nothing. So I dunno

 

[HeadsUp]

gold can be squashed thin and flat by being pounded between rocks as it tumbles around in the river

some areas can produce 1 - 2 mm wide flakes that are thinner than paper , sometimes so thin they can float on water until you break the water surface tension

squash a bit with a hammer , if it gets bigger its gold if it crumbles into powder then its pyrite , scratch a bit with a needle and if it splits into shards and flakes then its mica

if you scratch gold its soft and will easily carry a gouge from something sharp.

welcome to the forum , dont be afraid to ask anything as we all start somewhere and nobody will criticise you

best wishes

 

[Barney91]

Thanks headsup. I remembered reading about squashing it and scratching with my knife so when I found "stuff" in my pan today I grabbed it and it broke up really easy. Then I got a bit and tapped it on a rock and it broke to. So obviously not gold.
Another thing I noticed was underneath the sand when I got to that stage was some blackish rocks maybe ironstone?
Also it havnt been seeing much black sand. Is that a bad sign?

 

[HeadsUp]

gold has a habit of hanging out and partying with its mates ironstone and black sand , however "gold is where you find it".

it can often be found with other heavy materials but there are times when it appears without any of the typical "rules" , so it pays to keep an open mind to all possibilities.

ironstone is usually more brown with sometimes "hints and smears" of irridescent gray / silver through it

it varies between locations

i have tested some ironstone to be around 4.3 grams per cubic centimetre , and i did that gravity test because i found some that was surprisingly reluctant to be seperated from its goldy mates.

diamond and sapphire also seem to like partying in the same high density club

 

[Barney91]

Yea Rito that makes sense. could be a case of perseverance. I'm in a well known gold area (Mudgee, been out at Hargraves) so if I keep looking hopefully will start to see results

 

[Twapster]

Alluvial Gold can be found in weird places so anywhere is fair game, however as its so heavy it tends to concentrate in certain cracks, clay levels, crevices etc so those little nooks and crannies can hold more than usual. Most gold areas you will at minimum get a speck or two in your pan, in hot spots you can get 30+ specs.

Just practice the technique and sample different spots. It takes a little patience and frustration if gold is not appearing. You may think there is no gold in your pan with only a tablespoon of soil left and then a quick final swish reveals a nice little yellow thing at the bottom of the pan.

At the end of the day, the gold will stick out like a cheeto so just go through the motions down a local river and you will in no time be honing your skills and finding gold.

You need a little gold sucker/snifter to pick them up as too small for fingers most of the time, but it adds up! A few bucks on ebay. Also a little vial to store the gold in. Dont be worried, the gold will come and even if you are loosing some in perfecting your technique, most of it will be in the bottom of your pan if you do the same as they do in the videos.

 

[HeadsUp]

Yes

you're in prime gold ground there , very lucky to have access and local knowledge . worth its weight in gold mate

i wish i could get in to the rivers around Hargraves myself

edited :

Twapsters post above reminded me to mention a couple of things.

If you're in a known gold area but finding nothing , sit down and survey the area for a moment , there will be gold that was missed if you look in the right places

dig down and test pan from different levels in the creek , especially try to find cracks and crevices that might be covered over with grass or gravel bars and scrape out or suck out the crevices.

rivers change course and appearance with every flood , so there WILL be many crevices and gold traps that may not be visible until you have a dig

even try looking higher up than the current river level as 50,000 years ago the riverbed could have been 18 metres higher than it is now and there could be old river gravels on benches higher up in the hills.

thats a start for you anyway

 

[Twapster]

Shite thats awesome territory, ill be up there next month. Have a spot guaranteed to get you gold...when you have 10 posts send me a pm for details. You are lucky being there!

 

[Barney91]

Haha Awsome. I have been doing a lot of reading about the area trying to find out as much as I can and the general thing is there is a s... Load of gold here.

Matter of fact we graded a road not long ago out that way and a bloke picked up a peice of quartz with a couple bits of gold on it out of the windrow the grader left. Totally unreal to do that.

 

[HeadsUp]

Haha Awsome. I have been doing a lot of reading about the area trying to find out as much as I can and the general thing is there is a s... Load of gold here.

Matter of fact we graded a road not long ago out that way and a bloke picked up a peice of quartz with a couple bits of gold on it out of the windrow the grader left. Totally unreal to do that.

one of the best jobs a detectorist can have is a grader operator

you do the miles , you uncover many geological indicators and you get to do whatever you like on your lunchbreak .....

 

[Twapster]

No harm in panning a bucket of dirt anywhere doesn't have to be near a river up that way. If you find a spot thats got a lot of indicators like quartz, slate,ironstone etc just put it in a bag and pan it at home. I find panning at home is the easiest way to perfect the art if you are pressed for time, allows you to pan when you are bored while watching tv even. You might be driving past a creek bridge, just out and grab a bucket and pan it later. Just remember where you got if from as when the gold appears you need to know where to go back to!

 

[Barney91]

I wonder how much gold we have moved with the grader. Been out in that country for a while this year. Need to mount a detector to the moldboard haha.

Definetly a good idea twapster. I have walked around a couple creeks at smoko and that but didn't even think about taking some dirt home. Mind you that was before I decided to get into panning.

I guess I'm a bit unsure of places to dig whn I get out to a place. I have tried crevices and above rock and clay in banks but nothing yet.

 

[Guest]

You can get at least a few specs in every pan out there. We need some really good rain to get it moving again - gully raking rain. :lol:
Like I said though you should be seeing at least a few specs. You should be getting a heap of small ironstone in your pans. Look for areas where run off or gullies enter the creeks then find the "traps". I dug a target (old button) close to the creek & "panned" the contents of my scoop (using my scoop as a pan :lol: ) & got a couple of small specs in it. The gold out there came from saddle reef systems & can be looked at as being both elluvial & alluvial - probably better descibed as weathering down the slopes (elluvial) before being washed into gullies/creeks becoming alluvial. Find the reef systems & follow the gullies/run offs down to the creek. Keep an eye out for areas where the elluvial deposits can get trapped on the way. Worth detecting or sampling a few pans too. If your walking around the reef areas beware of open shafts - there are a few about & records indicate they went down to around 60m in places.
Get some small lead, like a few shotgun pellets, & practice panning down until you can keep them in the pan. If you can hold them you should start seeing some gold. Even brightly paint them so they are easy to see & flatten/cut them into different shapes to mimic different shaped gold.
I might get out there myself next week if I can get a permission slip off the boss

 

[Barney91]

You can get at least a few specs in every pan out there. We need some really good rain to get it moving again - gully raking rain. :lol:
Like I said though you should be seeing at least a few specs. You should be getting a heap of small ironstone in your pans. Look for areas where run off or gullies enter the creeks then find the "traps". I dug a target (old button) close to the creek & "panned" the contents of my scoop (using my scoop as a pan :lol: ) & got a couple of small specs in it. The gold out there came from saddle reef systems & can be looked at as being both elluvial & alluvial - probably better descibed as weathering down the slopes (elluvial) before being washed into gullies/creeks becoming alluvial. Find the reef systems & follow the gullies/run offs down to the creek. Keep an eye out for areas where the elluvial deposits can get trapped on the way. Worth detecting or sampling a few pans too. If your walking around the reef areas beware of open shafts - there are a few about & records indicate they went down to around 60m in places.
Get some small lead, like a few shotgun pellets, & practice panning down until you can keep them in the pan. If you can hold them you should start seeing some gold. Even brightly paint them so they are easy to see & flatten/cut them into different shapes to mimic different shaped gold.
I might get out there myself next week if I can get a permission slip off the boss

Cheers Mate. Yea definetly aware of the shafts. I'd say I'll pull a shotgun shell apart tomorrow before I go out again. Same thing though if I get permission haha. I tend to learn things by being shown so reading can only help me to a certain point. If I get the opportunity to go with someone with more knowledge then me (wouldn't be hard at all) I'd come home knowing more then I could ever read.

 

[Goldtarget]

Haha Awsome. I have been doing a lot of reading about the area trying to find out as much as I can and the general thing is there is a s... Load of gold here.

Matter of fact we graded a road not long ago out that way and a bloke picked up a peice of quartz with a couple bits of gold on it out of the windrow the grader left. Totally unreal to do that.

Geez mate hate to state the obv but that's where I'd be starting. ... It's X marks the spot. The gullies would be waiting for me a while if the grader was pushing out a speci. Followed by a bit of general loaming then the gully beds. Digging in the more likely places in the stream will generally help the cause, work the usual suspects hard ( inside bends, exposed bedrock, in the areas just past where the flow comes in fast and skinny and then widens and deepens) sample and dig deep. My go to advice for the Newby is look for the most likely places dig deep and find the strata type where gold is occurring. Repeat and refine. If my little nephew can find it using that as a guide so can anyone. Look forward to seeing your good results.

 

[Barney91]

All good gold target. Unfortunately I'm not with the grader at work for a while now. But very good point. I'll have a look in those places today. Later on when it warms up at least haha

 

[Guest]

-It's X marks the spot.
-Followed by a bit of general loaming then the gully beds.
-dig deep and find the strata type where gold is occurring

Unfortunately out there one specci doesn't mean X marks the spot although it's always worth further investigation. I had found one in a spot there & went back several times with different coils & used 3 different detectors for nothing more.
Check the grader tracks/windrows for sure - borrow a detector if possible. If you only have a pan take a bucket from where the specci came from & take it down to the creek to test pan it? If your mainly interested in panning I would stick to the gullies/creeks this is where the pannable gold will be out there. The majority of gold left there will be either eluvial or alluvial meaning it will have travelled from the reef source/s. You could spend time loaming if you wanted to but what are you loaming for? The reef lines are well defined, known & worked. Loaming is used to find the source - it's already known. Sure there may be some obscure virgin reef out there but it has pretty much been explored from Hill End through to Grattai & anything left would be deep, very deep. Loaming, in my opinion, would not be of much benefit in locating an eluvial or alluvial deposit as results may be patchy & even misleading. The best way is to look for those natural traps - depressions etc. where eluvium will collect & crevices, inside bends, rock bars etc. where the alluvial will be caught.
The quartz veins are long gone evident by the hundreds of metres of costeans, shafts & tunnels. The odd specci or even nugget can be had with a detector by putting in some hard yards & sifting through the tonnes of junk out there.
You might get lucky - at Big Nugget Hill a nugget weighing 106lb was found in the eluvium by an aboriginal shepherd to spark the rush. Maybe they missed one?

 

[Barney91]

I very much doubt you would find something out there just by stumbling upon it. Like you say the area has been worked. I don't own a detector as I'm not overly interested in it but I do know a few blokes that have them. I'm more interested in panning and doing it the old way. should be starting to warm up now. Might make a move and go see what I can find today