Searcing for the reef, budding geologist help needed

[Goldtarget]

Fortunately I've been granted access to a private stretch of land that happens to be gold bearing. The old timers took the alluvial deposits that were payable from the old river course, but a fair bit of return was offered for some hard yards. That said I've stumbled onto what believe to be (possibly) one of the reefs feeding the current water course, but I'm having a little trouble nailing down what my sampling is telling me. I'm going to picture some rocks removed around an area long after the old timers left the scene that are a directly dug from where i believe the reef may be "near". The area floods often so while its dry I'm trying to get a clearer picture. I'm sure the "older alluvial" wash is confusing the picture slightly but I've narrowed it down to a 30m x 30m section. Hopefully using some of these sample rocks pictured you can help me a little further. These were removed by a large excavator a few years ago but are central to this defined space.

each rock is a football size or bigger to give some scale

 

[jethro]

Pictures 2 and 4 look promising. Have you dollied any of the stone and panned off to see if it contains gold?

 

[Goldtarget]

Haha it would take me a month of Sundays but i see what your saying. My thoughts were trying to see if i could find where that black ironstone/quartz line in pic 2 intersected the quartz reefing (indicator meeting quartz) but I'm really fumbling in the dark. All I really know for sure is there is alluvial gold around that has the hallmarks associated with being close to shedding from a reef which does not occur prior to this excavation, but after. Older alluvial can be gained from older gravel bed prior, but in less concentration and requires hard digging. I'm trying to determine the position of the reef inside the area defined above, which I'm only using secondary evidence to speculate even exists.

 

[Mrlimb]

Excuse my ignorance, what makes photo 2 & 4 look promising

 

[Diggerdude]

Excuse my ignorance, what makes photo 2 & 4 look promising

Dunno? I thought 3 looked the best lol

DD

 

[rc62burke]

Mate
How did you arrive at your 30m x 30m area? give us a bit more of an idea of the sort of work you have done to get to this point so then we may suggest a plan of attack.
Lee

 

[Goldtarget]

Ok. The current owner developed a large dam in the centre of a creek bed. There's a clearly defined line of old wash approx 5 feet below the current level of the land that sits in the valley between to large hills. The original watercourse appears to be quite broad extending from 20 m wide to 50m wide and from what i can tell from the shallow holes surrounding the area. I completed a series of auger dug sampling from the current creek bed below the original wash line and observed course speciman type alluvial deposits still attached to the host rocks ( reference pics plus gold) and course chunks free of host rock material on the downstream side of the dam. Upstream shows only the typical old alluvial deposits constant with which you can obtain by refining the old wash later, but no coarse or specis. But in that defined area of 30x 30 occurs the hard rock that is shown, in various layers, some excavated by heavy machinary some in the old timers holes at around 10 feet from current surface levels, but not before or after this 30x 30 section. But as it is a dam i can't define its geological makeup in terms of how it appears, only what has come from out of the ground already. I guess what I'm asking is how do i go about finding the lode if it even exists covered in by water and a mountain of dirt. If i dig it up or pump it out what are the "best" places to begin, i have permission to search from the landholder as i see fit but i want to concentrate the search for the most likely place within the rock formation to start, clearly not my usually method of finding the gold. Is been so dry its a case of soon or not at all as after it fills and floods again its almost impossible to get to. I can attempt to answer any question that can help you help me. Sorry if I'm not being clear enough.

 

[Heatho]

Have you found any colour at all from test panning in the area? Those rocks look a lot like ones I've seen on diggings, could be bits the old timers looked at and ditched. Maybe they found what they were after in that spot and moved on. Test panning will let you know if there is any gold left.

A bit sampling will tell you way more than looking at rocks.

 

[Palmer Digger]

Gedday there Goldtarget .. Promising stuff and good luck to you .. Have you detected the material exacted from the site mate?, obvious question I know, but to be honest the quickest way that I could advise to really establish what you have to play with there is a GPX 5000 with an 8inch Comander mono attached .. and see if your land owner friend might come down and flatten things out for you .. Detect as much of the rock material as you can too .. If there's anything in them you'll soon find out which rocks are worth dallying up as fine as can for the pan .. Of course you'll get the odd ping or two from some of the ironstone concentrations but, taking a quick squizz at you pics above and your mention of specimen gold, I reckon your a lucky chap.

Again, perhaps an obvious question, but you've no doubt probably got a boot load of rock somewhen at home, .. have you gone visual and broken the odd one or two up and inspected the material wet with a jewellers loupe?

If see any evidence very fine to micro gold present, go the the PA Sponsor Page, look up Armstrong Industries, and have a chat to Jake about their rock crushing machines!

Keep us informed mate.

 

[richo966]

I suggest take samples now bag them and record where they come from with gps when it rains you have your samples to work with while weighting for the water to dry out take as many as you can over large area make sure the gold is not washed in from up stream

 

[slowflow]

Hope you can retire on that lot.

 

[jethro]

From what you are saying above, & correct me if Im wrong. You have found course angular shaped (not water worn ) gold and specimen gold. in dam or the excavated spoils heap of the dam, that is constructed on an old water course. above the dam the gold is more smooth and waterworn and below the dam it is the same and finer?
I would say your options are doze & detect. with land owners permission to clean out the dam to bedrock. or excavator to cut trenches across the watercourse above the dam and below & sample at different levels and intervals along the trench.
In answer to Mrlimb s question I like the look of pic 2 because it is fissure filling of what appears to be carboniferous or ferrugnious quartz. the stone in 4 also appears to be well mineralized. The veining in 1 & 3 doesnt look to be mineralized and appears to be pinching out within a short distance so not likely to act as a fluid/ mineral pathway.

 

[Goldtarget]

Thanks for all the replies, I'm on a late finish early start so i can only be brief. The detector suggestion is probably something i haven't considered so I'll hit up the pi guys i know and see what shows up. I discussed pumping at length with the landholder and got the go ahead, i think in a large part for the admiration due to the new gold bearing rocks he has in his possession taken from my sampling (its only fair after all) i think the next best move is to see what's hidden below the water line and use some of the methods described. There's access to bigger methods of excavation which legally may be sailing close to the wind but as its an existing dam with approval from the landowner and relative authorities it could be argued that anything that comes out is merely a by product. It seems like the most logical next move, and as for retirement well i couldn't wish for more for the old bloke, he'd well deserve it. I'm just chuffed to have a few good finds so far, with the possibility of more to come. I'm a few specks in the pan makes me happy kind of prospector. Thanks again for all your input. Regards Goldtarget.

 

[Goldtarget]

Jethro, yes and no. All samples were taken from the water course, it was a short recon and the material excavated has not been sampled as yet. Is two large piles either side of the water course, in a big jumbled mess so despite the distinct possibility of gold bearing rocks they would be buried under about a 6m high by 10m wide pile stretching the length of the dam section, but you raise an interesting point. I see now it would help understand what came out of the hole. Downstream sampling showed multiple angular and specis, upstream nothing unusual, but that creek line rounds a few kms long where gold can be found. My conclusion was a reef shedding into the creek approx where the hole was dug. But I'm no geologist, not even a serious prospector, so i may be flat out wrong. Sampling results showed shallow (1 to 2 inches) deposits nearer the dam but also up to two feet further down stream but consistently more so on the shallow side. I've considered your suggestions and it makes alot of sense. Looks like i have some work to do. I'll ask permission to take a few photos of the area and the gold, the landowner has some obvious concerns about showing the wider public as do I But if given the go ahead I'll post up in the members section to help get a clearer picture and progress. I had visions of seeing a pa meet all armed with digging tools, the gold would have nowhere to hide haha.