Understanding old diggings

[fantail]

I have recently started prospecting, did the course at Coiltek and bought a GPX 4500. Despite the crap weather I have been out prospecting in Castlemaine Diggings NHP a couple of times each week and I think I am starting to get an idea of what the old time miners were doing. What I would like to know is if there is any way of telling if they found gold in an area? For example, I was in a gully that was littered with test holes, but no trenches or any other feature I could see that would indicate they followed a lead. It was also really quiet from a junk perspective, compared to other areas where I have been, which made me think they didn't hang around very long?

(No, I haven't found any gold yet, in case you were wondering)

 

[moeee]

What I do is put myself in their position.
Why would I stop digging if I found Gold ?
I would expand that hole until the whole hillside went through my sluice , or until I hit my neighbours claim.

Digging downwards is a different matter.
Of course I would stop digging if I hit solid bedrock , but also if I hit some sort of sign that it was pointless digging any deeper.

So I would suggest that your bunch of holes produced zero gold worthy of working further.

 

[moeee]

I would like to know why there are piles of rocks , which are mainly quartz , but no dirt in the piles.
Best I can figure is the miner actually washed the material and the large rocks were thrown in a pile out of the way , and the dirt was taken elsewhere to be refined.

I seen a detectorist who uses a monster and he rarely fails to find a dozen bits looking through near those quartz rocks.
I tried panning a bunch of dirt in a similar looking area , but just ended up with muddy water.

 

[fantail]

Thanks moeee, makes sense. I was thinking along the same lines, why would they stop digging if they found gold?

 

[fantail]

I have come across those piles of rocks as well and wondered where the rest of the dirt was! I must admit that I have only tried once detecting around old mine shafts, the amount of metal junk is quite astonishing and I spent nearly an hour digging out an old tramway about 80cm down, which I put me off going back there. Mistake?

 

[Redfin]

I have come across those piles of rocks as well and wondered where the rest of the dirt was!

It may have rained a tad in the 170 years since they were dug up

 

[fantail]

170 years of rain seems to have little effect on the clay around here :|
The tailings around other shafts nearby are a mix of clay and rocks, so those piles of just rocks seemed odd to me.

 

[ProspectorPete]

Either they are rocks from a reef (if rough and angular) or big rocks from alluvial wash layer (if water worn) which they would have put aside as it's not worth carting those with the rest of the rich pay dirt to where they processed it.

moeee, I've seen the video you mentioned and he has that Gold Monster down pat, pretty sure it would have been larger rocks from a pay layer the old timers threw aside to get access to the richer pay, those small bits of gold he was getting probably were stuck to the rocks and washed off over the years.

 

[user 7222]

They may be piles of rocks they emptied out of their sluices. We do the Same thing today. Notice that they are usually poles of the same size rocks.

 

[fantail]

The piles I saw were rough and angular. Makes sense they would put them aside as not worth carting.

 

[Northeast]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2042

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=19429

These are worth a read if you haven't already :Y:

 

[moeee]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2042

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=19429

These are worth a read if you haven't already :Y:

OMG
13 pages and 45 pages
Best I start with the 13 and see how long I can maintain interest in a sitting

 

[Northeast]

The 13 pages took me a few sittings but well worth it.

Minelab Gold put up a darn good resource too. Lots of videos - they are easier than script

 

[Goldtarget]

What I do is put myself in their position.
Why would I stop digging if I found Gold ?
I would expand that hole until the whole hillside went through my sluice , or until I hit my neighbours claim.

Digging downwards is a different matter.
Of course I would stop digging if I hit solid bedrock , but also if I hit some sort of sign that it was pointless digging any deeper.

So I would suggest that your bunch of holes produced zero gold worthy of working further.

I wouldn't dismiss an area through lack of activity outright. As modern prospectors we come and go as we please, sit in lounge chairs and put heaters/acs on. Old Timers had to eat, they camped on site, feed on their finds, and were at the mercy of floods, drought, hyperinflation, claim jumping, taxation, mob mentality and low rates of return. They were no different to us, the most payable recieved the most attention, but don't forget the return today vs then is heavily stacked in our favour. A gram here and there was a drop in the ocean for them. The dug up ouncesper tub in some localities . My best panning days would be a pittance to what they got at the time.

Ive spent many days following in their steps, on the fringes of surfaced areas, grabbing tidbits from their creeks, detected their junk. The reality is though all the places they worked heavily are easy to spot but were rushed. There's still productive ground that was never wor ked over, abandoned loads, stacks of wash never processed, benches never completed. And most importantly if they wanted it they had to dig it, no fancy electronic eyes peering into the dirt for stray nuggets. That said my favorite area to go has a few hundred holes, of which its estimated less than 10% were productive (payable) and the diggers moved on after lack of water. It was reworked in the 30s during the depression and they still pulled good numbers. The biggest competition is the endless flogging it's copped from the early vlfs to the newest gpzs that still even today find some.

Any way the ground you speak of specifically may be barren, I'm just suggesting don't dismiss every untried place, if it looks good, worth a swing.

 

[fantail]

Thanks Northeast, yes, have read through both of these before I started and again after I have been out a few times. Really good advice.

 

[user 4386]

I have recently started prospecting, did the course at Coiltek and bought a GPX 4500. Despite the crap weather I have been out prospecting in Castlemaine Diggings NHP a couple of times each week and I think I am starting to get an idea of what the old time miners were doing. What I would like to know is if there is any way of telling if they found gold in an area? For example, I was in a gully that was littered with test holes, but no trenches or any other feature I could see that would indicate they followed a lead. It was also really quiet from a junk perspective, compared to other areas where I have been, which made me think they didn't hang around very long?

(No, I haven't found any gold yet, in case you were wondering)

Photos are about the only way you will get a meaningful answer. If an alluvial lead, trenching is unlikely. What is a "test hole" - could it just be a shallow lead? Could it be a reef crossing a gully? "Littered" with holes suggests they did find gold (e.g. if it is an alluvial lead, a couple of holes would tell them it was a dud, so they would not dig a lot).

 

[fantail]

Sorry, don't have photos. I don't normally take the phone.
Test hole = relatively square digging 0.5-1m either side and anywhere from 30cm to maybe 80cm deep
Littered = about 200 of those test holes along a gully around 150m long and ranging 10-20m wide with holes 2-3m apart either direction
Gully runs parallel to a reef line about 100m up the hill
Digging is not on the Doug Stone maps or Geovic and I saw no evidence of detector holes. Very little junk apart from beer cans

 

[user 4386]

Sorry, don't have photos. I don't normally take the phone.
Test hole = relatively square digging 0.5-1m either side and anywhere from 30cm to maybe 80cm deep
Littered = about 200 of those test holes along a gully around 150m long and ranging 10-20m wide with holes 2-3m apart either direction
Gully runs parallel to a reef line about 100m up the hill
Digging is not on the Doug Stone maps or Geovic and I saw no evidence of detector holes. Very little junk apart from beer cans

Lots are not on those references - if you are not getting gold you could consider giving me location details in a private message and I could possibly answer your question. No-one digs 200 holes in a gully unless they are getting gold (if it is alluvial, in a gully, it will transport at least hundreds of m if not a km or two - so if they did not get any gold at all in half a dozen holes over 500 m they would know there is no gold and would not have kept digging. Stone only shows a tiny fraction of workings, the GSV probably misses a quarter or more.

 

[Northeast]

200 holes = they were getting gold for sure :Y:

But potentially very fine and not detectable with a detector? Get some samples and pan

 

[Bjay]

My biggest nugget came from the side of a test hole. At the head of some workings I geuss the gold was running out so they just dug some test holes to see if it kept going. Yes it did, and yes it did again. Just wasnt payable for them I think.