GaryO said:
Hey Wal
Just a query , when u found the spot in the video what was it that stood out to you to suggest it was ancient river wash ? I can see the difference in the gravel once you were digging it , but im sure like many I wouldn't have picked it up from walking past.
Was there anything else special about it , was there rock bar showing high on the bank or did the river show signs of being moved from where it once was ... or was the top layer different from other material around etc ?
I am absolutely amazed with your abilities so any tips would be greatly accepted
Gaz .
Streams vary significantly depending on whether they're in the highland country or lowland regions Gaz. Each type requires different strategies in determining where the best gold will be. All streams you're working these days are regarded as modern day streams, and as such what you're looking for is back eddies in what would be regarded as 100 plus year flood levels and not necessarily current inside bends.
A current inside bend is a good location for finer gold to be deposited as a flood recedes, but the back eddy of a "significant flood" will more often have the coarser gold deposit in an eddy below that current inside bend. When we refer to ancient wash, It shouldn't be confused with a prior position of the river being cut through by the current stream. What we refer to as ancient wash is a wash zone not often moved by massive floods and as such having the gravels compressed into an almost conglomerate state.
These compressed zones are more often than not half way between two bends and will generally be in the mid section of the river between those two bends. This may look like the straight section of the river if you're wandering down it, but in a massive flood it's the turning point of the water direction between the two bends in the river, and it's the inside bend of this turning point you're looking for.
Once these gravels cement themselves in this area, a modern day flood, even though they look aggressive, will only have the power to move wash over the cemented deposit, and deposit that gravel into the inside banks which are reshaped with every flood. The floods needed to remove the cemented wash zones may occur only once in a 1000 years or more.
The biggest problem for us these days is the "Old Timers" had first crack at these zones, and did a great job in cleaning up the whole zone. Fortunately they missed small pockets in their rush for the deepest of these zones and as such with diligent test panning one can still find small un-worked pockets.
They say gold is where you find it, but gravity and learning to understand flow directional change zones can narrow down the search area quite significantly....and then it comes down to calculated sinking of test holes...sometimes you win...sometimes you lose.
Best of luck out there.
Wal.