nero_design
New member
Hi Folks. I wonder if I could ask members if they'd be able to take a moment to explain what sort of soils they prefer to explore with their detectors and why they are drawn to it? I'm keen to take the X-Terra 70 out to the gold fields here in Australia to see how well it will work in each state based on the different types of soils I can test it on. I had some small luck with my own in the NSW region a few weeks ago. I have no doubt that the results will be varied from one location to the next but this question has more to do with the actual soil people seek out (if they do so at all). With the number of Nugget Hunters out there buying an X-Terra 70 with the appropriate coil, it made me wonder if people put in the extra mile to research their soils before and during a trip.
The advice I've both seen and read from the turn of the previous century seems to imply that the early prospectors had techniques and methods for selecting suitable gold bearing areas which have been lost to the generations of today. I note also that the older writings often mention that the sections of soil bearing alluvial gold nuggets was a significantly different or "darker" color than the surrounding soil. I just read another account from a non-digger in the 1860's who observed that the pocket of nuggets they observed being discovered and extracted (several tens of ounces worth) was in a clump of soil that was a significantly different color to the surrounding ground.
It seems to me that gold will not occur where mineralization of the soil is poor. There's a clear association where certain geology is important ...Ironstone Ridges lead to Quartz (for example) in many instances which in turn may -or may not- lead to gold.
I'm very interested in seeing what people recommend because whilst there's plenty of books and stories online of people finding gold with their detectors, there also seems to be a kind of haphazard approach to the activity from the very people writing about it. But I rarely see a mention of the author deliberately seeking certain regions other than sweeping a gully and tracing nuggets to a patch. I get the impression that people go out and "try their luck" a lot more than they attempt to read the soils they hope to search. Makes sense if they're relic hunting, but not if they're looking for native gold...
When I recently saw Hill End, I observed the soil there was Yellow-tan
When I visited nearby Wattle Flats/Sofala/Bathurst, the soil was a deep saturated Red color with huge patches of grey soil at the Turon River.
See pics of the soil (attached below) which i took at the time: Note also that it looks like someone has dug into the grey patch of soil on the creek-bank in the Hill End picture which is clearly a different color to the yellowish surrounding soil. Government Gold Maps show this very creek to have been VERY high in payable gold. The Sofala picture is of the gold rich Mullock Heaps. The gold fields here in NSW, Australia are wedged between several large areas on non-gold-bearing plates. The one I live on is a huge coalfield bed so I must travel several hours to get past it.
What sort of tips are detectorists willing to suggest in relation to exploring different soil and different geological areas? I see that some Americans have found good nugget bearing soil on quite dangerous slopes and cliff plateaus. In Australia, it seems to be in gullys and on fairly flat ground (in Victoria at least).
[attachment 74612 Soils.jpg]
The advice I've both seen and read from the turn of the previous century seems to imply that the early prospectors had techniques and methods for selecting suitable gold bearing areas which have been lost to the generations of today. I note also that the older writings often mention that the sections of soil bearing alluvial gold nuggets was a significantly different or "darker" color than the surrounding soil. I just read another account from a non-digger in the 1860's who observed that the pocket of nuggets they observed being discovered and extracted (several tens of ounces worth) was in a clump of soil that was a significantly different color to the surrounding ground.
It seems to me that gold will not occur where mineralization of the soil is poor. There's a clear association where certain geology is important ...Ironstone Ridges lead to Quartz (for example) in many instances which in turn may -or may not- lead to gold.
I'm very interested in seeing what people recommend because whilst there's plenty of books and stories online of people finding gold with their detectors, there also seems to be a kind of haphazard approach to the activity from the very people writing about it. But I rarely see a mention of the author deliberately seeking certain regions other than sweeping a gully and tracing nuggets to a patch. I get the impression that people go out and "try their luck" a lot more than they attempt to read the soils they hope to search. Makes sense if they're relic hunting, but not if they're looking for native gold...
When I recently saw Hill End, I observed the soil there was Yellow-tan
When I visited nearby Wattle Flats/Sofala/Bathurst, the soil was a deep saturated Red color with huge patches of grey soil at the Turon River.
See pics of the soil (attached below) which i took at the time: Note also that it looks like someone has dug into the grey patch of soil on the creek-bank in the Hill End picture which is clearly a different color to the yellowish surrounding soil. Government Gold Maps show this very creek to have been VERY high in payable gold. The Sofala picture is of the gold rich Mullock Heaps. The gold fields here in NSW, Australia are wedged between several large areas on non-gold-bearing plates. The one I live on is a huge coalfield bed so I must travel several hours to get past it.
What sort of tips are detectorists willing to suggest in relation to exploring different soil and different geological areas? I see that some Americans have found good nugget bearing soil on quite dangerous slopes and cliff plateaus. In Australia, it seems to be in gullys and on fairly flat ground (in Victoria at least).
[attachment 74612 Soils.jpg]
