nero_design
New member
Location: Edge of the NSW Goldfields, Australia 2008.
I took a one-day trip to the Goldfields for a change. Usually I drive out there and spend a night at a cabin or a friend's place but this time I wondered if I could
make the most of a single day by returning home after dark. It worked although I was very exhausted from all the walking and 6 hours of driving. But I'd purchased the 6" DD HF coil for the X-Trerra 70 and was keen to try it in a creek where I'd found a little gold whilst panning the week before.
Now I'd planned to bring just the essentials to keep my pack light. I'd be walking about 8 kilometers and wanted to be able to have the strength to endure it all
but I'm afraid the hand pump, full sized shovel, pickaxe, 2 liters of water, knife, panning mesh, gold pans, 2-way radios, extra coil, etc all conspired to slow me down. My companion was my good school friend whom I've known for about 30 years and he seemed unenthusiastic about the whole ordeal... even though he'd been keen to press for the day-venture to begin with.
We made our way to the forrest where we could park and then walk the fire track to our destination and the road we chose was overgrown and littered with briars, large branches, rocks and debris. We found the creek where my wife and I had discovered some small gold the week prior and set to work with the home made crevice-sucker which actually worked perfectly to my surprise. Unfortunately, we found nothing. Not a speck!
<img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/92024792/original.jpg">
[size=small]The Crevice Sucker I had made (Yabbie Pump) actually worked![/size]
We walked the overgrown track uphill and through thick forests and paddocks for a number of hours before finding a pig track where a family of wild pigs had cleared a path - and used it to access a great little creek running over exposed bedrock. I immediately tried the 6" DD HF coil in the water and struck a signal on the down-creek end of a pile of debris. This was a great signal but as I started to crouch down in the water, an enormous tiger leech detached itself from the creek bed and began swimming upstream towards me! As it neared my hand, I used my plastic scoop to pluck it from the water and we did a few experiments to see how it detected prey. We know they can detect heat but it seems they detect the slightest vibrations as well. It was about 10 inches long when it stretched itself out over the X-Terra control box. I REALLY loath these things and I'm afraid it deterred me from digging the target at first. We extracted a LOT of material to try to find the signal but never did.
Another strong target was in a crack in the bedrock and I was pretty excited about that too but it turned out to be the last inch of an old but very rusty nail.
We panned the material which we'd sucked from the bedrock crevices and found three small 'clinkers' which were about 0.12g at the heaviest and I let my friend have them in order to keep his interest on the job. He was VERY impressed with the speed that the new blue style prospecting gold pan can be processed. It's REALLY fast at just a few minutes rather than 20 to 50 minutes per pan. It's quick because of the unusual shape and deep gold-trap. Yo0u do get wet when sloshing it about for the first 10 to 15 seconds so be warned. My friend immediately requested that I obtain one for him upon my return as he was using an old metal pan... the old original style from the 1800s. Now I have one major criticism of this pan and that's the color. It's BRIGHT blue! It hurts my eyes to hold it in sunlight and look for flecks. I need to use it in sunlight for the best results but it's just the wrong color for the job. It's color makes it extremely hard to see a difference between white, yellow and cream colored specks. Gold still shows but the job of screening the particles in daylight is very difficult in my opinion and many times I thought I'd found gold but it turned out to be yellowish quartz flakes or grit. What were they thinking when they made this thing? They put a lot of understanding into the technical function of the shape of this pan and yet failed to choose a more subdued color. Those who have tried these new pans will know what I mean. I suspect the real reason for the color is to have it stand out in pictures and promotional media and be instantly identified visually among other pans.
Now it was already 4:30pm in the afternoon and the sun was getting low. We hadn't even gotten to the place I had wanted to pan yet. I managed to light a fire under my friend and together we made our way another couple of kilometers inland until the thorny briars cleared and I scrambled down to a muddy creek which was surrounded by marsh reeds. No doubt filled with leeches , all screaming for my blood. As I clambered back to the road, I caught sight of a deadly Brown Snake as it slunk between the rocks a couple of feet ahead of me. I kept pointing to the bright copper colored tip of the tail which sstill tuck out of the rocks but my friend wasn't able to see it ... so I reached down to tweak it with my fingers but it disappeared in a flash. We heard the occasional crack of gunfire as there is apparently a hunting season here. Something I didn't expect in Australia.
<img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/92024793/original.jpg">
[size=small]A great spot we found where the creek cuts through the bedrock. You can see our packs for scale.[/size]
When we stopped to take our bearings for our GPS, I sighted exposed bedrock which seemed to form the corner of the creek we'd been following and I went down and began to clear the gravel wash in order to suck up debris from the crevices and pan it. The detector wavered slightly but we were running out of sunlight and I didn't have time to do much more than pan. The flowing water of the creek made short work of our panning but my friend ceased digging after just one panload and sat on a rock to watch me. Eventually he tired of this and clambered back to the large limestone rocks at the bend of the stream to watch me from there. I was surprised that he had come so far and yet had no drive to dig or pan any more even though we'd just arrived at our destination.
We had less than an hour and after I'd cut away a little soil on the edge of the creek bank to pan, he kept telling me it was time to return the way we'd come. I did find a small mini-nugget but it was nothing much to talk about. Perhaps my friend didn't care about little flakes anymore since I'd given him the three tiny nuggets we'd panned earlier?
<img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/92024795/original.jpg">
[size=small]The only weenie piece I found for the day. This came from a series of crevices in bedrock which had hinted at a signal on the X-70 with the 6" coil. Not sure if this was detected by the X-70 or if it was some ironstone in the crack.[/size]
We slugged a two hour walk back to our car along another trail we'd seen in the distance on our way in and detected along the way, just as we had on the way in. A few ironstone targets, a rusting bolt and some wire was all we found. A lone wallaby watched us from ahead on the trail. No sign of the legendary Panther we'd ween warned about.
Before we pulled out of the forest and returned to the city over the mountains, we carefully drove past and noted all the fire trails leading from the main road. We chose one and it amazingly led us kilometers into a dark forest and then into the bush until opening out exactly where we were panning at the end of the day! We marked it on the GPS and now we can simply drive ALL the way to where we want to go Detecting and Panning. It's really kind of cool to be able to cut out 5 hours of hiking and devote all that time into actual prospecting.
In the image below, you can see the rolling hills above the creek we were panning. The question I have to ask is if it's worth devoting time and effort in detecting on these hills? We've only found a few very small bits of gold in the creek where I had expected so much more. Someone even said to me that only fine gold has been found here. So would I be wasting my time? Now that I can reach the area with my car, it's an ideal place to do some serious Prospecting with all the equipment I have. I can pan the creeks with the waterproof 6" DD HF coil and I can scan the tall snake-infested grass with the Elliptical DD. Now I can bring a deck chair with me next time... plus a large esky/cooler full of drinks and cold food.
<img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/92024799/original.jpg">
[size=small]Having found a drivable road leading directly to where we had earlier trekked in on foot, I drove back to the creek we'd panned in and took this picture from the car. The pitifully small amount of gold we'd found was a worry. Not worth the pain but the trip was worth it just for the discovery of the firetrack road which allows my car access all the way to the exact spot I was panning. [/size]
<img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/92024798/original.jpg">
[size=small]Further downstream from the creek. It can be observed flowing into the mountains. This creek leads another 15 kilometers inland before feeding out into the river I had discovered a Gold Sovereign in last month. No other gold found there though. Just the remains of the old hand dug gold mines. I anticipate my next trip to explore this very spot in the picture. Planning to be there a week from today. [/size]
I'll keep you posted if I find anything next time I'm out that way but I imagined a lot more gold where I was. I do have a sense of failure in not finding anything much today. The creeks here are 'supposed' to have quite a bit of gold in them (word of mouth from one to another to me) but we didn't find enough to make it a day worth talking about. The pieces we found were all under 1mm in size except for the one in the picture above which was closer to 2mm. I'll check in on the Government maps to see what sort of minerals are most abundant though.
Cheers all.
I took a one-day trip to the Goldfields for a change. Usually I drive out there and spend a night at a cabin or a friend's place but this time I wondered if I could
make the most of a single day by returning home after dark. It worked although I was very exhausted from all the walking and 6 hours of driving. But I'd purchased the 6" DD HF coil for the X-Trerra 70 and was keen to try it in a creek where I'd found a little gold whilst panning the week before.
Now I'd planned to bring just the essentials to keep my pack light. I'd be walking about 8 kilometers and wanted to be able to have the strength to endure it all
but I'm afraid the hand pump, full sized shovel, pickaxe, 2 liters of water, knife, panning mesh, gold pans, 2-way radios, extra coil, etc all conspired to slow me down. My companion was my good school friend whom I've known for about 30 years and he seemed unenthusiastic about the whole ordeal... even though he'd been keen to press for the day-venture to begin with.
We made our way to the forrest where we could park and then walk the fire track to our destination and the road we chose was overgrown and littered with briars, large branches, rocks and debris. We found the creek where my wife and I had discovered some small gold the week prior and set to work with the home made crevice-sucker which actually worked perfectly to my surprise. Unfortunately, we found nothing. Not a speck!
<img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/92024792/original.jpg">
[size=small]The Crevice Sucker I had made (Yabbie Pump) actually worked![/size]
We walked the overgrown track uphill and through thick forests and paddocks for a number of hours before finding a pig track where a family of wild pigs had cleared a path - and used it to access a great little creek running over exposed bedrock. I immediately tried the 6" DD HF coil in the water and struck a signal on the down-creek end of a pile of debris. This was a great signal but as I started to crouch down in the water, an enormous tiger leech detached itself from the creek bed and began swimming upstream towards me! As it neared my hand, I used my plastic scoop to pluck it from the water and we did a few experiments to see how it detected prey. We know they can detect heat but it seems they detect the slightest vibrations as well. It was about 10 inches long when it stretched itself out over the X-Terra control box. I REALLY loath these things and I'm afraid it deterred me from digging the target at first. We extracted a LOT of material to try to find the signal but never did.
Another strong target was in a crack in the bedrock and I was pretty excited about that too but it turned out to be the last inch of an old but very rusty nail.
We panned the material which we'd sucked from the bedrock crevices and found three small 'clinkers' which were about 0.12g at the heaviest and I let my friend have them in order to keep his interest on the job. He was VERY impressed with the speed that the new blue style prospecting gold pan can be processed. It's REALLY fast at just a few minutes rather than 20 to 50 minutes per pan. It's quick because of the unusual shape and deep gold-trap. Yo0u do get wet when sloshing it about for the first 10 to 15 seconds so be warned. My friend immediately requested that I obtain one for him upon my return as he was using an old metal pan... the old original style from the 1800s. Now I have one major criticism of this pan and that's the color. It's BRIGHT blue! It hurts my eyes to hold it in sunlight and look for flecks. I need to use it in sunlight for the best results but it's just the wrong color for the job. It's color makes it extremely hard to see a difference between white, yellow and cream colored specks. Gold still shows but the job of screening the particles in daylight is very difficult in my opinion and many times I thought I'd found gold but it turned out to be yellowish quartz flakes or grit. What were they thinking when they made this thing? They put a lot of understanding into the technical function of the shape of this pan and yet failed to choose a more subdued color. Those who have tried these new pans will know what I mean. I suspect the real reason for the color is to have it stand out in pictures and promotional media and be instantly identified visually among other pans.
Now it was already 4:30pm in the afternoon and the sun was getting low. We hadn't even gotten to the place I had wanted to pan yet. I managed to light a fire under my friend and together we made our way another couple of kilometers inland until the thorny briars cleared and I scrambled down to a muddy creek which was surrounded by marsh reeds. No doubt filled with leeches , all screaming for my blood. As I clambered back to the road, I caught sight of a deadly Brown Snake as it slunk between the rocks a couple of feet ahead of me. I kept pointing to the bright copper colored tip of the tail which sstill tuck out of the rocks but my friend wasn't able to see it ... so I reached down to tweak it with my fingers but it disappeared in a flash. We heard the occasional crack of gunfire as there is apparently a hunting season here. Something I didn't expect in Australia.
<img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/92024793/original.jpg">
[size=small]A great spot we found where the creek cuts through the bedrock. You can see our packs for scale.[/size]
When we stopped to take our bearings for our GPS, I sighted exposed bedrock which seemed to form the corner of the creek we'd been following and I went down and began to clear the gravel wash in order to suck up debris from the crevices and pan it. The detector wavered slightly but we were running out of sunlight and I didn't have time to do much more than pan. The flowing water of the creek made short work of our panning but my friend ceased digging after just one panload and sat on a rock to watch me. Eventually he tired of this and clambered back to the large limestone rocks at the bend of the stream to watch me from there. I was surprised that he had come so far and yet had no drive to dig or pan any more even though we'd just arrived at our destination.
We had less than an hour and after I'd cut away a little soil on the edge of the creek bank to pan, he kept telling me it was time to return the way we'd come. I did find a small mini-nugget but it was nothing much to talk about. Perhaps my friend didn't care about little flakes anymore since I'd given him the three tiny nuggets we'd panned earlier?
<img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/92024795/original.jpg">
[size=small]The only weenie piece I found for the day. This came from a series of crevices in bedrock which had hinted at a signal on the X-70 with the 6" coil. Not sure if this was detected by the X-70 or if it was some ironstone in the crack.[/size]
We slugged a two hour walk back to our car along another trail we'd seen in the distance on our way in and detected along the way, just as we had on the way in. A few ironstone targets, a rusting bolt and some wire was all we found. A lone wallaby watched us from ahead on the trail. No sign of the legendary Panther we'd ween warned about.
Before we pulled out of the forest and returned to the city over the mountains, we carefully drove past and noted all the fire trails leading from the main road. We chose one and it amazingly led us kilometers into a dark forest and then into the bush until opening out exactly where we were panning at the end of the day! We marked it on the GPS and now we can simply drive ALL the way to where we want to go Detecting and Panning. It's really kind of cool to be able to cut out 5 hours of hiking and devote all that time into actual prospecting.
In the image below, you can see the rolling hills above the creek we were panning. The question I have to ask is if it's worth devoting time and effort in detecting on these hills? We've only found a few very small bits of gold in the creek where I had expected so much more. Someone even said to me that only fine gold has been found here. So would I be wasting my time? Now that I can reach the area with my car, it's an ideal place to do some serious Prospecting with all the equipment I have. I can pan the creeks with the waterproof 6" DD HF coil and I can scan the tall snake-infested grass with the Elliptical DD. Now I can bring a deck chair with me next time... plus a large esky/cooler full of drinks and cold food.
<img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/92024799/original.jpg">
[size=small]Having found a drivable road leading directly to where we had earlier trekked in on foot, I drove back to the creek we'd panned in and took this picture from the car. The pitifully small amount of gold we'd found was a worry. Not worth the pain but the trip was worth it just for the discovery of the firetrack road which allows my car access all the way to the exact spot I was panning. [/size]
<img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/92024798/original.jpg">
[size=small]Further downstream from the creek. It can be observed flowing into the mountains. This creek leads another 15 kilometers inland before feeding out into the river I had discovered a Gold Sovereign in last month. No other gold found there though. Just the remains of the old hand dug gold mines. I anticipate my next trip to explore this very spot in the picture. Planning to be there a week from today. [/size]
I'll keep you posted if I find anything next time I'm out that way but I imagined a lot more gold where I was. I do have a sense of failure in not finding anything much today. The creeks here are 'supposed' to have quite a bit of gold in them (word of mouth from one to another to me) but we didn't find enough to make it a day worth talking about. The pieces we found were all under 1mm in size except for the one in the picture above which was closer to 2mm. I'll check in on the Government maps to see what sort of minerals are most abundant though.
Cheers all.
Do you all carry anti-venom around?