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One For The Aussies


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Whilst todays GPS and mapping are certainly a great tool. I have found those old historical sketch maps from the late 1800s, have faults marked that are not on new maps.(vice-versa also) So I scan them, import and georeference into mapping software. Why todays geo maps don`t show those obvious faults is beyond me, the old 1800s geos would have walked the country and they are obvious when prospecting now. All modern and old maps are a powerful resource, seems nothing can be discounted in our quest.

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So much of the historical data is lost. It's bluntly obvious when you compare the topo's from the 40's to today. 

 

Imho, its critical to start old and finish new when researching.

 

Its these new maps (topo's) that the poi's (points of interest) are gleaned from. Whole mining districts have "vanished".

 

Must be the ink costs.....

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Right, I didn't mean to imply one should ignore historical research and only concentrate on new tech, historic research is always the first and maybe most important step. Gather every single bit of information from old maps to old miners diaries in the local museum, digest it all.

 

Research 102 I guess you could call it is how I view GIS systems. There are some things you can't see on even the best old maps that become quite plain doing aerial reconnaissance.

 

For instance, one of the secrets to my success in Arizona came when I realized I could often determine different ages of gravels within an epoch on the ground and then correlate those observations to aerial photos. In the Mojave desert I can almost instantly pick out the specific ages within the Quaternary gravels that will or will not produce nuggety size gold. Even the best geologic maps might only differentiate between Holocene and Pleistocene, but on the 1 meter/pixel aerials it is often possible to see much more accurate divisions between ages in the epoch. Each field generally has a different associate age which produces nuggety gold and after making enough finds on the ground to correlate the gold to the gravel time period I can eliminate a lot of wasted time wandering around gravels that really have a very slim chance of containing the gold I am after.

 

Later I realized that with the 1 meter/pixel new imagery I could also with a high level accuracy determine average quartz content of different gravelsand areas which I hadn't been able to crack before and that lead to another string of new patches that I found almost exclusively from my laptop in my trailer and only verified in the field. Using the same methodology by correlating known finds to specific gravel deposits by composition instead of age this time. This sort of thing is rarely to never mapped or documented extensively enough to be useful, these observations need to be made by the person.

 

It still requires correlating finds on the ground to digital observations though. Which is why I say those who had the advantage of detecting during the time that those leads were much more common have a leg up on those coming in after them as those leads become fewer and fewer and thus the correlations increasingly more difficult to make.

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One technique that I use is patterning vegetation types. In our area certain trees and vegetation can give away fault areas or shallow bedrock areas, and deep mineralized ground. Alot of gold deposits here are made in the same type of geology. Certain trees and vegetation by size can tip off a goldfield. I have found gold far away from known diggings. The finds are fewer and far between, but usually is a nice patch. Sometimes it takes days to find one in unknown gold areas. Not sure if the vegetation trick works at other countries or states. But has been a good tool for me.

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Same in my part of OZ different vegetation is an indicator, eg. we have a soft coppery coloured low grass(1ft tall), often associated with gold, our native pines grow where mineralisation is fairly shallow. The colour of termite nests(ant hills) can give away a change in country by varying colours, easily viewed from hills because of their size 6-8ft tall or so.

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Sorry forgot. Nice piece of gold jasong. It does look very similar to shape of aussie. I find alot of pieces that look like animals. My first piece of gold long long time ago looks like a chicken drumstick. Maybe was why I ate kfc for awhile after that.

Hey norvick. Thats good that you have vegetation indicators in aussie. Never heard of the ant indicators. But I have checked out some ground squirrel holes in known gold areas to see what they are digging out from a few feet down. I know of 1 mine that was started after they found gold from the squirrel holes sample.

Good luck

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6 continents left, race ya to the finish!  :D

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