Expanding My Gold Horizons

[Erik Oostra]

Expanding my gold horizons

During the last few months, I’ve been looking for gold beyond the horizons of Magnetic Island. It’s not that the island’s gold diggings have failed to live up to expectation (far from it, the pleasure of exploring them is worth its weight in gold), but rather my son has now really caught the prospecting bug and he’s got his heart set on finding a gold nugget (no matter what size). He laughs at me mucking about on beaches looking for coins or rings, he’s after the real thing. So much so that we’ve invested in a couple of sluices, pans, sieves and an Equinox 800 (backed up by a Nox 600 and a Chinese Gold Bug Pro).

First, we spend a few weeks exploring old gold mine sites in rainforest country along the Barron River, Closhey River, Musgrave River and Davies Creek. I would usually go ahead with the Nox 800 and try to get some good readings (mainly on the side of hills and along the bedrock of little creeks flowing into these rivers) and then we’d run the soil from any likely patch through a sluice. Following local knowledge, we didn’t expect any nuggets but it’s always a bit sad when you need a strong magnifying glass to see the yellow stuff. Still, our efforts yielded 2 tiny little flakes in the upper Barron River which my son got in the pan, unfortunately we lost them on the way home (my fault).

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been going much further west. Dry country full of flies and wild cattle, following unmarked dirt tracks to get to old gold mines. In these places the evidence of gold fever is everywhere; huge scars in the ground, enormous tailings piles and mining machinery. It’s hard to describe just how good it feels to be in these places, not just because of their history but mainly their geology and seeing the landscapes that produce gold. It’s pretty bloody mind-blowing at times. So far, we’ve concentrated on the hills and gullies surrounding the mine sites. This strategy hasn’t been successful and we’ve come to realize that because of the huge amount of rubbish in the ground (especially bullet castings and pellets), that we’re much better off in country further afield but where the geology is the same.

Unfortunately, this only dawned on us when we got back home from our last trip but we’re planning to hit these areas next. I know that in this sort of country we’re a bit out of our depth without a PI detector. The ground is very hot (I thought it was hot on the island but more fool me) and even the mighty Equinox 800 with a 6’’ coil (yet alone the Chinese knock-off) doesn’t make much of a dent. As much as I would like a GPX of any description, I’ll settle for a QED. I keep hearing very good gossip about these detectors (including a favourable comparison to the GPX 5000) and I like the fact that they work with many other coils. If anyone knows of one for sale please let me know, I’d be mighty keen.

I’ve included a few pictures below of some of the places I’ve mentioned. Is the last one of a smelter?   

[Chet]

Looks like good country to look in and just being there is great.

Recommend reading this post if you haven’t already.

My Tips On Nugget Detecting With The Minelab Equinox

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/7468-my-tips-on-nugget-detecting-with-the-minelab-equinox/

Have a good day,
Chet
 

[Erik Oostra]

Travelling through gold country (video contains only one swear word).. 😬

 

[Erik Oostra]

2 hours ago, phrunt said:

You could ask about just buying the control box portion of one new

Thanks for the advice Phrunt, it has indeed been a bit of a battle getting a hold of one.. am still hoping the GPX 4500 and 500 will drop in price a bit as they're still unaffordable at the moment..

Who could i ask about just buying the control box? does the manufacturer sell them separately? is there any truth to the rumour that there's a P4 in the works? it'd be the bee's bollocks if it was..    

[Erik Oostra]

I especially want to thank Geof-junk for his Queensland Historical Gold Mines kmz files.. they have been invaluable together with Google Earth (especially its 3D function).. it makes the whole adventure a fair bit less daunting if you can 'see' how and where these old gold mine sites are located.. Thanks again..  

[Erik Oostra]

2 minutes ago, phrunt said:

maybe Reg can help as he uses the forum

I've been in contact with Reg and he's been very helpful.. unfortunately he's out of stock at the moment.. (he also told me about the upcoming PL4..  

[geof_junk]

Erik have an elliptical coil in your collection with a 12 to 14" range, as it allows coverage, in hand with a high sensitivity for smaller nuggets ( there is more small nuggets than large ones in open ground.) 

[Joe D.]

Erik,

  I think it fantastic that your son has taken a keen interest in hunting with you! That's the real "Gold" that had no equal! I wish you all much luck out there! Be safe, avoiding all the lethal critters outback!!🐍🕷🦂🐊  👍👍

[Erik Oostra]

11 hours ago, geof_junk said:

Erik have an elliptical coil in your collection with a 12 to 14" range

I'm a bit stuck with the range of coils i can get for the Nox.. we've mainly been using the 6'' coil for detecting bedrock in rainforest country and the 15x12'' coil in open country out west.. we've also have a couple of 11'' coils which my son uses on the Nox 600 when i'm using the other coils.. thanks again for the kmz files, they've saved a lot of leg-work in getting to these mine sites.. according to one old matey up here, we're the first with detectors in some of these places.. they're certainly bloody hard work to get to, which makes it all the more worthwhile..