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A fun and low impact way to prospect for gold, especially to explore new areas for further effort with other means. Looks like you’re on a great area and recovering very well.

Mike

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Hey Mike, as you point out it is a low impact way to prospect, also very efficient and more effective than panning or sluicing, you can access crevices that are usually out of reach. Easier on your back as well, although dragging the kayak over large boulders to avoid rapids can be exhausting. We did have a couple of flood events last winter and are keen to get back to the area pictured to see if there has been any replenishment. We've had a lot of rain this spring as well and so far the river has had too much flow to work it safely, last season we were able to get in mid November. We are curious about how long it takes to replenish an area, I guess it would vary and we hopefully will have an answer for that section of river soon enough. I would like to hear other peoples experiences on the subject of replenishment, it's something that is interesting when it comes to alluvial gold. And something that detectorists that aren't working a creek wouldn't consider.  Thanks for your interest,  John.

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Sniping is all I do anymore.

I “DO” run either a NOX or a Monster across crevices and shallow bedrock but even if I don’t get a signal, crevices that have oversized gravels that been “hammered” into the cracks by larger rocks get thoroughly cleaned. You can keep it simple or go all out. I’ve been known to use a vacuum along with a hammer drill with feathers and wedges to open up the deeper cracks. 😎

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Yes the crevices that are packed tight due to impaction generally have gold. We have also learnt that crevices that run parallel to the flow can be just as good as those that run across. The best crevices however seem to be ones that run across the flow and are at the base of a small ledge. For us bedrock type also seems crucial, Tillite having a rough surface catches more gold than another type of bedrock we encounter that erodes to a smooth surface but  still has crevices. Tillite by the way is the source of the gold in our river. 

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23 minutes ago, Tom T said:

Sniping is all I do anymore.

I “DO” run either a NOX or a Monster across crevices and shallow bedrock but even if I don’t get a signal, crevices that have oversized gravels that been “hammered” into the cracks by larger rocks get thoroughly cleaned. You can keep it simple or go all out. I’ve been known to use a vacuum along with a hammer drill with feathers and wedges to open up the deeper cracks. 😎

Hey Tom T when we finally get in the water this year  I've got a new nox 800 to checkout crevices that are out of the water or too shallow. 

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  • 1 month later...

Just getting into this myself.  

On 12/12/2022 at 2:24 PM, blackjack said:

We have also learnt that crevices that run parallel to the flow can be just as good as those that run across.

Interesting point.  Would have thought the cross cut crevices would have held significantly more 👍

On 12/12/2022 at 1:05 PM, blackjack said:

I would like to hear other peoples experiences on the subject of replenishment

Me too.  Considering what the old timers scraped out was laid down over millions of years, I wonder how much is going to get replaced over 1 big flood event or a decade or a hundred years.   

 

On 12/12/2022 at 2:32 PM, blackjack said:

when we finally get in the water this year  I've got a new nox 800 to checkout crevices

Do you use a pinpointer at all?  Less sensitive than an 800 coil but also a lot easier to fit into nooks and crannies.  

Has the water gone down enough to let you get in yet?  Infrequent rain events are just frequent enough and just heavy enough to be a pain in the butt here re: visibility and just a little too much flow.  

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I’m looking forward to more pictures and writings about your sniping blackjack. Also how you make out with the Nox 800. Nice looking country you have to explore and prospect.
 

Mike

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3 hours ago, Northeast said:

Just getting into this myself.  

Interesting point.  Would have thought the cross cut crevices would have held significantly more 👍

Me too.  Considering what the old timers scraped out was laid down over millions of years, I wonder how much is going to get replaced over 1 big flood event or a decade or a hundred years.   

 

Do you use a pinpointer at all?  Less sensitive than an 800 coil but also a lot easier to fit into nooks and crannies.  

Has the water gone down enough to let you get in yet?  Infrequent rain events are just frequent enough and just heavy enough to be a pain in the butt here re: visibility and just a little too much flow.  

Hey N/E, I will revise that, crevices that run across are generally better, but we have worked one area where some of the crevices running parallel were better than some that ran across, they shouldn't be ignored.                                                             As to replenishment I think none of us will live long enough to say for sure, in other words I think it takes a long time. Some crevices that we worked last season had been repacked with dark heavies and compacted by impaction, but no gold. Last winters flood had however moved enough gravel and reduced the overburden to allow us to work some new crevices that were under three feet of gravel and rocks last season, the river is always changing.                                                                                                                          No we don't use a pin pointer, it's all by sight, the ideal ground has a crevice that can be scraped out to a bottom, slate and shale bed rock is sometimes not the best as it can be hard to find a bottom. Bedrock that erodes smooth with no cracks has no gold, obviously. For the river we work the best bedrock is Tillite, which erodes to a rough surface and has small cracks in the bottom of the crevices. The best crevices have cracks that are very tightly packed. No compaction no gold.                                                                                                                                                                                                         Our river is exactly where we want it at the moment high enough to mostly paddle the kayaks, but low enough to work safely. It gets tough when the water gets low, think about trying to drag a kayak while trying walk on rocks the size of watermelons. It could be comical for an onlooker, by the amount of times we fall over, but it's pretty testing on our sense of humour. The river we work by Australian standards is unusual, it flows through rainforest, so very few eucalypts, and therefore no tannin staining, so we are lucky to have clear water to work in.                                                                                            When looking on maps for new areas we look for what we call pinched areas, that is where the river is bounded on both sides by steep country, like a ravine or gorge, this results in a high pressure zone, characterized by deep water, where the river flows from there into an area where the flood water can spread out, the resulting low pressure zone is ideal for a drop out point for the gold. We work a large river so traditional drop out points like inside bends always have too much rock and gravel to get to the bedrock, Sniping is all about working the bedrock. Thanks for your interest N/E stay safe. Don't snipe alone.

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3 hours ago, delnorter said:

I’m looking forward to more pictures and writings about your sniping blackjack. Also how you make out with the Nox 800. Nice looking country you have to explore and prospect.
 

Mike

Hey Mike, yes we are lucky to have some nice rivers here in Tasmania, even better that some have gold in them. Our first trip this season gave us 9 grams for the day, between three of us, we split what we find. We are limited to weekends and need to travel 550klms./8hrs. Get to our camp friday night snipe all day saturday, then mostly do a recce on sunday morning to work out a camp site and access for the next trip if we aren't going back to the same spot. The river we are working is gorge country and rainforest, where we worked last weekend the camp was at 400mtrs. elevation with the river at 220mtrs. a really steep descent chocked with Horizontal scrub [google it] fortunately we found a clear ascent back, all for 0.15 grams. We were so knackered that we spent sunday morning at a spot were we could park next to the river, no gold but a nice sunny day. Next trip will be back to where we got 9 grams, as Two Toes says you got to be happy with a 2 gram day. I will keep you posted and try to get my head out of the water long enough to take some more photos, thanks for your interest. I'd like to see some photos of Northern California, same latitude as us.

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