Reg Wilson

I smell big trouble brewing.

This is the best yarn that I have read in years. Love it.

Well, how about that. An ounce better than my best colour. I'm running out of time to beat my record, but I'm still trying.

Please put me down for a copy of this saga. I can identify with some aspects of this tale.

Finally to answer the original question. I have worked a number of claims and leases over the years, and I have to admit some were 'duffers', but even the ones where I broke even or did my dough taught me something. Where I made good money was a blessing and probably spurred me on to keep trying my luck, which on occasions paid off very well. A price cannot be put on the experience, and the buzz of a lucrative clean up at the end of a hard day is something only the lucky prospector can understand. Working alone can be a rather solitary experience, but having a good mate that you trust with your life and share the highs and lows with is in my opinion the ultimate trip. I have been lucky in that regard as my partners (the odd exception) have been top blokes that it has been a delight to share the journey with. A cold beer at the end of a hot day, or a whiskey on a cold night shared with a pal is the cream on the cake, not to mention the gold in the pan. So, yes, I think that the red tape and all the paperwork and other assorted dramas can be worthwhile provided that you have good ground to work, and someone reliable to share the experience. "Break a leg" (it is bad luck to wish good luck) to all those prepared to have a go. Do your research to get yourself on good ground and give it your best shot. Cheers, Reg.

Now we come to the reason why I have told this story. Good news. Really big rainfall has come with the La'Ninya Pacific effect that has dumped massive rainfall on parts of Australia. My good mate Bill has recently contacted me with the latest news. "Mate, the settling dams are full and the retaining wall is directing water down into the valley." "In short, we have all the water we need to start treating the wash that is already stockpiled, and enough to treat material yet to be extracted". "I have moved the loader and excavator up to the lead, the treatment plant is now located and levelled and engine and pump moved up and connected". "After all these years we are ready to go". "I say we because it was we, you and me that discovered this abandoned project and I hope that we can work it together". "I am camped on site and have a big caravan with all comforts". Wow! That's what good mates are all about. Bill has put in an enormous amount of work in putting this into place after so many years of perseverance and persistence. Bill has offered the land owner a percentage of the gold recovered which has been accepted by Lefty's son who has stated that he trusts the agreement and requires no further compensation provided that the land is rehabilitated at the conclusion of the operation. A quite large bond has been posted to ensure that this occurs. The agreement that Bill has negotiated is as follows: the split will see the recovered gold divided as such; the land owner will get to 'cherry pick' his percentage, and the balance will be divided three ways. A share for Bill, a share for me and the third share for the machinery. Bill and I will split the fuel and basic running costs. A fair split to my way of thinking. After negotiations the land owner will settle for ten percent. All that is left is for me to pay outstanding bills and expenses here and convince my partner that she will be able to get on without me here for a few months. (or more) To be continued.

It was painfully obvious that we could never do a deal with the old cattle thief that owned the alluvial lead. I ended up selling most of the property that I had bought keeping only a small part which I still own. Bill however bought a small holding to the north of the ground that we had dreamed of one day working. He ran a small herd of cattle and worked where he could get occasional employment. We would at times get together and still talk of whether we would ever get to put plans of mining the lead into reality. About five years ago Bill phoned me and said "guess what"? "Old Lefty has kicked the bucket". He had made it to his nineties, a miracle really, due to the life of boozing and brawling for which he was noted. He outlived two of his sons and his remaining son was much more approachable about mining, although his crazy daughter was a bit of a worry. She had four kids from different fathers and was as dodgy as her dad. Her brother managed to get her on side after a great deal of persuasion. Bill finally got to peg the lead some time after I had returned south to work some claims here that were very successful in some cases but less so with others. Bill had passed all the obstacles that were part and parcel of getting his lease officially granted, including having the local indigenous elders inspect the ground for any sites that may have been of importance. They came to the conclusion that their ancestors would not have camped there nor would have had put any importance on the area. A quite high bond was put on the lease and many rules and stipulations put in place. This was a lengthy process that took some time and money to conclude, but finally Bill got the okay to proceed with the necessary infrastructure, after having to watch out for unwelcome visitors. Two big settling dams were dug using an excavator and dozer plus a large retaining bank which was stipulated to retain any flooding that may unexpectantly occur. After preparation of the site a large wash plant was built by Bill and a friend designed specifically to handle the percentage of clay in the wash. Bill had years to get his planning right and to his credit he had covered all eventualities and possibilities. All he needed now was water to fill the dams, but the rains had failed for the last few years, so the equipment remained on a nearby property where it was safe from theft or vandalism. to be be continued.

Where to go from here? Firstly, find out who has an EL over this area. (exploration lease) Turns out that the EL lease owner is only interested in the line of mineralization to the east of the shallow lead and would not be adverse to us putting in an application for a MRC (miners right claim) within their lease provided that we advise them of any discovery of a reef that may have been the source of the alluvial lead. They were actually surprisingly supportive and co operative in what we were contemplating. That turned out to be the easy part. Lefty, tipped off by our interest in the abandoned reef mine had pushed a dozer track into the old mine site and with the help of some of his dodgy mates with a knowledge of mining, had opened up a section of the reef line to the north of the main shaft and had with the help of an excavator hit some good colour. This was both good and bad. It drew attention from our area of interest, but it drew attention to the area that Lefty and his pals had illegally ripped open ground without any legal permit. This was getting more difficult with each development. One option was to buy the land, and we did succeed in purchasing a block of 1100 acres to the south of the deposit which we succeeded in putting in a lease and did cut the old drainage line which produced reasonable gold for the effort but not as rich as our original test site. Old harry felt sorry for us and one day took us to a site which he had prospected to the north of a rich reef deposit. ( this was the line that a mining company had under lease and had high hopes for). Harry explained that he had spent half his life chasing this line, and he was getting too old to do much more with it. He had a small drive, very well hidden running from south to north into a hill side. There in this small tunnel we lit up with a torch a seam of shattered quartz and ferruginous gossan running vertically from floor to ceiling of the drive. Gold was readily visible to the naked eye along the seam. Harry really wanted us to pursue this deposit although we knew next to nothing of hard rock mining. He was too old to now do anything with his discovery but would love to see us make something of it. The company that owned the EL had never found this extension of the worked line, and Harry never trusted them enough to share his knowledge. Not long after this our friend with amazing knowledge of this remote and mysterious gold field passed away. He took with him an extensive collection of tales and experience. Harry never wrote anything down, so the only records of a lifetime of scratching in the dirt for gold in this wild place are the few secrets that he passed down to his friends around a camp fire. This treasured knowledge, or at least a small part of it still resides with me and a few others. to be continued.

My mate Bill (not his real name) was very determined that we would get to work that lead, but there was much research to be done before that could come to fruition. Firstly the ground turned out to be privately owned and not Crown land as we first thought. The owner was a large pastoralist with a very dodgy reputation. He was known as a cattle and horse thief with some some powerful connections in local government and less than desirable friends. Our recent friend Harry advised us that this guy was one to be very careful of as he could not be trusted in any agreement that we may be involved in. How could we admit to him that we had tested material from the old mine site when we would have to admit that we had entered private property without his permission to do so? We would be revealing the fact that he had a potentially valuable gold source on a section of his property. It now looked like we faced a big problem. After a very late night and the best part of a bottle of Bourbon we hatched a plot. There was an old reef mine, also on his property about four or five miles from the alluvial deposit. It was decided that to feel him out we would visit him and judge his reaction to having someone peg a mine on his property. We would intimate that the reef mine was of interest and we actually did some research on this mine and found that it was very rich but the water table beat them at a relatively shallow depth. We figured that we would be able to gauge his response to mining without giving away the site that we were really interested in. Our meeting with the landowner who we shall call 'Lefty' began quite well as he insisted that we drink beer with him and threw some meat on the barbecue that he proudly told us that he had killed himself. He was most inquisitive as to why we requested a meeting with him, and his eyes narrowed when we began to outline our mining interest. Had we been to the mine? How did we know of it? What made us think that we could find gold there when it had not been worked for about a hundred years? How much gold did we think could be recovered? What percentage could he expect to receive? It did not take long for us to realize that Harry was right about his analysis of Lefty. This bloke was a real shifty, greedy bit of work. We had an overpowering feeling that he would never be able to be trusted, regardless of what he may say. We discussed with Harry the possibility of doing business with Lefty and we had another meeting to get down to the facts of just how a lease on his property would go down. He stated that he would need a compensation and fifty percent of the gold recovered. He would also require that his son work with us to assure that we did not cheat him on the amount of gold recovered. He also required a copy of the work plan with recovery mapping and the right to terminate the lease at his discretion. Warning bells began to be deafening. to be continued.

Well this is a coincidence. Back in the nineteen eighties a mate and I stumbled on some old alluvial workings up north from where I live here in Australia. It extended from shallow surfacing on a slope into an open cut lead running parallel with the slope. It was at a depth of about eight or nine feet and about a hundred meters in length from the surfacing. Although being quite overgrown with scrub we could see that it was well laid out with rock walls and wheelbarrow tracks where the wash was taken out to be treated in a long tom, the water being taken from a dam in a gully that had since been washed away at some time. There were still old rusty bits of equipment equipment laying about and it looked like the original miners just walked out and left it. Where the lead had been abandoned there was a short exploratory drive where some sort of animal appeared to have made its home and a small pile of wash was left next to the tunnel. Curiosity got the better of us so we took a sample of the wash in an old tub that we had found. We also discovered rusted out gold pans and the remains of their washing setup which had long since rotted away. Back at camp by a waterhole we panned our wash. When I got down to the last bit in the pan I handed it to my mate and said "take a look at this". His mouth fell open and he looked at me wide eyed. We had about a two inch tail of fines and a few matchead 'pickers'. After panning all the wash that we had brought back we returned to the workings and scraped back to the the bedrock in the short tunnel which we found was following a small gutter. More fines and bits, some would have been detectable. From what we could see no one seemed to have done any work here since the diggings had been abandoned. Why would anyone leave good colour like this here? There and then we decided that we would be mad not to peg this area, but decided to try and find out what we could about it before doing so. We had been told about an old chap that had prospected in this area most of his life, so set about finding him to see if he could enlighten us to the history of gold in this area. When we did finally find him he was very friendly and only too willing to share what he knew, which was quite a lot. His special interest was hard rock reef mining, however he knew quite a bit about alluvial deposits in the area. Old Harry as it turned out was related to the two Cornish brothers that worked the alluvial deposit. They were before his time but he did know a bit about them. There were four brothers, but the other two had no interest in mining and were farmers who struggled to make a living here in the hard country and moved to New Zealand. Harry had no idea what happened to them, but the other two worked that deposit for a couple of years before joining the army. They were very short of stature and were not immediately accepted, but applied again and on the second attempt were successful. Harry was not sure of their fate but after going off to fight in the first world war they did not return. To be continued.

That lady has more gonads than many hopeless males that run countries. (mine included)

Can't pull the wool over your eyes Simon. Another 'Washington' nugget?

I have to admit that I am enjoying this saga a great deal.

Shush, quiet mate, or we will have all these yank prospectors setting sail for the land downunder. Be warned. Our immigration thugs will not roll out the welcome mat but will lock you up on some God forsaken island forever and feed you on gruel. The welcome mat was thrown on a bonfire some time back.

Well jasong, I guess I am lucky. Lucky to live where I do.

Jeff, I don't know why there have been complaints about the EMI in regard to the 6000. Is it just the USA or other parts of the world as well? Mine purrs like a kitten, but it has been suggested that perhaps it is the audio system that I use. Is the speaker the problem, or maybe the Bluetooth, neither of which I use. It has been suggested that I am just lucky. Maybe, but it seems unlikely.

Hi Jonathan, all the best for the next detecting season when the weather cools off. I have mounted the Quest Tx on the arm cuff as far from the electronics as possible. No discernible interference and the WiFi sound is very good. The Rx has the added advantage of volume control. Bauhn have Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones, but lack volume. They can also be used with cable or the Quest Rx unit which solves the volume problem, but not much point in paying more for this unit when the cheaper non Bluetooth unit is fine when matched to the Quest system.

Well my luck still holds out. When I bought my GPZ (one of the first cabs off the rank) my machine was perfect and paid for itself within a couple of weeks, my best find being a 27oz lump found a couple of years later. Upon cranking up the 6000 it also purred like a kitten finding gold within hours of use. No EMI problems at all that I was expecting to occur due to reports that I had read. Now after using it for a couple of months I feel more familiar with the settings. So far no bigger gold, but boy oh boy is it dynamite on small colours, and so light and well balanced. In a few months when our hot Aussie summer wanes I shall really give it some work. I do not use the speaker nor the ML Bluetooth, but use the Quest Mate WiFi system and Bose noise cancelling earbuds or the Bauhn n/c headphones. This set up works for me and gives me a great stable machine. Can't believe how deep some of the very small targets are.

Eric, I did find some of your videos entertaining. Better than some of that 'reality' garbage. Maybe I'm just hard to please.

Watching paint dry would be more entertaining.

I once had a shot at a mate (JHS) who had found a massive amount of gold, but had a habit of 'dinging' his nuggets with his pick. He explained to me that he did it on purpose as it was necessary to 'stun' the bits before they could turn themselves into lead. Alchemy????

When gold is used for visors on space helmets it is so thin as to be transparent and is green in colour. It is used to screen out radiation.

That's a specimen, not a nugget.

Lost a pup to wedgies a few weeks back. They are on the ball and got a pup that got out of the pen.

Just might be a chance in that gully as it is Crown land all the way down to the fence line where it would be too deep for a detector. I have not detected it due to the easier pickings out on the flat country where the Nuggetty lead meanders for miles over granite country. The bush reserve where the old Nuggetty school used to be might be worth a punt as the ground is shallow and I know of a guy who got small colours on the edge of the road there. Once again I have not detected that spot although I did get a patch of eleven ounces quite close by. The best bit was over three ounces.