mn90403

Good snag ... nothing like a good task masker to make you forget you have already been over that ground. How much boost do you need? I'm sure I would need a lot. Mitchel

Coronado

700 ounces and counting ... https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/09/05/1565591/0/en/Macarthur-Minerals-Identifies-18-High-Priority-Conductors-for-Gold-Including-Two-Isolated-Discrete-Bedrock-Conductors-at-Hillside-Gold-Project-in-Pilbara-Western-Australia.html

I suspect this is the type of testing that was being conducted in the picture! Heliborne SkyTEM Electromagnetic Survey http://skytem.com/photos/ https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/09/05/1565591/0/en/Macarthur-Minerals-Identifies-18-High-Priority-Conductors-for-Gold-Including-Two-Isolated-Discrete-Bedrock-Conductors-at-Hillside-Gold-Project-in-Pilbara-Western-Australia.html

Steve, Thanks for your story. It is well told. I have just a few years on you having been born in 53 but the wildness was definitely still in your areas up there. We still had a little bit of wild in North Florida at that time. My dad spent time as a pilot in Alaska in the 50s. Most of it was in or associated with the Navy but all of it was cargo flying. I never did determine much of his Alaska adventures or make it there until 1986 on the Kenai for salmon. He and my mom met out in the Pacific after the battle of Midway in the 40s. I'll be waiting for the installments as they come in. Do you write them offline and then copy and paste them to your forum? Mitchel

The coil is one thing but how about that coil cover for those of you who insist on grinding against the ground? (I mean trees, hills, boulders, houses, etc.) Mitchel

Many areas in Arizona and California are detected and then raked in order to get down to the next level of little nuggets. It is common to see rows of surface rocks raked together where someone has detected the raked ground. Sometimes the only place for gold to be left is under these rows of surface rocks and sometimes those have already been moved a couple of times. Classification of any type is really a preparation for sluicing or dry washing material. Mitchel

And you?

I always use a gold pick with a super magnet on it. Sometimes I have two so I get the dry washer wires and hot rocks. When I want to clean the magnets I pull off the big items. When it comes to the black sand I use a kitchen brush (one of those white, nylon ones with orange bristles and a little scraper) with a stiff bristle and it just flicks the black sand away. It does the same for canslaw, etc. Mitchel

Thanks for the replies and notices. When I posted up the one nugget I found I hope that everyone didn't think that was the only gold I was talking about. I consider Curtis to be a little California gold also. (Lu is a Big Gold!) Mitchel

Fred, Always good to hear from you. Curtis and Lu are doing good. We hope to see you soon. Mitchel

This is an Oregon story but a long way from you ... http://www.eastoregonian.com/eo/out-of-the-vault/20180825/out-of-the-vault-gold-strike-thought-to-be-legendary-blue-bucket-mine Mitchel

When I first started looking for meteorites I bought one of the shop sweepers and put several super magnets in it because I wanted the hot rock/meteorite to stick to my sweeper. It turned out to be too big for my job but I was left with a number of super magnets which if you had some could help your job one small area at a time. You can't clean a huge area and detect it with the time you have left before the snows. Find your area you are getting the best gold and rake it with a super magnet rake (do a 10'x10') and then with the soil loose run the magnets over it again with them on a rope or stick. After 30 minutes or so you should have more than half the canslaw, nails and screws out of your way. The biggest drawback is the cost of the magnets. Also, be careful with those things around your detectors and fingers. Mitchel

One additional add (off topic) ... Curtis (my son who is almost 8 months old) likes it when his daddy brings home gold. He is telling me now to find a couple of places for him to go out in a few years! He already knows how to beach hunt. Mitchel

Thanks, it's nice to have a bit of a voice again for posting. I'm a bit recovered now from the trip and I could bring out some additional details. It is still summer here and when I got back in to Barstow it was 102 ... but it is dry heat and we had a little wind. That is a cool day and one reason for us to be out. We were up on a higher plateau which can be a few degrees cooler or warmer depending on the winds. The night was about 72 so I was comfortable/cool until about 10 AM. This area has had dry washing and pushing going on for years. We were across from an area called Coolgardie which has some GPAA claims on it and they still have dry washing most of the year after a storm or two. The BLM has begun closing roads all over the area. Access is more difficult than it was two years ago. It's time for us to find new areas to satisfy our detectors. Their appetite is insatiable. Mitchel

My first trip to this location with the Nox gave me two nuggets a bit larger than the one I got yesterday. At the time Steve said I might be the only one who had found gold with the Nox other than him!

About this time last night I was loading up the 4Runner and starting my 3 hour drive to the goldfields of Barstow, California. (I did this same trip last week and got a skunk!) What has changed since last week? Well, I bought a Chromebook and now I can watch metal detecting videos and learn some techniques I had not learned. The first one was lower sensitivity and lower recovery speed. (When I first got the Nox and used it on the beach I had experimented with this but now it was time to use it in Gold Mode.) I arrived about 1:30 AM to a full moon desert which is great all by itself. I spent an hour with the Nox and the 11 in coil and then went to the 7000 for an hour. It was time for a nap and I woke up about 6 AM as the moon was just setting. Soon thereafter I broke my skunk with the Nox. I got a .09g little flake in a well hunted spot. It was not deep. I went back at it a bit later with the 06 but to no avail ... again. You can't hear what is not there. I kept the sensitivity between 15 and 20 ... mostly 17. Recovery speed was 4. It was time to go to a spot Swifty had told me about and about 11 he comes rolling in and tells me I'm in the wrong spot! (I went to the wrong spot last week also.) He gets out there with his Monster and 7000 and quickly puts me to shame getting 2 nuggets for .61g total (one of his nuggets was just to the right of mine). We've taken so many nuggets off this area that they are tough to find now with any coil/machine combo but we'll keep trying.

Paul, What town near you had the McDonalds? Mitchel

It seems they are having a little get together in Perth. https://www.mining-journal.com/events-coverage/news/1345003/gold-symposium-sprott-head-to-perth

It is really good to see and hear from you guys again. Nice looking gold. Darn crops! They keep you from your fun. Mitchel

Dave, Jim and his friend have a plan to show a few people what caused gold to be in the Randsburg area. It is a geology field trip of sorts, kinda like Ray Mills does in Redding. (I hope Ray is ok. I haven't heard from him after the fire. I left a message.) You don't take a detector or a dry washer with you. I'm hoping I'll be one of the lucky ones that is invited but many more requests have been made than time they have available to them. Mitchel

Dave, I like this 'trick' but I have to tell you I have a couple of poker chips with pieces of gold on them. One of them shows 6-7 on the Nox with the 6" and 11" coil. When I pump on them they will go negative! I was sold these test chips years ago at a GPAA show in Vegas. I have found a specimen with the 11" that does not waver from 1. I was hoping to find more 1s out in Barstow over the weekend but nada. Mitchel

Lunk, Thanks for your report. Nice gold and I'd say good depth. My experience in the gold fields with the 6" coil have been unrewarding so far. I've found tiny wire and tiny lead and been thrown off my numbers many, many times. I was out in a trashed patch Saturday night and part of Sunday with no joy. I must also admit that half the time I was using my 7000 and didn't find any gold either. I'd like to know more about your settings before I try to 'detail' my experiences. Mitchel

I am a History Channel buff. Tonight they were showing Pale Rider from the 80s and there were some 'authentic' scenes of monitors and wooden sluicing. It caused me to do a search and I came up with a page of 82 movies that have to do with Mining in Film. What is your favorite mining movie? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mining_in_film Mitchel

Thanks for looking and the replies. I should note that I gridded this beach for about 2 hours and if it was 100 yards that is stretching it. I 'worked' it like a well hunted gold patch ... well, I still need to slow down on my gold patches you guys tell me! Mitchel