Patches Depleting - Again?

[Steve Herschbach]

I noticed a lot of the older threads had lost their attached "tags", probably due to an update somewhere along the way. I've been spending hours today working from the oldest threads forward retagging everything and also moving some threads to other more appropriate forums. Seems to be mostly 2016 and before stuff. Whatever, housekeeping. 

It has been interesting in seeing the large number of "gold found" threads created back in the 2015 - 2016 time frame especially. We had the double whammy of the SDC 2300 followed by the GPZ 7000. Both machines are good at finding gold missed by the earlier Minelab PI models. This created a mini gold rush in two ways. First, the machines actually do target gold the other models were weak on so they did find gold the others could not. But a large portion of it was simply new machines giving people confidence to go back and hunt old areas once again. Often there is knowledge from prior hunting that allows a focus on where the gold is known to be. Gold was also therefore found the earlier machines could have found but that was simply missed by earlier hunters.

Well, four years on now and things have slowed down a lot. It's mostly the old die-hards still at it, but lots of people that were active back in 2015 have gone quiet. I'm sure I know why. There were many old "dead" patches I hit with the GPZ 7000 that came alive again. The problem now is it is back to eking out smaller and smaller returns for time spent. The sad fact is there is only so much readily available ground out there and we are once again hitting that depleted stage with existing technology.

This can't go on forever as every nugget found is one less to find and they are not growing back. We need a new toy soon or things are going to get pretty quiet. Compared to 2015 they already are.

We've seen this story many times before going back to when Minelab PI took over from VLF, and gold VLF machines taking over from the coin detectors prior to that.

Forum threads tagged "gold found"

[Gold Seeker]

I agree....BUT I also think that if any new "patches" have been discovered the finders are keeping it quiet or else they would at some point be followed to their new patch and it will be cleaned out...well at the very least I like to think this is the way it is and there are new patches being found!!

I do know that over here on the east coast that can be a real possibly because much of the land where gold has been found in the old days is private land and much of that private land has not been hunted with modern technology.

[Hard Prospector]

Know of a prospector/miner who placer mined using a trommel in Northern California in the 70's $ 80's. Then he moved to Jackpot NV nearly 30 years ago and really took up nugget shooting at  Rye Patch. Through the 90's,  several ounces  of nuggets in a day was not that unusual he once told me.  As detector technology improved, he would immediately upgrade machines and go back over his many (by then) old patches, and they would always produce at least some BUT.......

In his opinion, the SDC2300 and the GPZ (which he bought at first chance) finally "killed off" most all of the known nugget patches beyond whatever new technology may enter the market. To him, the few crumbs left at such places, or even an exceptionally rare larger piece,  are not worth his time.  In 2017,  he sold his GPX, SDC and GPZ.

This year he's in the process of starting up a new trommel operation.

[Steve Herschbach]

Of course before the SDC and GPZ came out everyone was thinking the same about the GPX 5000. It is true though for a lot of the people who were doing it big time in the 80s and 90s it no longer seems worth it. In many ways it was the increasing gold price that really kept things going. We were finding less but the value was holding steady as gold prices climbed. Right now though we are at the same gold price we were at in 2013 so the rapid increase in gold price from 2000 - 2012 is no longer offsetting the declining finds. Though we are ahead of where we were a couple years ago. 

Gold prices 2001 - 2019

 

[principedeleon]

Here where i live i have lots of open ground that never have been metal detected & most of these hills are gold bearing...just have to look for shallow gold deposits. Most creeks been rich in gold as also the rivers.  . 

Last photo is of us dredging with our Trev's Style Dredge. ..

 

 

[Sourdough Scott]

I went to a beaten patch yesterday. I pulled 7 nuggets out of it for approx a 1/4 oz. The reason they were missed by me earlier, it because it is usually very wet ground. But we are having a very dry fall, so I was able to hear the soil better. 

[Hard Prospector]

9 hours ago, principedeleon said:

Here where i live i have lots of open ground that never have been metal detected & most of these hills are gold bearing...just have to look for shallow gold deposits. Most creeks been rich in gold as also the rivers.  . 

Fishing, hunting or prospecting,  there's nothing sweeter than access to private property

[principedeleon]

4 hours ago, Hard Prospector said:

Fishing, hunting or prospecting,  there's nothing sweeter than access to private property

This is exactly how i been feeling lately.   Appreciated for having access to all these places. 

[PeterInSa]

Reading this thread, in Summary…. Gold finds go up with the introduction of new technology and after a while gold finds taper off until new tech arrives eg the 2300 and the  Z. Now gold finds are tapering off again. But rather than new tech via a machine, its the X Coils for the  Z and as JW above says: "Whack on an X coil & it will be game on again".

I recently went to the Victorian GT with a group, to me it was more of a social outing rather than serious detecting, with the Z, I found countless small and very small shot, the ones that are around 1mm in diameter, sometimes 2 or 3 to a mullock heap, along with an 1853 3d, and then its those deep targets 60cm + down and the hole xx cm wide for a rusty bolt/piece of brass. 2 such holes in the morning and ditto in the afternoon for someone who is on the wrong side of 70 is my limit.

Friends with Z machines do not have the X coil, so I really do not know what I am missing, is it deeper holes/more lead shot, or.........?

I am very happy with the Z in WA, more of the yellow stuff in Vic would not go amiss.

And like others, am not keen on a Non Minelab modification, so maybe I will miss the game.

Peter.