My First 2023 Flakes

[phrunt]

Last night after dinner I went for a quick gold hunt, the day was hot but it cooled a bit by evening.  I just went to a hillside a few minutes from where my caravan was parked and fired up the 6000.  I didn’t bother with the GPZ  for such a little hunt and the 6000 is more like a quick easy VLF especially now I can use its speaker, which I exclusively do now unless somewhere noisy as it’s not a loud speaker.

the GPX behaved well, so much better with the EMI fix done, I quite like it now.

There is lots of quartz around, it goes in a line like a vein up the hill.

 

My first nugget for 2023

a nice flat one, very shallow easy target and of course sounded different to the pellets I’d been digging.

 

Near a surface target.

I got another straight away, the pick is the first nuggets hole, coil the second.

Another flat bit.

I called it quits now as I had to walk down the hill to my car before dark. 

The photo probably doesn’t show it but it’s steep, at least down is easier than going up.

My junk, not bad for 2 bits of gold.  I put 3 hot rocks in the photo but I must have dug 30 of them, the 6000 loved them and I couldn’t balance them out, normal, difficult, low sensitivity, nothing helped.  They sounded just like gold too especially when buried.

I will go back tonight after dinner when it cools down and try again, maybe with different equipment, might try the DD.  

[Steve Herschbach]

Good on you Simon! And thanks for not calling them nuggets. I think Reg has got us all straightened out on that now. 

[phrunt]

Yes, anything under a kilo is a flake 😁

[Norvic]

A dink in US?, a scrap in FNQ, a colour in Vic what`s in a name 🤪  tis that bloody lovely golden stuff. I am dirty jealous, be months away before I can get out, just watch out cuz ya might av an old poacher coming over the ditch.

[Sourdough Scott]

I prefer the term "baby nuggets". I got these baby nuggets the day after Xmas with Klunker.  Klunker waved his crystal tied to a string over a map of our area. He is pretty accurate with this method. 

[matt]

Way to start off the New Year Simon! Those are nice!

[Aureous]

I've stuck to a term 'bits' where the gold is under a gram.....after that, the 'N' word is applied 😉  Good start to the year Simon <huge thumbs up>  I'm off to a flying start as well. I'm heading back to the same spot today, just to dig up 2 big, deep targets that my old 1990's era pick can't reach. Probably deep iron, but ya never know....

[rvpopeye]

WTG  phrunt  ,  Sourdough and Aureous. !

It's still gold whatever the weight.🖖 

 

 

[Aureous]

In case anyone's wondering....it was deep iron. A large pry bar split in half 😞 Only 2 foot down and a liter of water drank.....

[Steve Herschbach]

9 hours ago, phrunt said:

 I put 3 hot rocks in the photo but I must have dug 30 of them, the 6000 loved them and I couldn’t balance them out, normal, difficult, low sensitivity, nothing helped.

We have them here. I think they are rhyolite, fine grained, usually some tiny bubbles (hollow spots) and some white bits enclosed in the gray or pinkish mass. Sound exactly like a gold nugget, and no 6000 setting or coil will knock them out. 7000 does not like them either. Luckily, the places I have run into them they are not quite so plentiful as to be more than annoying. If an area was thick with them it would shut you down or force a change in equipment. Rhyolite is high in silica and total alkali metal oxides, and alkali metal oxides can have high conductivity. I'm just winging it on the identification but I think I'm close.

Rhyolite varies in appearance depending on the exact composition and how quickly it cooled. Some pictures: