Gold I (almost) Ignored

[jrbeatty]

A comment I made on Jins post recently reminded me of how easy it is to walk over good sized gold.

We are all familiar with the horrible loud screams detectors make over big surface targets. Sometimes the cause is obvious, usually surface rubbish such as a visible piece of tin or squashed beer can.

Occasionally, when walking paddocks (which I mostly do) it turns out to be something useful, such as a lost spanner or fuel cap from a tractor - I have even found a grease gun lying concealed in the grass. These items I always return to the grateful landowner.

More commonly, however, it is something useless like an old horseshoe, worn out cultivator point and/or the sheared bolts which once held it to the plough tyne. After digging a number of these the temptation to keep walking (with ears still ringing) becomes ~almost~ irresistible.

Back in the Minelab SD2200 days I had permission to work a large Victorian property located on the Tarnagulla granite pluton to the north of Dunolly. This had a number of unworked shallow Tertiary palaeochannels crossing it, on one of which I located a 7 oz patch. Mostly the gold was smallish and reasonably deep, but the same location was also littered with shallow shotgun shells. These were very loud and nearly drove me nuts, and in my frustration I ignored one outlier - - -

Fast forward a number of years and, armed with later technology  (GPX4000) I decided to check the patch once more and - - - WHUMP/SCREAM - - - greeted my ears over that same target.

I kicked the dirt in annoyance -  and then spotted the 70 grammer I had ignored years earlier:

 

 

I had foolishly made the assumption that all the gold in that patch was deep and small, therefore loud shallow targets had to be junk - overlooking the possibility that something once deep could have been ploughed to the surface - - - I kept it to remind me of the old detecting maxim: "Dig your targets" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[beatup]

a good lesson for all

[fredmason]

On my first Oz trip Larry took to a well worked spot.  I got a very loud signal under a salt bush. I figured junk but gave it a scrape anyway....a 3/4 oz piece that I expected to be junk right on the surface...my best piece of the trip!

You never know until you see it.

fred

[mn90403]

I have been told more than once that my largest find (find of a lifetime as Fred puts it) was a matter of 'luck' and 'not knowing any better' because the target was relatively close to several camps in the area and was on the National Trails Highway in Arizona.

The reason I would have enjoyed such luck with my 5000 and 18" NF was I was hunting in an area that had deep 50 cal bullets and shells and it had a lot of surface meteorites.  My signal was big and deep so ... maybe someone had ignored it down in the bottom of that little swail thinking they knew it was trash.  It turned out to be a very nice specimen with 8ozt of gold in it.

Mitchel

[jrbeatty]

8 hours ago, fredmason said:

On my first Oz trip Larry took to a well worked spot.  I got a very loud signal under a salt bush. I figured junk but gave it a scrape anyway....a 3/4 oz piece that I expected to be junk right on the surface...my best piece of the trip! - - -

Fred, That reminds me of another good one I ~almost~ left. Story coming - - -

7 hours ago, mn90403 said:

 - -The reason I would have enjoyed such luck with my 5000 and 18" NF was I was hunting in an area that had deep 50 cal bullets and shells and it had a lot of surface meteorites.  My signal was big and deep so ... maybe someone had ignored it down in the bottom of that little swail thinking they knew it was trash.  It turned out to be a very nice specimen with 8ozt of gold in it.

 Mitchel. Well done - How much big gold have we all inadvertently walked over at some stage? Better not to know.

[Steve Herschbach]

Excellent cautionary tale JR. It is even easier here in the States to fall into the habit of thinking big boomer signals are large surface trash. I left one larger than yours once only to see someone else dig it - that got my attention! Odd to think that many of us dream of nothing more than finding a large nugget, but then ignore the kind of sound a monster nugget would make.

The good news for me is I have been on both sides, and have dug nuggets others left for trash to make up for my lost find. 

[jrbeatty]

High in the NSW alpine region alluvial gold was discovered by hardy shepherds summer grazing sheep in the early 1860's. The most famous of these goldfield was Kiandra, where very large quantities of nuggets weighing up to 400 oz had eroded from a basalt covered Tertiary lead into the Eucumbene river, Pollocks gully (named after the brother discoverers) and Three Mile creek.

This rich, short lived rush then led to further alpine discoveries. The name Toolong then caught my attention as a novice prospector, mainly because the gold was described in a Bureau of Mineral Resources report as having been "coarse and nuggety"

My detecting mate Kim and I then thoroughly researched all historical information and planned an expedition. This necessitated backpacking everything required for detecting and survival (including such young men survival essentials as alcohol and nicotine) on a two day hike. 

We finally arrived at our destination, an alpine hut built by a long deceased one armed mountain cattleman nicknamed "Wingy" Wheeler. This we made our expedition base camp since it was located close to Dargals Creek,  the sluiced source of the gold:

Image: Huts of the high Country. Longwalk 2015

We arrived exhausted late afternoon, did a quick recce of the creek, then read the visitors log book. Disappointingly,  It turned out we were not the first to detect there, with one entry claiming to have found a 5 oz piece.  We reassured ourselves that at least there was detectable gold to be found, and we had the latest detectors - - -

We then settled down to a hot meal of steak, sausages and potatoes. later that evening, in the universal manner of young men caught up in the excitement of an adventure, we foolishly finished off our entire alcohol stock in premature celebration. 

Photo: Kim Satchwell

Edit: The only surviving image from the expedition. Me having a freezing evening wash at Wheelers hut.

Funny bustard Kim was. He just had to show this to my future wife for a laugh. Mind you, I  wouldn't mind having my old body back!

Sluice tailings in Dargals Creek, Toolong Diggings (below Wheelers Hut)

image: John D Evans

The rocks in the piles consist of basalt, some granite and Ordovician metasediment (the source of the gold) and since everything had been sluiced, they were the main target for detecting, along with the exposed bedrock of the creek.

Now the difficulties arose. We had set out in late summer, the weather was still fairly hot and the piles were literally full of snakes and bull ants. To make things worse, our detectors (GT16000's) sounded off badly on basalt hot rocks. Coupled with hangovers, we spent a futile first day. That evening more hikers arrived at the hut with children, so Kim and I volunteered to sleep out under the stars.

Big mistake! at some ungodly hour a mob of wild horses (brumbies) thundered past narrowly missing us in our sleeping bags, followed by the constant howls of nearby feral dog packs. We didn't sleep a wink.

Did I mention the Bull Ants? Turns out they're nocturnal.

Next morning the hikers departed and we returned, sleepy and sore, to our detecting. Around 10 o'clock Kim packed it in and returned to the hut for a rest. I soldiered on in a dispirited fashion, waved my detector under a thorn bush and thought I heard a signal, maybe? Nah! bound to be another hot rock - - - 

I walked on detecting, then something pricked my conscience and made me return. I scraped a larger rock out of the way and black jumper ants poured out from under it. These are highly aggressive and inflict a painful bite. Before beating a retreat I waved the coil again and received a definite clear response. So - bugger the ants - I gave a couple of hasty scrapes and this 44 grammer shone in the sunshine:

We persevered for another day, but my late alcoholic mate Kim had, in desperation, taken to drinking "Tang" dissolved in cooking stove spirit, so I called it a day and we departed.

For those interested, further information on Toolong diggings:

081_Toolong_Diggings_DavidScott_dec09.pdf

and a 1910 report on the Kiandra lead by E C Andrews 

Mineral_Resources_10.R00050673.MR10 Kiandra (OCR version) whole volume.pdf

 

 

 

[Reg Wilson]

At an area called 'Patchy flat', not far from Dunolly in Victoria I was detecting with a couple of mates. (these guys are well known by JR Beatty, and he can vouch for this story) An area had recently been skimmed off by a dozer to remove rusty cans and other rubbish from a depression era prospecting camp site, and a windrow of dirt and rubbish had resulted. John had detected a 40 oz lump the previous day, and was systematically gridding the area, when he heard a huge signal in the end of the windrow. Taking it for just a tin can he moved on, as that windrow was full of junk.

Some time later an old bloke called Kiwi Russell  (deceased) heard that same signal, but dug it. He dug through the windrow and into the ground below to uncover a 250oz nugget. 

[flakmagnet]

Steve said: "...Odd to think that many of us dream of nothing more than finding a large nugget, but then ignore the kind of sound a monster nugget would make..."

For me that is the quote of the year.

Happily (for once), I did not ignore the booming target that produced my biggest find; a 1.9 ouncer up in the Sierra's.

 

 

[jrbeatty]

4 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The good news for me is I have been on both sides, and have dug nuggets others left for trash to make up for my lost find.

Ditto Steve. Love those dipping signals in other peoples incomplete holes.

Doesn't happen often enough though.