Okay, I totally recognise that is a dumb question if there ever was one, probably without a good answer, but I was wondering how far you have get off the track before gold detecting is worth a shot. Currently, I am planning a detecting trip and would really like it too be my first successful one (think it’ll be my 5th) but honestly confused about which of the hundred creeks and mine workings to have a shot at.
I know that detecting the creek that’s five minutes from the car is a waste of time, but the further one goes the less time one has for detecting and the more likely one faces impenetrable shrub (I learnt these two lessons the hard way).
Is there any kind of ball-park figure, like an hour or two of difficult walking is probably enough, or does one really have to walk for a day, camp and than detect to have a chance these days?
Obviously a lot comes down to luck (it is prospecting after all), but with a VLF detector (GM1000) and a 2wd I obviously need to be reasonably remote before any level of success is likely.
Hi Tom
My mates and I have only been prospecting for gold for a couple of years and it took us a few trips before we were successful so don’t get disheartened
When you do find your first piece it will be the best feeling in the world
The best tip I could give you is do your research
List map is a great place to start and will show all historical gold workings
Some will be just a scratch in the ground and others will be large tunnels and shafts everywhere
It’s just a matter of checking each spot out and eventually you will learn where to look and not look
Well known creeks are still worth a look
Just a few weeks ago I found 3 small bits in the creek with a detector that is probably the most worked creek in Tasmania
Thanks Andrew, now I am curious which creek is the most worked in Tassie? Bell, Middleton, Majors Gully?
I’ve been using List Map, and have kinda graduated from it, compiling and mapping locations of samples not included in the List but in various reports, hoping this will give me some kind of edge.
Also been studying up on geology, probably more to my detriment: constantly worrying about whether the occurrence I’m heading to is Carlin-style (often rich but almost never sheds nuggets) or not is unproductive .
Clearly I just need to get out some more, but its easy to find an hour or two to learn some geology and hard to find enough time to get a proper trip.
G’day Tom
I have been fossicking & working in the mineral exploration industry for 50+ years.
You only need a rudimentary understanding of geology, and I would only give it a few hours.
I suggest you start with Ion Idriess’s “Prospecting for Gold”.
It will tell you all you need to know.
Go to where gold has been found before as no-one gets it all, as “Wilsonag” proves.
As you develop skills, confidence and understanding, delve deeper into more remote areas.
Hey Tom, the number one golden rule for prospecting is look where gold already been found, there’s nowhere the old timers haven’t looked. I’ve been at it for 50 years and you’ll only find gold in areas where it’s already been found. I learnt this on my first detecting trip in 1978 in W.A. at a remote place on the Ashburton river called Top Camp, my dad and I were the first in with detectors. I ended up miles from the main diggings and got a solid signal in a creek bed, after removing the gravel I found that the signal was coming from a tightly packed crevice. I got excited and thought surely it has to be gold, no one has ever been here. 20 minutes of chipping out solidly packed gravel later I pulled out a horseshoe !
Thanks Ron and John, your both clearly suggesting I go somewhere with known occurrences, its good advice.
On my last prospecting trip I spent several hours on a creek with known occurrences without getting a single target (yes my detector was turned on). I suppose I was far too quick to generalise that all creeks that are somewhat accessible are like this.
Appreciate your advice, I be hitting a couple of creeks soon and on your advice I think it’ll be sensible to just hit those with occurrences rather than trying to discern possible nearby creeks containing alluvial gold (which I have been doing).
Hey Tom, it’s okay to look around, but keep your searching to known goldfields. My experience is the old timers gave gold bearing ground a thorough going over, but as Wilsonag and Ron pointed out they didn’t get it all. But you can be pretty sure where gold was found the surrounding area was gone over carefully. They were always looking upstream or uphill for the source, the old timers ultimate goal was the reef the alluvial gold was shed from. Alluvial gold for the most part meant hard work and wages, finding the reef meant selling it and getting rich { mostly }
Another technique that can work is what i call reverse loaming. Instead of finding trace gold in soils, following it to an alluvial then a reef. You can locate a reef on MRT maps then try to work out where it may have shed gold, if it eroded enough to leave an elluvial or alluvial deposit. Don’t just try downhill of the main shaft as ground levels may have changed since the gold was deposited, and the lead may now run uhill from the reef.
Yes Dave, I agree, in geological time the reef may have been exposed at a point higher than where a shaft is sunk, meaning there could be alluvial deposits above the workings. What you say is true and its something the old timers wouldn’t have ignored, neither should we. As a novice I think Tom should concentrate on the fact that all of the gold fields in Tasmania have already been found. If anyone out there has found a new one then my advice would be to keep it to yourself.
Interesting technique of reverse, hadn’t realised the ground could change like that, definitely take note. The only pity is that the good 'ol tassie scrub seems to be very thick (at least in the areas I go to - Queenstown predominately), hence the focus on creeks, but I’ll do a bit more research and see if are any some-what accessible reefs. If not I’ll take blackjack’s advice and hope the old timers left some alluvial stuff behind! I’ll probably end-up having a crack at both. With the exception of my very early prospecting days (quartz = gold), I always have focused on known areas, although part of me likes to believe that another gold field lies out there (probably the size of the little den goldfield and in the far south west if at all ).
Hey qmot The Little Den field has always interested me too, from the little research I’ve done it appears to be on private property, behind locked gates. The Southwest as you know is now national park, also keep in mind that areas that now seem inaccessible were accessed in the early days by boat. Corrina is a good example prospectors got in there via ships then longboats on the Pieman long before there was road access, the same applies for Macquarie Harbor, areas in the S/E corner were explored via boats. I think there is nowhere the oldtimers haven’t looked, but as always I’m happy to be proved wrong. The area I like to snipe, is given the terrain, staggering to think that prospectors walked in !
Yeah, Little Den is a pity, although from what I have read it wasn’t all that productive, but interestingly was never really explained from a geological perspective. I think you’re right about all the country being gone over, although I would love to see a thesis or academic paper doing a thorough search in the south-west to complete the geological and historical record. This is technically allowed as the only exception to no prospecting/fossicking in world heritage is low impact academic research (according to Parks who I was emailing about Adamsfield - apparently we have lost access). But this is very unlikely to happen, and if they did find anything interesting it would just encourage poaching.
Interesting point Thomas, we will never know about the S/W but geologically I’m not sure if that area has potential for gold, Denny King mined tin down there so it was explored. Although I think I do recall that gold was reported in a creek running into Port Davey. Living down south I was always interested in looking at the Picton river especially the southern end but time and the rule of looking where golds been found has made me spend time in other places. Gold was also reported at Lune river, the D’entrecasteaux river and Glovers bluff. I’ve had a good look in all these locations and have never got colour. I think the first two were false reports but Glovers bluff probably has gold but I couldn’t find it. As you know there’s gold at Cygnet but it’s mostly private property, people do pan on the foreshores in that area but a quick check of the List map will show that the foreshores are out of bounds for us. There is a guy on Facebook that’s posted some photos of large nuggets he claimed to have found at Petcheys bay, but they looked nothing like the small bits I have seen that were found there, either way looking on the foreshore is poaching. I do think as prospectors we should be entitled to go onto EL’s without permission, especially considering the restrictions that are placed on us by MRT [ which I agree with ] but for me digging up the foreshore is not the right thing to do. Happy prospecting to all, John.
There IS gold in the South West. But I would like to see anyone get it out. I used to work as a Field Officer down there and the gold is real, floury but real.
I think Glovers Bluff is a sedimentary deposit suggesting that it is likely mainly comprised of flyspeck to microscopic gold. To me the Picton isn’t quite the most interesting river of the area - it only drains relatively young rocks. In Tasmania most of us hobby prospectors chase gold that has shed from Devonian age quartz veins (with some notable exceptions - Cygnet and parts of the West). Most of the rocks in south-eastern tassie are younger, which is (part of the reason) why they are barren of gold mineralisation (or so my understanding goes). The Huon river drains some much older sedimentary rocks right in the area where (coincidently?) there is the MRT alluvial gold occurrence of Manuka Creek. While this area is out of bounds, one day I’ll get around to doing some poking-around in the area where it’s allowed.
The younger rocks of the south are not quite to be dismissed - there has been bugger-all modern work on them, and samples have assay 0.1 g/t from Granton, just north of Hobart, and Snug Tiers, north of Cygnet, in these younger rocks. Certainly far from economical grade, but still anomalous. Both were from mudstone in drill holes as I recall. Reference is here: https://www.mrt.tas.gov.au/mrtdoc/dominfo/download/UR1999_01/UR1999_01.pdf
To me the possibility of gold in the south is quite interesting - and every speck takes a lot of work - a large nugget is probably impossible but locating a good spot I reckon is achievable. The report (above) does say that there is further potential for gold in south-east Tasmania, although I suspect it was referring to buried occurrences.
I’ll be honest my geology and knowledge is elementary - this is just my two cents and what I have learnt doing some reading. I have also briefly investigated some of the southern occurrences but they were among the first places I went and I had frankly no clue what I was doing.
Hey Thomas, at one time I did research Glovers Bluff and looked at the drill results and read the reports, following the advice of one report I picked up some samples that were exposed by the road works on the north side of South Weld road just as you turn right into it from Fletchers road. They consisted of what appears to be a conglomerate or at least very tightly packed soil with water worn quartz pebbles/rocks in it, this was according to the report the same as where gold was found in their drill holes further north. As you said sedimentary in origin, I’ve been meaning to dolly and pan it but I’ve never got around to making a dolly pot ! Thanks for you input, John
.
).