Mt Browne ramblings from my September visit

G'day fellow optimists,

I spent nine days up at Mt Browne in north west NSW and got home last Friday - it rained all the way home and I got stuck for a while with my heavy van sliding all over the road on the way into Whitecliffs.

I ended up with 65 little nuggets for the princely total of 7.52gm. The last day was a big one - 21 nuggets off one slope.

It was great to meet up with some more forumites who were also there. John and Brenton (not sure of their forum names), Phil (Detector 2), and the Duck (Duckmaloi) and Deb. I was there with Mark from Gold Prospecting Australia and his family - Mark never gets a chance to detect on his tours and so took a couple of weeks to look around Broken Hill and go detecting at Mt Browne.

We had some shocking weather and there was blown down tents and damaged annexes one night. 96 km/hour wind gusts were reported at a weather station to the south that night.

Duck, Phil and I, all eventually tried detecting the creeks to try to get some bigger size. I did get two nuggets doing this, but knackered myself digging many huge deep holes in the sand for junk.

The smallest bits of gold and junk I got. Most of these pieces would not have been targets when originally "detected". They would have been heard as vague changes in the background "noise". Only after removing the overlying gravel, or in some instances a scrape of dirt, could I confirm they were a target.[img][/img]




65 little nuggets for 7.52gm

Well done Jig. About the same as what I got. And it keeps coming.

Nice collection there Jigalong, well done.

wow nice little collection Jig.
maybe more next time you go back ...lol

Very nice indeed, now I'm Jealous. If ya want to send some to me I won't be offended. Not the junk, just the gold

G'day Jig,

Those small bits all add up - ashame about the weather... I assume a Port or two around the campfire may have been enjoyed also

How did M & R's new Nissan go...??

Regards
A

I've had a good look at the pics. Going by the texture (smooth) how far from the actual source do you think it had travelled.

Very nice mate! Well done..

G'day Bullet,
I think that most of the gold there has been released from conglomerates, so it would be impossible to discuss a location based on how worn the nuggets are.
Cheers,
Jig.

A'rat,

The Nasty Nissan went well, but I reckon it needs airbags to cope with that towball weight. There could be some friction in Bendigo, as M gave R an absolute pizzling in the gold stakes !

See you soon maybe,

Jig.

Hi Jig,

geez thats a pity, find the source and ya got it.

.

In a lot a cases and it has been well documented (at least here in WA), the old timers found it by accident or with help from our indiginous people.
I guess there is some myth of sorts that the old timers knew what to look for, but history tells us they looked at the ground and found it just sitting up begging to be grabbed. It always brings me back to what a WA government geo (he is now called Doctor, a true rock Doctor I assume) told me years ago. Look at what you find and look at the land where you found it.

Jigalong wrote:There could be some friction in Bendigo, as M gave R an absolute pizzling in the gold stakes

Ahhhh the ribbing continues....

nice work Jig

looks like a few of my pet hates there - Boot tacks

Well done Jig ,The picture of the coin surrounded by gold is a ripper. cheers Pete.

Thanks everyone.

I am a dummy because, although I guess most realise it is a 5c coin, I put it the wrong side up in the photo and made it hard to figure.

If only it was a 20c coin and the nuggets were twice as big !

Jigalong pella.

good stuff Jig
good finds and good photos
cheers dave

I seem to remember eading the geology of Tibooburra once, a long time ago. As far as I can remember the gold was originally shed from the many quartz reefs and stringers that abounded in that area. Then as the area filled with water at the time of the great inland seas the gold was washed around and abraded by sand and currents. Then the lakes dried up up and the country became desert. The levels of the ground surface were originally much higher than today but with erosion from the strong winds that swept across the area and from the incrdibly violent thunderstorms that dumped heavy rain on the area during summer it eroded to what you see today.

The gold was washed and blown about for many thousands of years and with these forces combining with gravity much of it made its way into the many creeks and gullies where the first prospectors found it. Some had become trapped in conglomerate and is still being released as smooth water worn gold down localised slopes.

All this being moved around and abraded made Tibooburra gold what it is today, mostly small and smooth. But even today there are larger nuggets being found. Mt Brown seems to have produced the largest nuggets but I have seen and held nuggets up to three ounces from the granites area years ago.

The largest I have found in the granites area weighed in at 19 grams but I know much bigger gold has been found there.

I was also a member of a party who found a new patch below a shedding reef. The reef was still underground but being only a few inches down and on the brow of a hill. We found gold from rough nuggets and specimens up near the reef to smoother gold at the bottom of the slope. AS far as I know that reef is still known only to those who found it and as we removed the evidence of its existance, ie; the gold it had shed it is likely to remain hidden from casual prospectors.

There will still be small gold found around Tibooburra's old working for years to come, it will only be those who are willing to prospect new ground who will find larger gold and new patches.

I hope this information helps those who wonder why the gold at Tibooburra is as small and smooth as much of it is.

Cheers, Jim

Just an interesting thing which shows what a ground hugger I am - cleaning my gear last night I found I had worn through a new skid plate in 9 days of detecting for those tiny targets (I used a Nugget Finder 12x7 Mono the entire time)

Jig.

good one Jigalong thats the way!! just like fishing with lures !! if you aint loosing lures you aint in the action!!

Yep Murachu. You gotta be in tiger country.

.