CROP CIRCLES IN THE BUSH....OK, MAYBE NOT-REEF CIRCLES...??

Checked out a fairly accessible reef structure with workings running NS, few old and new holes from prospectors, one thing I was wondering was the shallow/foot wide trenches running parallel NS to the reef, down slope from the ridge line. I couldn't figure out if they were new or old. Closer to the reef they were closer spacings.
Location Bendigo
Two theories:
1. Geochemical soil costeans by a recent exploration company trying to find indicators/continuation
2. Old timers 'loaming'?-is this the method they used, shallow trenches?
Obviously if its option 1, I would like to locate the soil results...I have the old EL (exploration license) number, is the Dept mines the best place to find old EL reports, or anywhere online??
Maybe some Aussie bush circles...

It's called chasing. Now you have to remember alot of those people chasing Gold back in the old day's only had hear say as to how to find it. Hence they find a reef and being lasy like most people they try to find the run or reef in the easyest way. And what might that be ? dig a ring around it. Common Sence eh . to a fool.

A fine read you will find on Finders forum by a bloke called patches1 lol go for it. oh don't stir him up he likes a stir.

http://www.finders.com.au/ Do a seerch. funny thing the man was trying to tell people things and they made jokes about it. They won't learn ef all. or dont want to. Sad really typical Australia now

PS. and no Im not corecting my spelling mistakes cos Im Auastralian. Stuff em.

ROCKDOC69 wrote:Checked out a fairly accessible reef structure with workings running NS, few old and new holes from prospectors, one thing I was wondering was the shallow/foot wide trenches running parallel NS to the reef, down slope from the ridge line. I couldn't figure out if they were new or old. Closer to the reef they were closer spacings.
Location Bendigo
Two theories:
1. Geochemical soil costeans by a recent exploration company trying to find indicators/continuation
2. Old timers 'loaming'?-is this the method they used, shallow trenches?
Obviously if its option 1, I would like to locate the soil results...I have the old EL (exploration license) number, is the Dept mines the best place to find old EL reports, or anywhere online??
Maybe some Aussie bush circles...

Gday

Sounds as though what you are seeing are just costeans, where they have been chasing the run of gold shed from the reef, or an offshoot from the reef, either way if they are only a foot wide or so its more likely that they would be later costeans done with a backhoe and narrow bucket, had they been earlier ones I would think that they would be a bit wider as they were dug by hand and they would have stood in the trench to do that.

Other digging around the site could have also been old timers looking for the same thing, or working on some outcroppings of the reef that held gold, hard to say exactly without seeing it first hand, perhaps some sampling from the costeans and test holes would give you some indications of what gold is there.

If the area has had recent attention then it would be a safe bet that the area has a lease on it and you should be seeking permission to prospect on it, your mines department office shoud be able to supply you with the contact information etc, dont get caught messing about there if thats the case, some pretty hefty fines can be handed out to you if you are caught digging or sampling.

Loaming was done by carrying out a series of small test holes usually spaced apart from eachother and across a likely looking area, usually there were a series of lines of holes at regular intervals running parralel to eachother, a test hole was dug down about 12" or so and a soil sample taken from the bottom of the hole, this is called called taking a loam, the loam samples were bagged and marked for their position, and a record of positions marked on some grid paper or notepad page, later they are washed by pan and water and any gold specks in the pan counted and checked for their appearance, if the particles are smooth they were further away from the source, if the particles were ragged and sharp they were from closer to the source, the more particles in the loam and the more ragged they were indicated that, that particular hole was closer to the source, by doing this they could narrow down the best spot to dig a test hole or to sink a shaft, where the gold can be shedding from a reef or from a pipe, loaming can be carried out on any terrain really, hillsides seem the more likely place to do this but a run can actually go uphill from the source just as it can go down hill, what is now a hill could have been on the flats millions of years ago, also loaming can be done on the flats as well, anywhere that gold has been found or looks a bit likely to hold gold can be loamed, also sometimes the gold particles are referred to as "loams" as well but I used the word "particles" for ease of understanding.

Loaming was the primary method of finding the sources of gold, but they could also knap samples of quartz from a blow and then crush them in a dolly pot, then pan this off and see if there was any colour in the pan, most of the gold producing areas known about today were found using these methods.

There is a very informative book called "Loaming for Gold" by S.J.Cash, this book explains the loaming technique and also goes into costeaning, reefing, and other methods of mining, and its reprinted version is still available new in most detector shops, often copies come up for sale on ebay as well, I have a 1959 copy and a 1980 copy and they are exactly the same, the last copy I saw was about $23 or so.

cheers

stayyerAU

Cheers Glenno and StayyerAU - Both very interesting and helpful info.