BALLARAT GOLD

WENT OUT FOR 2 HRS TODAY TO A NEW AREA 10 MINS FROM THE CENTRE OF BALLARAT,GOT A SIGNAL FROM A PEICE OF QUARTS THE SIZE OFF A SMOKE PACKET,GOT HOME AND WASHED THE ROCK TO SEE IF THERE WAS ANY GOLD ON THE SURFACE BUT THERE WAS NOTHING.OFF THE SHED I WENT WITH THE HAMMER AND STARTED BREAKING IT UP AND THERE IT WAS .LOOKING AT IT UP CLOSE YOU CAN SEE THAT THE GOLD GOES ABOUT 2MM INTO THE QUARTS AND LITTLE FLECKS OFF GOLD AT THE BACK OF IT.SO I MIGHT GIVE IT A COUPLE MORE LOVE TAPS WITH THE HAMMER. CHEERS MATT

Rain and cold..rain and cold...and top marks for effort Matt as you found gold You haven`t taken your detector into Sovereign Hill have you

Cheers
Bill

HA HA HA ,NA MATE WENT OUT TO WERE I SAID I WAS GOING,LOOKS LIKE A REAL GOOD AREA CANT WAIT TO HEAD BACK THERE,DIDNT SEE ANY OTHER SIGNS OFF PEOPLE DETECTING EITHER.I THINK THAT MIGHT BE MY NEW SPOT FOR A WHILE ,I WANT TO GIVE IT A GOOD GOING OVER.

Good warm sunny day for it Matt , be interested if it has anymore inside of it . cheers Peter

that's a very nice piece there matt, its going to look good next to the others you find near by....

Congrats, that's a great looking specie well done.

Ren...

Nice work Matt, I couldn't resist breaking it open!

And you are hardcore heading out today!

Sweet little piece there mate hopefully more to come ur way an so close to town

Very nice specie there Matt congrats

Cheers.

Mike.

Nice one Matt. I used to work for Lihir and whilst their overall performace was not great it was easy to see that there is still plenty of small bits right under our feet here in the Ballarat area.

It's a bit like surf fishing I think - you try and go far afield (cast right out) and sometimes they are right under your feet. And for all the time you could spend in the car travelling you could be detecting.

And you are much closer to a cup of tea and heater when you get home.

Nice and Shiny Matt....I got my very first piece similar to that at Inglewood in 1996....still got it. Have a look at the 7 Ouncer sitting on my 5000....got it in my own back yard....I kid you not. Never found anything like it before...or since for that matter.

you got some beautiful colour there Matt...well done.

THANKS FOR THE POSITIVE REPLYS EVERYONE,HOPE THAT I HAVE MORE TO SHOW TOMORROW AS IM HEADIND BACK TO HAVE ANOTHER GO WITHOUT THE RAIN.??

good luck mate, i hope you find some good specimens

Good one Matt, I used to work for Lihir also and know the area well. Any more little species you find, pay attention to the shape of the little nuggets, some are octahedral crystals.

Good luck mate, I like your hardcore attitude

Cheers Cal

THANKS CAL,WHAT ARE octahedral crystals.

Gold sometimes forms not in a 'shapeless nugget' but as a defined crystal (fairly rare to find still with sharp sides because gold is so soft). An octahedral crystal (the most common type for Victorian gold) is an 8 sided crystal, like an 8 sided dice, see picture at following link.

http://www.chegg.com/homework-help/questions-and-answers/octahedral-die-faces-numbered-1-8-comes-equal-likelihood-picture-diagram-3-test-1-suppleme-q1239276?frbt=1

Here is a picture of octahedral pyrite crystals.

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=octahedral&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=cSj&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&biw=1024&bih=622&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=oojYfFtL3xP_rM:&imgrefurl=http://www.greenelectron-images.co.uk/sem/pyrite/octahedral_pyrite.html&docid=vXriGkpq5_bz_M&imgurl=http://www.greenelectron-images.co.uk/sem/images/octahedral_pyrite_web.jpg&w=900&h=594&ei=kpLOT4zgLYWYiAeF3NWbDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=556&vpy=343&dur=3&hovh=182&hovw=276&tx=148&ty=160&sig=114261917142077558673&page=4&tbnh=137&tbnw=183&start=56&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:18,s:56,i:237

Gold crystals of any type are usually 'deformed', that means each side will not be exactly the same size/shape as all the others, giving a flattened distorted look. The two eg pics I've given are the 'ideal' symetrical shape, but are very rarely found in gold. Also, you might find that only half of the 8 sided dice has formed (ie only 4 sides, with the 'bottom half' missing, most I've found at Ballarat are like this, and around the 0.1 - 0.3g mark.

Hope this is fairly clear, if not, happy to answer more.

Have fun, Cal