Not A single Speck

Hi All,

I thought i'd share my experiences of Panning over the last three weeks so Far I've tried three different locations Sixth creek, Onkaparinga and Jupiter creek with no results. I've been scouting out different test spots at each place but so far the illusive gold still manages to evade me. as i'm still a "Gold Noob" my current setup is pretty limited i have a 15" Garrett Super Sluice, Classifier, couple of trowels and bucket for the concentrates after classifying, Is there any other essential equipment I should invest in ?

I've been contemplating building a Highbank Sluice with a few mates as we've found some plans online should be able to get through a lot more material that way but it's more than a little disconcerting that i'm yet to see a single speck of fine gold. or is this Normal ?

has anyone had any luck using highbank sluice's around Adelaide ? are you even "allowed" to use one in the 3 SA designated fossicking locations? i'd hate to build one then not be allowed to use it anywhere.

If I could Just see even 1 spec in my pan i'd be a happy Man

I think your post would be better in General discussion ! Also drop in to new membership and tell everyone that you would like to do . Here is the info you will need for a Banjo / high banker https://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t3854-updated-banjo-highbanker-plans

If you are still feeling your way into this hobby, my suggestion would be to leave the highbanker / sluice at home for now. (You can use it in s.a if its battery opperated,) but first: Focus on your mastery with the pan. I have learned its just too easy to loose gold thru a small highbanker if not set up precicely.

Keep up the persistance and positive mindset and your find will come.

Hi Goldeneye, I feel your pain. I'm just starting out myself and in the last few weeks i've gone to a number of locations in the hills where they have mined gold in the past and brought home buckets of soil to pan off. I'm yet to find anything. I've got a metal detector, but people have told me that if you can't find gold in the pan, there certainly won't be any nuggets either.

bs wrote:Hi Goldeneye, I feel your pain. I'm just starting out myself and in the last few weeks i've gone to a number of locations in the hills where they have mined gold in the past and brought home buckets of soil to pan off. I'm yet to find anything. I've got a metal detector, but people have told me that if you can't find gold in the pan, there certainly won't be any nuggets either.

I applaude you endeavours but please check with your state rules for doing such things !!! If you do that in Vic you are in breach of the miners right!! And in NSW as well to an extent !!! They talk about minerals and gems and concentrates but if we have everyone digging holes and taking the dirt home !!!!!

gonediggin wrote:If you are still feeling your way into this hobby, my suggestion would be to leave the highbanker / sluice at home for now. (You can use it in s.a if its battery opperated,) but first: Focus on your mastery with the pan. I have learned its just too easy to loose gold thru a small highbanker if not set up precicely.

Keep up the persistance and positive mindset and your find will come.

Agree with this. Im only new to highbanking, but I would say that if you are finding nothing with the pan, leave the highbanker at home for now. Wait until you start seeing decent colours in the pan, then get the highbanker out there and run that sucker all day long

In the middle of building a High-banker at the moment but it won't be finished for a while so in the meantime i will keep panning different spots until I find some colour. I'm only new to this but i'm loving getting out into the bush on the weekends and my days off sure beats sitting at home watching the box, when I find a decent spot that actually has a few specs i'll enjoy it even more

Keep at it mate, half the fun is the hunt And when you get onto some, it gets real exciting.

Hi Goldeneye. I'd Give Watts Gully a go at Mt Crawford. I Detected a few nice nuggets there last year and spent some time talking to a few fellas using home made highbankers who find at least a few specks every time they go out.

Thanks Joblo,

I will have to give it a Go, I wasn't sure if you were allowed to use Highbankers in Mt Crawford with a 4 stroke petrol pump.

Ark wrote:
I applaude you endeavours but please check with your state rules for doing such things !!! If you do that in Vic you are in breach of the miners right!! And in NSW as well to an extent !!! They talk about minerals and gems and concentrates but if we have everyone digging holes and taking the dirt home !!!!!

I can't find anything on my miners right that forbids removal of soil. You can't remove or damage any shrub or tree, but that seems to be it. Where do I find the information about removing soil?

Hi guys ... another CrowEater here! Before you go digging up the whole state using a highbanker (yes, I do have one myself!) why not try using your pans? I should think that you will be better off just cruising whilst you're doing your first searches ... you will certainly find gold if it's there if you utilize your pans first! You will be concentrating much better, with no possibility of losing those little pieces of magic yellow!

It might appear 'old fashioned', and I know it's easy to get caught up in the 'modern machinery has to be better than the old way' kind of thought process, but let me assure you .... panning is the way to find your gold ... sleucing is the way to clean up the patches that you find!!!

King401 wrote:

Ark wrote:
I applaude you endeavours but please check with your state rules for doing such things !!! If you do that in Vic you are in breach of the miners right!! And in NSW as well to an extent !!! They talk about minerals and gems and concentrates but if we have everyone digging holes and taking the dirt home !!!!!

I can't find anything on my miners right that forbids removal of soil. You can't remove or damage any shrub or tree, but that seems to be it. Where do I find the information about removing soil?

You get a miners right to extract "minerals "
This is the section that was said to me by a ranger

Recreational prospectors operating in designated areas in national, state or other parks, prospectors must have a Miner’s Right and observe conditions applying to the Miner’s Right. They must also observe additional conditions that are applied under the National Parks Act 1975. These include, only non-mechanical hand tools may be used; excavation and damage to ground layer vegetation must be kept to a minimum; and any damage must be repaired on the same day (reinstatement of litter, soil and debris).

I tried to argue the soil I had in the ute had gold in it and I was taking it home to process it with available water but tht didn't happen . I can see the point he was making ! Wash the dirt at the goldfield and take the " minerals " home for complete processing !

I take it that only applies if you remove the soil from a National Park?

otherwise:

58. OBLIGATIONS OF HOLDER
(1) The holder of a miner’s right acting under that right must not -
(a) use any equipment for the purposes of excavation on the land, other than non-mechanical hand tools; or
(b) use explosives on the land; or
(c) remove or damage any tree or shrub on the land; or
(c) disturb any Aboriginal cultural heritage (within the meaning of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006) on the land.
Penalty: 100 penalty units.
(2) The holder of a miner’s right must repair any damage to the land arising out of the search:
Penalty: 50 penalty units.

No read my post again ! I was not in a national park.

ok, State, National or Other Park. You can remove soil from crown or private land that is not a Park then?

King401 wrote:ok, State, National or Other Park. You can remove soil from crown or private land that is not a Park then?

No. It then becomes a point of what extraction licence you have ie. sand gravel ect.
Why not contact DPI in the area you want to dig a hole and take the soil away ? Then you will have the yes or no from the correct source ?

Mt Crawford - Kolloche's Mine - down in the small gully below - small gold and wire gold to pan.
Clay soil needs puddling - take orange soil from around small dam in gully.

J

I think I'd be excited if I found even a tiny speck............. lol
Any other tips for Mt Crawford? Wouldn't it have been fossicked to death by now?

PM sent

hi J

Thanks for the tip I wish I saw your post on Kolloche's Mine before I traveled all the way out to Mt Crawford (That day) i went out there but wasn't anywhere near KMine I'll try that spot next time, I tried panning a spot off Watts Gully Rd (alot of Black sand but didn't see any gold) had to bring my own water in cos there's none there at the moment, Just wondering what kind of setups people use to speed up the panning process ? next time i will be taking some kind of basin to fill with water (big enough to pan comfortably) and a decent chair

A recirculating sluice would be great but I haven't finished the High banker yet

Always pre classify your gravels for speedier panning and use a poverty pot to put your
concentrates in, you can re pan them at home for the gold contents if any.
Next step up is a river sluice and run it in winter when dead horse gully has flowing water.
Be careful using a powered Banjo up there, last i knew powered gear was not allowed
except detectors.

J

I always use a pre classifier when panning it definitely helps you'll have to bare with me some of the terms your using aren't familiar to me "Puddling" and "Poverty pot" ? i've had a bit of look around on Google but all i can find is info on old time puddling machines powered by a horse (i'm guessing there's a smaller human powered version haha ) but there's no mention of Poverty Pots

Puddling in your case is the breaking up of clay and gravel in a 20ltr bucket to free
all of the gold from the stiff clay.
The old timers used split hollow logs, wine barrels or Rum Casks, in fact basically anything
they could make do with that did the job.

A Poverty Pot is any old jam tin or non glass container that you can put your reduced concentrates
in for safe keeping and final pan off when at home, it allows you to pan off more Muck while
out in the field instead of wasting your day out there picking out flysh!t with tweezers etc.

J

PS - Panning is a Yanky term, in Oz we call it Dishing.

Sailors gully up at Crawford also worth a shot, but a long walk in there these days.

If you just want a speck or two, chapel hill always produces for me. Make sure your wash dirt is sticky, i.e. clay, and spend a bit of time dissolving it carefully in your pan. You can use a fine mesh sieve to get the process started and take out big rocks in the mean time. If you have a high freq VLF bring it along with you, because small nuggets can be lodged in rocks etc. which you generally won't see when panning! I use an xterra 70 with 6" 18khz coil for this.

I'm not going to tell you exactly where I get the best wash dirt from, (where's the fun in that!), but I will say that the further you walk from the dam the better off you will be. Its hard yakka carting your gear down, digging some dirt, then carting it down to the dam, then carefully panning it off, but when you see that glint of gold in the pan worth 50c its still very satisfying.

After a decent rain, the bottom end of Jupiter has some old holes that hold water, so you can try there as well.