Help locating gold bearing leader

Hi all as the title states I'm looking for some opinions and views of peoples out there who have had experience in locating leaders /reefs containing gold .Have you been lucky enough to loam one ?or perhaps detected one ? if so would appreciate any first hand details .

heres my situation i have detected a dozen or so small specimens leading up a slope all a few metres apart, all basically inline with each other never spreading more than two or so metres across the slope . i reached the the top of the hill where it basically flattens out and found six or seven specimens in a circle kind of set up ,having read ''loaming for gold '' i assume I'm right on top of it . dug a 2 by 2 square bout half a foot into the wash and detected one more specimen .Keep digging and I'm through the wash now I'm on clay but nothing more can be detected,took out some clay and still nothing detected.


Im not expert on geology but have the specimens been pushed up through the clay many moons ago or did the clay come later ,i was expecting to hit bed rock and follow the lead down [that easy i wish} do i keep going through the clay even though nothing is detected?



would be great to hear some feed back on similar situations any advice appreciated thanks

Hi Musket
Sounds like you could? be close, can you describe the species (very detailed or photo)
The absolute only way to locate a leader or reef without finding accidentally, is to use a "Gold Pan" & take "Loam" samples if you have read the book you know what to do.
I am currently in the process but haven't done much this year on a project I have been following for 3 years.
The "Gold" will tell you the story, I would take a few samples around the area where you last got the species to see if you have any "Loam " gold.
Good luck

          G'day mate they are quartz ironstone pro dominatley quartz , quite prickly and the quartz square . One would assume pretty minimum travel . I have detected a gold bearing leader in the past which yeilded some ounces but that was detectorable .Getting  back to the loaming in that case because it was detected I reverse loamed in expecting plenty of colour in the dish but was lucky to get hardly a spec . I'm no expert but the quartz reef seems to hang on to it sheeding very few clues indeed considering what it was holding , or the age of the area has not allowed it long enough to travel and break free

Mate when "Loaming" you need to pan "Extremely" well I re- pan the concentrates 4 or 5 times! you are looking for just a few specks & very very small!! a loupe is a must.
The pic is not so clear, there is a distinct colour difference when you are close to the source the gold is very bright like pearl colour.

Bit hard to give accurate advice when not knowing what area you are in, but from your description it sounds like an elevated terrace in Victoria?  If this is the case your source could be extremely deep and buried by many layers of sediments.
Ah just noticed under your name it does say Vic. Best bet is to look on a geology map or geoVic and find out the age of gravels you are digging through. My guess is white hills gravels, as these are known to contain sharp quartz and gold. If it is , I don't like your chances of locating the source.

Thanks guys , just wish i had more of a understanding on how leaders work and has it came through the clay yer could take a lot more investigations and some hard yakka possibly some trenching , makes for tough going with just a bar and a pick

funny enough but Ive got the same problem but when I loam up to a certain spot on the hill about half way up the specs stop ive Doug a 20 meter trench across the hillside down to the bedrock and still haven't found the reef so I just filled it back in and Doug another 10m trench going the opposite way to the 20metter trench I had previously Doug and still nothing in both and I re panned samples from both trenchers and nothing at all so I Doug one last trench 10ms long right where I got the last spec in the pan and still nothing

Hey HRM
When Loaming did you count all the specks in your pans? & record it, you need to locate the point where the highest speck count is & then deepen your holes at this point (you can get gold higher than where the source is ) but you still need to sample pan as you go to keep you on the right track.

rc62burke wrote:Hey HRM
When Loaming did you count all the specks in your pans? & record it, you need to locate the point where the highest speck count is & then deepen your holes at this point (you can get gold higher than where the source is ) but you still need to sample pan as you go to keep you on the right track.

yep did that last spec was about half way up the hill nothing past that ive Doug several trenchers around and above the last spec and nothing

Hey HRM
Mate read my post again!! you are missing a very important point!!!
You are not looking for the "LAST" speck, you are trying to locate the area on the slope with the largest concentration of "Gold" = specks per pan sample & this is where you will dig deeper, forget about trying to dig a trench to cross cut it just rely on what your pan is telling you & keep sampling there are no short cuts.

heres a 1934 old timers how to on loaming from a WA news paper

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/84198039

Andy25
Thanks for posting that link to the Trove Artical....
Very informative....
Cheers Nanjim
Jim

Hi Musket...here is my take on what i have read here so far!

My advice first off, is to put the detector away and bring the pan into play if you really want to find the source (shedding deposit).

It is of extreme importance that you first establish the boundaries in your search....ie The spread, the crown and the centreline. Let me put up a diagram to visually show what i mean!



Depending on the 'friable' nature of the deposit, color in pan will either be a large tail (soft natured hornblende shed), or about six or seven colors only (hard quartz reef shed).

Upon approaching the deposit, we are not looking for course gold in the pan here....a sure indication of being close to the deposit is lots of very fine gold in the pan.

Course gold will shed only intermittently, the finer gold will shed more readily regardless of the hardness in deposit. The course gold will travel further downhill and the fine gold will remain close to its shedding point and yes....even travelling uphill for a short distance due to wind blow on the surface. This is why its so important to follow the trail to where the gold disappears uphill....this point will not be where the deposit is necessarily, it will most likely be just down the slope where the most color was last counted along the centreline between the established spread across.

If you get fairly consistent color counts on 2 or more established 'centrelines', concentrate your efforts on the line where the course gold has traveled furthest downhill. (this is very important)

Assuming your sample takes have been approx 10m apart, once you get to this stage you are virtually assured of finding your goal.

I should point out that the spread and crown are determined when the color dissipates from the pan in your samples (important)

From here the pattern goes to 5m samples in the concentrated search area.....once close you think your close, start your holes deeper....... your color in pan should be as good going down (or better) than the surface loams you took here!

If you get stuck....just ask from here!

Regards

FZ

Its also important to keep good field records as others have stated.

Its easy to loose your way on sample results after taking many samples......some can keep this information in their heads, but I need to put it down on paper or I get lost.

I use the loaming sample templates developed by Dr Robert Fagan to keep track of field data.

Sample of these templates:







Yes its a time consuming, labor intensive process.....great care and patience is needed for success, but success will come to those willing to learn and follow the system to a tee!