A Few More Bits Of Gold

Hi guys. I went out for a three hour detect late friday afternoon to an area I hadnt been to for a couple of years. I was surprised at how much sweet briar rose, thyme, broom & black berry growth there had been since I was last here. I struggled swinging the 14" coil on the Zed. So it wasnt a very eventful session. I did manage to get a very faint signal in a section of exsposed up on edge schist that did turn out to be a .3 gram bit of gold.



Due to the tight detecting spaces I gave up with just that one piece & headed home. I got up early saturday morning & packed my gear & a bit of tucker & thermos of coffee & headed off on a 2.5 hour drive to an area for a full days detecting. After negotiating in 4 wheel drive a bit of rough country & driving up & down gullies & spurs, arrived at my spot that I call Doug's Gully. Named after the chap who put me on to it quite a few years ago. It is an area I have done quite well on with my 3000, 4500 & now I was going to try the Zed. Got all rigged up. Fresh batteries in the B & Z booster, fully charged battery in the Zed. Pick belt on & harness on I went to the front pocket of my back pack to get the fully charged WM12 to hook up.....&   WHAT...no way...your kidding. No bloody WM12. I had left it on the charger back home. I couldnt believe it. What was I going to do now? Turn around & go back home. No cant do that. I had the Gold Bug 2 which I use in conjunction with the Zed as my pin pointer & discriminator. I knew I wasnt going to get any decent gold or gold at depth. But what choice did I have. I had in the past used the Bug in a few places down this gully with some success, but not down the entire gully. Oh well...better than nothing. So off I went. This little gully is not a running creek at any time. Well not for a very very long time any way.

This is the very bottom of the narrow gully floor. It rises from this up to spurs either side.



This is looking up the gully & I got a faint signal at the base of that sarson stone, or siliceous cement stone. These consist of quartz sands & gravels that have been cemented into a compact stone by the infiltration of siliceous waters. The cement stones were known to the miners as "Chinamen". They were favored by the miners as being associated with gold deposits. They had a believe that if you got above the chinamen then you were above the gold. So all those big rocks & boulders you will see in these picks they are those cement stones.



Signal turned out to be a thin slither of gold.

 

As I wondered on down this gully I came to quite a large cement stone cutting right across the narrow gully floor. My thoughts were that if water & gold ever did flow down this gully then this stone would be a perfect trap damming across the flow & any gold caught on its up stream side & down stream side if it acted like a giant riffle. I paid a lot of attention detecting all over, around all the edges & every little crack or hollow in the stone itself. First three signals were shot gun pellets. The first out of this hole & the 2nd to the hollow to the left



My fourth signal & no reason why it shouldnt be another pellet from just beside the scoop.



But it was a bit of gold. Ye Ha



Then another signal in that hole beside the coil



Another small bit of gold



Then another



Looking up the gully & the cement stone blocking across the floor



I had back in my GP 3000 days got some better bits at the bottom of this stone. But none there this day.

The gully widened out in a few places. Looking up gully you can see here the remains of the old timers throw out piles either side of the gully. Here on that bald bit I got a signal



This is looking across the gully, detector in the same spot as previous shot



This was the signal



Then probably the biggest bit for the day



I found this gin trap with the 3000 quite a few years earlier. It was still sitting where I had left it



These little finds kept on popping up & then I hit a little glory hole of many tiny bits of gold the more I dug down in to the schist



I wont bore you with all those but ended up for the day with 37 little pieces including a little speci for the grand total of 2.09 grams. The speci itself was .4 of a gram. So it shows you how small the rest of the gold was.



Was a fun day but dont think I will forget my WM12 again in a hurry. Cheers

Good luck out there

JW  

Nice finds and great story again JW. Congrats to you for your finds and thanks again for sharing your story and pics.
Not sure if you know, but the GPZ has a hp Jack on the back above the battery, I know it defeats the purpose of the wireless, but you can still use the Zed.

Cheers.

Mike.

Thanks Mike. I never gave that a thought.   Guess I could have just plugged the B&Z straight in to the headphone jack.  What a di ck.  On the bright side. I would never have gotten all those small bits  & now I can still go back with the Zed. & see what I may get that the Elite coils missed.  Cheers mate.

JW  

G'day JW.

Some nice little bits for the day.

That's the second time I have read about you being caught out with flat batteries or forgotten gear. I always charge my battery and WM12 in the car on the way home and it takes about 2 hours. The car charger, battery, WM 12 and both cables are put inside a plastic container and kept with my detecting gear. The first thing I do when I arrive to detect is set up the charger on the front seat so I don't forget. Just don't forget to plug it in before you return home. This way your battery and WM12 are ready to go the next time you go detecting.

My battery was last used about December 20th and I plugged it in yesterday to check it and it was still fully charged. Last year it wasn't used for about 7 weeks and again it was still fully charged. Although the battery light will not flash if it is fully charged the WM12 is different. Even if the WM12 is fully charged once you plug it into the charger it will flash for at least 30 minutes, or until the charge is completed.

One other thing I have done with my 7000 is to put a 6.5mm (1/4") jack into the socket at the back of the detector. This way I don't get water into it. I cut the jack off an old microphone but you should be able to buy a jack from an electronics store.

Regards Axtyr.

Hi there Axtyr, Thanks mate. Yer....the flat batteries were in my B&Z booster. I carry my harness (which is all set up with B&Z & speakers fitted to it), pick, pick belt, WM12 usually in the front pack pocket , Head phones (just in case it is windy as hell)  Smoko bag & thermos of coffee, rain jacket or sweet shirt in my main back pack that I tramp in over the hills & gullies with detector over my shoulder. Once at my spot I drop the main pack & rig up for detecting. The time the B&Z was flat was due to the switch getting bumped on, which must have happened the evening before I headed out. Forgetting the WM12 will never happen again. What I do need to get is a spare battery for the GPZ. I got home from work today. Rained off & snow up in the hills  and my brand spanking new sexy looking pick was waiting for me that Davsgold sent over to me.
Cheers Dave....awesome Cant wait to christen it.

Good luck out there

JW

Driving for 15 minutes to a great detecting spot..................................................... Hit the anchors, did a u-turn and went back home to err.... pick up my detector.
What are you complaining about?

G'Day! JW,

I always enjoy reading your post's and seeing the pic's of the gold as well as the country you detect in...
I have been in the same boat all organised all the gear and get to site and find something I need missing etc....

Good you had the Goldbug 2 with you ...which goes to show that you don't need the latest machine if you are on Gold country ....

Great little pieces of colour as  always   The bonus is spending time in the bush reading the ground

Thanks for sharing....
Cheers Nanjim
Jim

kiwijw wrote: I got home from work today. Rained off & snow up in the hills  and my brand spanking new sexy looking pick was waiting for me that Davsgold sent over to me.
Cheers Dave....awesome Cant wait to christen it.

G'day JW

Glad you like the look of it, and good ole Aussie Post got it to you in a fairly good time frame. Yours is the first one I have sent out of the country.

I reckon it will dig up that Schist that's hiding the Kiwi gold real good.

cheers dave