making a living

Just wondering if there is anyone on here that is prospecting as a living and doing well. I thort there was a post on this but id be stuffed if i could find it! Any answers but how to go about it would be great! oh and jp do you remeber a guy nick named cat over here in WA?

Gday garretace


I have worked semi professionally at gold prospecting over the years but due to commitments have not been able to go into it full time, there are a few people about the place that are doing it professionally and making a living from it, but for some it can be a lean living.

For one thing you would have to base yourself in an area say like Kalgoorlie or Meekatharra , so that you are close to the action, if you were living say in a Perth suburb then you would have the cost of fuel to consider, my average fuel cost per trip is $300 to $400, then you might spend a few days on the road to and from so time is a factor too, you also have to cosider your vehicle costs, maintainence and damage etc.

I think that if you were based in one of these areas you could make a living from it, but it could depend on what sort of living you would like, if you lived simply and had the ability to stash some gold or cash from the good finds to carry you over the lean times then you could survive, most of the guys I have known have either been on pensions, the dole, or have had some part time back up work they could do when it was either too hot to go out or they were not doing too well, living in caravan parks and such.

cheers

stayyerAU

Hi stayyerAu

Yeah i was having a chat wid the missus the other night about doing it full time. as having no debts tying us down we thort we would take it like a holiday and go out up to 3 weeks at a time. we would still be based in perth but head out to kal and meeka and around that area. either way it will be good cos if it didn't turn out it still would have been a good holiday for those 3 -4 months.

Gday Garret and Stayer
I did it full time from 1979-1985 and was based in Meekatharra. Bit different back then, there was gold lying around everywhere.
With the new gear (5000) I think you should be able to track down an ounce a week without too much trouble. Funnily enough we used to find most of our gold during the height of summer in 45-50 degree heat. You do get used to it but you still have to be sensible about it.
Given your young age Garret, I'd certainly be looking into giving it a go. The only reason I stopped was due to family commitments, raising kids, schooling etc.
As Stayer said, it'd be easier if you were based in somewhere like Cue or Leonora where you have daily access to all sorts of ground. I'd probably pick Leonora as a base now, given the huge area of detectable ground within easy reach of that town.
Still the best job I've ever had and I'm doing a bit more now that I'm retired but the golf and fishing are getting in the way now. Tend to only do it in the comfort of the cooler months.
cheers
Brett

i would love to do it as a fulltime job...but kids and bills are the stop to that...

You might make a living with the new 5000 and with the price up where it is but there is a downside. Detecting for fun is fun but when you MUST find gold to eat it soon becomes just another job, and if you aren't finding the goods the job soon becomes a pain. We only detect in the west for about three to four months a year and make wages - just. But by the time the end of the season comes around we are ready to quit the goldfields and head home. We couldn't do it all year, if we did we wouldn't enjoy it any more.

Cheers, Jim

You have the main ingredient there Ace. A good lady who wants to go with you.
Make sure she has a GOOD detector.

Alan

Jim's words above, are spot on. back in 2008 the missus and I had always wanted to do it fulltime. So we packed the Patrol and camper and set off. We hit all our old spots in Vic for 6 weeks and some new ones as well, and only had an ounce for our efforts. It appeared all the good easy gold had gone, as each year there are more and more new operators getting out there.(and unfortunately, gold does't multiply like fish do!!)
We finally packed up and headed to the west and once we hit Kalgoorlie, it was an ounce a week average. BUT....it soon starts to get harder to find again and you are constantly searching for new ground and patches, when the bank account starts to get low again.We travelled as far Nth as Marble Bar searching for gold and as jim has stated the fun of it starts to go away.
We ended up working on an outback station for 6 mths as by that time we had ,had enough. Our 12 mth journey though was one we will never foget as it was such a great adventure.


keep that coil to the soil though and happy swinging BOM

Gday garretace


I agree with granite2's statement of "when you have to get gold to eat it becomes another job", sometimes the pickings can be very lean indeed, but if its like that where you are working just up and leave for somewhere else, if it gets like that then you will quickly become despondent and start thinking about giving it away and the frustration can get the better of you.

If you are intending doing it for a living you will need to spend a larger portion of your time hunting new ground, thats where the better gold is to be found, by all means work some known areas for bit and pieces, sometimes it helps to get a bit of a fix, particularly when you have spent days wandering about the place for nothing, the other thing is that if your missus can detect as well then two can cover more ground than one and some of the ladies are very adept at finding gold often showing up the blokes.

When I have worked with a partner what we would often do is one of us would use a big coil and the other a smaller coil, that way we were covering the ground in an area for anything deep or anything small that might be an indicator, often a run of small pieces will give you a direction to work in and can lead to a source or a larger patch of bigger pieces.

In the hotter months you may have to detect in the early hours of the morning or even in the night to get your time in on the ground, the amount of time you spend on the ground is relevent to the amount of gold you will find, if you are thinking about driving about an area looking for likely spots then you are better off doing it during the hottest part of the day when its too hot to be detecting.

One other thing is that if you want to give yourself the best chance of making a living from it you have to stop being a detectorist and start to become a prospector, what I mean by that is sure there are nuggets to be had but there is also other sources of gold that can be worked as well, if you find nuggets somewhere then there is also the chance of there being a source nearby, so you have to start thinking and using your powers of observation, and studying an area to get the feel of where the gold is and where it might have come from and where it might have ended up.

You may do this quite a bit for nothing but believe me when I say if you do come across a reef or pipe or whatever it can be much more lucrative than all the detecting you have been doing, there are also other methods that can be employed like Loaming where you sample areas to locate the source, there are many ways you can get the gold but you have to think out of the square.

cheers

stayyerAU

Thanks everyone for your ideas and past experiences! The missus and i will have 4500's to hit the ground with. For the first few months it will be as a holiday where we will get out in the bush and search for new ground. As stayyerau said if we get nothing then we will head to a gold spot and get a fix haha. At the moment we are just doing up the patrol and putting some money away for those rainy days. Then were outa here!!

Goodluck garretace the 4500's are good machines. happy prospecting.

thanks birdman! yep i cant wait!