Etiquette - Give your mate half your gold????

Whats the best thing to do?

I go onto a property and ask can I detect on it. Do I give you half, do I give you a nugget, or do I just clear off without saying anything?

Or if a mate goes with you and shows you his patch where you find a 4 ouncer, what do you do? You dont have cash with you and you can't cut off a bit of the gold? What's the best thing to do? Whats a mate worth?

Jeff

I believe that if you are good mates, then fifty fifty is a pretty good deal, besides I think that a person could end up a little short of mates otherwise.
As for detecting on someones property, I think that you would come to some agreement with the owner at the asking stage,
Regards Leatherpot

Leatherpot wrote:besides I think that a person could end up a little short of mates otherwise.

Joined up with three of my mates in purchasing a 200 hectare lease back in 1990. We sat down before signing the deal and first up we thought anything over an ounce should be devided. After a very long discussion we believed that if any one of us found a big one we may conceal the fact. If this was later found out the friendship and partnership would surely fall apart
Finally all 4 of us unanomously agreed that "Finders Keepers" was the way to go.
18 years later we still enjoy each others company and bag each other when one or the other turns up a few more than the rest.
Unfortunately one of the "Awsome Foursome" has succumbed to diabetes and had a lower left leg amputated in 2004 and half of his right foot in 2008.

Gold can and does bring out the worst in some people so chose your friends carefully.

Regards
Peter

Hi all..
I like the anything under an ounce u keep and anything over is divided up principle.... it works. As for the property owner it pays to make the deal before hand... but would you fudge your findings??? or declare all???

Ray

This was a question I posed to a number of people some years ago when I first went out and it seems everyone has a different opinion. Here's what I have picked up so far:

* People lending you a detector will expect 50% of the find. Especially Pros.
* People allowing you to detect on their property may charge $10 (NSW) -$20 (VIC) a day per person.
* Some people will allow you to detect for free but insist on 50% of any find. They may also escort you.
* Panning in someone's creek means you may need to give them 30% of what you find.
* Finder's Keepers (preferred if each person is using a different model of detector).
* 50% of the combined finds for a trip (not fair if someone is a lazy jerk or a 'noob').
* 50% split when two people have chipped in to buy a good detector between them.
* An even share when a party includes a Digger, Detectorist, Filler and Driver etc.

I prefer the Finder's Keepers rule because it means that anyone searching will work hard and fairly for what they find. Couples and close friends might share their finds, especially if they have one detector between them. There's countless stories of people getting scammed by "partners" whom they only recently met and formed a "partnership" with. Mates who grew up together or knew each other from childhood... and married couples... usually form good partnerships for sharing a combined treasure. Otherwise, I prefer the Finder's Keepers rule myself because there's no way to misunderstand or complicate things.

First time I went detecting for Gold, my friend wanted us to share all finds. But I'd shelled out a 5 figure sum for my detector, purchased maps and equipment etc... and he'd bought a $75 K-Mart detector and didn't even bother to read the instructions. I didn't think that was particularly fair because I knew he'd find next to nothing at all. No matter what your agreement is, it's good to have a clear understanding before you go out there to detect.

Raymond: Everything I have heard leads me to believe that few (if any) detectorists are open about their finds when on private property.

Nero wrote;"* 50% of the combined finds for a trip (not fair if someone is a lazy jerk or a 'noob')."
"First time I went detecting for Gold, my friend wanted us to share all finds. But I'd shelled out a 5 figure sum for my detector, purchased maps and equipment etc... and he'd bought a $75 K-Mart detector and didn't even bother to read the instructions."

As previously mentioned, choose your friends carefully.


Very fortunate in WA you can bash around the bush for weeks and not see another sole. No powerlines, no TV, no micro wave towers, no private property, just the nature at it's best and the occasional nugget.

Cheers

A mate and myself got permission from a farmer to detect on he's property one day. The aggreement was he gets 10% of what we find. Guess what? We did not find any gold but plenty of lead bullets (22Cal), so he got 10% of the bullets. He was telling us later that most of the bullets would have been his and his brother as they used to got rabbiting down in this area when they were kids. So I thought thats fair then that he gets some of them back.

Jefgold,
It would be a bit unfair if you and Dawn did a 50/50 split since she finds 90% of it. Is that why you upgraded to a 4500 to try a get an edge on her 3000. Might not be the machine Jeff, she is just too bloody good and makes a great scone although the pancakes we got at the last camp were fantastic. Hope to see you soon.
Paul.

This one is rather simple, If you dig it you keep it.
If you and a mate find a patch and work it together then a 50/50 split is most likely to be the agreement unless the, you dig it you keep it rule is still in force.
As far as property owners go. We only have to ask permission. If it is granted then we can detect to out hearts content. The property owner has no right to lay claim ( by law) to the minerals on his or her property after they have been claimed by the person who dug the hole. However, a friendly token of good will would be a gentleman's act.
There is an exception to all this. If a bloke digs a hole for a lady, this is in no way a claim to the said target. LOL
Brett.

What prompted this topic, was that a mate of mine took a friend of his to one of his patches. This friend didnt detect very often so feeling a bit sorry for him as he hadn't found much gold, he thought he would find something. He did - a four ouncer and apart from some thanks, my mate got nothing else in return. My mate felt under the circumstances he should have been given say $500.
Gold really is a lump of metal until we actually sell it and we get cash for it. But the gold fever strikes before that so to part with any of our gold can be hard at times. As you said - finders keepers.

Jeff

A mate George and myself put in 10 years full time prospecting in WA back in the 'good old days' from the late 70's til the late 80's. We had the same agreement that Nightjar posted - an even split down the middle and any gold found under 1 ounce did not count. We considered sub 1 ouncers back then as the crumbs and whatever each of us found in that category went into the private stash.This 50/50 agreement not only applied to gold, but also to any wages we earned on the side - him being a welder and me a diesel mechanic. It also applied to the cash we picked up from 'arranged money fights' out the back of many pubs - we could both handle ourselves pretty well having learned the finer points of boxing in the same Police Boys Club as kids.

The agreement worked well until it became a bit one sided - I was doing all the work and George was drinking himself into oblivion every day. We parted company in late 1988 - still mates, but no longer a partnership. Two years later I found out that George had died in a Perth hospital from liver failure - the rum got him at the age of 39 years. If i could have turned back the clock, I would have offered to support him no matter what problems we were having, he was my mate and nothing should have come between us, gold, money or booze addiction. I have never found another mate like him.

caveman

Good idea Paul, l think although we both work the same amout of hours Jeff has to find a lot more each trip before l would consider going 50/50 l do like the finders keepers idea.

Dawn

I took my mate and his girlfriend out to a patch that i had found and won some nice gold on.
"I was trying to get my mate hooked on gold!!"
They had never done any detecting before,i had an external speaker while i operated the detector so they could hear what was going on.They dug all the targets.
We found another 6 peices and i let them have the lot,"not much" they have never been out since.
If i found another nice patch i would do the same again.
They realy had a great day.
Micky

Hi All
Finders keepers is the best way to play it.If some takes you onto "their" ground,you have a fantastic day and they dont,you then have the ability to be generous.
Cheers Dig

There is another side to this topic.
If you are taken to a spot by someone and they have a little patch there that they let you work. The right thing to ask is. Does your friend mind if you go back there without them being there? If the answer is no, then they haven't finished with the patch. Only go back with that person until they say its OK to go back by yourself.
Brett.

YEP! gunna do that, YEAH RIGHT!

Gday Brett

I introduced a relly to detecting, took him under my wing and put him right on the gold bearing ground, he found a few pieces on the first trip, took him again with me and a mate to an area that I thought that would produce a few bits, I found a small area that gave up some little pieces but it had the look of an area that would be worth further investigation, I told him at the time that I wanted to go back to it and work it a bit more thoroughly some time as I felt it could be worthwhile.

Next we moved to a spot that I had found on a previous trip and felt that it was worth a shot, on arriving I pointed out the most likely spots and we went in different directions, I was having problems with my battery lead and went back to camp, some time later he turned up in camp and showed me some pieces that he had found, we went and had a bit of a look, and he had walked into the spot that I pointed out and on to a small patch, so we allowed him to work it and he got about an ounce or so from it at the time., and has been back to it and pulled another ounce or so since, and taken othe mates with him.

At a later date he arranged to go bush with a couple of his mates, and you guessed it, he went straight back to my little patch, him and two others and worked the s..t out of it, him scoring a 2 1/2 oz specie and odd bits and pieces, dont know what the others got, then went on to the patch he had found and then on to another patch that I had found with one of his mates scoring a 1 oz piece.

Later on he even had the nerve to brag that he had found gold on every trip, and even tried to tell me that he had found those areas in the first place, then to add insult to injury we were at a family bbq and there he was as large as life showing the other rellies the gold that he had found, including the crushed pieces from the 2 1/2 ouncer from the first patch.

Goes to show that gold does bring out the worst in some people, and even family will roll on you given the chance, anyway lesson learnt.

cheers

stayyerAU

A couple of years ago I either heard this story from a Prospector I knew, or possibly read about it... I think it was told to me by Brian at the Miner's Den when I wandered in to talk to him one afternoon.

Two (ex) mates were working together and one of them found a really nice nugget. They had an agreement in place to share their proceeds evenly. The nugget they found was a big one. It may have been 14 ounces, I'm not entirely certain. It was many ounces in weight and the usual agreement of splitting the gold between them suddenly posed a problem. One wanted to keep the nugget in its original condition and begged his friend to let him buy off the other mate's half. He wanted to keep it rather than send it off to the assayer's bullion company to melt it down for jewellery.... as he felt it was too pretty for the pot. His mate had other ideas and wanted more than the agreed split of the value because he felt it could be sold for more than it's weight. His pal begged him to sell him his share and several offers exceeding the value of the nugget were made. But the 'selfish' one was hard up for cash and only wanted to sell it at a premium price... and would have none of it. He wanted to sell the whole nugget at a higher (inflated) price and then split the proceeds. Day after day, week after week, the demand for "His half" of the nugget and his hounding was repeatedly put to the Prospector who found the nugget. The guy who wanted to keep the nugget became enraged by his friend's growing bad temper and threats began to fly as nerves frayed.

In a final fit of anger, the Prospector who found the nugget and wanted to keep it whole and intact snapped. He grabbed the nugget, waved it in front of his "soon to be former friend" and jammed it into the vice on their work bench. He took to it with a hacksaw and cut the nugget neatly in two, throwing one half to his mate and said "There's your f*****g share! Now p*ss off and be done with you!". His friend was now left with a chunk of nugget that was worth little more than it's weight in gold. Less actually since an assayer would only pay 30% less than the metal value in order to maintain an acceptable profit.

The two friends no longer talk.

This may sound silly, but I have been offered gold after trying hard and coming up dry. I honestly couldn't accept the offer as it simply didn't feel right. The thrill for me is finding the signal and digging it out. With practice we all know that many of the signals we get are not going to be gold yet we dig them anyway. Then there is the odd signal that simply sounds right straight off the bat and yes its gold. Its this feeling that I chase. The value of the gold has nothing on the feeling of just knowing your about to dig for gold. Jumping another bloke's spot cheapens the experience as far as I'm concerned. There is no sport in that.
Brett.