Cyanide Pits - Worth Detecting? / Smythesdale advice

Hey All,

Just curious, Theres an area locally which should an amount of workings from years ago, also there is a couple of relics of old Cyanide pits (or whatever they are called).

Would it be worth starting prospecting around this area? Or inside the pits?
Are cyanide pits a good sign there was plenty of gold to be had in the area?

Also does anyone have any experience around the Smythesdale area and can point me in the right direction?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Neo

Cyanide is used to leach out the last bit of gold from the slimes after battery treatment etc
so i wouldnt waste my time there mate, also the chance of getting a good dose of the
stuff by touching the ground and then the lips would see you maybe 6ft under

Have a look around the general area for the actual surface workings that where followed
by shallow digging and loaming up to the reef source that was being mined and you could
find some nice gold, start off with a smallish coil to make sure you snipe any gold that
may be left in the area and you can always go back over again with a larger say 18x12 mono
after to check for deeper gold, reason to 1st use a smaller coil is that not all areas hold bigger
gold so by using a larger coil 1st you could walk away from the area thinking there was no
gold to be got but at the same time leaving behind many oz's of good gold.
Also you will mainly only find old mining scrap iron around the treatment plant
and waste your day digging deep holes for squat...



Pete in WA

Thanks for the reply Pete, much appreciated.

Just trying to work out where to go in the goldfields for a few days prospecting.

Trying to work out some possible good areas, without heading to the big names, like dunolly, bendingo, ballarat etc.

The Cynide pits you are refering to are a Heritage registered site! It is strictly illegal to interfear with historic sites by digging.
I have heard the fine is very substantual for damage to a historic site! Weekend prospectors destoying sites such as this is giving a bad name to
law abiding prospectors!
The quartz treated at this site was crushed to avery fine powder, the cynide was used to separate the gold from the sand.
Cynide is very effective for this purpose. You would only find useless scrap iron digging around the pits. The health risks of touching the ground in this vicinity
should not be ignored!

there is an increasing incidence of people who are new to the art of fossiking and prospecting coming in to this forum and looking for quick answers --yes I know time is short and the pressures of young family's and possibly two parents working ect. ect. BUT to these people I say your best first stop is your relevant State Government web site and peruse there first !! I for one am not up to date on every exclusion in Victoria and I would be devastated if I gave the wrong information to someone and their family long week end was ruined by a hefty fine !! This is posted in the friendliest way I know!!

We were invited to prospect on a property at Stuart town some time ago by a gent that had recently purchased the property to retire on and in the meantime he used it as a weekender, the property was rich in old gold mining equipment, steam engines etc, there was a large shed wth a big stamper in it,and we thought we might have a go around the back open end of the shed,a few largish mounds of dirt etc but we were told he was advised not to disturb the ground around this area because it had been saturated wth cyanide in whatever processes they used in the old days. Unfortunately one day at a rural show he mentioned to a few old machine enthusiests that had steam engine displays at the show that he had all these relics on his property, next wknd there he found fence cut and most old relics gone,things that needed heavy lifting equipmnt gone,a bitter xperience for him.
Anyway we took advice and kept away from the contaminated ground,just not worth the risk. phill

Hi Neo

I just spent 4 days at Smythesdale why not try around the north west side of the tip turn right at the shell Petrol station just before you get into town and then first rght again and follow it into the bush.