Laverton - WA goldfields.

Howdy,

Just back from a month detecting around Laverton in WA. No problems with Landcruiser or Bushtracker.

I got 59 small nuggets and 2 specimens, for a bit over one ounce. I slowed down a heap and listened to every little noise - it paid off.

For the first ten days at Laverton, I was part of a 21 person Gold Prospecting Australia tagalong tour. In the ten days the members detected, they found 294 nuggets for a total weight of 327 gm. This included one monster of 124 gm by a guy who had never detected before.

After the tour finished at Laverton, I kept detecting there for three days and then moved north to Yandal for five days before heading home to Sydney.

I was surprised by how much small gold there was (less than half a gm), but few bigger nuggets. Out of my 59 nuggets, only two weighed more than a gm. I guess the guys that did it over thoroughly (and got most of the nuggets in a lot of these places) were using old style detectors and missed the odd small nugget because of the noisy ground.

I am already thinking about and planning next winter's trip to WA.

Cheers,

Jigalong

Hi Jig
Out of interest what machine and coil where you running.Small gold seems to be the thing these days.Theres that nagging doubt that I and others have raised that latter machines are deadly on it at the expense of depth on certain settings.Congrats on your trip
Cheers Dig

Dig from Jig,

I was using a Coiltec 14x9 inch elliptical mono on a 4500 with Ratphones. I have found small nuggets at 8 inches with this coil and I am happy with it because I can stuff it into small spots with ease and it weighs bugger all.

I have an 18.5 x 12 inch Goldstalker mono and a bloody big Nuggetfinder elliptical, but I seldom use them.

Cheers.

Jig from Dig
This seems to be a common occurence these days.Many nuggets to make up the ounce.Running a 3000 four season ago there was that mix of many .5 to 2 grammers 80 percent 2 to 6 grammers 15 percent 6 gram plus 5 percent.Last season we found a target at depth and were convinced it would be 5 gram plus.It turn out to be a 2 grammer of small surface area.This was found with a gp4000.So it begs the question are the latter machines designed to find smaller deeper at the expense of finding larger a real depth.Minelab machines are "designed" and with each new model they are "redesigned".What would be really nice would be to let us know with the next "redesign" What its designed for.Jig all minelab machines have a "Gold Signature".The bias seems to be towards smaller deeper.I for one dont think its the gold in the ground that has changed,but more over what the machines are designed for.
Cheers Dig

Dig from Jig,

That is an interesting hypothesis - you are "thinking outside the hole" ! I will have to have a chew on that before I answer. Maybe the new machines are so sensitive that when you do get a signal from a decent slug, you think it's a can or a horseshoe and walk away. On the tour, the only reason that the guy found the big 3.9 oz monster, was that he was the only one of probably fifty people that had detected it, who was "stupid enough" to dig it up. It screamed trash and was ignored by people literally for years, in a pushed, flogged area at Laverton.

How could the detector limit the size of nuggets found, to small ones ? I could understand a poor detector finding big nuggets and not small ones, but not vice versa.

The couple detecting with me, got over 130 between them and I doubt if more than ten of those, were over a gram (probably nothing over 3 gm).

Cheers

Hi All,
Its good to see that other people have had a good time in WA.as well.. We arrived there mid March , still quite warm then. The wife has a 4000 with the new NF 17+10 mono, and I still have my 4500 from last year. AND I only use one coil its a 24+12 NF mono. We are now back home with over 300 nuggets and they range from .2 grams to a nice 5 and a half oz bit, dug @ 30 odd inches. What Im saying is the 4500 can see deep nuggets and small ones .. a big deep nugget sounds much like a small one but is harder to pinpoint when starting to dig. A few time I had my scoop out and still had 2 feet to dig. A strong sig. could be a bit of junk, BUT . Are you game to walk on by. nope. Me neather. On the gold fields ALL things that give a sig.should be dug. unless you can see it ,the worst thing are shotgun pellets, they sound so sweet, .. We had a real good time , that yellow stuff is getting harder to find , ..Ok thats it...good luck..Bob

Are all the areas where there are tenements fairly good producers in Laverton? I am planning to get some help in the form of a gold map at some stage, but I realized that with my trip coming up at the end of August I don`t have much time to choose an area and get the 40E application in because of the three week period between application and permission being granted ( I hope). For those that have been to Laverton, where would you recommend?