clay mullock heaps

[walshie1000]

Gday all. I found a bit if gold in a clay mullock heap with the detector. There is a lot of shallow workings in this gully and most of the mullock heaps are white clay. I wondered if its worth bringing some of this dirt home to pan? Or did the old timers generally pan these heaps back in the day and the nugget I found was just a missed one?
Cheers

 

[Tathradj]

One way to find out mate.
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Do it.
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Back in those days the old fellas only took what they could see.
Is there any evidence of a puddler around or is there a creek with good water in the gully.
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Also remember that what is on top of the mullock heap came out of the bottom of the mine or digging.

 

[walshie1000]

Yea I've got about 50kg to have a go with. Just gotta let the clay dry out so I can crush it up. There is no water around. And I couldn't find a puddler nearby. However there is a large section of ground cut out at the top with massive quartz and also piles of small quartz/iro stone/pebbles which makes me think this is where the dirt was being processed. I suppose back then they were panning and sluicing everything? I've got a few stray nuggets from the area on and around the workings there.

 

[Goldtarget]

Pipe clay. I reckon you're in for a shock if you start processing that on dry diggings. My tip detect the hell out of it, spend some time raking perhaps call in an Sdc for the skerricks,.

In a watercourse I've taken my share of good deposits from the pipe clay but it processes differently when it's submerged and requires a bit of puddling but good returns. Whatever you decide mate I'll be watching with interest.

 

[G0lddigg@]

basically when they started sinking a shaft they'd build up a lip so as to keep any water out of the hole if it rained, as you could imagine once they hit a wash layer tey'd bucket it up no doubt spilling bits clay whihc eventually break down with rain and weather and sit tere waiting for us to pick them up. wheni go out with the drywasher i oly everytake the top 2 inches off the mullock as they tend to hold 90% of the gol it get.

pipeclay is a great indicator ... last to come out means they were working the clay, its a pain to work but in a gully usually has good returns. the size of the 13 pieces you picked up are proof enought arent they

 

[walshie1000]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yea that sounds spot on golddig. I think I got a stray sitting at the top of the pipe clay here. There is alot of gravel wash piles off to the side which I assume have been processed via pan and/sluice. My guess is pipe clay was the last thing to come out of the hole before the wash which was then taken elsewhere to process. All the holes/heaps I have been detecting are quite shallow and there are piles of gravel wash/pebbles as high as a house off to the side. It seems as though they were washing everything off to the side and at the top of the hill.
I'm a newby but I'm just trying to make sense of these areas as much as possible as it helps with knowing where to look. An example of this, I found a dug out area on the low side of a large cutout area and thought that dirt may have been processed there. I decided to detect the hill below where it headed towards the bottom of the gully and picked a nice half gramish piece.
I only pulled that piece and the one on the heap from this area and pulled 4-6 pieces on the gully over the other side running off the back of the big cutout area.

 

[G0lddigg@]

sound like my kind of playground

 

[Tathradj]

Summing up mate.
If you are a real noobie, I wish I could have started out with that scenario.
Big bit of advise.
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Keep it to your self and hide your evidence.
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But re reading your post's and there is not water near by.
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Kick ass Baby. However that material was processed back then and is nothing compared to what we have today.
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Please remember the main key point.
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They only took what they could see.

 

[walshie1000]

Haha I wish it was a secret mate. Joints been flogged. Every time I go out there I see other detectorists. Pick marks everywhere. I've been picking up what everyone else has missed with the 8". I've worked this spot and the gully behind fairly thoroughly on 3 day trips and pulled 4-6 bits. All small stuff. There is very little trash there as well And it pains me to see the deep holes that detectorists have dug haha. A friend of mine pulled a 2 ounce specci from a mullock heap on the next gully over. Don't know how that was missed by everyone else. It was less than 2 feet from pick marks.

 

[Tathradj]

True mate. That is with a detector.
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I would bet you could recover more with processing the material with water and a sluice.
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Pipe clay is every prospectors dream and if you are saying it is mullocked every where and there is evidence of flogging.
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I would have wet dreams about water with that. :lol:

 

[G0lddigg@]

Probably thought it was junk lol

 

[Tathradj]

LOL, Probably as the ground would be so quite except for metallic targets. PMSL.

 

[G0lddigg@]

Pipeclay is pretty much par for the course down here tathradj. Nearly Every mullock around here bottoms on it. Some holea were lucky some were not. I tend to use a rule of thumb if theres more than 6 holes in a small area the ground was good enought.

 

[walshie1000]

Haha true that tathradj. I just processed 2 pans worth. Broke up the clay and crushed into a powder. No colour in the pan. Drop me a pm if your in Vic. I'll happily give you the location as I'm now done with the detector in this area.
Yea probably gold dig. I find it funny that some people think they can most definitely tell by the signal that its junk. Its great! They're leaving gold for us to find. The half gram piece I found gave a crazy bottomed out signal just like a piece of iron would as it was sitting near on the surface. When I swung over it a few inches above it gave a hollow sounding signal similar to a 22 casing. I scooped it up thinking it was trash for sure. Much to my surprise it was a nice looking piece of gold. I celebrated by saying something that sounded like duck yea quite loudly haha

 

[G0lddigg@]

Haha sounds like you should at least have a swing with a bigger coil mate

 

[walshie1000]

Yea that's true golddig. I'll have to keep an eye out and grab one. I'm liking the sound of a 14" enclosed mono

 

[Tathradj]

I am going to have to come over to Ballarat.
As said before, It has been 45 years since I was there.

 

[G0lddigg@]

Walshie your welcome to borrow a coil if your swinging through ballarat mate. And tathradj im sure well be seing you real soon

 

[walshie1000]

Thanks golddig. Really appreciate the offer. I think I'll just bite the bullet and buy one. Drop me a pm golddig. I have a piece of potentially useful information for you.

 

[Next1m8]

My spare room is here for you anytime Doug, would be good to have you around to come for a swing and dig, may just be the good luck charm I need