Copper, Silver and Gold. A good day in the goldfields.

[Ben78]

Been researching like a cramming uni student lately trying to get the oil on all the known alluvial coarse gold locations around here. A local prospecting acquaintance has been posting on our facebook group the finds he has made lately and I hit him up for some details on how he goes about his prospecting. I also ran a couple of locations by him and got the go ahead on one.

I was supposed to go yesterday but the weather held me back so today I packed the car up and headed out. I was told I would get my car down the track 'no worries' but when I got out there trees and ruts pulled me up about 200m from the creek so I walked it in.

Had a bit of a look around and found a spot to stash my lunch and started detecting. First signal was a mashed bullet and then I got that nice sweet 'helllloooo' signal along a crevice. I removed a plant in there and the signal remained. I was kinda perched on this rock in the middle of the creek so I decided to just scrape it out and pan the contents. The little 0.47 gram piece was what was causing the commotion. I continued on down the creek but no more yellow reared its head (plenty of iron flakes though argghhhghghg).

I returned to my lunch and had a feed before walking back to the car. I drove out and let my wife know I was alive (I'm out there solo) and that I was going to scout around some tracks up there. I had a look at a couple and then headed down one that goes to another alluvial location I had researched. Couldn't quite get to the bottom again due to fallen trees but when I got out there was a suspiciously cleared area so I put the 5000 away and grabbed the Explorer.

First target out was the 1911 Half Penny, then I spotted the bottom of a broken bottle. Straight over to the very small dump and I found the leather sides from an old shoe. Wandering around there I eventually picked up the little buckle. There was some broken crockery and then the cutlery handle in amongst it. A few metres away and I found a 10 cent coin, hang on no thats a KGV 1917 Shilling lol, my first KGV. If anyone knows hallmarks I put a pic of the cutlery marks on too.

So pretty happy, copper silver and gold all in the same day!

And a little bit of video.
[video=480,360]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZz1buee_bQ[/video]

 

[Syndyne]

G'day Ben,

Nice finds there! I'm sure those hallmarks will be of some use to those in the know.

Beautiful nugget!!! I'd be over the Moon to see that come out of a crevice. Running a machine over bedrock (securely and safely) is one of things I think many tend to look over when they think of detecting for gold. Still yet to give that a go myself.

Really nice work! Wonderful looking area too. Thanks for the post and photos.
Kindest regards,
Shauno.

 

[HeadsUp]

dont throw away buckles with your scrap finds when you dig them up . the old ones are sometimes sterling silver so worth a clean and test

 

[cactus]

nice work.looks like a good day

 

[jack1]

Well done mate, like you said, a little of everything.

 

[Ben78]

Put a little video in the first post.

 

[AU Fever]

Nice work Ben, straight to the pool room for that nugget

Au

 

[aushunter]

Well done Ben,
I would be stoked no worries with that find for sure.
Cheers
Brad...

 

[Willo]

Ben great story and video well done! Ian

 

[WalnLiz]

Great stuff Ben, good to see the 5000 is starting to earn its keep. Good luck on the next hunt,

Cheers Wal.

 

[Sw1fty]

Well done Ben, beaut spot and nice nug...