Things have changed: we're not going to the site next week after all. My driller has had a motor bike accident and is in hospital with multiple fractures etc. It's an 8 hour drive from Melbourne, then setting up camp again etc etc. I can't do it alone so a change of plans is called for. I was born in the year of the Berlin Olympics and everyone tells me I'm too old to be out in all weathers digging, scrambling around hills, prospecting. And yet in the same breath I'm told to keep my brain and body active! I'd rather wear out than rust out. I've had a varied and interesting life but a few years in retirement I was bored silly. The crunch came when gardening was becoming the rule of the day. For 20 years before retirement I owned and operated an opal mine in Lightning Ridge. Mining is in my blood. At 12 I was helping my dad mine feldspar near Broken Hill. So I decided I had to do something with mining . My options were limited - gardening,(!) shopping, daytime TV, baby sitting, dishes ......
So I sat down at the computer and started to do research on gold. It was a bit slow going because my lack of computer skills slowed me down ( my technical assistant who often helped out in these situations was only available on weekends because he's started school this year) but after a while I got there. I discovered that back in the late 1800's in western NSW there was a gold rush that petered out because of distance and lack of water. I dug deeper and found a comment - "the Geological Survey Survey Department was of the opinion that an auriferous belt extends right across this arid district where the want of water has hitherto largely prevented prospecting being carried out." Until now! I reasoned that for such a comment to be made they had to know things that we didn't.
I'm sorry I've prattled on so. This post was a cry for help from someone not too proud to ask for it. Listening to my driller apologising from the Emergency Ward of a big hospital because he couldn't make it to the site unhinged me a bit resulting in this waste of your time.
But then again you might like to hear what I learned about simple geology which lead to my finding gold, about how to go about getting an Exploration Licence, about the pitfalls and mistakes to avoid, about how to start an Exploration business cheaply