Lots of black sand but no gold?

[Nugget]

A spot I'm currently looking at has been filling the sluice up with black sand and the occasional (very small) gemstone but no gold. I know the existence of black sand doesn't necessarily guarantee the existence of gold but I also know that a lot of gold has been pulled from the very same creek over the years, this is much further up though.

I'm just wondering whether or not I should persevere at this spot or move on :|

 

[Redmanti]

I'd move on. There are too many other spots to cover and you only have so much time.

 

[Land Rover]

G,day All,,,,, In the olden days a prospector would work his way up stream test panning evry 100 yrd or so,,, when the colour run out he would then back track down stream until He found where was last seen colour,,Then He would take note of the most likely side the gold may have come from,, He would then leave the stream and start collecting soil samples up the hill at set distances and put them in a long sock ,each sample was knotted off from the previous one ,
The prospector would then take his sock full of sample dirt back to the steam and start the panning process systematically working his way up the sock from the first one out of the stream until he again run out of colour,,, this is where the prospector then established WHERE the gold come from, He then assertained whether it was surface gold or if He was now going to become a hard rock miner !!!!!

L/R

 

[HeadsUp]

try sampling different parts of the creek structure ( inside/outside curves holes rock bars ) and different depths

is there indicators to suggest the creek has moved and left gravel beds nearby that you can sample from too ?

if no colour then move along i guess.

 

[Ag Man]

Dig deeper if you had not already gotten to bedrock or a hard layer of clay.
Getting black sand in your pan - I would assume if there is any gold left, that you would be very close & digging in the sort of place gold would fall out/deposit.
I'd persist & clean out some more until you are sure any gold could go no lower.

 

[Colin&Lee]

Like a few of the other guy's have said mate, I'd go for a walk with the pan. I'd also check some crevices if there's any around, you might be working some ones tailings.

Cheers

C&L

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Also just check the actual gravel your digging does not look to regular in size or in a fan shaped pattern, I have seen plenty of spots up around Hodgkinson river that look to have been heavily worked by a HB or sluice team..

Also check that the gravel is compacted, just compare it to the area you are digging , few feet to the right, few feet to the left or so, if it is loose and contains very little to no silt then its also a good sign your working someones mullock heap. That is from my limited experience..

 

[Nugget]

Thanks guys, some great advice there.

I think I'll give it one last go and do a little more digging and test panning before writing it off completely, the plan was to do this yesterday but we got rained out . We did manage to spend about half an hour there but it wasn't enjoyable, and I didn't feel comfortable working on the opposite side of the creek from from we were parked as the water was slowly rising minute by minute.

 

[WalnLiz]

Gold is more often than not associated with igneous and metamorphic rocks. These geological formations can quite often be localized to quite small regions. In these "localized" formations gold quite often forms in fissures intersecting these metamorphic boundaries and quite often is "not" wide spread.

Usually the weathering of the basalt belt forming the "black sands" is very wide spread. With the SG of most black sand combinations being around 8, and gold being 19, it's not unusual for the black sand to travel well into the lower sections of the drainage system, leaving the gold closer to its source.

If gold was "originally" found a long way up the system, and access was achievable closer to the "recorded" gold area, I would don a backpack and start test sampling in these upper reaches. Progressively i would test pan all shallow bedrock bars, whilst hiking as many kilometers as possible in the day downstream.

A single test pan is all that's needed in each location to ascertain just how far the gold has traveled.

By doing this you should soon find out just how far the gold has traveled from its original location. We have many streams on the south coast where black sand is widespread for up to 20km yet the gold is contained within only a 5km section.

Cheers Wal,

 

[Nugget]

Thanks for the words of wisdom Wal. I will have to do an overnighter and hike along the creek, though it might be one for the warmer months I think

 

[WalnLiz]

If your keen in spring and would like some company, let me know and we could halve the laborious panning exercise,

Cheers Wal,

 

[MinnesotaAU]

Nugget - This is a note on personal experience. When I first started prospecting, I would not classify as much as I do now. My classifying was only down to 1/4 inch (6mm). When using my high banker at home on my take home samples, I would find a lot of black sands which I would then pan. Nata. Just a lot of containers of black sand that I always saved. I would pan them and find nothing. One day a friend told me to try classifying to smaller sizes and try again to pan. Now I had gold. My expertise with the pan is not the best and I need to practice more. When I was doing my final cleanups before panning, I started using an old flat sheet cake pan and noticed small irregular streaks of gold. I went back and classified down to 200 and found that I had been washing out lots of -150 flour gold. This gold is so fine that unless I classified, While I was panning, I was essentially knocking the fine gold out with the larger chunks of black sand. I don't find much in the way of bigger pieces of gold, but I am accumulating flour gold now. I don't see anyone talking about Flour gold in the postings but I can't help but wonder if perhaps you might be losing some to your equipment. Let me know if this helps. Bill

 

[Dogmatic]

Count me in for a spring hunt. Will probably go and have a play during the winter as well. It may sound strange, but I like camping in winter. Don't like the 4am toilet call though, rolling around for an hour putting off getting out of the swag, trying to go back to sleep, pretending you don't really need to go

Nothing better than a chilled night air around a fire with a nice port and a few scotches, family and friends, some rosy cheeks and a good cigar.

 

[Nugget]

@MinnesotaAU, thanks mate, I'll keep that in mind for next time.

@Wal, I might have to take you up on that offer someday

@Dogmatic, we'll have to organise a camp out soon.

Thanks again for the input guys, it's certainly given me something to think about.

 

[Gaz&Al]

Hi guys
I would like to put it out here for discussion and perhaps get a answer ,
Today whilst prospecting a creek up home I came across a heap of black sand in every test pan but no gold .
My question is does black sand always mean gold nearby or could it be just a iron rich soil.
Look forward to the feedback
Cheers
Gary

 

[Heatho]

Black sand is very common, it does not mean gold is present. Same as quartz, it's very common too and does not mean gold present either. They can both be associated with gold deposits though.

Black sand can be made up of quite a number of minerals such as magnetite, black spinel, basalt etc.

 

[Gaz&Al]

Thanks Heatho
I was getting exited when I saw the black sand
Cheers

 

[bend]

Pretty much what he said, it can be useful to track where heavies are depositing though if you still feel you might find some yellow further downstream. Have a look and see if you can find diggings or other signs downstream.

 

[Gaz&Al]

Thanks bend
I am not giving up on this place I am going to do exactly that move down stream at the junction point of this creek and the river it enters and see how I go there
Cheers

 

[blisters]

Check the black sand out with a magnifier like a microscope as there still might be gold just not large enough to be easily visible by the naked eye. You should be able to identify the minerals that the sand is comprised of and use this to see if they are normally associated with gold in your region. If you are getting gold I'd be heading upstream but it doesn't mean better gold is not downstream if you are in the region of deposition.
Jon