Newbie starting up in old mine

[Ziggyv27]

im pretty sure from what you guys have been telling me that it is mica! the flakes were riddled throughout the pan

 

[Ziggyv27]

 

[malau]

Can you send us some sample by mail and we will check for you?

 

[Ziggyv27]

sure, ive only just panned in the stream running out of the entrance. next time im up there ill take a sample and pm you

 

[Ag Man]

Gold looks like gold from any angle.
The look of Mica changes as you look at it from different angles.
Also, if gold was easily seen at the front of a mine, no-one would have left it behind.

Cool looking mine though.
If there's a creek bed nearby, I'd be cleaning out a few crevices & some more test panning.

Thanks for sharing your story

 

[Marked]

...you will know when you have found gold...

This is probably the best information that can be given to newbies...I am certainly no expert, and haven't found piles and piles of the yellow stuff, but every time I start doubting and think I may be tipping the good stuff out of my pan, a speck shows up to remind me just how different it is from everything else.

 

[Village]

10% hydrochloric acid solution( 10ml acid to 90ml of water by volume), if it fizzes bin it, if it doesn't get someone to take a better look

 

[Village]

wait, even easier hit it with a hammer on a hard surface, if its malleable, flattens out and holds it volume, take a closer look, if it turns to dust, bin it.

 

[HeadsUp]

wait, even easier hit it with a hammer on a hard surface, if its malleable, flattens out and holds it volume, take a closer look, if it turns to dust, bin it.

i was about to say that too

if it crumbles when you smack it with a hammer its pyrite or some other rubbish , if it flattens out more , and more , and more with each tap with the hammer then she is gold

if i see a big thin sheet of gold coming past my door with a very excited guy slapping it with a hammer all the way then we have the answer

 

[Keen Ken]

Be careful going in there, that looks like a fault behind your back in the photo.

Check to roof before entering again with a bar and prod those rocks and keep a eye out for cracks in the walls and roof.

This sort of thing should not be investigated alone.

 

[aushunter]

I think I would set up the banker there and use the water to wash some of tailings, clean up the entrance, pump out the water, but going in an old mine drive, mmmmmm gotta think that one thru.
Good luck.
Brad...

 

[Hunting the yellow]

from the look of things no 1 why would they brick it up humm lots of gold behind it maybe no 2 why did they give it up water a big proplem maybe and 3 if your going to rework it get a big pump and pump all the water out and if your tunneling get the strongest hard wood you can find to shore up the roof

i look forward to your aventure ahead

 

[HeadsUp]

I think I would set up the banker there and use the water to wash some of tailings, clean up the entrance, pump out the water, but going in an old mine drive, mmmmmm gotta think that one thru.
Good luck.
Brad...

i agree . it was bricked up to save people from injury

if you pump it out the pressure drop could destabilise it leading to rock falls as the water dries out

i would be curious to push a trash pump suction hose in there and put the wash through a sluice but the logistics of going in there safely are bigger than what people might imagine.

 

[Ziggyv27]

apparently all the equipment used in the early 1900's is still down the shaft, water filled up overnight from underground spring

 

[Hunting the yellow]

apparently all the equipment used in the early 1900's is still down the shaft, water filled up overnight from underground spring

you will need a big pump then if its spring fed you may not be able to pump all the water out

 

[golddredge]

I doubt they left payable gold, everything that was opened was exhausted to some degree. If flooded some shafts were taken up many moons later by bigger companies and reworked with bigger and better machinery. I would recommend you concentrate on deep leads and rivers do your research there. Some sinking's were very shallow. As the miners drove there shafts following the pipe clay. They could not remove all the wash, they simply could not tunnel everywhere. Some rivers are also a great place as some high grade deposits were strewn, with so much overburden that it was not worth mining.

 

[golddredge]

The iron hat covers the golden head

 

[Village]

Well a Cat 349D and an 8" Skye's pump would solve you problem, just depends how keen you really are?

 

[lids]

I know of a mine like this but not blocked up, that I explored as a kid(always fascinated by this sort of thing).

The guy who owned the property also worked in the mine. It is reported that the gold mining in the area stopped in the early 1900s but this guy worked there in the 50s.

It got to the point that it wasnt worth pumping the water out for the pay dirt so they just stopped.
All the gear is still down there.
The shaft may be very deep and possibly 1-2ks long if I remember the story correctly

When I was there last, about 15 years ago, there was maybe 4 inches of water at the portal and that must be at least 100 meters above the bottom of the workings.
There was pyrite everywhere but you could see the seam of quartz they were chasing.

 

[Ryan1981]

mate great story,i was reading it and getting very excited for you,hopefully you get onto the gold.
Thanks and good luck