Using a dredge in Australia for recreational prospecting is illegal - information and questions

[user 1769]

...blah blah bulls**t rant... blah blah give me the chits...
Let your old thread die gracefully, most here would not be interested in you continually reviving it in order to bag us out.
I have not seen a suitable contribution from you in any other topic on this forum.

Wow! I think you're way out of line, and a bit sensitive on this topic... Why? The sort of behaviour that went on in the creek is what gives fossickers a bad name. I would have hoped we as a community would have continued to make it clear we don't condone that sort of behaviour.

As to 'continually reviving', I had not looked at the post since the week I made the original thread, till I saw all the comments today. You would have noticed this had you actually read carefully before writing your snide comments. Or perhaps you were more concerned with putting me down and asserting some kind of moral authority more than you were with being accurate or factual.
Perhaps you have 'not seen a suitable contribution from me' because a) you've not done enough reading or b) you're not a 'suitable' judge to decide what 'suitable' is.
Dude, you've been a member for less than 6 months.

This says to me that your knowledge regarding these matters is substandard.

...Blah blah...

If you cant pass SnO2 in your hibanker/sluice, your doing it all wrong!

Ok, so to be clear, you have successfully separated sapphires, which have a specific gravity of 4, from cassiterite, which has an s.g. of 7, using a highbanker, in a place that contains ten times more cassiterite than sapphires, and with the highbanker set up to clear the cassiterite? Can I see the video, please?

 

[the duck]

as i said everyone has had their say and post has lost its way im now closing it

 

[Guest]

The reason for the distinction is the turbidity caused. A hand-operated suction pump does not cause turbidity. Eduction does. Even the direct following of this law to the letter, for which no law is meant, does not make a hand operated suction pump illegal, as long as the outflow is not causing turbidity. Which is the reason for the rule in the first place. Puddler Bills inconcise interperetation seems straight out the public service ego textbook. Personally I would not flinch or even blink at taking this to a court, where it would inevitably be thrown out by the judge.

To be honest and use some perspective a highbanker with a pump could be used for the same purpose, mechanically, so the user could potentially move tens or hundreds of kilos of dirt, so if you want highbanking to become illegal Puddler Bill, just keep sticking to your guns, you're opinions may well help to stifle us further.

 

[Marked]

Gee Tim - how far back was Puddler Bill's post? you do realise there are 4 pages worth of posts and this is an ooooollllld thread don't you? Let sleeping dogs lie dude.

 

[Guest]

I'm not allowed an opinion on this? I am making my way through this and other posts. Anything I see as worthy of comment on the way I will contribute to, after all, that is what forums are for, isn't it? I hope you do not aspire to censure or censorship, the gagging and silencing of those you consider dissenters, or like other fora this will become an elite boys club.
Even if the thread was 100 years old I would consider contributing. All the best.

 

[silver]

Welcome to the forum tim,... hows about you introduce yourself in the appropriate thread and tell us all a bit about yourself.

 

[Marked]

Puddler Bills inconcise interperetation seems straight out the public service ego textbook.

Forgive me if I found that a bit of a rude way to introduce your opinion into what I have always largely found a friendly forum on the whole (even when people are in disagreement) - perhaps I took it the wrong way.

 

[Marked]

I've built all my own manual gold pumps, my mate bought a yabbie pump but literally bined it after less than an hour's use as the suction to effort ratio was well out of whack, it just didn't seem to suck up much material and took a lot of effort to draw on. My manual pumps look similar to GoldnSand pumps but cost me a fraction of the price to make them, I've made 2 1/2" and monster 4" pumps and they both work great, shift a lot of material and don't take a lot of effort to use. I've videos of how to make them and of them in action on my youtube page

The yabby pumps take a little adjusting to get the suction to effort ratio right - they usually have a brass wingnut for ease of adjustment on the "valve" that you can reach from the end. I find that this never stays adjusted and have replaced mine with a nylock nut.

 

[daniel2015]

Found a very interesting patent "US 8240775 B2" some time ago from 2012. Seems like a really genius idea. Did someone saw this commercial product? Maybe it's something worth trying to build? Looks like it would be more efficient than a super long gravity dredge.

Here is the link to the full patent:
https://www.google.com/patents/US8240775

The parts can be acquired from any homeimprovement market.

 

[PabloP]

Basic venturi style device, but no use to us in Oz as dredging is verboten.

Rob.

 

[goldengoose]

Basic venturi style device, but no use to us in Oz as dredging is verboten.

Rob.

Looking from a different angle. Is this any different than a hand held crevice pump? or is it less mechanical than the crevice pump?

This seems to rely on natural flow of the system to lift material through a single devise without the need for any mechanism only water pressure. No external power source, no moving parts just a hand held tool.
Define hand tool or extraction?

Correct me!
You are not allowed to use mechanical aid for the extraction of material in however can use aids for the process of the concentrate.

Personally would not touch will need a trailer to cart all the equipment. Dredging is illegal and do not condone it.

 

[Nightjar]

Would be blocked within minutes, useless!

 

[Rusty_G]

Seems like it would be a bit of a finicky thing to setup...and clogs would drive you nuts lol.

 

[Ramjet]

I posted this video quite a while ago. The consensus was it's illegal in Australia.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/GLyL5fTbnes[/video]

 

[ken2m]

It sort of opens a can of worms as the device is powered by the river. If you collect the material by hand/shovel/bait pump or other "non mechanical" method, then fed the material into the suction end of the device, it is no different than a sluce box in the fact that the river is doing the processing and the material is being collected by a person.

The tube used in the video I would have thought that blockages would have occoured. But with smooth bore tube it would have higher velocity and less chance of blocking, The success is due to the fall of the river causing a high velocity of water passing through the tube.
Another interesting video is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWgg87XK4-w
Ken.

 

[Tathradj]

Not here in Australia but some of the comments are worth noting.
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/court-decide-fight-over-gold-025306766.html

 

[bazza2210]

good post - interesting reading, however I must confess to killing a fish one time at Tuena with a shovel - it was a small carp lol.

 

[mbasko]

Some other links/discussion here:
http://www.detectorprospector.com/f...rt-case-lost-no-dredging-in-california-still/

 

[thedigger]

If the dredge kills fish,well by that thought,then there should be no fish because floods eliminate them.
A friend told me that the fish would be at the rear of the dredge to catch anything that was stirred up for them.

Regards Frank

 

[yobskin]

Governing bodies and the agencies that support them dont have field experience nor do they have a common sense button.... its like having a boss with 20years less experience tell you how to work... i have met plenty of uni graduates that are as sharp as a bag full of hammers....i honestly feel sorry for the future of prospecting...