what do you see here???

[ben2363]

Good day every one.

what do you guys see in these photos..

if you look to the left of the photos you can see a large flat area (assuming this is the oringinal surface ground) the old timer dug from.

what im not sure about is all the long moulds in the middle of the trenching... are these tailling? from the long toms?
the material in these moulds seem to be only clay very little rock or pebble like very little.

i like to know what every ones thought are of these photos..

Cheers

 

[silver]

Dont try to d 3d'em with your eyes
to start with the photo is then sideways
secondly.... their not the same size and its just a bad blur..... gave me a headache lol.
have a dig though I recon.

 

[OzzieAu]

What do you mean by moulds ben2363?.... if you mean mounds, thats what they are.. dug from the trenches I presume.

 

[ben2363]

Haha sorry OzzieAu yes Mounds. so you think its though out material form the trenchs?? or tailings from the sluices??

 

[Marauder]

Isn't this what it looks like after they've done surfacing?

 

[roddosnow]

:Y: looks like fairly typical shallow workings to me, they look to have done quite a bit of work there so would likely be a very good place to poke around,

i would assume from the depth and extent they were working gravels and alluvial gold rather than reef workings so they would have had to dig through the overburden to reach the gravel layer down to bedrock (clay base), this will be what the humps/mounds are, see if you can find some of the depressions that have the interior edges exposed so you can see the layers that they were looking for, if they are all smoothed off dig on the edge of one and expose the material down the edge and to the bottom and even pan some out from the bottom layers - if you can find some water - just be mindful of any deeper pits/shafts/false bottoms.

have you seen any evidence of previous detector holes, is there much trash in the area, how far up/down the slope from the pic do they extend, do the working get deeper or shallower ?

I would give it a good going over making sure to move the sticks and branches, you might pickup some throw outs on the mounds, as well as there may still be material left in the depressions. It would even have a look up on the margins of the flat in the top left, they may not have dug up there as the grades may have been reduced and not payable for them however for us it may be a different story.

 

[roddosnow]

Isn't this what it looks like after they've done surfacing?

the surfacing i have seen usually is taken right down to the bedrock/clay with all the material being removed for washing. In some areas i have been you can see they started with just the shallow workings looking like the above and where it was rich enough they just took all the material for washing so you have areas like in the pics then moved into areas where they have just taken everything.

Surfacing

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=20990#p20990

Alluvial workings - courtesy of minelab golds youtube channel - worth watching the other vids as well as he works alot of similar looking ground.

https://youtu.be/10V_f4uFheQ

 

[ben2363]

So if the mounds / heaps are of clay this would of been the old river floor?

would it be worth digging the mound or heap out or would the gold only be in the first few inchs of the clay?

 

[roddosnow]

So if the mounds / heaps are of clay this would of been the old river floor?

would it be worth digging the mound or heap out or would the gold only be in the first few inchs of the clay?

quite possibly, if the old river channel was on a clay base - otherwise it could be clay from the decomposing bedrock if the river channel is on the bedrock.

either way it was likely some/all of what they would have worked for the gold.

you wont know how thoroughly it was worked until you run a detector over it or pull some test samples.

if you are test panning, try and find the layer on the bedrock/clay base that coincides with the bottom of the "pits/depressions" and pan off some of the material.

Are there any puddlers/remants visible (https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=20848#p20848) this is evidence that they were working heavy clay.

Look for mullock heaps with river gravels, sometimes you will find multiple heaps of different sized rocks with little to no fine material these have either been dry sorted/wet seived - these can also be good indications of how well organised and how rich the diggings were.

The only way to gather more info is to dig/detect - run over the mounds and depressions, clear some of the leaf matter/sticks etc if no luck with that try out on the margins of the workings. it certainly looks like a nice area to spend some time.

Have you tried to research the are online to see if there is any info re deposit types/volume of gold recovered etc? these can be a wealth of info for figuring out how to best prospect a location.

good luck with it, i will keep posted for how you go

 

[ben2363]

PMed you roddosnow

 

[BonZa]

I thought it was a trick question as both photos look the same to me

 

[Pirate pete]

They didnt do all that work for nothing,I would be all over that area well worth a poke around .PP

 

[mudgee hunter]

These areas can be prime real estate. Look for rounded river rocks, this can be a good sign of old river beds. Some are shallow, some can be very deep. Hard rock mining usually have larger mounds of jaggard rock. If these are shallow diggings that are numerous on hill over a wide area on an inside bend. They can be great serious high banking spots if you can pump that high.
As they had a choice of carting the dirt to the creek to process. Mening the material left behind is virgin of being sluiced. (Awsum) , or they had a water race up the hill to feed onsite. Bonus there is that races only really worked well with a good rainfall years. Drought times made it very hard for them. Slowing things down dramatically for high ancient river wash processing with no race. To steep for a barrow, bucket in each hand.
Hmmm 50m of 6mm steel cable, highbanker at the creek... a bucket with a pulley wheel..... flying fox arrangement to bucket with return rope.... stuff carring it down!

 

[ben2363]

do you guys think gold come be at the low points between those mounds. i have found some small bits on the mounds hills or what ever you want to call them. but do you think there be gold in the low spot like the floor area.

 

[stoyve]

Gday ben,
Its always worth a look between the heaps as over the years, any gold missed will always find the lowest point to travel.
Good luck.