My long range field trip

[Dedevil]

I've been thinking that there has been enough talk about devices, diodes, things that go bleep and just about everything else on here and it's about time to put theory into action. About 20 years ago my friends and i found some good nuggets litterally sitting on top of some old 20-30ft shafts from the 1800-early 1900 rush in Victoria. Now the gold is from 20- 30 ft depth of an old creek bed and this makes for a good testing ground for any LRL. The nuggets found here are discribed as follows from a 1900 Tasmanian paper.
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A 25 0Z. NUGGET
FOUND AT ABCDEFGH.
Messrs. Philip sand John Robson and Fred. Beach, jun., working at ABCD Gully, a few miles out of ABCDEFGH (Vic.), recently, were the fortunate finders of a nugget which when cleaned weighed 25oz. The party had been working about the gully for some time past witlh but very meagre results, and so poor had their prospects become that at the place that they had on the previous day decided to give up in despair. They had even removed most of their tools away on Friday night, but on Saturday, whilst having a last look round prior to abandoning the claim, one of the party, in. taking out a few buckets of wash, struck the nugget in the side of their drive, about 20ft. from the surface. It was in the same locality about three years ago that Messrs. W. Atkins and James Seymour unearthed a nugget weighing about 130oz., and at different times during many years past other rich finds have occasionally been made by miners working there from time to time.
================================================== ==========

It's an incredibly interesting reading about what these people did just to get here from overseas and the way they mined the area. Some of the reef gold paid 20 oz of gold per tonne. (thats rich ore!) But where i'm going is a seconary ore deposit, it's the old creek bed thats been washed down and been covered over by dirt over millions of years.

So back to rules of detection No. 1- Does it exist? - Yes
No. 2 -Is it safe?
No! There are 30 ft shafts everywhere and some are covered over by grass and twigs, but stuff it rules are made to be broken.
Now the old time miners from the 1800-1900 rush knew a thing or two about this stuff and they knew that where the underground stream is running on top of the hard rock (at 20- 30 ft) is where the gold will be. So how do you Long Range Detect where the contour of the hard rock is at 30 ft delow the surface? Well it's hard rock so the water doesnt sink through it and so it becomes a creek after rain which will still be flowing if there is enough rain. So you water devine it! Simple! This gives a fairly accurate reading of where the creek is. I even use pegs with colored flags to point out where the divining "path of statics least resistance" is.
Now that i picked my spot it is time to detect @ 30 ft/10 mtrs.
More to come.

[nelson]

Hi Dedevil

It is very interesting what you are posting here.

In my case i m planning for February 2013 to test an LRL device on a site were people on the past recover gold nuggets. But now my question is if devices like LRL, Mineoro and others can detect gold nuggets?
In my opinion the answer is yes if you consider that gold buried from long time produce the phenomenum, so why not gold nuggets?

Regards

Nelson

Originally Posted by Dedevil

I've been thinking that there has been enough talk about devices, diodes, things that go bleep and just about everything else on here and it's about time to put theory into action. About 20 years ago my friends and i found some good nuggets litterally sitting on top of some old 20-30ft shafts from the 1800-early 1900 rush in Victoria. Now the gold is from 20- 30 ft depth of an old creek bed and this makes for a good testing ground for any LRL. The nuggets found here are discribed as follows from a 1900 Tasmanian paper.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A 25 0Z. NUGGET
FOUND AT ABCDEFGH.
Messrs. Philip sand John Robson and Fred. Beach, jun., working at ABCD Gully, a few miles out of ABCDEFGH (Vic.), recently, were the fortunate finders of a nugget which when cleaned weighed 25oz. The party had been working about the gully for some time past witlh but very meagre results, and so poor had their prospects become that at the place that they had on the previous day decided to give up in despair. They had even removed most of their tools away on Friday night, but on Saturday, whilst having a last look round prior to abandoning the claim, one of the party, in. taking out a few buckets of wash, struck the nugget in the side of their drive, about 20ft. from the surface. It was in the same locality about three years ago that Messrs. W. Atkins and James Seymour unearthed a nugget weighing about 130oz., and at different times during many years past other rich finds have occasionally been made by miners working there from time to time.
================================================== ==========

It's an incredibly interesting reading about what these people did just to get here from overseas and the way they mined the area. Some of the reef gold paid 20 oz of gold per tonne. (thats rich ore!) But where i'm going is a seconary ore deposit, it's the old creek bed thats been washed down and been covered over by dirt over millions of years.

So back to rules of detection No. 1- Does it exist? - Yes
No. 2 -Is it safe?
No! There are 30 ft shafts everywhere and some are covered over by grass and twigs, but stuff it rules are made to be broken.
Now the old time miners from the 1800-1900 rush knew a thing or two about this stuff and they knew that where the underground stream is running on top of the hard rock (at 20- 30 ft) is where the gold will be. So how do you Long Range Detect where the contour of the hard rock is at 30 ft delow the surface? Well it's hard rock so the water doesnt sink through it and so it becomes a creek after rain which will still be flowing if there is enough rain. So you water devine it! Simple! This gives a fairly accurate reading of where the creek is. I even use pegs with colored flags to point out where the divining "path of statics least resistance" is.
Now that i picked my spot it is time to detect @ 30 ft/10 mtrs.
More to come.

[Dedevil]

LRL's were not around in the 1800- 1900 gold rush and they found plenty of gold. So why buy a LRL? Sure there are detectors that will detect at 30ft/10 meters a nugget on the surface. But these detectors will not penatrate the ground and so cannot find a nugget straight below you where the gold is 30feet/10 meters straight below. Also the gold that has been washed along the old creek bed is scattered every where so how would you distinguish between lots of tiny specks and a large nugget? Here's a picture of the detector i use. It will detect to 1 cm max.

[Dedevil]

Well i must say that LRL's are a good idea BUT In practically digging down through 7 meters of dirt and clay to the bedrock is very hard work.
The pictures here show the shaft about 10cm from the bedrock which is where i started getting small gold.

[WM6]

You are on trip again?

[Dedevil]

I think that was an attempt of sarcasim by wm6? No Not trippin I used to process this ore and get an ounce a day with nuggets up to thumb size. With todays gold prices thats around $10,000 a week. These small pieces are everywhere but the hardest thing is getting them seperated from the potters clay in which they lie. For this i used a trommel but i am now moving towards a gravity feed sluice.

[Dedevil]

One shovell from the bedrock and i was called away due to family being ill.
But here's some pics of what i've found so far at 26 feet depth

Detectors dont like muddy water!
A 1850's style cheisel for smashing though the false bedrock at 24 feet.
A clay pipe with stamp GLASCOW on side
Rusty big nails

[Dedevil]

With bushfire alert at maximun i decided to get out of the bush for a few days.
Here is what i've got so far at 13 feet/ 3meters depth. The old river bed is full of fine gold. I panned these few grams in an afternoon from around 6 large buckets. I also stopped because my back was killing me! Next i will have to make a trommel to wash the soils and speed up the process. Hopefully i will be able to speed it up so that i can process 2 ounces a day.

[WM6]

Originally Posted by Dedevil

Hopefully i will be able to speed it up so that i can process 2 ounces a day.

Congratulations. Right approach.

[Dedevil]

Thanks Hopefully it will work out. Funny enough i almost gave up as i panned some of the dirt and got nothing, then moved 30 cm and got gold. It is mainly sitting on the sandstone bedrock of the old creek bed and shows the local indicators of iron oxidisation associated with gold bearing soils of the area. My idea is to dig out the old shafts to 14 - 15 feet then use a drill and large auger bit to drill horizontally to the next shaft thereby taking out the lower layer of the old creek bed while being out of the way in case of collapse.

[Dedevil]

There's a large amount of gold and money for anyone attempting this but it's all no good if your DEAD! So as i'm doing a safety course at the moment i thought i should share some safety knowledge on shallow lead shaft mining.

So Rules for detection

No. 1 Does it exist = Yes
No. 2 Is it safe = No.

DEATH CAN AND DOES OCCUR! But what a way to go!

I spoke to a local who told me the last death was around 1950 when a bloke was chasing the bigger nuggets deeper and about 1000 meters away. He cut in TOO deep in his drive with no support and the top caved in on him.

So the 1 st safety concern is cave in.

Where i am working is 14 feet / 7 - 8 meters so a bit shallower but still dangerous enough to kill. A cave in will put around 3 - 6 tonnes of dirt on you.

So as a mining professional i just stop and use my control methods.

Can i eliminate the soil above me = No
Can i substitute the soil above me = No
Can i engineer a way around the soils above me = Yes

The use of support "toms" or " squeeking trees" have been around for ages.

A tom is just like a car tyre jack but can only be used on hard rock reef mining. As this is loose old river soils i'll use "squeeking trees" Funny enough i cant find a picture of squeaking tree supports on the internet.

Simply wooden tree trunks get cut and one end sits on the hard bedrock and on top the loose soil is stopped by planks of wood which the trunks gets jammed into. Any movement in the soils above causes the grain of the wood at the top of the stump to rub with the plank. The pressure and movement cause a sound of "eeeeeeekkkkk" if there is any movement between the grains of wood and tells you to GET OUT.

Next hazard is bad air

Can i eliminate = Yes

A branch of a tree with leaves tied onto a rope and pulled in and out of the shaft is enough to elliminate most bad gasses. Well at least where i am working.

Next hazard is going insane while spending all your day underground.
I just elliminated by radio and long antenna to the surface and up a tree.
But to any newcomers be carefull. Explosive Gases can occur underground and mobile phone transmissions are not the way to go. As occured resently in a New Zealad coal mine where all the workers were killed just after a txt transmission one man sent to his wife saying "love you" as he went under ground. Transmission in these enviroments are like the "click" spark lighters on a barbeque.

What else?

Clear safety glasses are a good idea.

That will do for now.

rgds

[WM6]

Originally Posted by Dedevil

As this is loose old river soils i'll use "squeeking trees" Funny enough i cant find a picture of squeaking tree supports on the internet.

You mean something like this ? :

[Dedevil]

Yes that is it.

A shaft 60cm x 1 mtr x 3 mtr deep takes around 80 - 90 buckets. To make it easier to get down to where the gold is the shafts are oval shaped. This takes about 75 buckets.
Once at 3 meters the dirt starts going through a trommel to be washed. There are about another 25 buckets before you hit the bedrock, each bucket will have about a match head of gold or maybe more. I will also go slightly into the sides at this depth for another 25 buckets and hopefully get around 1 -2 ounces for my work.
Also a windlass on top to get the buckets out makes it easier on the back.

[Dedevil]

Let's get back to the basics and just find GOLD! This forum has become too much like another Geotech forum where everyone talks about the best with no results.
So here's my results
1 OUNCE A DAY!

LETS SEE ANYONE ELSE BEAT IT!

Or are you just hugging JP's electronic Teddy Bear?
rgds

[Geo]

Hi.
Did you finish the trommel???
One ounce per day is with the use of trommel???

Regards

[Dedevil]

Originally Posted by Geo

Hi.
Did you finish the trommel???
One ounce per day is with the use of trommel???

Regards

Yes Just finished. The olive container didn't work as the sun's heat warped the plastic.
So i changed to a car gas cylinder.
It is a very rough prototype and will take another picture when it's set up in the field.
I power it with a boat bilge pump and a cars windscreen motor ( all 12volt) and run it from my car battery. Will go solar panels on the next model.

regards

[Dedevil]

One ounce a day will be average daily from 300 x 20 litre plastic buckets of dirt.
The trick is to seperate the gold from the potters clay. I am using two rotating sieves.
Near where i go i got a very strong signal on the divining rods. I think the strong charges i divined is gold that is traped in a bend of the old creek bed at 13 feet / 3 meteres and should have concentrations of around 6 ounces a day.

[Geo]

Originally Posted by Dedevil

Yes Just finished. The olive container didn't work as the sun's heat warped the plastic.
So i changed to a car gas cylinder.
It is a very rough prototype and will take another picture when it's set up in the field.
I power it with a boat bilge pump and a cars windscreen motor ( all 12volt) and run it from my car battery. Will go solar panels on the next model.

regards

Good luck with the new trommel

[Dedevil]

I now know there is a rule number 3- Dont go chassing gold in the middle of the night after drinking beer at the pub.

I went out and set up the trommel and camp beside a dam. Then thought it was too late to start so went and drank beer at the pub. After the pub I thought i was invinsable and went mining. I tripped over and almost broke my leg! I spent the next two days just panning and got a few specks.

rgds

[Dedevil]

I did try and dig some gold a week ago but my knee is still too bad.
Here is a picture of the gold from the 1 x 20 litre bucket that i managed to pull out.
2.4 gramms which sold for $Au 90.00 (the gold price is down)
Still not bad from one bucket.
I will rest my leg and try again next week.


rgds

[Geo]

Hohoho...
I will come for help!!!!

Regards

[Dedevil]

Yes You can come for a holiday Geo.

The weather here is 34C - 37C and very hot and dry. We will be going into winter shortly and it snows here 0C - 12C . So bring some warm clothes.

As soon as the winter rain starts the fire bridage will be burning off the bush.
Probably in April. Then it will be excellent ground for LRL as the bush has never been burnt off since the invention of the metal detector. At the moment it is very thick and hard to swing a coil around the wooden sticks.

I have made a modification to the trommel; so anyone who wants to make one you must have it revolving at least 1 revolution every 2 seconds. I just changed the size of the pulley on the motor. Also i changed from a boat bildge pump to a boat high pressure 12v cleaning pump. This high pressure spray helps break up the clay and rock.

The 2.4g from a bucket was a bit lucky I think, they are not all that good. Funny enough I have been throwing this dirt out so I can go deeper. I still think my divining rods are pointing to a place in the old creek bed that the old miners have missed and that i can get up to 6 oz a day. I "think" that because it is so dry the only thing that can be triggering the rod responce is the iron in the creek. Whats your thought? The pieces of iron are about the same size as the gold in the picture and i guess that when in concentrated form this would build a electric charge.

I read an old mans notes (he is dead now) and he said 60 oz nuggets were found in this area. I do not know whether to believe that it was 1x60oz or that they got 60oz of gold from the one shaft (lots of small nuggets) which they dug down into the ground.

Last trip I found a untouched chinese shaft. Well there are 3 shafts actually. They are oval shaped and are in a triangle about 4 meters apart. The shaft goes down about 3 meters then the "drives" tunnells go horizontally between the shafts. I made a dd detector while my leg is healing and will take it down the shafts next week.

rgds

[Geo]

Originally Posted by Dedevil

Yes You can come for a holiday Geo.

The weather here is 34C - 37C and very hot and dry. We will be going into winter shortly and it snows here 0C - 12C . So bring some warm clothes.

As soon as the winter rain starts the fire bridage will be burning off the bush.
Probably in April. Then it will be excellent ground for LRL as the bush has never been burnt off since the invention of the metal detector. At the moment it is very thick and hard to swing a coil around the wooden sticks.

I have made a modification to the trommel; so anyone who wants to make one you must have it revolving at least 1 revolution every 2 seconds. I just changed the size of the pulley on the motor. Also i changed from a boat bildge pump to a boat high pressure 12v cleaning pump. This high pressure spray helps break up the clay and rock.

The 2.4g from a bucket was a bit lucky I think, they are not all that good. Funny enough I have been throwing this dirt out so I can go deeper. I still think my divining rods are pointing to a place in the old creek bed that the old miners have missed and that i can get up to 6 oz a day. I "think" that because it is so dry the only thing that can be triggering the rod responce is the iron in the creek. Whats your thought? The pieces of iron are about the same size as the gold in the picture and i guess that when in concentrated form this would build a electric charge.

I read an old mans notes (he is dead now) and he said 60 oz nuggets were found in this area. I do not know whether to believe that it was 1x60oz or that they got 60oz of gold from the one shaft (lots of small nuggets) which they dug down into the ground.

Last trip I found a untouched chinese shaft. Well there are 3 shafts actually. They are oval shaped and are in a triangle about 4 meters apart. The shaft goes down about 3 meters then the "drives" tunnells go horizontally between the shafts. I made a dd detector while my leg is healing and will take it down the shafts next week.

rgds

Hi Dedevil.
If you are good with rods then it is gold.
Do you know the way to discriminate between gold and iron??? Do you use sample at your hand???
When i use sample at my hand and make triangulate to a place.. if the three lines don't give me only one point then it is iron. If the 3 lines gives me one point (center) then the object is the same material with the sample at my hand.

Regards

[Dedevil]

I am good with the rods but the gold is not in one spot like a coin. It is spread out along the old creek at 3 meters below surface. The picture shows a very similar creek. I am currently on the higher bank and not far away is the bend in the creek where I think there will be alot of gold. It is about 40x40 meters area. I will sink a shaft there next week.

Yes the triangle method does work well. I use plastic shopping bags to put the soil into and when the signal disappears from the hole I divine the bags.

I have been told that it is best to use local gold when divining. I did ask a jeweller if he could make me some L rods with my gold and he looked at me with a strange look.
I will keep some gold for a pendulim. Keep it in a small container and use silk string to suspend it.

rgds

[Dedevil]

After being unwell for some time and now feeling better I decided to go have a look around the bush. Have a look what I found.