Hunting in New Zealand ( Lots of NZ Photos in this thread)

Here are some little babys I picked up last time I went to New Zealand for a holiday.
They were found between and to the left of the 2 rocks in 2nd image

    YAHOO they look great!! tons a au 2 u 2-John   

 Thanks John.  I have found some beaut nuggets around this spot. I was born on this property but it has changed hands a few times since. I know where there is a reef that my old uncle got heaps of gold, and when us kids were young we went down in the hole. He was so mad he took his dynamite up there and blew it in.!!! It is still there and maybe one day I will get a go at it. Meantime I will just wander around and pick up the nuggies. I still have some of the rich reef gold he left when he died. He always said that the reef continued across the gully so when I get my Golden King I will be looking for it. As I live in Australia now I don't get over there very often.

The Cat

Ya just gotta love a country that convinces people (tourists), that its fun to roll down hill in a puddle of water inside a big plastic bubble, ( they call it a Zorb).  And where they apparently have taught gold nuggets to jump up onto the coil of any passing metal detector. 


F.

 Well Mr Functional (or is it dysfunctional?) lol At least it is my detector they are jumping on to......

The Cat

Hi guys, Yep there is some nice gold to be found in NZ.

Check out this 5ozer



2ozer



Or this cabinet of NZ collectable nuggies housed in the Gold Shop in Arrowtown



Some nice little pickers found with a 2" gravity dredge sucking out a mountain creek hole.



Sluice boxing





And it is that time of the year agian with summer just around the corner

Happy goldin

Kiwi JW

 Apparently the gold around arrowtown can be about 98% pure.  Nice nuggets. You are obviously from around that area JW?

G'day Wildcat, Sorry mate ment to make mention of your nice gold. Well done.
I am from the Coromandel area but lookin at movin down to Central as the Coro gold aint a patch on the central stuff. How come you have jumped the ditch? Foot in both camps aye I run a GP 3000 looking for gold but pretty much stick to the water, dredgin & sluicin & crevicing & all that. I know central pretty well especially the QT, Arrowtown areas, Macetown, Skippers, Bannockburn, Carrick, Nevise, Naseby, Bendigo, Kyeburn, Cadrona etc The list goes on aye........Beautiful Country. Godzone. The worlds best kept secret aye You do much in Oz?

Good luck & happy golding.

Kiwi JW

Hey Wildcat, Check the pics I put up on the Whites/Goldbug thread. Bit of Arrow gold & some rough hokey pokey Coromandel dentrital that hasnt travelled very far from its source. But do you think I can bloody find it. LOL

Take care out there & may there be glint of yellow at the point of yer pick

JW

  DAMN RIGHTEOUSLY GOOD LOOKN' GOLD GENTS    tons a au 2 u 2 -John

 Hey JW and all. I came to Oz in '76. Got fed up with Invercargill weather. I was born in Ranfurly and lived young years at Poolburn, Omakau. I agree, it is some of the best country anywhere. Just too cold for me in winter. If I ever went back it would be to Alexandra / Clyde area. My brother used to have a small portable dredge in the Manuherikia near Omakau near the Dan O'Çonnell bridge.  Nice and shallow, quite a few rock bars here and there. I am a detector man but would have a go at a dredge if I was in the right locale. I have lived in Western Australia, Victoria and have been in Queensland most of the time. Found some good bits in all those places.
The Cat

Well Mr Functional (or is it dysfunctional?) lol At least it is my detector they are jumping on to......

The Cat

    <-- Dis Funtional

  I know you have most of the good nuggets down there and enough of a season to seriously hunt for them. I'm happy when I cover costs. But, I'd be happier if I could just find a reliable source for vegemite here in western Canada. I met an aussie gal once and she got me addicted to it.

F.

Well (Dis) Functional.....  I prefer Marmite..  (Beef extract instead of vege extract) Looks the same but just tastes better to me.
My mate and I went out for a hunt today and found 20 cents between us.....grrrrrr

Well (Dis) Functional.....  I prefer Marmite..  (Beef extract instead of vege extract) Looks the same but just tastes better to me.
My mate and I went out for a hunt today and found 20 cents between us.....grrrrrr

I was going to try Marmite once, but then I saw that it was the UK version with veggies in it. I'd heard that the NZ version was better, but I've yet to find any in the stores I've looked in for it.

There's twenty current cents, then there's twenty historic cents. The later is preferable. Maybe stick to nugget shooting? Twenty nuggets. Now I like that sound of that, no matter how old the nuggets are.

My season for gold is at its end here, with a snow levels reaching down to within 150 feet of the valley bottom, but I'll spend the winter preparing for next year. Just bought myself a used oxygen acetylene welding and cutting outfit, with supplies for working with regular steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and cast iron, enough to last me the next year. From this point on, the winter months will be spent living vicariously through the lives of other gold panner's and nugget shooter's.

K.

Inspiring Photos and story guys, you're living the dream.    Blessed be.

Hi guys, Here is a bit of Kiwi Gold country scenery.












Hydrolic sluiced area 5000ft above sea level. All that white is little water worn quartz pebbles





A river diversion tunnel



Happy golding

Kiwi JW

And a bit more



Heading up the Arrow River sluice boxing




The result of a couple of hours





Gold mining ghost town hotel ruins. Horse stables in the back ground


Bit of snow in the back ground


Miners hut


Kiwi JW

But wait....there is more

Another old miners hut & inside


Hydrolic sluicing monitor in action


Hydrolic sluiced area


Tailings race from the hydrolic sluiced area above


Water wheel powered 10 head stamper battery


Another stamper & berdan set up (ruins of)


Hand stacked tailings


Another stamper


More hand stacked tailings


A different kind of "digger" in the creek


Happy golding

KiwiJW

    Come on now--where is Frodo???thanx much for the great pix and I'd give any of my X-wives to run that moniter too!!! thanx much John   

Wow, great pics guys. Let me pack my dredge and leave no forwarding add'y

Oh dear Ankh.... VB  Victorian Bitter = Australia.....

That 'track hoe'  or excavator as I call it looks like one that was owned by a chap that wanted to be a silent partner with me and my brother.  He would supply the machine and we would work the spot while he would be the silent partner and just rake in the shares.  As soon as I saw the machine I shuddered and ran.

The Cat

it sure would be cool to goto New Zealand to see my friend Trev Alty. and maybe get some NZ gold to boot!

My memories of NZ beer are,  Speights 3 star,  DB (Dominion Bitter) and due to the fact I have just had a couple of Woodstocks, I can't remember any more.

NZ is certainly a beautiful country, but when you live there you take it for granted.  I enjoy my trips back there occasionally and last time took my new wife who loved it.  She is an Aussie country girl. (way to go)
I must renew my passport in case I decide to go for another trip....

The Cat

Kiwi JW,are you the chap from Jack Langs old Forum?........Dave.

G'day Dave, Yes I am the one & the same JW from Jack Langs old forum. Bloody good sit this one.
Cricky Ankh...... where the hell did you get the notion that Kiwi's, New Zealanders, were church going none drinkers. I reckon we are probably the biggest drinkers per head of population than any other country on this planet. Fancy relating VB to a kiwi beer, & fosters & goanna's. Yep Speights, Pride of the south for over 120 years. My beer of choice. There is of course Waikato, Lion red, Tui, Montieths a west coast beer that goes back to the gold rush days, DB (Dominion Brewries) Mac's ale etc etc I could go on & on & on......But I wont

Here are a few more pics. This one is an old school of mines building that is slowly rotting away



Mt Cook New Zealands highest mountain. This was taken in the middle of summer



A Glacier on the West Coast of the south island



An old grave stone in the Skippers Cemetry. Struck a chord with me as I was the same age as the father & my son the same age as the son who was killed at the time I took this photo



Lake Tekapo, south island


The Remakables Range, & Lake Wakatipu Queenstown. NZ


Detecting an old miners hut



The result



Berdans in the bush



A quartz reef running through a creek & up the bank. It has had samples cut out with a petrol powered cutting blade by the looks of it



That will do for now.

JW


 

WOW!  Those are some nice pics! NZ looks like a wonderful place to visit.  Thanks for posting guys!

Hey Ankh.  We aren't allowed to roast Goannas or Snakes, in fact it is getting to the stage we can't do anything... lol
Not that it dosen't happen!
We have a 40 acre bush property and always have to be on guard as the goannas used to try to get our chooks and ducks and eggs.
I lost a Indian Runner duck to a snake. Needless to say, even though it was too late I retrieved my duck.
We also have Guinea Fowl and dogs that chase the Goannas and give us warning they are around.
We have several deer in the area and a panther has been living around here too. Haven't seen him for a while now but my daughter has seen it near her place about 30 klms away. I believe there are a few about.

The Cat

G'day Wildcat, Thats a very interesting yarn about your old uncle & his hard rock mine. You say "mad" uncle. Was that "madness" due to him using mercury to retort his gold from the crushed rock?? Do you, or can you put up some pics of the gold samples that he left you?? Be good to see.
 That area wouldnt be in the Blacks/Ophir locality would it. I have been to the old Golden Progress mine site which still has the poppet head structure with cage still all intact. The only poppet head left over a shaft in NZ. I will have to rat out some pics of it. I wonder if it is on the same run of reef as it isnt too far from Ophir.  Check this site out. Click also on the other areas in the left margin for other localities in Central Otago gold country. Enjoy    http://www.centralotagonz.com/Centr...s-Mine_IDL=24_IDT=294_ID=1543_.html

JW 

Hi JW  First of all my old Uncle wasn't mad. Just cranky because he considered the hole dangerous and we went down in it. He didn't think we would find it but we spent lots of time shooting rabbits in the hills and came across it.  I will post some pics later today but my camera is not good at macro shots.

Hi there Ankh, Hey no problem putting up these pics & yarns. Glad you enjoy them. We are a friendly bunch down under & only too happy to share golding matters & experiances. This is a very good site & covers a wide range of all sorts of every thing. Very good to see the goss on the different detectors & peoples opinions. I am very tempted to get either a gold bug 2 or a GMT to complement my minelab gp 3000 to find the small gold at the surface. Although my 3000 does a pretty good job of finding small stuff as well.
Wildcat, Thanks for the pics of your uncles specimens. Very nice. Similar to some species I found up the Carrick Range at Quatzville just above Bannochburn when I was down there end of last year. Mine didnt have the amount of gold that your bigger piece is showing though. You may be interested to see this map & have a bit of a nosey at this site in general.
http://www.ophirgold.co.nz/map-aug07-big.jpg
When was the last time you were there & did you know of this company?
I will see if I can find some more pics from here in NZ to share with you guys.

Happy golding

JW

Jw  when you go thru XXX, there is a gravel road that branches off to the left before you go up XXX Hill and goes along to the river. If you drive along there you can see heaps of workings on your right that go up into the hills.  Workings are in most of the gullys. What a lot of folk dont know is that the farm land on the left of here used to be covered with shallow prospect holes too. I am certain there would be nuggets in there.  As you go up XXX Hill there is cultivated land over a gully on your right about 2klm up. I have picked up a few nuggets in there and also, over the road, there are more workings in the gullys where I have picked up quite a few nuggets as well. A lot of this property was owned by XXX. I have also in the past visually specked the odd rock with gold lying on the surface behind XXX. There are very extensive workings in there in places. (and a few deep unprotected holes if you are driving around)  North east of the little Stone house used to be all shallow workings but it has been flattened and I never found much in there.
Hope this gives you some clues. As for when I was there last, probably around 2 1/2 years ago now.  BTW I used a GB2 and found lots of little nuggets in the workings, but I believe the 3000 I had seemed just as sensitive. If you already have a 3000 I wouldn't waste money on the GB2 as I really don't think you will gain any advantage.
**EDITED TO STOP IDIOTS TRAMPLING EVERYWHERE WITHOUT ASKING PERMISSION**

The Cat

great pics from every one.

G'day Wildcat and JW,
   Great pics and info guys. I must say you're exceedingly generous with your info, and as my better half and I are going to spend a couple of weeks around QT over Xmas, we might go on over and try our luck. I'm running a 4500 and have found a few sub-grammers and a couple of one grammers in Otago, (I'm from Dunedin) but in all my decades pottering around with gold, I'm still to crack an ounce...in total!!!
   To the best of your knowledge, are the local cockies fairly amenable in giving permission to wander their paddocks?
   I'm currently using the CT 10x5 mono and think I've got it fairly well sussed, but would it be worthwhile running the CT mini UFO? I've had it a while but only tried it once on the 4500 and am having a bit of trouble balancing and quieting it down. If the diggings are quite shallow I'll probably stick to the smaller coil, but would like to crack the virgin UFO!
   Again guys, thanks heaps for your postings, and I'll let you know after xmas how we got on.

Rick.

Hi Aloysius
I have never been refused entry, but then, I used to be a local. All you can do is ask and you don't have to travel far.  I mainly used a 10" Joey mono loop but for the deep stuff I only ever went as big as a 14" Nuggetfinder mono which is a superb coil.  Ask at thexxxHotel at xxx who owns what and they should be able to help.  That is a good area to carefully check the heaps as I have picked quite a few off them in the past.
If I can help more I will.  This will give you an idea.     x  The little shearing shed shown near the fork in the road is one shown in my photos. Sadly the cloud mucks up the Google image or I could tell you more.
**EDITED TO STOP IDIOTS TRAMPLING EVERYWHERE WITHOUT ASKING PERMISSION**
The Cat

must be nice ,wish i was there!

Great stuff JW.....

Cheers Dave, It certainly was a lot of fun. Hope all is well with you.

All the best

JW

Just goes to show, new blood and confidence breeds results along with a touch of patience and expertise.
Congratulations John and we will discuss further spots around there before you go next time. Maybe I might be able to meet you there next time but there are a lot of ifs at this point.  At least you have a starting point for next time.
Dont you just love that super quiet ground?  If there is a signal, it is usually gold. And no long grass, snakes, or lantana to deal with.
Gotta love NZ.

The Cat

     Love the pix and stories and lets thank the real culprit for all the largess--NEW DETECTORS ROCK THE NUGGETSHOOTING WORLD--gotta love science-tons a au 2 u 2 -John   

G'day Hoser John, Thank you. It was a buzz to say the least. Hope the coming year is good to you on the gold front.

Wildcat, Yes an absolute bonus that the ground has never been worked for gold EVER except for your uncles hard rock mine at 300 odd meters away. Working by himself on that smaller scale just plodding away has left no junk around. Not like up here in the Coromandel where the hills have been honey combed to death by many a company for many a year by the old day hard rock miners & the ground everywhere is just a mess with their iron rubbish & junk of all sorts of crap that drives you nuts when trying to detect.
The Coromandel was never known for alluvial gold & certainly not for nuggets. It was all quartz crushing country & the best you could hope to do with a detector it to find a good quartz specimen piece. Sadly for me the junk has got the better of me & I have all but given up detecting up here.
Here are a couple of little specimen bits I have found with a sluice box in a Coromandel creek












 *****......I did find a few .22 shells & lead bullet heads from rabbit shooters & some pieces of metal shards that have probably come off the blade of an excavator as there has been a bit of prospecting lately by some gold companys & hence the turned over boulders I mentiond earlier. My mate found quite a few shotgun pellets with his Xterra 70. Shows the sensertivity of his Xterra on those shallow close to the surface targets but sadly for him the gold was a bit deeper into the compacted shatted schist. So yes it was a pleasure detecting there compared to up here. I will put up some more pics at a later date of the surrounding country taken from on this property. Stunning scenery.

Happy golding all

JW  

Well done you buggers! I say this because you beat me by a week or so! I was going to go at Xmas time, but didn't get to the site, however (two weekends back) I went and had a squiz with my 5x10. Saw all the filled-in (well done) holes and scrape marks, and thought "bugga, too late". Especially that deep hole you dug. I thought at the time that somebody had got something decent out of there! However, perservered for about 4 hours in that general vicinity, and further out to no avail. I did put on the mini UFO for a while but absolutely nothing! Only in that general area of the two rocks did I get 5 minute nuglets (big specks really) They each averaged just over 0.2 gms, for a total of a fraction over a gram in total!

   Although a small take that day, I thoroughly enjoyed getting those little pieces as it showed that at the very least I think I've got the 5x10 sussed.

   Having spoken to a local afterward, he said that he's seen a couple of guys up there a week or so back, which was obviously you, so well done!

Cheers and more good golding to you! (and thanks Wildcat for the opportunity!!!)

Much appreciated,
   Goldnugget

Hope you at least had fun Aloysius. That's what it's all about. Losing yourself in Nature... Pity you missed JW up there.
Incidentally JW, I have been informed that the Minelabs tend to ignore shotgun pellets unless they are large ones. That has been the case with the 3 Minelabs I have owned. (Not counting the Xterra 70)
Now, I don't know whether to own up or not, but me and my brothers are responsible for most of those .22 slugs and shells and plenty of pellets too. In our younger days we shot rabbits nearly every day around those hills and went spotlighting hares at night time. The local rabbit board used to supply us ammo as we cleaned up so many. I remember one evening with my .22 auto I shot 64 rabbits with 64 bullets. Hopefully most of those bullets stayed in the bunnies rather than on nugget ground.  The rabbits caused serious erosion in those days. Mind you, after a thunderstorm you could always find small nuggets in the gullies because of the erosion. My wife and I would not hesitate to buy that block if we could, knowing what is there and where it is. A backhoe and bucket would work wonders. I would miss the Aussie weather though. I know how cold perma frost is. Still, if we were retired.....

G'day Aloysius, I was wondering if you managed to get there. I almost didnt.
 Interesting that you got those .2 grammers. I really worked that ground over in the vicinity of those two rocks with 4 different size coils & all very slowly. All mono's. My smallest was two around .3 One found with the 10x5 & one with the 11". How deep down did you find them? Just goes to show, no one gets it all. I believe that different days can also have different results with differing weather conditions having an effect on ground conditions & conductivity etc.

G'day Wildcat, It was ok to be digging up the odd shell & bullet head. They certainly had a sound all to themselves compared to the gold. They were always very near the surface, a very postive signal & found very quickly. Was good to keep you on your toes & not drifting off to la la land.
 I had heard that the minelabs werent too sensitive on gunshot but if the gold was the same size they would probably miss that as well. Hence some of the higher frequency VLF machines (Gold bug 2 & Whites MXT) being deadly on that really small stuff, as long as it is close to the surface.
Wow....you must have got you fair share of bunnies. 64 for 64 thats as good as you can get, unless you can get two bunnies for one shot   Guess that happened on occations as well. Must admit, I scanned all the bunny holes & their diggings as well. No luck there though.


Happy golding

JW

Gorgeous pictures with all kinds of history and fantastic scenery--great shots of the gold too. You've done an incredible job.

I met a guy from New Zealand when I was mining in Alaska--he'd mine the beaches around Nome in his winter, and return to mine gold in NZ during his summer season. He did very well. Nice fellow.

All the best,

Lanny

Hi there Lanny in AB, The world is full of coincidences & this one none the less so.....I get on my computer this morning, as I arent back at work yet since my xmas break, to see what additions if any have been added to this thread. I guess my interest & involvement in this thread is due to the kind sharing of info & a location by Wildcat, now living in Austarlia, & the luck I had from it in one of the most beautiful places on the face of this planet, Central Otago New Zealand!!
 The coincidence is this........I see your post on this thread on first firing up my computer this morning, when last night the last posts & thread I read before switching off & hitting the hay was your postings on the thread you started on Bedrock Gold......I read the lot, took a while, & must say you do a good yarn & a lot of great info in there as well. Thanks very much for the huge effort & the time you put in to it & sharing your adventures with us. . You should write a book.

All the best & happy golding

Regards

JW

Thanks so much JW, for your encouragement, and for your compliments. Now, I'll beat a hasty retreat from this posting so I'm not guilty of hijacking such a great thread!!

All the best,

Lanny

Hi guys,
   Those 5 x 0.2 grammers that I did get, I had to work really really hard for! If wildcat hadn't pinpointed the area, I'm sure I wouldn't have got them. I would have just gone over it fairly smartly, got nothing and moved on, I'm sure. Because the area was defined, I (as usual worked my 4500 on sensitive extra and very slow) and when getting a 'possible' signal, would hit it from several angles and with the coil actually right on the ground. Even if it was consistently 'iffy', I figured there was something there, and not just the coil bumping the ground. The depth I got them at would be about an inch, certainly no more then two anyway, and I certainly had to spend quite of time getting them out of the dirt!
   Looking at then=m now, 2 are quite flat 6mm long and no more than 2mm wide. The other 3 are a little fatter-no more than 4mm long and 2mm wide.
   I also hit several shotgun pellets, 2 of which I'm sure were steel ones which surprised me. The rest were lead, plus there were a couple of .22 bullets as well as a .22 shell as well as a shotgun cartridge. This was all with an old orange Coiltek 5x10.
   As I say I had to go reeeeaaaaal slow, reeeeaaal low and work for the little buggers. Was quite a lesson for me actually!

Cheers.

Ah well aloysius, if there had been a bigger one I have no doubt you would have got it.
Cheers mate
The Cat

Wildcat, just curious, and maybe you've already answered this question, but how many years have you been chasin' the gold?

All the best,

Lanny

Lanny, can't tell you.  We used to be dragged along from about age 4. Up into the hills, collect specis. Home and crush in the dolly pot, then pan it off. I never took it seriously until detectors came out  and got my first in about 1977. Been looking for the retirement fund ever since. I am now 61.
Cheers
The Cat

Well--you're well-inducted into the mining order, and well-versed it sounds like--and I sincerely admire your posts and your photographs--great job!! Keep 'em coming.

I started when I was 12, much later in life than you did, and I've been at it for over four decades--I've put lots of concentrated effort into the last two decades, and the more I learn, the more I realize there is to learn. It's one of the great ironies of chasing the gold, I guess.

All the best,

Lanny

Never look too hard...  I guess that is something I learned with the detector. It is true, gold is where you find it, and some of the places I have picked it up, I just cant work out where it came from.  Just keep swingin' and enjoy the stroll and maybe you get lucky now and again. There are no real good areas around here for panning or sluicing, however there are quite a number of places for detecting that have produced fairly well over the years. I am starting to think that I must have found most of it as it seems to be getting harder to find lately.  Maybe age comes into the equation as well. Last gold I found was a ring in a local creek when I was road testing my new MXT. I hope to get out to the goldfields again before too long. It takes me about 1 1/2 hours drive so it's not too far.

Regards
The Cat

Fantastic post!!I would love to see some of the relics you dig around those camps too!!

Thanks Kuger,  I see you have a nice range of detectors. Which is your favourite?

Regards
The Cat

Hello Wildcat,The M.X.T,just because thats my main machine.

Hi there Kuger, I see you have the GMT as well. Which one do you think is best on gold only? I have done a lot of reading on forums to see what people say about the verious vlf's for gold detecting. It has come down to the Gold Bug 2, the GMT & the MXT. The MXT appears to be a coin machine as well & is that why you have it as your favourite, because it is pretty good at doing both gold & coins/relics? I am interested in gold only from a vlf machine. Im looking for something to get those real small suckers that my GP 3000 wont or cant. I like the idea of the "follow the black sand" from the GMT. Does the MXT do the same thing? Be good to be able to plot the highest concerntration run of the black sands in a creek/stream & then go through with a dredge/highbanker & clean up that path.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks & happy golding.

Regards

JW 

Hi there Wildcat, You tiger you , Yep I spent a fair bit of time looking at that slope, the chinamen stones, the schist, the heaps of quartz float all over the place, thinking of your uncles hard rock mine somewhere further up, try to make sense & rhyme & reason as to why/how the gold got to where it got & where it came from. Does your head in & like you said, "Gold is where you find it". I climbed up to the top flat part of that slope & the chinman stones cut out, or seemd to cut out cause I couldnt see any more of them. But the theory of loaming for gold & the fact your uncle had a hard rock mine somewhere above that you have some great specimens from, would/could indicate that the gold could have come from that as it is down slope from it. But then of coarse we know Central Otago has been through a torturous time in its geological make up. With faulting & folding, land upheavial & down folding, massive glaciation which is a mountain & gold bearing quartz reefs demolisher & huge transporter of material that has been carried god knows how many miles from it original source when it is dumped by a retreating glacier when the ride is over & the glacier movement stops, the ice melts & dumps its load, gold included, in no particular place that today makes any sense. Check out the photo of the glacier I put up earlier in this thread & take a look at the rock material riding on it.
But wouldnt an excavator be a grate tools to have to carve off a couple on inches & work up hill loaming & detecting toward your uncles hard rock mine.

Happy golding

JW     

Hi there Kuger, I see you have the GMT as well. Which one do you think is best on gold only? I have done a lot of reading on forums to see what people say about the verious vlf's for gold detecting. It has come down to the Gold Bug 2, the GMT & the MXT. The MXT appears to be a coin machine as well & is that why you have it as your favourite, because it is pretty good at doing both gold & coins/relics? I am interested in gold only from a vlf machine. Im looking for something to get those real small suckers that my GP 3000 wont or cant. I like the idea of the "follow the black sand" from the GMT. Does the MXT do the same thing? Be good to be able to plot the highest concerntration run of the black sands in a creek/stream & then go through with a dredge/highbanker & clean up that path.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks & happy golding.

Regards

JW 

Hello JW,I have to admit I have not spent the time detecting for gold as I probably should.I do stay abreast of whats working and whats not,and research to the end.The G.M.T. is an incredible machine that hangs with the best of em,especially specie gold(on quartz and such)something about the make up of the rock and such causes the M/L machines to fall short in that dept.I have used the G/B and was impressed with its ability to pick up extremely small gold but I think the GMT offers that and then some.
The MXT is a very versatile machine as well and I have friends that have found an incredible amount of gold to attest to that fact.I hunt mostly relics and it is a monster at that!I can also tell you I have dug pants rivets at 10" deep!!You can track black sand with it by watching your ground read out while in the prospecting mode too

JW  I concur with Kuger. After using my MXT it is a far more interesting machine when goldhunting as it has the LCD readout that tells you, 1. Ground mineralization, 2. Iron content of target (very low reading is indicative of gold)  3. VDI of target.   It gives you all these 3 at the same time on the screen.
So if you get a VDI of around 40 or below and your Iron Content is 10 - 20 at the same time, it is a good chance it is gold.  I have never been a fan of large coils that most use on the Minelab machines and as I mostly used my 10" coil I could see no need for the 4000 so I sold it.
Love the MXT.
Re your last comment on the excavator....  Wouldn't a grader be great on that hill?

The Cat

G'day Wildcat & Kuger, Doesnt the GMT have an LCD readout as well??
Yes lots of people love the MXT. I need to try them both & a bug2. Opinion seems to be the bug 2 will find the smallest gold, which makes sense as it has the highest frequency. The whites machines will find maybe not quite as small as the bug 2 but they will go deeper.
Wildcat, didnt you say you found lots of small gold with a bug 2 amongst the old diggings? Was that at Ophir? I did drive down that gravel road that goes down to the river. All those river flats have been heavily cultivated. All be it still very dry & rubbley. Not much top soil or grass. Do you still have the bug 2 & use it? WHY DID YOU SELL YOUR 4000? The coil excuse doesnt make sense. They are a great machine. Is that your 4000 in your first pic in this thread with the "babies" on it?? I thought you said you had a 3000 & I thought that pic was the 3000?? If you fitted a larger coil then you are going to find bigger deeper gold.
A grader at the hill......yes yes yes. I was thinking excavator with a wide scraping blade & an excavator for trenching. Im in love with that hill it haunts me Wouldnt it be great to have a back yard like that to keep one out of trouble & the toys to play on it??

Take care & happy golding

JW  

One hundred and twenty nuggets!?! Where's the story of that hunt? I'd love to read that one.  Send me a copy or post it, please.

All the best,

Lanny

Hi Lanny and all.  I gave up counting , but this was over a period of several years. Every time I went out I would find anything from 3 to 8 nuggets. 8 was my best day. Most were small but many around 5 - 6 or more grams. There was a mineshaft right on top of this small hill. The largest nugget found was around 7.5 oz but not by me sadly. This was at a depth claimed to be nearly 1 meter.
Other pics show some of my daily nugget finds and the “nugget hill” behind the car. This post relates to Australia.
Cheers
The Cat

Cat--what a haul! That is a most impressive haul--well done. Those are some gorgeous pieces. Thanks so much for posting the pictures--you've got me drooling just looking at all of that incredible nugget gold.

All the best,

Lanny

G'day Wildcat. Very nice gold. Well done
The Triangle paddock. That makes sense as it is surrounded by three roads. Thanks also for your comments on the MXT & the other detectors. So you reckon the MXT is just as good as the GMT at finding gold?? If there was only small gold & nothing else I guess small gold is better than no gold. It does all add up. I went over that area of the slope amongst the chinamen stones with 4 different coils & very slowly. All mono's, 8" mine lab commander, 10x5 coiltek elliptical, 11" minelab dedicated mono not the 11" DD that you can use as a pesudo mono & the coiltek 24"X12" UFO coil. I got gold with each coil except the 8".
I went out today up behind Thames with the 3000. Exspecting to get heaps of rubbish which is the norm. Used the 10"x5" joey mono & also took along a coiltek mini ufo mono. No DD which I probably should have taken as I got heaps of signals off a black rock that was all over the place. Big & small.....pain in the butt & I couldnt tune it out. It wasnt iron stone either. So I gave up on that as the little creek was very rock & bouldery & heavy bush either side & not a lot of beachs........none really & very little gravel. There was a bit of bed rock but nothing in the crevices except those pasty black rocks. GGGGGrrrrrrr. So I did some test pans on some cracks n crevices just to see what the creek had in it. Used my crevicing tools & my little hand sucker pump & bugger me......got a beautiful wirey fish net matted little nugget amongst some fines. Very hokey pokey with a little bit of clear quartz still embedded in some of it. Measures 10mm x 15mm X 5mm . I'll get a photo of it up tomorrow. Looks beautiful under a magnifying glass.

Lanny......Love your stories mate. Keep them coming. You must have a lot of idle time on your hands. Are you house bound by snow & cant get out amongst it??

I'm nacked so I'm off to bed. Nighty night.   

JW     

Well done JW. I look forward to the piccy.  I may be off line for a day or two as I am changing Internet service providers. Already well over my allocation for the month and at 25c a Mb it all adds up to too much.
Will be back.....
The Cat

Hi guys, This probably doesnt belong on this thread under "metal detecting for gold" as it wasnt found with a detector but I had started out detecting until those pesty "hot rocks" drove me nuts. Nuttier that I all ready are.
This is typical of the gold I find on the Coromandel. As I have said before, very rough & hokey pokey. Hasnt had the erosive forces & pounding of glaciers & streams & hasnt travelled very far to get water worn either. The Coromandel Peninsula was a very active volcanic zone in it geolocical make up & said to be very young geographically. Hence I suppose the lack of destruction & freeing up of the gold from the reefs to produce the alluvial.  Usualy has a fairly high silver content as well.
The Coromandel was famous for its hard rock mines not alluvial & in Coromandel township area itself & Thames for there very rich bonanza loads. For example one of the mines in Thames, The Caladonian, in one year alone, 1871, produced 10 ton of bullion worth at 2008 values, $200 million. It is said there was more gold than quartz & the stampers were getting cloged up with gold. What a bugger aye Dont you hate that when you stampers get cloged up with gold.
Here are my pics of the wee piece I found. I arent the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to computers & loading pics so I have put up one of each side of the piece in the palm of my hand & between my fingers & a couple zoomed up on to see the wirey pattens.

 











We have a crap day weather wise today. I was going to rough it out in the bush last night but heard the forcast & decided against it.

Happy golding

JW
     

Wow--isn't it incredibly beautiful, the jewelry that nature creates all on her own? Magnificent specimen. And yes, I am snow and ice bound right now, but that gives me some time to get ideas and stories organized, because during gold hunting season, I'm out every chance I get--no time for writing and re-writing then. Thanks for the compliments. And, thanks for posting the photos of one of nature's perfect treasures.

All the best,

Lanny

kiwi,that's an awsome nuggett -the carachter is very impressive! just put on a bezel and you are good to go!

thats a beautiful peice of specimend wire gold!

Hi guys, Thanks. It is very similar to the specimen pieces I put up pics of earlier. Only those ones are a bit more worn & came from a creek about 10 k's further up the coast. You can still see the wirey nature of them all the same & they came from one of the very few areas that was ground sluiced for dendrital/alluvial gold in the Coromandel. I am guessing that they used the little creek as a natural sluice box due to its small & bed rocky nature. I did quite well with my little 2" suction nozzle dredge set up cleaning out the bed rock cracks & crevices in there. The piece I found in the weekend came from a creek that wasnt ground sluiced & to my knowledge & research wasnt turned over for alluvial. So I am keen to get a dredge in there. Maybe a gravity dredge as it has good fall to operate one & there are houses not far away, so dont really want the noise of a motor/pump giving me away.

Happy golding

JW

What a strange nugget, but a beauty at the same time.
 I have attached a photo of some wire gold found at Poolburn. It is quite fragile and I have to be carefull handling it.

The Cat

wildcat,that is a very unusual nuggett thats a one of a kind there.kind of like a very expensive rat nest.but a lot more fragile.definant cool piece

That's like an exotic, alien nugget--I've never seen the like. I've found wire gold a handful of times, but what you've got there is a rare gem, that's for certain.

All the best,

Lanny

Hi Wildcat,

I don't keep up with such things, but depending on the size...I wonder if a museum would be interested in that piece. The photos and material presented here have been extraordinary. 

All the best, and HH,

Jim.

G'day Wildcat, That is amazing. Did you find it detecting?

JW 

Interesting thread Guys, but I must object to the term "Chinamen stones" Not P.C. any more, as this was a direct derogatory reference to the similarity of the stones colour to that of the Cantonese oriental skin, and we all know they were despised in those days by the majority.

The accepted public term these days is "Sarsen stones" after a similarly silica cemented stone common in the British Isles.

Cheers.

Yes JW, All your statement is correct. That piccy was taken just down the road from where you were. As for the name of the boulders, they have always been called that since I was a kid and I am not about to change due to what I call 'pc bs'. At the same time unconformity, it is not my intention to offend anyone, nor do I lecture anyone else. I have outstanding respect for the Chinese who were on the goldfields. I have seen the extent of their work first hand and I know how they were treated. I will not be making any further comment on this issue.

The Cat

Hi All, I am with Wildcat on this one & for the same reasons as well. I too mean nothing derogatory  or offensive & nobody does, but that termanology of this type of rock is known by all in this district & beyond for more than one hundred & forty years. If you called them by any other name no one would really know what you were talking about. Ok a geo might but no one else.  I too have a great respect for the chinese miners of old & so to did a lot of the european miners, even in the old days as well. It just takes a small minority, like anything.

Try not to shed a tear as you read this poem, based on fact & in the Ida Valley area not too far from the centre of where this whole thread is based.

'ODE TO JOE SHUM 1888-1928'

High up in the Upper Kyeburn lived a gentalman named Shum, he was tall & straight & silent & loved by every one. He lived up in the mountains not far from the Buster Trail, in a small but tidy sod hut with a doorstep made from shale.

One of the last of the Chinese miners, Joe arrived here as a boy, & he learnt to love the gold fields that gave him spirit & brought him joy. He had a dog named Mungo who was a faithful friend & true, & he watched Joe work his gold claim from the dawn 'till the evening dew.

Some times the lonely miner his body needs a break, he needs to find an opening he needs to find that gate. So Shum set off to Naseby where he knew he'd meet his kind, some friendships to rekindle & some perhaps to bind.

Now the word soon reached the township that kindly "Shum come soon!", so the children fled to the post office for the race was on at noon. From the post office to the corner the race was up & down & Shum arranged it monthly when he bought his stores in town.

He lined up all the children - any cheating earned a frown, & the first one back to the starting point received a Half-a-Crown. Then up to busy Leven Street for there stood the Chinese Den & some Pakapoo & Fantan & the journey home again.

On a trip back to his homeland Joe married two lovely wives but times were tough in China & he found it hard to survive. So he returned to the Kyeburn Diggings for he loved the lifestyle there & he worked his lowly gold claim with an energy now so rear.

Now the reason I write this history is to take you back in time, for the murder of Joe the Chinaman was the century's greatest crime.


He hosted a man named Hardie in his warm & friendly shack, but as Joe fixed the evening meal Hardie shot him in the back. Taking Shum's own hunting rifle from the corner where it stood, for when the snow lay thick on the ground it was his only source of food.

They discovered Shum on the morrow, he lay there on the floor, they found him in a pool of blood where he'd crawled towards the door. They also found a footprint in the damp & clinging earth, & at the trial of William Hardie it became his final curse.

But the story of Joe the miner is a story without a cry, & regardless of brutes like Hardie, his good deeds will never die.

There's a bridge in the Upper Kyeburn it spans the German Creek, & if you lean there dead on midnight on July the 17th & listen to the willows you will hear the branches weep, you'll hear the Chinese singsong & the shuffling of their feet, you'll hear their shovels scraping & the stacking of the stones, you'll feel their bodies straighten & sense their woeful groans.

My story has to end here as there's no more I can tell - all I know is Hardie's down below & serving time in hell, while Joe the kindly miner is living like a dream, & he wears a shining heavenly smile as he works the illustrious seam.

by Des  Style.

JW

Interesting thread Guys, but I must object to the term "Chinamen stones" Not P.C. any more, as this was a direct derogatory reference to the similarity of the stones colour to that of the Cantonese oriental skin, and we all know they were despised in those days by the majority.

The accepted public term these days is "Sarsen stones" after a similarly silica cemented stone common in the British Isles.

Cheers.

Lighten UP!!Thats the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!It had nothing to do with the color of the rocks,but with the fact that Chinese workings are easily disernable by the labourous way they stacked excess rocks to get the out of the way.It was smart too as other races just tossed the aside often covering up good ground!
We used to have a "name",for head",sized rocks too!!

Lighten UP!!Thats the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!It had nothing to do with the color of the rocks,but with the fact that Chinese workings are easily disernable by the labourous way they stacked excess rocks to get the out of the way.It was smart too as other races just tossed the aside often covering up good ground!
We used to have a "name",for head",sized rocks too!!

Sorry kuger, but you're wrong, that's exactly why the racist label was used, many Europeans hated the fact that the industrious, curious chaps were getting any gold at all.

We have a sediment here called "Maori Bottom" called such because of it's brown colour, there are moves to have this reclassified as Pliocene conglomerate to remove the old bias and distasteful reference.

Like Wildcat I was going to leave it at that but because of your "Lighten UP!!" remark I couldn't help myself I would whiten up if I could, but it's only skin deep isn't it.

Now I will go away and make no further comment about this issue.
Unconformity.   

WELL THAT FIGURES,I guess we will agree to disagree,however I am not wrong.There were more Chinese in my area than any other gold field in the world,and I am quite versed in there history,I think there are much more important things going on in our world right now than the name or color of a rock.How have you gotten through life being so wronged?

Hi all, Unconformity this is a GOLD forum. Not a forum for dredging, no pun intended, up the likes of what you are doing. Some things just develope & stick & become main stream, like the termanology of the two things you have mentiond. Yes they were called Chinamen stones for the reason you say. Weather its "politicly correct", oops sorry "PC" or not today, I am sure we as "intelligent" individules can get our heads around it & move on. Just like you should do. As I said, this is a GOLD forum & I see your very first post & probably the reason you became a member of this excellent site was to flex your "PC" muscle. From other forums I have belonged to the likes of you dont let things rest because it is your likes nature. Prove me wrong. But please dont interupt this thread or any others on this site with something that has nothing to do with it or with golding matters.
If you cant, can you please go & haunt some other site.

JW   

Hi all, Unconformity this is a GOLD forum. Not a forum for dredging, no pun intended, up the likes of what you are doing. Some things just develope & stick & become main stream, like the termanology of the two things you have mentiond. Yes they were called Chinamen stones for the reason you say. Weather its "politicly correct", oops sorry "PC" or not today, I am sure we as "intelligent" individules can get our heads around it & move on. Just like you should do. As I said, this is a GOLD forum & I see your very first post & probably the reason you became a member of this excellent site was to flex your "PC" muscle. From other forums I have belonged to the likes of you dont let things rest because it is your likes nature. Prove me wrong. But please dont interupt this thread or any others on this site with something that has nothing to do with it or with golding matters.
If you cant, can you please go & haunt some other site.

JW   

AMEN,I apologise to everyone ELSE

back to regularly scheduled programming...o.k.where's some more aussie pics?

I think we will have to start another thread. This one is huge! Here is another piccy of Aussie and NZ gold.
The larger nugget was found at Poolburn under one of the large boulders on top of the hill.
Regards
The Cat

Now--that's fine looking gold! And, this is what this fine thread is all about--well done. Nice, clear pictures of the Poolburn gold.

Happy to see peace has been made--so glad to see this thread focused on the gold hunt once again.

All the best,

Lanny

Killer gold,man....

Beautiful stuff Wildcat, thanks for getting this thread refocused. JW...excellent post.

Jim.

thats better cat,got to stay focused!!!!!!!i love that aussie gold! it has a good character,and i would love to see that part of the country.amazing how good spots over there are not what you would look for over here,desert and mountain differ dramaticly.

Wildcat, now with nuggets found scattered around on the hillside, would you consider doing some earth moving and sampling around to what may lie hidden deeper?

Jim.

G'day Wildcat, That last pic of your gold with the large piece from poolburn. Is all the smooth gold NZ gold & the rough gold Aussy? Whats the weight of that big sucker? Very nice gold. I wish I was back on that slope It certainly is easy detecting. Your photos of it show the grass to be pretty green, when I was there there wasnt a green blade of grass to be seen. Check my pics of it.
I have just got back from that creek up behind Thames where I found that little wirey gold nugget last weekend. I went there this time with a little 3" suction nozzle dredge set up. Got a few little bits but nothing like the last one. Nothing quite like bending over a suction nozzle all day to give the back a hard time. Probably take 3 days to come right now.

Happy golding

JW

JW. The larger nugget is 1 oz.  The rest are Aussie nuggets. (or should I say nuggets from areas in Australia to be PC)
Jim. It seems that some company has proclaimed rights over the whole district now therefore I would not be able to go in with a grader or dozer. However I do have an excellent knowledge of the whole area and know where 'things' are.  This place is good, but there are a number of other spots that you wouldn't pick if you were wandering around. If I had 2.5 million I could buy the place. However I would like the block next door too The only problem is, I have a little piece of semi tropical paradise in Australia that I would hate to leave. Looks like I may have to renew my passport and go for a trip one day. I have a friend that I can stay with in Alexandra. It is only a half hour drive from there. There is some outstanding history in that region and many tales of miners losing their lives in the snows and never being found. It would be a fair assumption that there would be quite a number of little bags of nuggets lying in amongst bones on the Dunstan and other Ranges in the region. I found a cave down the Clutha River once and crawled inside. It was quite large and there was a large flat rock in the middle of it. My detector sounded off and so I moved the rock. (I was strong in those days) Underneath I found an old miners pick and chisels but unfortunately no cache. However, there may very well be one as there are remnants of an old stone house not too far away.  BTW, you need a boat to get down the river.
For the info of you Americanos...  NZ is only a 3 hour flight from Brisbane, Australia. Flights can be as cheap as $200.00 sometimes.
Cheers for now

The Cat

Wildcat, thanks for the background. I take it then, that if you could, you would pursue it. Makes sense. Another thing, I sure like your "diggs" (homeplace), a great photo. Don't blame you for staying home a bit.

On a much smaller scale, I always investigate further. Yep its work, but that's how we find minerals. There's nothing of "romanticism" or "high adventure" about sluggin' it out in the bush, soaked in sweat, black flies going for your eyes, a sore back...and often little or nothing to show for it. But you gotta do it if you want a chance at a bonanza.

I had such a situation this past autumn at the base of a sharply inclined tailings pile. Found one small, but nice chunk of silver, and noticed some ruby silver on it. We don't often find that stuff. If I had a decent photo I'd post it. More often than not by far, one chunk of any kind of silver is all you're going to find. But there are exceptions.

I widened the hole, rechecked and sure enough another piece surfaced. I wound up several days later with an excavation...one rock at a time...maybe eight feet long by maybe three feet wide and easily two feet down. I kept finding more pieces, and the final tally was about 18 lbs. Most of it had a goodly amount of ruby silver on it. Not the beautiful crystals we see in textbooks, just small rounded masses attached to and often running through the calcite.

As a little sidenote, this ruby silver is unusually soft. If you abrade it with a dremel stone bit (diamond chip green stones), it'll go blood red. But when you wash and dry it, it returns to the same dull color and semi-metallic (is there such a word?) lustre it had prior to abrasion. But now, as usual, I'm going off topic.

That's why I asked the question about removing material and rechecking. You might be surprised what I learn here by asking questions of, and from reading comments made by experienced gold hunters. So, it's good to have you confirm my thinking, with thanks...  

Jim.

Just a quick post. Thanks to all of you for your comments. This photo shows the hillside with all the boulders where nuggets are scattered. Beautiful ground to work with detectors.

The Cat

You know, I'd never figure the gold would be on that hill in that boulder field--the rocks are too rough around the edges--here we're always looking for stream-worn, or glacial river worn rocks as an indicator. That's quite the hill, and quite the little honey hole you've got there. I'll bet you had some fun there, from looking at the pictures of the gold you found.

All the best,

Lanny

JW. The larger nugget is 1 oz.  The rest are Aussie nuggets. (or should I say nuggets from areas in Australia to be PC)
Jim. It seems that some company has proclaimed rights over the whole district now therefore I would not be able to go in with a grader or dozer. However I do have an excellent knowledge of the whole area and know where 'things' are.  This place is good, but there are a number of other spots that you wouldn't pick if you were wandering around. If I had 2.5 million I could buy the place, but I wouldn't as he wants far too much for it. However I would like the block next door too and I could jump the fence from there. (naughty)  The only problem is, I have a little piece of semi tropical paradise in Australia that I would hate to leave. Looks like I may have to renew my passport and go for a trip one day. I have a friend that I can stay with in Alexandra. It is only a half hour drive from there. There is some outstanding history in that region and many tales of miners losing their lives in the snows and never being found. It would be a fair assumption that there would be quite a number of little bags of nuggets lying in amongst bones on the Dunstan and other Ranges in the region. I found a cave down the Clutha River once and crawled inside. It was quite large and there was a large flat rock in the middle of it. My detector sounded off and so I moved the rock. (I was strong in those days) Underneath I found an old miners pick and chisels but unfortunately no cache. However, there may very well be one as there are remnants of an old stone house not too far away.  BTW, you need a boat to get down the river.
For the info of you Americanos...  NZ is only a 3 hour flight from Brisbane, Australia. Flights can be as cheap as $200.00 sometimes.
Cheers for now

The Cat

Beautiful picture of paradise all right! Wow--what a little slice of heaven. Quite the story you've told about that flat rock and that cave--well done detecting it and then excavating. I've found similar caches with metal detectors in the past--someone obviously intended (the items I found were cached in the 1800's) to come back and start mining again, but for whatever reason, they never made it back. It sure would be nice to find a cache of nuggets one day--I wish the same for you.

All the best,

Lanny

Strickman One thing I have learned is local knowledge is the best starting point in any gold area. The difference between each state in Australia is chalk and cheese.
The signs in Victoria are totally different to those in Western Australia and Queensland.  I have detected gold mainly in those 3 States and have had a huge learning curve in each of them. New Zealand is different again but closer to Victoria than the other States. My preferences for detecting are: 1. Western Australia, 2. New Zealand, 3. Victoria, then, 4. Queensland, however, there are areas of North Queensland that produce some remarkable finds. I have just  never made it up there. (yet)
Jim  If you want a straight answer re working that area, Yes, I would be like a bull in a china shop.  There is a fine schist a few inches down that the nuggets seem to be comfortable sitting in. This needs to be worked with dry blowers or similar equipment to remove their little butts from their comfy zone. I think it would be a payable proposition. There is also sediment in all the gullies that needs to be removed as there are nuggets down too deep for our machines to detect. And then of course there are proven reefs around there. You could finish up a millionaire, but you need to be one to get started....

Kindest regards
The Cat
 

G'day Cat,
   Brilliant thread (and great photos as well!) Haven't received permission as yet to have a look around properly, so that area will have to wait. However, I was looking at a map of the area, and I see that across the valley, an area called German Hill Diggings. Is it worth a shot do you think with small coil or larger? Any local knowledge hints that may help? As I seem to recollect from my geology days, I think this area is a horst and graben topography, so I'm wondering if the mineralisation is producing the same type of gold at German Hill as at Ophir? I may be way off base here, so feel free to correct me! I have a few books on gold, but I can't recollect seeing German Hill in any. (perhaps deeper research required!)
   In closing, I have to say this would be one of the best sites and best threads I've read.
   Btw Lanny, love your stories! There is nothing like reading somebody's real experiences to help everyone along in this great hobby!

Thanks again Cat,
Cheers all,
Aloysius.

Thanks Wildcat. You know, each insightful comment on this thread from yourself, JW and others is a veritable gem that gets me to thinking. Please keep this "comfy" discussion going, and thanks kindly, 

Jim.

Hi all, Wow....this thread is really getting some momentum. Good to hear from you all & all your comments........ Great you guys are showing soooo much interest in little old New Zealand.
 I dont know where to start in reply........
Yes Lanny you have a majic way & play with words & always a pleasure to read you writtings on your advantures. Always many a useful tip & trick in sussing out those sassy nuggets as well. I couldnt agree with you more on the trout.....as you have observed & stated on them hanging out in low pressure areas.......just like gold. Two key elements of a prospectors search for gold is, "obervation & imagination".
Those Quartz rocks, is that PC enough, on that slope are actualy quite rounded & I would say have been dropped there by a glacier. They are generaly localised to an area & not scatted all over the place every where. In Wildcats pic of this slope you will see a barren patch to the right where there arent any. They seem to just follow that dipping ridge & a little bit around to the left & then they cut out again. The sharper more jagged ones are schist bedrock, commonly called schist tors, huge unshapely masses of rock- weather beaten, geological veterans blackened & seemed & scarred by god knows how many centuries of conflict with the elements. Some prostrate, some erect, others inclining earthwards. Some fanatically grouped, others isolated & solitary. All scattered at irregular intervals


I need to get off to work so will continue tonight.
Here is a pic of the bit of gold I got with my little 3" dedge on saturday. Very rough & coarse.



Happy golding

JW

JW and Cat and all--thanks for your nice comments on the writing--I appreciate it. JW--the rocks really looked rough in the photo--the rocks around here, when they've been tumbled by a glacier or large glacial river are very round--can't seem to find rough edges, but now that you've explained it all--it makes sense. By the way--New Zealand is a much more fascinating place then I'd ever imagined. Nice dredge gold--nugget shooting and dredging are my two primary areas of focus for getting the gold right now. So, it appears we have some common interests. Great thread, both of you!!

All the best,

Lanny