Steve's Gully.
January 18, 2000 at 18:28:11
G'day All
On my last prospecting trip, I decided to have another try at finding the source of the gold in Steve's Gully. This is where Steve (KB) again demonstrated his amazing Gold Magnet skills by detecting four and a half ounces in the dark, back in September. We gridded it the next day for nothing! The biggest of Steve's specimens was only five metres from an outcropping quartz vein, which looked like the obvious source, despite it giving up nothing to Steve's 2200 or my 18000. Steve and I had exposed about three metres of the non-outcropping section of the vein without any luck, but I thought it worth another try.
I decided to start by loaming along the downhill side of the vein, just above where the big specimen was. Loaming usually refers to taking only the top few inches of gravel, where most of the fine gold usually resides. The trouble with that, is that this fine gold disperses fairly widely in a broad halo. So my loaming consisted of taking all of the gravel from top to bottom, which was only about eight inches down. This method would show me the coarser bits of gold that are more likely to be nearer the source. Luckily the creek in the bottom of the gully was running nice clear water for panning.
Everyone of the dozen samples that I took showed fine gold, but the best two samples (with coarse gold) were in line with Steve's specimens and directly below the outcrop. Now full of confidence that I was very close, I decided to clear all the gravel away from the outcrop and for three metres downhill, in case there was a parallel vein. I then fired up my XT18000. My first signal was a 2 gram bit with a piece of quartz on it, then a one gram bit, another 2 gm clean bit, and then right alongside the outcrop, three more rough one gram bits. This is it I thought, with even more confidence, the gold must be coming from the footwall of the vein, which was still hidden by the outcrop on top of it.
Half an hour later I had about 200lbs of footwall quartz but no more gold. I took two big samples, milled and panned them; nothing, not even a speck! Another nugget or nothing vein! That fine gold has got me interested though. I will have another go it sometime this year. I wasn't too disappointed as I had found two good veins for the year (1999). The lovely big "Bank of England Vein" and the beautiful, small but very rich "American Vein." I'm looking forward to this year and I am forecasting a BIG rise in the POG.
Good luck to all
Dave
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