Undersea Gold Mining!

[Lucky Eddie]

I have a theory, bout finding gold located under the ocean!

Most continents including our big island one down under, have a continental shelf located from say 1 to 30 or 40 miles offshore.

Depths might go from zero at shoreline to say 200 feet at the shelf edge.

It's apparent that sea levels rose a couple hundred feet, in some eons past and inundated what was hithertoo dry land.

Where in this country we have large and known proven gold reserves not unike Canada and Alaska, there are known rivers that cross the land, many of them now dry most years nless a cyclone comes - they have been explored and mined or the alluvial gold that gets carried down them, and deposited when the river slows or bends or has a rock bar etc - and gold falls out of suspension, and remains in locations that miners and gold detectorists etc know from experience too look.

However - where eons ago these very same gold rich river beds traversed what is now the short continental shelf area, the subsequent inundation of the sea has prevented land based gold prospectors from continuing to search these now inundated old river beds.

I figure that the area of old river bed thats close to the new shoreline, might be shallow and sometimes calm enough, to be able to either dive, with water proof detectors, or perhaps to dregde and sluice for Gold that was deposited before the sea levels rose, and has now sat there undisturbed ever since with just the normal sea silt depositing on top over the eons.

With the proffesional 3d sea mapping use by commercial mariners and oceanography resources and even google earth ocean bottom mapping, it might be possible now to locate areas shallow enough & close enough to shore to be worth exploring for Gold.

I have the boat and dive gear and a couple trained / qualified lads etc to work with me and knowledge of the right sort of gold bearing rivers, to maybe explore some of the near shore old riverbed for gold.

There are many obstacles, like not knowing what sort of dredge / sluicing gear might work with my paricular vessel, andwhat of any environmental controls there are on dredgng sluicing sea floor for minerals.
Even the application process for approval to mine the sea floor is rather unclear.

Then there are the "other factors" such as crocks, sharks, huge tidal movement (30 feet twice a day) that makes visibility impossible anften times scuba unuseable, in the areas I have in mind where the MOST gold is likely to be recovered!.

I shudder at the thought of:-

A) wasting time and many $ re inventing equipment that someone else has already done.

B) wasting a LOT of time and $ gaining the requisite knowledge and experience, too get good at the effort.

Does anyone KNOW of anyone thats done this kind of work, from whom i could learn wha i need to know as part of my background research.

Most likely due to cyclone season and weather tides etc the BEST locations, might be "seasonal options" probably not unlike findning treasure on wrecks in many locations round the world.

I would seriously consider taking on a partner / partners / (investors?) who would want too come down under during maybe your winter (our summer) to be involved and contribute knowledge experience etc while I contribute the boat and dive gear, crew and local knowledge, to make it work and be a viable seasonal 'holiday downunder" for peeps from the northern hemisphere to escape winter and dive some remote pristine areas and hopefully make a few $ from gold we might find along the way.

I've a fair bit of experience (100 tonne master) and have lived remote on offshore islands etc sometimes for 12 months at a time.

My boats a 28 ft commercial pilot house with twin 115Hp 4 stroke Hondas, and I can haul it pretty much anywhere, with the F250 4x4.

Boat

Known Gold Bearing Area

Sometimes we might stay at remote Island accoms

Remoteness is the key thing - being away fromanyone else with the same idea.

Maybe even work in some of the river estuaries

Move to the most productive areas at the right time.

I know some of you are thinking - why not just find wrecks?...but here they are all protected by legislation and everything belongs to the crown.

Finding minerals (Gold diamonds etc) is a different story hence the the attraction.

So how do i go about realizing this dream, finding the right people, and experience and equipment?

Has anyone walked down thos particular rice paper trail?

Is there anything fundamental I've overlooked, that has prevented others doing this already?

What gave me the idea, was somone got their anchor stuck in an area I was living offshore on this island, and when ot broke free and they hauled it up a pice of rock was stuck between the two flukes and the rock contained about 2 ounces of gold nugget!

A few miles up this river is a commercial copper mine, and the manager would come stay with us on the island and fish, and he was saying that they get both silver and gold in the ore they dig (but copper is their primary target). Some of the leases behind the copper mine go back over 100 years to an old gold rush that opened up the area back in the late 1800's.

The river runs right thru this area of the leases - so must carry minerals down to the river mouth and once it meets the ocean it would stop flowing and the gold must settle out of suspension.

Probably a LOT was deposited before the sea levels rose in what was the old river bed past the island where I lived.

I know theres good gold here too be had - I just don't now how to get at it effectively!

I am all ears if anyone else does.

Cheers

 

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[VOC]

Would have thought you need to move tonnes of material to find each little bit of gold.

Might be better to buy a old dredger to get the material to the surface to sort through.

This is how they do the same for diamonds http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/05/2208785.htm

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HI: the first thing that enters my mind, besides you being basically correct, is the critical difference between a normal river flow and under water. In surface conditions there is a semi clearing of the fine silt, Under water there is a constant deposition of silt. The flow of water of the river since being submerged is greatly lessened to the point that over the years (Milena) there will normally be a heavy layer of silt. The drop out of the Gold as the mouth of the river receded is another thing.

While yes, you could clean it up hydraulically, but what about the visibility? Under these conditions I would favor a surface type of dredging combination.

Check Keene for example --> http://www.keeneeng.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

This problem has been considered by many, perhaps you may be the one to successfully do it. I believe an attempt in a large scale is being attempted off of the Solomons by a ship. Check on it.

Don Jose de La Mancha
"I exist to live, not live to exist"

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HI again: go to -->web-success.forumotion.com/.../tiny-company-prepares-to-introduce-world- to-gold-sands-t65.htm

Scroll down to the actual written data, at the very bottom - he he coincidence ?. Seriously it is very interesting and in line with your thoughts.

Don Jose de La Mancha
"I exist to live, not live to exist"

 

[Jason in Enid]

I know there are offshore gold dredgers in Alaska and I'm sure in the rest of the world too. It will take a bit of coin to get started though. You need a large suction dredge (at least 8 inch), plus the boat / barge platform to work from. I would expect to pay at least $20,000 to get started. Probably more with shipping costs.

 

[SHARK]

I am involved in the strategic planning of a similar seabed Gold exploration in the Bahamas, where we believe tons of Gold is concentrated in ancient volcanic chimneys. The paper work has been done, and Exploration permits have been granted.

The company is now engaged in the daunting task of obtaining funding to begin sub- bottom profiling , core drilling operations, and documentation.

Unlike your down under situation, the waters of the Bahamas are shallow, warm, Gin clear, and inviting.

I wish you every success in what appears to be a very challenging venture. Shark

 

[Lucky Eddie]

Thanks gentlemen some great info in the links provided - and good advice as well.

Much appreciated and much more research to do it seems!

The $20K start up could be a problem for me!

Getting a barge to work off is no problem - the area has pearling work barges available that only get used for 6 weeks a year during seeding, rest of the time hiring a barge and towing it too the site is dead easy - I used too manage the pearl farm, and know the owner - not hard to arrange a lease on a barge or two, to operate from in season.

In season the waters not unlike the bahamas if you ignore all the things in it that can kill you:-

Crocodiles
Sharks (Tigers and bulls mostly)
Stone fish
Blue Ringed Octopus
Two Step Cone Snails
Irrucanji jellyfish
Sea snakes
Box Jellyfish

Other than those, we swam every day all year round without incident.

Tides are big tho - movement of 7 meters 4 times a day on the springs + more with surge during the cyclone season. On the neap tides tho - different story, nice place to swim dive and fish.

Lot of the links to mile deep pipes etc I had some knowledge of - I wasn't aiming at a multi million start up co, just a few thousand for equipment and start small and prove the idea sound/viable first.

I could imagine our environment department getting all over this like white on rice with elaborate EIS etc required - all for a bit of a hobby with the boat!

Cheers

 

[Tuberale]

What you are suggesting has been theorized about before.

Lots of gold known to be in black sand beaches of southern Oregon, and probably off coast too. Same for Nome, Alaska.

As you've already noted, problems for Oz are somewhat localized: crocs and sea snakes would top the list I think.

So... you'll need to research relatively shallow waters, and probably check the local currents: lots of extreme underwater currents down under, and the worse possible way to find them is by being in them unprepared!

If you haven't considered magnetometer yet, you need to. Or maybe a PulseInduction-type detector (PI) that can be towed.

Oregon's auriferous sands are often off-shore and deeper, but some are well-known. No current technology for recovery that I know of, but might be possible with Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs). That's MUCH more $ and experti$e though.

 

[DiverBarone]

I would make a 6 inch air lift and then for getting it to your boat to use a 4 inch trash pump and plenty of material will come off the bottom for you to go threw. Sounds like you need some hard core divers if so, shoot me off an e-mail at advanceddivingsolutions@yahoo.com. The key thing when taking material off the bottom is your out-fall from were you wash and look for gold is discharged down current and a way's away so you do not cloud the water up like you would by just dumping it out over the side of your boat.

 

[Oceanscience]

47 years ago, Sam Collins obtained a licence to dig for diamonds off the coast of South Africa. Everybody thought he was a fool.
Today, there are large amounts of diamonds being dug up all along the west coast of South Africa and Namibia.
I had the privilege to work on one of his diamond digging barges as a diver and later applied the knowledge I had gained, digging for diamonds in the rivers of South America.
Your idea about digging for gold off the coast of Australia has merit, but, like every pioneering enterprise, it will take a lot of courage, persistence and hard work to to get it to the point where it starts to bring profits.

Good luck

 

[aquanut]

Oceanscience,
Years ago I thought I was on to something when I put 2&2 together with the diamonds in S. Africa and matched their location to where they would be located on the coastal areas of S. America after the continents drifted apart. The puzzle pieces fit perfectly. You can guess how disappointed I was to find out that it was already common knowledge and mining had been in the works for years. LOL
Aquanut

 

[Oceanscience]

Aquanut,

your mental exercise does not need to be in vain. You can apply the knowledge you gained to solve the riddle of where in the oceans it would be best to dig for gold.
Some of the pictures of landscapes that Eddy posted look quite interesting to me.

There are favorable features:
The climate (compare it to Alaska's)
The topology... eroded hills that contain gold nuggets. A good part of that gold must have made it into the sea.
The strong currents help the migration of the gold down to bedrock. (natural concentration)
The area seems to be protected from large swells and seas.

So what would be the next steps?

Let's play a bit with ideas, just as a mental exercise.

Core drilling?
Subbottom profiler?
Licences?
Logistics?
Business plan?

It is a new year, new hopes, new plans, new projects, it can become a very exciting year.

A happy new year to all, tons or Au, Au, Au

 

[aquanut]

Well, between Lucky Eddie and Oceanscience, it seems an outline is beginning to form. Lucky Eddie, how difficult is it for you to contact the various government agencies that not only issue permits, but those who may hold up permits, such as wildlife, environmental, interior and the like to see if this plan can even get off the ground? Australia is a long way and the money to fund an expedition/recovery are going to be hard to come by... I, being broke at the end of every month myself, can't help you there, but if you lay the groundwork it sure seems like something an adventurous person would like to get involved with. Check out the government first and if it seems feasible, write up a business plan for investors.
Aquanut

 

[Lucky Eddie]

Hi Guys,

Firstly thanks for the interest - you guys are inspiring in the ideas and enthusiasm you have for things (life in general).

That's a good question about the govt requirements etc, they CAN at times be demanding depending which political party is in power at the time. Our pro business party (we call them liberals - but they are ultra right wing, pro business and development, not left wing as you might imagine, from the US connotation politically of "liberal") are presently in power in this state and control all mining applications etc. (And my old uncle was the registrar of mines for most of his later life).

I can follow up this info with our mines and environmental department etc and get back too you.

I worked 8 years with our Conservation and Land Management agency, as a Forester & Wildlife Officer, and prepared one or two flora and fauna surveys & EIS for some mineral sands mining in one of our national parks, where we did a "land swap deal" to get the mineral deposit outside the national park boundaries to allow it too be mined. When I left, I went into environmental consulting, and Fisheries research and Fisheries consulting, wrote a peer reviewed paper for our Fed Govt AQIS (Australian Quarantine Inspection Service) on disease risks to our fishery's involved in importing frozen seafood into the nation, including Canadian farmed Salmon (Whirling disease) & North Sea Herring used as lobster bait etc as a result of a couple pilchard mass mortality events we had on the Aussie south coast.

Did some research into artificial lobster baits for our FRDC (Fed Fisheries Research & Development Corp) to see if we could maintain our import bans against the Canadian salmon if the Canuks took us too the world trade court and we couldn't import our lobster bait requirements for north sea herring (20,000 tonnes a year for a 600 Million per annum export lobster industry) as a result. (The Canuks won bye the way).

Seriously - with some help, I could probably write whatever EIS were required by the Environment or Mining Department, and I have some contacts with political party members within the current state govt who are pretty pro mining at the moment, - we might have to grease some palms along the way - maybe some share issues or something.

This is eminently doable..

Interesting talk about the Diamonds - we have one of the worlds largest diamond producers here in the Kimberly's region "Argyle Diamonds" - located on the Ord river in West Oz maybe 1000 kilometers further north than the gold deposits I'm speaking of.

De Beers diamond cartel from Sth Africa basically took over control of Argyle mine (lots of pink and champagne diamonds out of this deposit), by threatening to swamp the world market with so many cheap diamonds we wouldn't be able to sell any or even give them away, unless our govt gave them majority shareholding - and the diamonds were retailed via their cartel - I think our state was lucky to retain a 5% royalty or something piffling liker that - but 5% of something was better than 1005 of nothing!

Anyway - some geologist discovered a kimberlite pipe that had been spilling raw diamonds down the scree slope from the outlet of the pipe and into the Ord river, a monsoonal river that flows mega millions of gigaliters an hour in the wet season and dries up in the dry season.

I did read about an attempt to mine diamonds from the Ord river outflow area some years ago by vessel - but not sure how it ended up - I think probably the dedicated ship ended up in Africa or something most likely - they did find diamonds here I am sure but i think the seasonal nature screwed with them, cyclones mean its just not viable having an operation / ship stationed in that area thru the monsoon.

Again this area also has the crocks sharks and huge tides 9 - 11 meters every 6 &1/4 hours.

A small operator could of course tow a boat too that area in the cooler months when theres no cyclones and make hay while the sun shines then pack up shop over the cyclone season, and start again next season.

There COULD be issues maintaining ones mining lease - the old mining act sot of requires someone on site at a minimum every 3 days to work the lease or claim jumpers can theoretically peg your lease.

Whether mines department would be so anal with a marine lease in cyclone prone areas I don't know but could always find out!

Who knows a little gold mining and a little diamond mining as well maybe?

This is all technology and experience that largely speaking just aren't available in this country.

I'm as keen as mustard to do whatever I can to make this happen because I believe wholeheartedly it COULD possibly be made too work...but I'm no body's fool - I fully realize that there would be "obstacles" to overcome.

Any of you guys a geologist by trade that would like to take a looksee first hand at these areas?

I can't help thinking this could be where you Florida treasure hunters - go in your off season, to get some sand sun surf and fish etc, along with a little profit maybe?

I know there are gold metal detectorists that come to Oz from the USA to detect our gold fields in your winter off season and usually manage to go home with some gold and their expenses covered.

It'd be nice if we could set p something where you aquatic guys get to do the same.

There's an old saying - where there's a will there's a way!

I'm more than happy to provide info for anyone interested in relation to areas I'm speaking about.

A couple years back I did fly a mate of mine from Florida down here and he spent a couple weeks out at that isand fishing with us and seemed to enjoy himself - I can proabably find a link to his story he write about his experience with us - just so you know that my family and I can be good hosts while your here with first hand info direct from one of your own country men's mouths.

Captin Mitch from Florida - he's a well known sword fisher, who runs a catering business with his wife in Miami, he gives talks to some of the fishing clubs etc about sword fishing techniques etc, heck of a nice guy.

http://www.box.net/shared/pc3etlc00k


Nother mate from Holland also visited with us as well - again all fishing related, but some neat photos of the area as well.

http://www.box.net/shared/yulplio4k8

Thanks again for the interest you guys have shown.

Made my day I hope your enjoy those articles / reports, and get a laugh from them.

Cheers!

 

[Oceanscience]

Eddie,
thanks for adding this very useful information.

It is only thanks to De Beers that the price of the diamonds is as high as it is. They have earned the right for the cartel. I don't know of any instance where they have prevented any diamond mining. All they want, is to keep the market controlled by buying all the diamonds, otherwise the market fluctuations would be the ruin of all diamond mining.

The idea to combine tourism fun with the prospecting phase might just turn out to be the critical boost to tilt the scales in your favor. Your local knowledge is very valuable, so is your professional background.
We would appreciate a few lat. long. coordinates to look up the area on Google Earth.

Some more info on the weather over the whole year, currents, sea condition, waves, swells etc. for the different seasons. Not to forget the possibility of tourism activity, like fishing, nugget hunting etc. for the off season.

Access to the area, by ship, plane and road.

Does Australia have any kind of mining on the coasts or in the ocean?

We could think of the enterprise in 2 phases: The first is exploring & prospecting, the second will be the mining in industrial scale. To find investors for the first phase they would need to have an option to participate in the second phase.

How are the Australian laws for corporate structure? Liability? Protection for the prospector's rights?
The idea of staking a claim with actual stakes and sitting on it is quite funny under the circumstances.

There are still things to explore in this world for the pioneers who have the courage and willpower.

All the best

 

[Lucky Eddie]

Sure thing,

There is lots of info for the area and having lived there for a year I am intimately familiar with it.

The large Island full of Iron ore, which is an old volcano plug, is called DePuch Island 20Deg 38Mins 03.96sec South, 117Deg 43Min 34.60 sec East.

The Balla Balla (whim) creek bearing all the Gold copper silver and magnetite theres a camping spot/rock boat launch at 20Deg 40Min 32.45Sec South 117Deg 46Min 56.53sec East

The Whim Creek Copper Mine (and hotel) is located inland by about 20 miles on this very creek at:-

20 deg 50Min 19.71seconds South
117 Deg 50Min 04.39seconds East

I have the complete govt geological mineralogical survey records for this area - just east iof the copper mine leases which include all the known Gold reserves of the area. Of course the Whim Creek or Balla Balla as the natives call it passes thru all these mineralogical areas, so MUST have carried much f the original Gold content from these well weathered mountains range the short 30 or so miles toward the sea near Depuch Island.

There's even a small lava vent just above waterline on the North east corner of this greenstone Island, with round balls of greenstone type granit, which have blasted out into the water - not unommon to find these round stones up to 2 miles seaward of the vent, when diving and theres no way they floated there.

Our Mining regsitration system is quite simple.

In order to be able to peg a mining lease - with the mining registrar - you must frst uy from the Dept of mines apiece of paper costing $20 called a "miners right", its a lifelong instrument - withthe once off payment of your $20. This makes you an official miner.

However to peg a mining lease, you must first search the Mines department web site for West Oz and make sure that no other mining co has pegged a lease over that same area - they have whats called a computerised tengraph system which is searchable online.

You can prospect on someone else's lease if it is NOT actively being mined bye them, and you write andobtain their permission. For detectorists - many big mining co's will allow metal detecting with a keep what you find policy on the agreement on leases they aren't actively mining that you give them the GPS co ords for them to supply their geologists to help in determining future drill programs to quantify reserves.

There's a mining lease over the river flood plane surrounding whim creek Balla Balla.

It's a new mine start up by Aurox Resources and they are mining a land based magnetite resource.

Best i Know - no one has the river or surrounding ocean flats areas, which are all silt flats over hard flat coral.

I'll dig / delve into the rest of your questions - there's heaps of info - do I post it all here publicly considering that really it is "intellectual property" that might benefit others possibly?

Cheers

 

[Lucky Eddie]

Where I spoke of Diamonds further north in our Kimberley region,

The Argyle Diamond Mine proper.
16 Deg 43 Mins 04.51 Seconds South,
128 Degrees 24Mins 04.60 seconds east.

This mine drains into the Ord River - which now days has an inland sea based on it with the construction in the late 1970's of the Lake Argyle Dam, however for millenia beforehand many of these diamonds would have been washed by the Ord River out to the coast at the cambridge Gulf where the Ord River meets the sea.

15Degrees 02Mins 24.84 seconds South
128 degrees 08mins 48.49 seconds East

Interesting area to explore on Google earth.

It should be noted that one of the first Gold fields discovered in Australia was found also in the Kimberly's at "Old Halls Creek"...

18Deg 15min 02.34sec South
127Deg 46Mins 56.65sec East

Of course this particular area also happens to drain into the Ord River and empties into the ocean at Cambridge Gulf - where the Kimberlite Pipe Diamonds from Argyle diamond mine would eventually wash too.

Some Ord River climate rainfall and river flow data

http://www.chs.ecu.edu.au/wetlands/mlund/wetlands_research/ord/history_ord.htm

There are all weather roads and sealed air strips that service all the major urban centers in Australia making access easy in all cases.

Karratha is the nearest domestic air terminal to the Whim Creek Balla balla deposits - and being a mining area for iron ore and LNG export port - its serviced with multiple daily flights by f 28 jets ex Perth Domestic terminal to cater to the fly n fly ut mining worker contingents.

Flights to the Kimberly region - Kununnurra, likewise well serviced and all weather roads access, from either Perth domestic terminal or Darwin terminal.

These places are not difficult per se to access - its the distances.

Towing the boat from Perth to Karratha for example to access the Whim creek balla balla area is 1575kilometers (~1000 miles), plus another 100 miles roughly too site - all sealed apart from the last 20 miles which is gravel.

Its distances and the attendant fuel costs that make these places "remote".

Being a big offshore oil and gas hub as well as a big iron ore export harbor, all the service industries you could possibly want are here! need a new Honda engine for your hookah or sluice? no problem one of the stated biggest Honda shops is right there etc etc.

The problem is - being a big industry support center no one really fixes anything they just sell install a new one! Nuthing costs under 10 grand a pop - whether its repair your air conditioner or a flat tyre - prices START at $10K and go up for EVERYTHING!

Why - well why fix your old air con if the same guy can get a chopper out too the oil rig - remove his busted air con, bung a new one in and be home that afternoon with the old one and submit a invoice for $10K that the oil co will never question?.

I once asked a plumber to give me a quote to install a stainless steel wash trough into the itchen on the island with me providing his boat transport to the island and back.

Quote was $2700 odd..

I bought the trough and pipe connections etc for 270 dollars and t took me all of an hourtoo install.

Why does everyone charge so high? - Well house rents are over 2000 a week and in short supply - if you have too supply your own tools vehicle fuel food (which is double the city prices due to distances it is trucked) you need to be making a minimum $5000 a week to stay ahead.

That means you don;t goout to quote a job unless it is MORE than 1000 in it for the day - or you go broke as a service industry in these big cirporate mining towns.

This makes it tough for the little bloke in other "service industries" to survive.

Big corporate business rules in our northwest - the power of the $ dictates who gets what service, so you either have to be VERY self reliant or have deep pockets to compete & stay viable in these areas, as a generalization.

This is just a brief keyhole view ofthe overall situation of course - if NOT for the big corporate mining payers there wouldn't be a huge air port or limitless hire 4wds lined up at that air port or the big service center town with all the Cat Diesel Technicians and Honda Shops and Toyota new car sales and service yards etc.

I would suggest that this areas a LOT like Texas in many ways - big ranches with cattle, big mining interests - everything's bigger n Texas up that way.

Bout the only difference is we don't got Gee Dubya and we don't got the guns ether.

Cheers

 

[Oceanscience]

Thanks for all the good info.
Please do not post any information that you feel is valuable intellectual property. Post only enough to get people interested in spending time and money investigating your theory.

From your last post we can see it is going to take a considerable amount of funding to check out the feasibility of any project. Seed money, lots of it.

It will also take time and equipment.

On the other hand, gold is going up in price and there might be lots of it in your area.
Gold is very dense. It takes a water flow of at least 10 to 15 feet per second to get good sized nuggets moving downstream. In a river environment, football size rocks move very far in this kind of current.
The problem with the gold is that the rocks, gravel and sand abrade it along the way, so that large nuggets are never found at great distances from their source.

You mention hard coral bedrock on the sea floor. Is this formation older or younger than the erosion of the gold bearing region?

Is there any nugget hunting going on in this area?

Come on guys, let's give Eddie a hand in following his dream!!!!!

 

[Lucky Eddie]

From your last post we can see it is going to take a considerable amount of funding to check out the feasibility of any project. Seed money, lots of it.

It will also take time and equipment.

On the other hand, gold is going up in price and there might be lots of it in your area.
Gold is very dense. It takes a water flow of at least 10 to 15 feet per second to get good sized nuggets moving downstream. In a river environment, football size rocks move very far in this kind of current.
The problem with the gold is that the rocks, gravel and sand abrade it along the way, so that large nuggets are never found at great distances from their source.

You mention hard coral bedrock on the sea floor. Is this formation older or younger than the erosion of the gold bearing region?

Is there any nugget hunting going on in this area?

Come on guys, let's give Eddie a hand in following his dream!!!!!

Granted it will take some seed $ to make it happen:

From your last post we can see it is going to take a considerable amount of funding to check out the feasibility of any project. Seed money, lots of it.

Yes indeed fuel and food accoms and diving and then theres some kind of a sluice dredge and hiring a barge and towing it too location - mooring it so it can work - daily running costs for a camp onshore with air conditioned accoms, generator for power and freezer fridges for food and drinks - carting freshwater to drink, set up either portable ablutions facilities - non of this stuff is cheap but its emminently do able.

Theres a guy I know in Florida Dr Ray Waldner - he lectures i think at FLU or something and is a great marine biologists - whith rays help I could do the necessary EIS etc to satisfy local govt!

One other "administrative hurdle" might be native title over the land and water.

Now days you have to negotiate a deal with the local first nations people who traditionally own that area - to do any type of mining on their traditional lands and waters - which usually involves some kind of profit share arrangement depending on what the proven reserves are and the likely value of the project.

Exploration on the other hand -theres nothing to negotiate until you know what it is you have.
I would love to tow the magnetometers and side scan radar or whatever there is to tow around to get the data we need to know where the old river bed runs now under the ocean.

I'd also like to be showing a geologist who knew what he was doing the areas geology so that he could advise about the practicalities and likely prospects!

It takes a water flow of at least 10 to 15 feet per second to get good sized nuggets moving downstream. In a river environment, football size rocks move very far in this kind of current.
The problem with the gold is that the rocks, gravel and sand abrade it along the way, so that large nuggets are never found at great distances from their source.

We would get waterflow rates like that when the river floods in big cyclonic rain events but they might only be every 15 or20 years on average rest of the time rainfall below 8 inches per annum in showers of less that 1 inch are the norm i.e. desert conditions.

The deposits are only 30 odd miles inland - not far for it too wash before it meets the sea - so hopefully I believe bigger sized nuggets HAVE to be available to be found, that's what my instincts tell me.

You mention hard coral bedrock on the sea floor. Is this formation older or younger than the erosion of the gold bearing region?

I honestly do not know the answer too this I would need an expert to tell me.

At the island i had to erect a gin pole to unload a new 4 cyl perkins diesel genset for the Island power shed.

To do this meant digging about a foot or so down thru this coral in between tides when the flats were exposed, and concreting in place a 316 stainless picot for the 7 meter 6 inch heavy walled galv gin post and also two stainless wire stays fixings.

It took literally days of crow bar and pick axe work to get a 6 inch hole in this coral down a foot, and the pick axe head point even tho sharpened repeatedly bent, we drove a crow bar down thru the coral with a sledge hammer a tiny fraction of an inch at a time.

This is nothing like your usual soft calcium like coral built from dead polyps...no this stuff is akin to concrete - possibly harder if that's possible.

Is there any nugget hunting going on in this area?

Nugget hunting with minelabs detectors which are made here does take place among the old gold leases from the 1880s. Mostly in our winter (non monsoon season May to Sept) when the tempos are high 70's to low 80's farenheight. Mostly its what are called "grey nomads" (retirees from the capital city Perth down south at 32 degrees south, who couple up the caravan and 4wd and escape north in winter to follow the sun do a little detecting and fishing in their twilight years.

The old leases are mentioned and some old hand drawn mud maps were included in a now out of print and rare prospectors book called "Gold & Ghosts" whichi don;t have but do have a burnt CD copy and have read. These old timers who make it this far north do find good gold with their detectors - an ounce a week is about average and you have to realise most of them know diddly squat about finding gold - they detect around known old mines tailings dumps etc, for an hour here and an hour there between breakfast and morning tea time before taking a midday siesta and maybe giving it another go near sunset.

One of the old coots took out his detector at the river boat launch ramp just for fun and found a small nugget - turns out the crushed rock used to make the boat launch and ramp etc was donated by the nearbye whim creek copper mine from their tailings dump, and along with the obvious copper in their ore they musta missed a small nugget of gold that made it too the tailings heap and then got carted for the boat ramp where the mine employees take their 12 ft dinghys to fish for barramundie on days off in the Balla Balla creek estuary.

Theres good gold to be found at whim Creek on the old gold leases back in the 1880's when the strike happened the old timers just loamed for gold - they missed a LOT of the alluvial nuggets that detectorists can still pick up today f they know how to read the ground.

Even the Copper mine manager - said i can detect on their copper leases and keep any gold i find as long as i give him the GPS co-ords because it helps their geologist determine where to do the next drill programs to try and locate the next ore body! While they lose a little bit of surface gold - in reality they have to push any overburden off a new lease with a dozer and save it for rehabilitation of the site after they finish mining because the overburden has all the native seeds in it to re vegetate the area after mining is finnished so even if there is alluvial gold in the top foot they will never get at it because it gets pushed aside and spread back over the top when mining's finished - so nothing to be lost of a detectorist finds a couple ounces here or there - as long as the GPS data is captured for the geologists.

Not all mining co's are this agreeable, but not all the mining managers get to go fishing in my boat occasionally on his days off when his wife visits either!.

The big companies are all still looking for Gold in this area too.

This from "legend resources" annual report mentions Whim Creek.

4.
KARRATHA GOLD AND BASE METAL PROJECTS
Legend now controls an area of approximately 675 km² commencing west of Radio Hill and
extending to Roebourne. Legend owns 100% of most of the tenements and is earning up to 70% on
the remainder.
Orpheus and Sholl (Legend 100% )

Exploration for gold and VMS base metals continued on these two contiguous exploration licences,
along and south of the Sholl Shear Zone, during the Quarter. A programme of mapping and
sampling to improve definition of mineralisation controls at six separate prospects commenced early
in October 2002, and results will be reported as they become available.
One of the new gold prospects is at Crossroads, adjacent to the regional east-west shear zone and
occurring in cherts and mafic volcanics similar to those hosting the Carlow mineralisation. The
target zone includes a broad area of metal detecting and grading, located near the Cherrata road.
Mapping and rock sampling on the Sholl tenement to locate a bedrock source for the Golden Reef
alluvials commenced in October 2002. These shallow workings adjacent to and just outside
Legend’s boundary have reportedly produced several thousand ounces of gold nuggets since
discovery in the mid-1980’s.
Further sampling and mapping of base and precious metal-enriched gossanous zones, which extend
over 10 kilometres strike length of the Orpheus Shear, was also commenced during October 2002.
The target is VMS style deposits, similar to those at Whim Creek and Panorama in the Pilbara and at
Golden Grove, Teutonic Bore and Jaguar in the Yilgarn.

I believe a resources co called "straits resources" owns the current Copper operation at Whim creek.

They recently stopped crushing ore to extract the copper and now they leach out a slurry of copper silver and gold that they sell to a refiner - least thats what the manager told me they were starting to do about 2 years ago.

As stated I have the entire govt mineralogical survey results for this area, but its on a Cd and I'd have to burn you a copy, not being a geologist i find following it hard going! It does show all the old and current gold leases and shafts etc just to the east of the Copper Mine leases. Some are still operational - small tenements with hardened old timers who still operate them on a almost hobby basis.

You can spot them fro google earth - ill get you guys some GPS coords of that area which is undoubtedly the source of the gold we would be chasing in the river and adjacent ocean.

Cheers

 

[Lucky Eddie]

OK

GPS co ords if you want too look in Google earth for the whim creek copper mine t get an idea of the geography are:-

20deg 49min 58.38sec South
117deg 50min 39.20sec East

This is a view of the big volcanic Island & Balla Balla (whim creek) estuary system where I reckon nuggets would have to be found behind some of the rock bars in the deep holes in the river that I saw on my furuno sounder when sailing in and out of the creek in the boat.

This is a view from google earth from inland in the hills behind the Whim Creek copper mine from where the Gold sheds into the river, where it gets carted the 30 odd miles downstream too the estuary at Balla balla!.

Too me this is a no brainer excercise.

1.We know the Gold reserves are there - they are already proven in whats been mined in the 1880s gold rush and up to now present day from the leases in those hills behind the copper mine.!

2. We know the rivers only short to the coast (30 miles) and the Gold must get carried at least that far in bog monsoonal floods - were it SHOULD drop out of suspension and settle when the flooded river meets the ocean - especially on big incomming tides against to flood flow.

3. There's existing Gold Copper and now magnetite mines in the same area which kinda proves it as an existing rich source.

4. Detectorists have been getting good nuggets out of the area since the advent of detectors in the late 1970's.

5. We have a boat and dive gear and F 250 to haul it plus me with local knowledge access to all the contractors etc to hire a barge and ability to tow the dumb barge too site & moore it.

Whats needed?

1. Some dive gear like a hookah or 3 stage compressor to fill the dive cylinders i already have.

2. Some divers with the bottle to get into the water 20 degrees south of the equator...barely on the edge of crocodile country, on gets seen about every 10 or fifteen years in this area.

3.Some approvals from the govt mining and environmental people.

4. Some sea mapping gear to tow around and target our old river bed below the ocean in the vicinity of the estuary mouth - these channels are pretty visible at low tide - been stuck for 8 hours before today on a sand bank in there waiting for the 7 meter tide too come back.

5. Some kinda geologist to advise.

6. maybe an EIS with help from Ray Waldner

7. a dredge of some kind that can operate out of my boat or the dumb barge.

8. Purchase an off the shelf limited liability company (pty ltd) (maybe $2K)

9. A board of directors and some shares to issue....to those who want in.

10. A Bidness plan

11. Some gear to camp in initialy maybe a couple winnebego type vehicles with air conditioners.

12. Be ready to go bye say May June when the calm cool weather starts.

Anything I missed?

It doesn't sound insurmountable too me.

Anyone got a current EIS for marine dredging / undersea mining, I could use as a template to write up an EIS for this proposal?

I already have my lifetime miners right.

You guys have me all fired up now.!

Cheers