Went to check out a new spot today. Been trying to find somewhere near home to gather a few colours - on one of the licences I have permission to muck about on.
I haven't spent much time prospecting in the area where I live, even though it has produced a lot of gold in years gone by. There are a lot of steep gullies with parpa bottom, and after a week without rain the small creeks dry up.
Anyway today I had some time after lunch so I shot up the back and walked into a gully head that looked interesting. There are obvious signs of old hand workings, with a couple of tunnels and hand stacked tailings here and there.
I first tried a gravel face where the old timer had stopped, and was shocked at how hard the wash was. The pick was sparking on the wash stones and each small rock was welded into the matrix with black rusty iron pan stuck hard to it. This had to be crushed off each one and was almost as hard as the rock it was on. I persevered until I had a pan full which I rubbed and worked up for a while trying to crush the material as much as possible. It contained no gold though, and while I seldom give up after one pan, that stuff was just too damn hard.
Then I walked downstream a ways and got a couple of good colours out of a boil hole in the creek bed. Disturbed an eel that was lurking in there while doing this, and I thought the eels went away for winter!
That was about it for the day - sorry no photos
