New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Ok, so in the weekend I went a checked out Louis Creek, in the public fossicking area a couple of hours from Nelson, awesome spot, and again was just fun being there, and even found a small amount of gold panning and a mate did a bit better sluicing, but still no luck with the detector...
Now I know this is only my second trip to the goldfields with it, and I do have faith that if there was gold where I was looking it would likely find it...but I am just wondering where I am better to focus my detecting efforts?
I spent most of the day wandering the creek, and the scanning the banks of the creek, (using Garrett AT Gold with 4.5' sniper coil) but it sort of dawned on me that the the creek may be a bit of a mission to dig a target with running water should I find one in the creek although I did dig an old nail out of some slower moving water by digging everything into the pan and then panning it off so this would likely work if the water wasnt to fast moving or deep...
But it also dawned on me when leaving that another area that maybe worth swinging the coil around would have been the masses of tailings higher up the hill left by the oldtimers? as this was obviously gold bearing ground back then so there may still be some missed gold there? this idea dawned on me after finding 2 nice flakes of gold in a small gut down the bank, directly below a massive tailings pile, that and the fact in the instructional DVD that came with my detector a lot of the footage appears to be taken near or on old tailings...

So just wondering what other people opinions are on where is best to detect when at an area known to have gold? are you better to scan the banks that havent been touched as this was where my mate sluiced, or is the creek a better spot, or maybe amongst the old tailing?

Would be happy to hear anyone opinions...

Yeah good call about the bigger coil for tailings! I have the normal 8x5(?) DD coil aswell.
thanks for the info.

I was initially looking to buy an x-terra 705 as they look like an awesome detector, only ended up choosing the AT-Gold due to the 705 only being splash proof, where the AT-Gold if fully submersible to 10ft although after using it for a bit I cant see myself taking advantage of the submarine capabilities.

Hi Necro, Your right it being only splash proof as i contacted minelab recently regarding it's waterproof capabilities and was told that as long as the control box was kept dry it would be ok in shallow rivers, hopefully i could rig up something to make it more water proof... Could be interested in getting an AT instead if the price difference wasn't much.

The biggest issue you're likely to face detecting in tailings is the abundance of strong ferrous targets compared to gold.

Places like the Howard are particularly tough going for detectors because so much happened there over several distinct periods of mining activity. There's an abundance of rubbish and detritus from old dwelling sites and mining activities that lies strewn virtually everywhere. Remnants of ferrous materials are often many times larger than the gold you're seeking, and they have a strong signal even at depth and can easily mask adjacent weaker signals from gold.

With a thorough understanding of your detector and much practice you'll eventually learn to recognise some rubbish targets, but the sad fact is many of them are indistinguishable from gold and every one you don't dig is potentially a glimmer of gold that you're missing.

When detecting a worked area it generally helps to understand what you're looking at. Given the passage of years that can be pretty difficult, but for example in the Louis Creek field I would tend to head over toward the more recently worked faces on the true left of the stream opposite the hut at the end of the 4wd road. Those faces were sluiced with water monitors as late of the early 1950's, and while there's a fair bit of rubbish around, I have it on good authority they were still winning good gold when they finished. Over the past 60 odd years there's been a fair amount of fritter come down off the faces and accumulate at the bottom which contains gold which is detectable IF you're patient.

Edited by user Saturday, 21 September 2013 8:46:44 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Wow awesome response Karl! and good point about the sluiced faces! I was in a 2WD and there had been some rain previously so stopped just before the memorial and just dropped down into the creek, think I may take my dirtbike or a 4WD up there next time so I can have a better look around!
And one of the boulders that had been undermined blew me away! how it was still perched there I dont know!? accident waiting to happen!
Cant wait to get up there again although there's a few spots a bit closer to home I want to check out first!

Welcome to the forum Jon. Sounds like you have some good experience to share. ).7 oz from the Moonlight would have been good! Seems like a lot of ppl do well in there. I love the place.
This thread has some good info guys so keep it coming! It's been a bit dull around here on the gold front lately!

That's 2.4 grams not ounces (",)