New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Ask no questions tell no lies - please dont ask size or where it came from - these two questions are good stimulants for ones imagination!

My daughter holding nugget after I had picked it up - three or so inches of water, less than two inches of gravel, a spot we had walked over for thirty years and had worked thoroughly...proof that there is always something else there!

Edited by user Wednesday, 4 January 2012 11:22:43 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

imagine the stories that beauty could tell it looks all beat to hell and AWESOME :)

Just riverworn as all are from this spot - it has now been claimed by a third party but after many years of work long stretches of this river are well picked over and only a great deal of effort now would be required to find gold but there will still be some great gold in the lower reaches of this river. Seven people worked the river for forty years with dredges so large areas worked...today I would be the only person left who knows exactly what has been worked and what has not been worked.

very nice lammerlaw. just goes to show new zealand does produce big nuggets.

It was found when I took my family for a family Sunday picnic to a spot we had finished working years ago as the easily won gold had long since gone. For me it was also a nostalgia trip as all but one of the people who mined there with me had died and as it was a nice easily accessible spot we went there for a picnic.
At that time we still held a mining licence on that river but working lower downstream.
I went back to a crevice I had long since worked with a glass bottom box, fanned a bit of gravel in three inches of water, nearly too shallow for the glass bottom box and under two inches of gravel first one nugget showed then over two inches away another showed and then when I fanned the gravel off entirely the two nuggets were one!

That part of the river didnt need a dredge as there are long stretches of bedrock with shallow crevices everywhere and easily worked by hand.

A strange point is that three feet away an ancient wheelbarrow wheel also lay in the river. Within two feet of hte spot I had picked up a quarter ouncer, then 100 yards upstream an 18dwt nugget was picked up by a friend.

Within four hundred yards there were several spots where 6 ounces was found in small areas.

There was so little gold in this area after we had finished it that when I took a fellow back with a Minelab it was so good he got the rims of corroded .22 shells but only one small nugget.

Edited by user Tuesday, 31 May 2011 12:38:19 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Here's a more detailed map - http://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/8352/LAMMERLAW%20RANGE/Otago ;)

Maps noted with interest - I actually have not only got a full set of topograpical maps for all of Otago but I also have the first maps which belonged to the new Acclimatisation Society of the day and in their own right with hand drawn comments and markings are very interesting indeed. These early maps are of value in different ways to the modern maps as they include in some cases places of interest now long forgotten.
Of interest here are sites once known but now lost completely - cinnabar mines, copper deposits etc
The maps shown above indicate country all familiar to me, but then again so is in behind Alex, Macetown, Skippers and so on.
At the end of the day these maps are good for indicating huts, tracks, boundaries in some cases, Water ways etc but at the end of the day things are entirely different 'on the ground' and contrary to ones hallucinated expectations or wistful visions the gold just dont pop up out of the ground when you get there.

Edited by user Thursday, 2 June 2011 12:20:36 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Damn this shit excites me :) :)

Awesome story Lammerlaw and like you or someone above said, ya just never know where that yellow is.

Thanks for the map links Colin & Gavin
MSB

An awful lot of country there - I sit here amused at those who place maps on as though they are trying to put my profile name and the nugget location to a map.
Seems rather...childish to me...sorry but thems my thoughts.
I do note that there have already been emails sent to at least one member of the forum seeking information leading to my property and thus I place this notice publicly and with regret that I feel I need to do so.
'Any person found on my property will instantly be served a trespass notice and their name will be notified as a warning to all land owners thus jeopardising their chances of getting access to country they otherwise would be freely able to work on with the blessings, I am sure, of the land owner. I will also take proceedings against any person found on my land seeking compensation based on my personal records of gold recovered for the duration of the time they were suspected to be on the property'

To those who can do their own thing, who do not try to impose themselves on others, who do not break the law relating to trespass and who follow the code of ethics commensurate with good practice I profusely apologise.

I feel very sorry that people should see fit to impose themselves, should question or attempt to locate where I mine and where the nugget was found which are actually two different locations and it makes me think twice about sharing the many hundreds of similar photos taken over the years. Human nature doesnt seem to change!

Edited by user Thursday, 2 June 2011 1:44:59 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

In my defense I was just doing some shameless self promoting of my other site - www.topomap.co.nz and nothing more.

Didn't realise you were using a name of a mountain range until Colin shared his links, then got curious myself about where exactly Lammerlaw Range was. From your nickname on the site I can only assume your property must be on / near the mountain range. Anyway - that's for you to share / not share as you see fit. I think sometimes it's too easy to read the wrong intentions in to someones reply ;)

Just happy to see nice postings of nuggets to inspire me to get out there more myself. Bit of an effort sometimes being based in Christchurch on the wrong side of the island :P

Edited by user Thursday, 2 June 2011 2:02:28 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified