New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

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First gold for the new year

Cleggie		Posted : Sunday, 4 January 2015 1:40:59 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 24/03/2012(UTC) Posts: 88 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 88 times Was thanked: 59 time(s) in 31 post(s)		Hi all, Just back from a visit to Louis Creek, met some nice folk while there and got some interesting info about the history and the gold. More importantly, had a good time, enjoyed the fine weather and found some gold! To quote Darren from another post "Finding gold on Louis creek, the lower reaches of, What I have found that works is to de-rock a likely area using a big pry/crow bar to get the big rocks out (inside of a bend, where the river flattens out), classify #2/#4 mesh into buckets, run that through the sluice, de-rock some more, classify some more, keep going deeper and deeper. I find stuff all in the first foot of gravel if any, the second foot maybe a few specs of colour on the black ripple mat on my keene A52, after that though you start getting rewarded, once the hole is up to around waist height, that's where the gold is, it gets better and better as you go deeper and deeper." Spot on advise Darren and yes it is back breaking work. If you are young and fit you will have no problem but for some of us older folk it may pay to team up with a fossicking buddy as I really struggled to get the larger rocks out of the way. I have added a link to a you tube slideshow of my fossicking effort. http://youtu.be/t4m5ZEqhZ3o Cheers, Ken.

digahole!!		Posted : Sunday, 4 January 2015 8:05:55 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 22/01/2012(UTC) Posts: 89 Location: chch Thanks: 19 times Was thanked: 47 time(s) in 28 post(s)		Congrats. That's a real good sized hole. It really is an excellent way to spend some summer days.

Foiled again		Posted : Monday, 5 January 2015 11:42:53 AM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 10/04/2012(UTC) Posts: 861 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 459 times Was thanked: 251 time(s) in 192 post(s)		Great stuff! Its always great to see a few pics of the action AND the result!! Cant wait to bust my gut again for a coupla days on the coast lol
		There's another to find and I'm gunna find it!

Darren		Posted : Monday, 5 January 2015 9:40:18 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 6/01/2014(UTC) Posts: 24 Location: Blenheim Thanks: 28 times Was thanked: 40 time(s) in 19 post(s)		Good on you Ken! Looks like you were catching some really fine flour gold there too!!!

Cleggie		Posted : Wednesday, 7 January 2015 4:47:19 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 24/03/2012(UTC) Posts: 88 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 88 times Was thanked: 59 time(s) in 31 post(s)		Thanks for the kind comments guys, I found it frustrating trying to dig the gravels out of the hole because of large rocks trapping my shovel, but it was nice to see so nice chunky flakes in the pan. I also put a hole in my new waders when trying to loosen gravels with my wreaking bar... Grrrr... Now I have a taste of what Louis creek like and what it takes to win good color, I will be back for more Louie Gold!

RioGold		Posted : Thursday, 8 January 2015 9:35:21 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Flake Groups: Registered Joined: 10/12/2014(UTC) Posts: 24 Location: NELSON Thanks: 21 times Was thanked: 19 time(s) in 11 post(s)		Awesome, some nice bits there! Certainly looks like you did some hard yards there. Congrats Ken