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Cleggie's Gold Trip - Sluicing Louis Creek

Cleggie		Posted : Saturday, 7 March 2015 10:32:11 AM(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)		Just like to share with you all my latest gold adventure. http://youtu.be/hqVY1uXgByk I keep banging on about how hard it is, and it is difficult and a real struggle sometimes but it is also rewarding. I met some other fossickers and shared stories and that is always good value, and came away with some good gold. The next trip there I will bring a winch and some rope to help get those large rocks and boulders out of the way. That maybe over Easter weather permitting, so I am also offering an open invitation for anyone keen to join me there. PM me if you are interested. Happy Golding folks, Ken.

gavzilla		Posted : Saturday, 7 March 2015 2:14:50 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Nugget Groups: Registered Joined: 24/02/2012(UTC) Posts: 60 Location: queenstown Thanks: 12 times Was thanked: 34 time(s) in 18 post(s)		Nice video there, that Louis creek certainly looks like hard ground to work. You should checkout the airbags you can get now, used instead of jacks for cars and trucks, they are handy for putting between boulders and easily moving them out the way. Winches in my opinion are to temperamental and dangerous

RioGold		Posted : Saturday, 7 March 2015 5:34:24 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 stuff ken certainly was a nice hole you made! :) was nice to meet you as well. keep up the good work :) David

Chrispy		Posted : Saturday, 7 March 2015 8:33:45 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Medals: Groups: Registered Joined: 31/07/2012(UTC) Posts: 314 Location: Christchurch Thanks: 82 times Was thanked: 230 time(s) in 102 post(s)		Nice work mate. Me and Foiled again stayed at the same place for a couple of nights the other week and worked about 20-30 mtrs upstream from that hole. Wasted half a day heading up stream with detector only to find it had already been cleaned out. Tried two different holes but feel I should have just stayed in the one spot as I only got .66 grams of which .25 grams was made up of 2 little pickers. One was .15g and the other was .1g. Plenty happy though for 2 days sluicing. Magic wee spot a. Chrispy attached the following image(s):

Cleggie		Posted : Sunday, 8 March 2015 10:31:53 AM(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)		Originally Posted by: gavzilla Nice video there, that Louis creek certainly looks like hard ground to work. You should checkout the airbags you can get now, used instead of jacks for cars and trucks, they are handy for putting between boulders and easily moving them out the way. Winches in my opinion are to temperamental and dangerous Thanks for the info gav, for lifting rocks an air bag would be fine but not so good at moving them sideways or dragging them out of the way. I still think I need a winch but I will look in to air bags as a tool. Originally Posted by: RioGold Awesome stuff ken certainly was a nice hole you made! :) was nice to meet you as well. keep up the good work :) David Hi Dave, thanks for your help and all the great info. Pleasure to meet you. Originally Posted by: Chrispy Nice work mate. Me and Foiled again stayed at the same place for a couple of nights the other week and worked about 20-30 mtrs upstream from that hole. Wasted half a day heading up stream with detector only to find it had already been cleaned out. Tried two different holes but feel I should have just stayed in the one spot as I only got .66 grams of which .25 grams was made up of 2 little pickers. One was .15g and the other was .1g. Plenty happy though for 2 days sluicing. Magic wee spot a. Hi Chrispy, You are right about sticking to the one spot, the color gets better the deeper you go. I too spent most of a day digging other areas in search of easier ground to work only to return to the original hole that I had started at the end of Jan and wrestle with the rocks. It took me a while to clear the hole and make it safe to work but the effort was worth it. That hole has yielded a total of 6g and I have not finished with it yet.

simon		Posted : Sunday, 8 March 2015 6:30:27 PM(UTC)
Rank: Gold Ingot Groups: Registered Joined: 7/01/2011(UTC) Posts: 789 Location: Central Otago Thanks: 33 times Was thanked: 239 time(s) in 150 post(s)		I tend to look for the opposite. the hardest spot. usually that is where no one has bothered, due to laziness, lack of equipment or whatever. Unfortunately the hardest spots are where the biggest boulders are so a good winch would be handy. i don't know about airbags. as pointed out ok to move a rock/boulder but no good to drag it downstream or sideways up a bank. either a 4wd hand winch or a boat winch on a chain around a tree or boulder work pretty well. if you don't have a winch a long pry bar works well. the wrecking bars that are about 1800mm long are great. I've got both sizes. i would recommend the lighter version as its still strong enough but lighter to transport into places.amazing what a bit of leverage can achieve. with a good work plan you might not even need to move many of the bigger rocks. for smaller rock a crowbar is all that is needed. not too heavy and fits in your bag, just isn't long enough to get good leverage with the bigger boulders.
		WWW

Cleggie		Posted : Monday, 9 March 2015 8:02:29 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 Simon, That was the original reasoning for me choosing the spot... lots of boulders on an inside bend that looked like no had been there before but it got increasingly more difficult as I got deeper with some really large boulders over hanging the hole making it dangerous. To make it safe I had to dig a hole behind the boulder and clear an area to roll it into. I have a 2.3M crowbar that I used to lever the bugger out of the way. There is some stuff at work that I can use the next time, some old truck tiedowns that are minus the ratchet and a Rico come-a-long, stuff I can have for nix so that's all good.