Funny. You never know sometimes.
That is bloody awesome. 
Good for you. 
You obviously put in the hard yards & get down deep, which is the key.
Best of luck out there
JW 
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Detected gold from last weekend. Minelab GPZ 7000 & the reasonably new Russian made 15" Concentric wound X coil. Settings, high yield, normal & full max sensitivity of 20. Runs like a dream & quiet as…
Very first signal in about one minute from rigging up & getting into it.
After getting that I checked the dig out pile, as I always do before backfilling the hole, & ended up getting 4 more smaller pieces. There was every chance there was going to be more even smaller pieces that that big coil wasn’t going to get. So I placed a big flat slab of schist over the hole, the one to the right in the first photo, thinking I would come back the following weekend with the Gold Monster to scan over it.
I carried on detecting & this was my end result for that day with that big coil.
There was a signal I got that was in the solid schist bedrock. I chipped away at it with my pick but it was hard as heel & giving my pick a bit of grief so I gave it a miss & decided I would bring my battery powered hammer/impact drill when I came back.
So yesterday I headed back with my Gold monster & the hammer drill. I went straight to my previous hole with the GM & I got about 8 or 9 little pieces from that dig out pile. I then rigged up with the GPZ & that same 15" coil & went back to that schist bedrock with the hammer drill. I will let the pics tell the story.
Only ended up being .44 of a gram. I only got about 3 other pieces with the GPZ & that 15" coil & the day was dragging on with long dry spells so I decided to go back to that first hole with the GM & rip out the hole more. Well that paid off & I got another 8 or 9 bits.
Total for the day, 24, & a lot of fun with the Gold monster mopping up those crumbs. With the majority coming from that one dig hole.
Good luck out there
JW
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Awesome. After seeing you with ya hammer drill jw I purchased the 36v makita version and I too have a spot to try it on . I Love the monster as you say tiny gold and so user friendly
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Had a bad first 9 days with a few specs exploring then got lucky in a hell of a crack where I pulled 99% of this out of!
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nice haul mate good and chunky makes me want to get back out there well done thanks for showing us ya gold
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Holly Hell. Was up a creek the other day in an area not known for gold. Was just checking it out, as the geology looked good. Got up into the headwaters and came across an adit. (Tunnel) which was into hard rock. So being a nosey bugga. Ventured in. No hard hat, But always carry a head mounted LED with me. Went in about 30 metres, just about shit myself when I disturbed a colony of long tailed bats, but they didn’t mind me. Phew the place stank with bat poo. The props were in good condition. Which was quite amazing. But it was a dry adit. Got to the end, and came across what appeared to be the last shot fired, as there was quite a rockfall. The interesting part was, I could see some quartz fragments contained within. So got down on my hands and knee’s and started scratching around. Well I found more than I bargained for. Human remains, a bloody skeleton. Some poor old “Hatter” had come to a sad end. Must have had some sort of a malady just after he lit the fuse, and was unable to retreat to safe ground when the shot went off. Obviously a loner. As he was still where he had fell. Poor bugga.
But on picking up several ofthe fragments of quartz, there gleaming at me was the yellow metal. In all its glory. The best sample I have ever seen. I pocketed them and beat a hasty retreat. After saying a quick prayer for our fallen mate.
I am now in a bit of a quandary as to what to do. Do I go to the authorities and tell of my find. Or do I just keep it to myself and carry on where the poor ole fella left off. I can kinda put him together and carry him out, and give him a decent burial. And then get rich. The long tailed bats are a bit of a problem, esp with DOC. But I am sure after I fire a few shots, they will decide to find a new home. Or maybe I could put a real big shot in. And they would be ejected out like a projectile out of a mortar. Lammerlaw could help me there, I reckon. There would be a few casualties, what do they call it. Peripheral damage. But the survivors could breed up again, I reckon.
I’m gunna sit on it for a while and give it some thought. Anyhow here is a pic of the ore samples I grabbed. And “NO” I won’t tell you where it is. Only clue is. Its in the South Island.
Cheers Trev aka “The Hatter”
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May not be an old timer though , could solve an old cold case
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That’s not April fools gold is it? 
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How do you manage to take such good photos…if my camera doesn’t improve it’s going to be put on Death Row.
I explored many mines and drives on the Wesg Coast - around Totara Flat and inland from Ahaura, Nelson Creek etc.
I always kept my eye open for a skellington or two, victims of fowl play ( there were Moas around then - right?)
Never found any skellingtons but l knew a spot behind Totara Fkat where you could pan a lot of gold double quick.
Forty years later l went back but the native tree landmarks are gone and it was pine forest, burnt out cars and someone shadowing every move we made.
My son found a gold reef with my Minelab Xtreme and specimen gold is there for the finding- if you can break the reef out of the matrix.
A friend of mine frequents the spoil dump of a mine in ltaly and does very well. He sent some samples to me. Over 5 grams here.
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Would I “The Hatter” be so cruel. And deceitful. I will let the Paydirt Jury decide. My fate rests in their hands. Oh no. “Not the noose”
“The Hatter”
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Havent you ever heard the old saying ‘give the dog a bone’
Because l collect old things a young lad brought me a bag of bones…l kid you not. The moment he walked in l knew what he had. They came from a cemetry that was being eroded by the sea…nothing like a skelington in the closet!
Good Friday is now Gold Friday for us just spent the morning mining away in a creek on the coast and got one of our best hauls, 7 buckets and it weighed 5.96 on the scales with the bit of black sand so probably between 4-5 grams of gold overall, we were doing pretty good cleaning out the bedrock and the we found a bit of a pit/hole in the bedrock that just kept giving out the colour.
Cheers
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awesome mate beautiful gotta love those days aye thanks for showin us ya gold it keeps me inspired and always smiling when i see gold be it yours or mine gold always makes me shine …well done fella
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Is that from public area ?
…good effort… 
…
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I doubt it.
JW
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Unfortunatley it was not from a public fossicking area but it is not far from one of the public areas though and feeds from the same source (although you can probably say that about a lot of gold bearing rivers ).
Fair enough ;)… your up Nelson Area? Or down Grey…? …
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We normally prospect in the Grey or Buller district this here was from thr Grey area .
Cool Just moved to Hokitika I might see you guys one Day ! Good Luck out there and stay safe
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