Some colour from a public fossicking site. I dont get why people ask “can I please come on your claim with my pan”
6 Likes
Wow, nice gold! The big one would have looked massive underwater
Nice gold for sure. Gosh, I remember those days of finding gold like that. Been a few years now but not from lack of trying.
These were got about a month ago in a couple of days using the Gold Monster 1000. Unfortunately not by me. Just over 8 grams all up. I did manage a few escapies that got away in the current lost by the finder of this gold.
JW 
4 Likes
My biggest nugget after 30 years of prospecting is 8g. My kiddo who has been prospecting for 2 years got a freaking 10g sniping!
4 Likes
Hoping for a gram, the little nugget is 0.1g. Four hour session shoveling unclassified onto miners moss and stretch metal.
4 Likes
Cant beat that expanded raised mesh over miners moss for fine gold recovery. Allows the bigger material to wash easily down & out with the fine gold burying itself in the moss. Nice show of colour.
I’ll rat out & put up some pics I have somewhere of a wee operation I had going up in the Coromandel & the fine, almost flour gold it captured from lost gold in the discharged crushed tailings from a stamper battery into the stream.
JW
1 Like
dang, thats a lovely nuggy! good effort.
was it in a deep plunge pool etc or just chillin in normal river gravels?
any nugs i get dredging always seem to be in the deepest and most mongrel spots, nowhere near that size tho.
I was following a big crevis down on a slight outside bend, I was down about 4m and moved a big rock and found that nugget. Interesting thing is that I spent about 6hr follow that crevis and that nugget was all that I found apart from a bit of fine gold.
awsome.
all my bigger nugs (usually 4-5grammers) have come from under boulders in literally the deepest part of the pool i was working, usually in a depression or a crack and near the front.
no fine gold either but usually plenty of pickers and 1grammers to keep them company.
if i move a big rock in a hole i usually let the water clear then check it out with the dive torch, 9 outve 10 times there will be something shining!
are you detecting creeks, banks or up hillsides? just got me a 6000 and learning how to find everything except gold 
I detect anywhere that gold can be found, river banks, terraces, reefs and old timers tailings, hardest part is just trying to find places that haven’t already been detected.
This is my little highbanker/2” suction dredge set up I made. Everything fits into it when folded down & it fits onto a back pack frame for easy transporting to where ever.
Running as a 2” suction set up
As a highbanker
I am able to swap out the riffles & have a large expanded mesh that I use for fine gold. The beauty of the low profile of the expanded mesh is you can run a gentler flow of water so you aren’t blowing out the fine gold but the finer gravels & sands wash on down & out. The beauty too of the highbanker set up is that material feed into it, either shoveled of via the 2” suction, is classified to less than 10mm in the top hopper. The bigger material washing out off the front & back into the creek while the classified stuff drops into the lower sluice for processing.
Here is the expanded mesh in it with ribbed mat at the top where the classified material first drops into. It is surprising how much gold goes no further than that ribbed mat.
Turned off after running some material. Very little gravels but heavier black sands caught behind the raised expanded mesh
Mesh removed
Some of the very fine gold recovered after a short run. I actually had a gold pan collecting tailings off the end of the sluice & not one speck of gold in it.
JW
2 Likes
Looks like the arrow. Are highbankers allowed there?
3rd & 4th pic were. That was a long time ago when things weren’t so anal. Like in the 80’-90’s when you could drive down the upper Cardrona, pull over & park up & chuck a dredge in. No one gave a shit. But no not allowed. Got 16 grams that afternoon.
Was funny though as DOC drove past & just waved out & kept on going. Showed how much they cared. But those were different times. The rest were in the Coromandel & I guess not allowed either. Probably more so. Bit like when I ran my 4” dredge & got into trouble with Environment Waikato. Guess I tossed the dice & took the risk, you get busted, you pay the price. You don’t get busted you get away with it. Such is life. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We are losing more & more freedoms all the time & I threw caution to the wind back then. I wouldn’t do it these days though. Had my fun back then.
JW
5 Likes
Should let highbanking be allowed in appropriate places. Arrow fossicking area be perfect. Not like anyone would drive into a hole dug as whole area has been access restricted in recent years by boulders and chains. Floods often enough to level and fill holes. Another great spot would be the oxenBridge at shotover. Replenishing fine gold, nearby access track. Run some miners rights and make some pocket money for the govt. Be good for tourism and heritage, just like in VIC.
1 Like
Be good for Ngai Tahu too. They will most certainly hold their hand out for their gangster tax. I haven’t been up the Arrow for years.
Maybe battery powered ones, being a public fossicking area.
JW