Wanna Find A Patch ???

One of the best things in WA is we have sh$t loads of dead trees lyin on the turf.
Most of us westies choose our camp pozzie this way
Head out to your chosen spot be it a known patch/scrape or virgin area or an area that youve chosen going on the geo etc, have a swing until ya lob onto ya 1st nuggie, thats it, your onto a gold bearing spot, dont be too keen to move as your already on it and you should be thinkin bout smashin the livin crap outta that spot for at least 2-3 days....
As soon as youve got that 1st bit head back to the truck and call the mates in onya UHF, have a smoko
and take a close look at the 1st nuggie, is it sharp ? smooth ?(not always water worn in WA but gravel worn "ie"Elluvial" and take note of the land surface "ie" slope/flats etc.
Your on gold so the jobs already done, dont think "i'll camp off the gold so no bugger knows" camp right in the heart of the area so no sod moves in and camps within 2klm of yaz.
Next thing is, ? find the nearest dead tree and camp right on that bugger and light it up.
As that tree burns down just move along it each night until its burnt and if ya haven't hit a good run after 2 - 3 days move on, but dont move miles away, judge your move by the lay of the ground.
90% of the runs in WA are 5 - 10 degrees off a nth/west bearing so just get the mate to walk and detect the way as you drive the truck, chances are the old mate will lob on a extension of ya last patch.
Do This whole thing time after time and then do it again and again, it might seem endless and a waist of time but this is how new mega patches are found, sure you can hit scraped areas day after day and you might get 1 - 5 grams a week with a sniffer coil on but is that what prospecting really is ?????
No it aint and i can tell you this, the best thrill is patch finding and that aint finding a known patch but finding a true VIRGIN patch thats when the goose eggs show up...

How does this method start ??
It starts firstly by selecting a known gold bearing area on Geo Maps or by doing selective research on the net via TG and WAMEX drill reports, then you study the lay of the ground "ie" slopes and ancient drifts and post volcanic water courses and dont forget the geo botany of known species that are associated with gold bearing areas in WA, not Vic or any other states, as each state as its own geobotany related AU associated species.
Now you may be thinkin "FFS pete your gettin all mental here mate" and your right i am gettin all mental, but i'm gettin "GOLD MENTAL"
I've hardly even broken the skin on this subject let alone given 1% of whats needed to be taken on board when it comes to huntin out VIRGIN dirt in WA as many good WA blokes will know.
All you other Westies "no names mentioned" but you know who i mean who are dedicated patchers
could maybe build on this topic as i'm sure you could.
I wont drop names but come on fellas

shite i nearly forgot hahahaha
HAVE FUN WHILE DOIN IT

Albo and LongFella How yaz goin

Pete

ffs Pete Piss off wont ya haahahaha no i bloody wont

Forgot to mention Acid dykes and Latterite intrusions hahaha

Ok i'll p%ss off for now

But hey Got a sneaky feelin our :afro: mate Tom is grinnin and is hell keen to ad to this post

Robert

Good post Pete, thanks for your expert advice on finding a patch, I hope to find my very own patch this season.

Cheers Kev

PROSPECTING MAXIMS AND METHODS FOR W.A.
by Crazy Pete.
I see a handbook suitable for the field.

Great work.

Cheers Rob, Kev and GR as you'd guess i'm very passionate about the subject and always have been, give it ya all or to coin Owens Phrase "Fecken back off" , and so should all of us... whether we just wanna find the odd bit or smash the livin crap outta the turf.
Kev- lets hook up one day mate and have a swing ay ?
GR- i find it real hard to speak to a non deploom mate, PM ya real handle ifya want, wont leak out

YES PLEASE!!
pete i got to say mate, you have a brilliant gold focused brain.
get some backing and write a book, do some dvd's or get a hold off discovery channel or similar or atleast set up a gold tour.
post like that at 3am, unreal.
oh i got to get out there again asap, and add to me little tally.

tellin it like it is Pete, u pretty well got it sorted, nice to see a seasoned prospector giving some sound advice
to those that have half a clue but need a little help to see what the full picture could possibly be.

You crazy mentalist you, clear thoughts in the early hours of a brand new day, not so much EMI around.

Jobs on Pete, going hunting with the guru you bloody bewdy. Soon as the weather cools I'll be hounding you Pete.

Cheers Kev

Cheers Jase, tell ya what tho i'm over this bloody heat thing and it's only half done for the summer

Kev - you do that mate it will be great to get out and have a swing with ya

PickNshovel - Clear thoughts hahaha maybe it was the full bottle of OP rum that gave me some clarity at 3am Ouch! i got take a Bex and lie down me noggin is throbbin real good

Talk with yaz later
Pete

weather around Sandstone is perfect for tecktin, not to hot at all, might head down the menzies rd for a look in the morning, passed a few big quartz blows on the way in from Mt Magot to Sandstone, Stu

snapper wrote:weather around Sandstone is perfect for tecktin, not to hot at all, might head down the menzies rd for a look in the morning, passed a few big quartz blows on the way in from Mt Magot to Sandstone, Stu

Stu, make sure you head to the park behind the dunny's on the main st in the morning, the lovely local lady does a ripper brecky, 2 tasty snags on a massive roll and a free cuppa tea $6.00
She's only there fri/sat/sun mornings until about 11am.

Pete

hhmmm, ok i will have a look, Stu

Can't beat local knowledge Now there's a good patch

I've been told the last 2" are pretty safe and still hold bliss

Crazy Pete's Findn a Patch chapter 2
"Detecting Flogged Areas"

Watch where Crazy Pete detects!
So you go back to a pretty flogged out area, after getting desperate as the weekend draws to a close, virgin patches eluding you?

Go to a place he's been heaps of times before...
He'll say nothing other than where he or someone he knows found colour, why?

You can almost bet he'll be B lining to the fresh scrapes he's compelled to, after seeing them for the 1st time since his last visit!

Obviously, there is still interest in the area by the locals. (expecially when they come to visit looking for "firewood" way out of town ha ha.

If the ground is seriously mineralized any extra inch on old ground cheaply got on an old reef shed helped with a bulldozer, deserves a SLOW intense going over as he would testify with photo's of his bounty.

ND.

I'll take ya Bait ND

Yeah ND flogged out patches and scrapes need there own set of rules and methods to eek out
what apparently isn't there anymore

I would say the two main things to consider are Coil selection and a dedicated methodology or
attack.
Coil selection is probably one of the easiest of these two for a bloke reasonably new to this game
to work out.
My method is to firstly take a good walk over your intended area your gonna detect, time for some
intense Scooby Doo'ing here, what i basically try to do is pick to pieces the previous operators style
and gear used and try to find a chink in their armor.

How many boot scrapes are there compared to actual pick scrapes ?
Boot scrapes just don't cut it when it comes to sharpening up a suspected signal, ya need to actually break the surface to dissipate the Mineralized crust that builds up after many rains and the cementing
process, so at least a 2 -3 inch pick scrape is needed...

Take note of any boot prints in the area, small prints indicate a child or lady operator and this tells me
that the kid wont have had the time under his/her belt to be a seasoned operator and do the job
properly.
Large boot prints say that a big tall bloke has been over the ground, now i'm not saying all tall blokes
are prone to this fault but a bloody good deal are - "Coil shaft to short" so you can bet their coil
may have been just that one or 2cm too high off the ground to hear those very subtle whispers
that we are looking for, all the easy targets are gone on this type of ground and 1cm can make
all the difference here.

Holes already dug by past operators - whether still open or filled in they still tell a tale.
They tell us what shape of coil "ie" round/Elliptical was used, round coils tend to have us digging a
square hole, Elliptical coils tend to make us dig a slightly elongated hole.
The width of the hole - The wide holes are dug because a Larger coil was used and so that bloke/lady
was looking for bigger deep gold.
The opposite goes for small holes, small coil small holes.
It always pays to try run a totally different coil to the last operators so we are looking into the ground
through a different window and the above clues will dictate your choice...
The other thing with holes to notice is how the hole was dug, if the dirt is only at one side of the hole
you can bet the target they dug was not that deep, but when ya see dirt has been pulled out on all sides
of the hole it would have been a deep bugger, we like to move in a circle as we dig deep and pull the dirt out as we go.

So, by now we've got a pretty good mental picture of what the past operators coils where, there sex,
their size, their shape & size of coil used and their skill level...
All great Ammo for YOUR system of attack, i call it attack because on old flogged patches and scrapes you really need to have a Battle plan not just a loose detecting plan..

I'll go have some grub and come back to rant on about "My Methodology" on this type of ground..

Oh! Wait up If those small boot prints were left by a lady operator your screwed
Their highly sensitive snooping hearing will mean your odds just went down dramatically

Pete

Pete are you by any chance related to Sherlock Holmes?

Aaaaah! that's better, amazing what a good Bacon Sanga can do

Ok where was i yup My methodology on flogged areas.
No brain surgery needed here, Take no prisoners and truly flog the livin Sh$t outta it.
That means eye up an area roughly 20x20 foot and either use rocks or trees to give you a boxed
off area, sometimes i used dead sticks or branches and lay em out so i know whats goin on.
No need for a chain just walk it from at least 3 directions and overlap your swings by 3/4 of your coil
width not half as you'll miss the deeper gold.
Move every dead branch,rock,old tinnie,deep mulch, EVERYTHING.
It's not about how much ground you detect each hour, your already on the gold so it's about
goin slowly and do not leave a single square centimeter un scanned.
Take a quick smoko every 20 minutes to keep the brain fresh and sharp and while your hiding
in the shade under a tree keep looking around you at the area from different angles.
DIG EVERY and i mean EVERY target that you can't see staring at you, don't always assume
that the loud trashy targets are just trash, only ya eyes will tell the truth on them...
Make sure you get into your mental zone before you even start detecting your chosen area and
i find a good few coldies will get the mind loose and also relax you so you don't bolt off into it
like a jack rabbit
When that's done move onto an adjoining square and start again.
If there's old mullock heaps covered in Mulch have a steel rake handy and rake em totally clean
and pull that mulch at least 3ft away from the pile as the gold rolls down and works it's way off
the pile a couple of feet.
Grab a few long skinny sticks and lay em out on the pile like sections of an orange and slowly
detect each section one by one until it's done, then run around the edges of the pile up to ya mulch.
Like i said, no Brain surgery needed here just smash it and smash it good

Pete

Rege-PA wrote: Pete are you by any chance related to Sherlock Holmes?

No mate John Holmes

Good on ya Pete some gold there mate

I personally give the windrows a real flogging on old scrapes often pays off

Pete
You knowledge good sense mate make.

Just curious, do you happen across ancient river beds while teckten in WA or are they way too deep??

Not too many Tertiary leads over here like in the west Chris, few near Kal and Kanowna and some at Marble bar but they are deep as.
I mainly work the Elluvial shed.
Would be more old Tertiary leads in WA but i don't worry about em.

Flying kiwi wrote:I personally give the windrows a real flogging on old scrapes often pays off

Yeah same Tom, they can be hiding some real deep goodies

Cheers Pete

I see there's been some new roads pushed through and some bitumen happening on some of the old roads??

Mind you the grader driver would be in the know! I'l just cover that spot with some over burdon? I know I would!!!

Cheers
Chris.

Great post Pete-keep the tips coming mate