turning professional prospector--

First topic message reminder :

Well trust me I haven't any inclination in carrying out such a feat.

There r a number of reasons why, let alone, u can work for 6 months of the year in a mining job as a FIFO
and earn an easy $150k per year without any expenses.

fuel doesn't come down in price so bank on about $2 per litre for fuel.
If u don't have a few good leases behind u then u will b pushing shite up hill to make ends meet let alone fall back on.

just because u can find gold doesn't necessary say that u will continually find gold. Its not like fishing were u can hit a spot and get a good haul of snapper or blue bone or whatever takes your culinary delight, once u remove gold it doesn't magically reappear. once its gone its gone, no more harry.
That's why a lot of eastern staters whinge coz all they find is fly shite --why coz they hammer the old spots day in day out.

if u haven't got a few pieces of basic machinery then its even harder to get good results.

set ya self up with a few thousand in the bank first and see how hard it really is.

To find good gold u need to pan --that's how the old timers done it and really nothing has changed especially if u r lookin for the leader. This method saves u a lot of time piss farting around and most importantly u must know when to call it quits..

all the best if u do venture into this profession..

regards
oneday

$2500.oo may yet be on the cards....apparently..... 1/09/13

Gold still remains far below its inflation-adjusted peak. It rose as high as $873 an ounce on Jan. 21, 1980. Adjusted for price increases that would be worth $2,475 in 2013.

worth the read
v
v
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http://www.dubaichronicle.com/2013/09/01/high-gold-price-comeback/

Too hard now in my opinion , mentioned it a few times in previous posts , the 2000 to extreme detector days were the best of course , you could sustain a reasonable living - legally. Those detectors got the bulk from patches & from the reports iv got from good prospectors that have stuck with it & updated all the flash gear in the past 2 years or so , its not a happening thing like it was & theres lots more people getting around out there having a go as well now. Anywhere theres a chance of gold the companies are picking up all the ground. The spots that were meeka north & vacant crown land are all covered for now & are in active exploration . ..... back working myself because its got slim on the ground available , so to make a living from it would be a big ask ... but probly theres still pockets of undetected usefull ground , but the fuel - time factor & possible finds make it even harder , but will thin out the crowds .......... yeeha . Don't mean to paint a gloomy picture , but treat il it like fishin or a game of golf from now on . my 2 c worth , cheers ,albo.

Some will say Bastard , don't care ,my own fuel n sweat....26 . 25 .568 another
27.36.927 bulldoze near freemans

albo wrote:Some will say Bastard , don't care ,my own fuel n sweat....26 . 25 .568 another
27.36.927   bulldoze  near freemans  

Aaah! Freemans Find? North of Melrose? Out near The Gunbarrel? I had a good few days up there in late 80's with 15 aborigines!! I got the biggest piece of 5.5 ounces on the patch but they got the most gold! But it was a hell of a good time and lotsa laughs. SIGH,,,,,,,,"the good old days, the good old days".


Funny story - There were 15 aborigines and me out there, I was the only white guy invited up there and it was damn good patch as well. This was back in the old days when my best mate George was a drinker. He's damn near stuffed these days, like all us old prospectors. But there we were, with about 10 ounces each in our pockets. We'd had a day off and went out for some meat. We got two roos and an emu and set ‘em cooking in the ground whilst we wrecked four cartons of Emu Export. (How long ago was that!!!)

By 8 o’clock that night we were all well bladdered and the lies were getting bigger. Stanley, was the grader driver for Leonora Shire and he turned to me and slurred, “Mate, you ‘n me, weez brudders”. I thought here we go, he’s smashed out of his brain and now he “loves everyone”, so I humoured him.

I said,” Stanley, how can we be brothers, I’m white guy from England and you’re an aborigine from Laverton?”

He replied,” Nah, bloke, I’m telling ya, you’re my brudder, weez brudders”.

I asked him,”Stanley, HTF can we be brothers@!@, you’re black and I’m white”.

He stood up, nearly fell backwards into the fire, looked around at his mates who were all on the dole and with a sweep of his hand said,” Les, we’re brudders, ‘cos we’re the only bastards paying tax!!!”

I never forgot that night. It was a hell of a night, but next day wasn’t funny at all!

But another story of the same night - as we'd arrived at the patch during the day, the lads told me of the strange happenings of the previous night. It was a tale of strange things in the sky, loud explosions, Japanese people in chem-suits and Sarin gas!! But that’s another story for another day.

Cat

spoke to a chap on the blower yesterday who works his SPL'S with a partner,$70k worth in the last 5 months using machinery. Tough going but that was just cleaning up the scraps. they had found a ancient pool under a laterite cap where they had pulled over 1200 oz's out off it over the last few years, they had followed a reef to the pond/pool as he called it and was only 2m down from the surface. Excavator with a rock breaker was required to break thru the laterite so I wouldn't think ya gpx and a hammer and chisel will get you far. The area they work? let's say about a hour out off meeka and a few reports around saying good gold coming from there and next season moving on about the same distance out off meeka just a different direction. so it's out there but yes agree tough going for most
aussie

im lead to believe under the cap at the Horseshoe alluvial flats is like that , lift the cap & the gold is in the soft stuff underneath

ya on to it albo, last I heard they where trying to negotiate a land deal out horseshoe way.

Yes Aus , did a trip in the 2000 days & checked in there to see how lively it was . The guy at the time was good & we had a quick yarn & he mentioned that's how it is there , lost his name ,long while back but no worries , cheers albo.

I reckon that you would find it hard going trying to make a living full time detecting only these days, although if you had the backup of a pension or you were cashed up and just wanted to drop out of the real world for a bit then you could scrape along, it would depend a lot on how you would be prepared to live, apparently the old timers used to say "there were more dinner times than dinners" so that's probably what they meant.

For one thing you would have to get used to living on limited resources or you would soon exhaust your cash, you cant be eating steak and swilling half a carton of beer a night, you will have to tone it down and reserve that for when and if you have a reasonable find, the rest of the time any gold found has to top up your cash resources as you can and will go through dry spells where you wont get any colour at all, but still have to cover food and fuel and will still have other things to pay for like rego and repairs and anything else that crops up so a cash reserve is a must.

If you are trying to do it in areas that have been well worked then your finds could be quite limited, better taking a punt at spending the most of your time patch hunting open country, and when knackered from doing that then do some gleaning of old patches and scrapes to get some bread and butter pieces, at least if you get on to a patch you might do well enough to really boost your cash balance and then you have bought yourself more time on the ground, but it can some times take many days or weeks to walk on to a new patch as you know so you cant rely on that alone.

Don't be too proud to work scrapes and the likes for tiddlers as colour is colour and sometimes you have to get the grams to make the ounces that's the way it is, and at least if you are getting some colour you wont too quickly become despondent and want to give it away as it can sometimes all seem too hard for too little, but anything coming in is better than nothing, if you can pull about ten or so grams a week you could feed yourself but its hard going sometimes these days to even get that, and then there's the weather and so on...........

 

au-fever

Mike , its not any pride factor involved with me & detecting scrapes , its the fact im a sht operator really , myself I need virgin ground , yelling signals , no rubbish & that's why im back working , if I was a great crummer on old runs I would do it . Tried hard at the crumbing to keep the freedom alive , but I switch off mentally,i love exploring .... they tell me women are great crummers but ...maybe look into that one again ,  albo

Hey albo, feel your pain mate. :-( I'm very fortunate in that I can crumb along if required (I call crumbing swinging a small coil over crapes and old patches etc) but I can also spend considerable amounts of time with a large coil in well known areas where the ground is deep listening for a missed slug or two, its kind of my speciality I suppose.

However give me the wide open spaces with bugger all people in it and I'm a happy man, problem is they are getting harder and harder to find these days. For some reason I miss out on the 'Purple Circle" goss until its too late, so patches like the Frenchmans or the one found a few years back near Leinster don't turn up on my radar till its too late (overcrowded)!!

Having a few bucks behind you keeps the need to crumb to a minimum, I try to get in at least 4 months a year solid prospecting, if I only find fuel money in that time then I can survive. To me too much time on old ground is time not spent looking for a good run. I've found you can't flit about like you could in the SD days, these days you have to become extremely intimate with the dirt of your choice, I try to pick an area off the radar with access to areas that have been productive for me, using the old productive areas as crumbing grounds to keep the dream alive while I'm searching for the new patch!! Thank Christ for the high gold price.....

JP

Gleaning and crumbing are the very same thing, small coil on and then massage the ground for leftovers, surprisingly enough on occasion I have snagged the odd bigger piece on well worked scrapes so you never know, often leaves me wondering are some of these places as well worked as we think.

But I really enjoy the patch hunting, its the hunt part that holds the most appeal being out on in the wide open areas with nobody in sight, no rubbish to do your head in, but as JP said these days you really have to become intimate with the area's you work, work smarter not harder I guess, camp up in your chosen area and then use a postie bike or quad to try this way and that, saves the tiring leg work and also you will access spots further out from camp that you otherwise would not get to on foot.

Don't get me wrong I like working an old patch from time to time as well, reckons she should hide nuggets on it to keep me interested..... 

au-fever

I don't think there would b one of us that didn't trespass every now and again--mind u inanvirtanly onto some ones lease in our quest for color, and as stated I don't think u could survive if u don't have a couple of good leases not too far from home..

I for one still haven't finished out in the bush but trust me this has been one hard slog and i'm over the breakdowns..

a motor with an electric starter will be the next major mod--for sure..

regards
oneday

regards
oneday

Some years ago (1994) I ran into a young chap who used to work in a good paying job at the mines in Kal.  He was single, just him and his dog.
He gave the job up to go detecting full time.  Reckoned he could survive if he found a coupla grams a day.  He said it paid for his fuel and I think he shot his food.
gold at the time was about $500 aussie dollars an ounze which was bugger all coz the ar*e had fallin out of it.  May have been US dollars, I can't remember.
I just shook my head and had another can   
I preferred hitting town at least once a week for a shower and restock on Campbells tinned chilli con carne   and a few days at the Exchange.
I guess if ya want to chase a dream, there's no stopping ya and best of luck to those who do it.
But I think I've said it before, make sure ya got a backstop financially.  No job, no pension, no bank account with money in it, then ya will need good luck.
Just my ramblings.

    
time for anothery

Not ramblings at all Cliff ,that's how it is , did the same thing myself , the first 3 years were terrific with gold after I quit my job ,but it ran thin & il say it , its the hardest job iv ever had . Truly these prima donna people that work on mines make me laugh each day , while you listen to their wingeing on the half hour bus ride to the site about the food , or this boss or that etc . They obviously have never been punished by 3 staked tyres in a day & self repair it , or bogged & had to live on a salt lake slop for 3 days or so till you pull yourself out of the sht . How long is the list ... but we love it , albo.

I've got to say that opal mining has given Chris & me a pretty good backstop.
But 4 months/year for 16 years in SW Qld. and the last 2 years were pretty bloody hard with the OH&S buggers turning up every few weeks.
Got to the point where our partner had a good FIFO offer at a gold mine in N Qld., I had hit 75 and climbing up and down from the excavator was knocking me about, (result of a badly busted leg and an even worse repair job) so we cashed in and closed down.
Which brought us over to WA to do a spot of 'tectin. Not a lot of gold, but enjoyed it so much gonna give it another rattle next winter.
Which brings me back to the OP, and my thinking is that unless you have a bloody good and generous backer, a shitload of cash (not plastic) you will battle whether you chase opal or gold. Forget about sapphires, there's buckets of them but they aint worth a stamp these days. There is good money in opal, (Qld., forget about Lightning Ridge in NSW) but the paper work will tie things up awhile then there is the ILUA to get around (Indiginous Land Use Agreement)
And above all (speaking of opal here) you got to know how to prospect and read the ground, that dont come overnight.
But there is an upside to all of this, and that is the bush lifestyle. Its as close to Freedom as one might get and its the one that gets me out there whenever possible
Good luck to anyone having a go.
Mike

yep back in town again--2 problems--motor getting dirt in fuel and another old bearing shite itself--the only one I was hoping I wouldn't have to change--long story short--the drive shaft is out and the bearing will be replaced Thursday once it arrives via air bag from Perth--none in Karratha..pulled the carby of the Honda motor for the unteeth time to clean out and silicone the gaskets maybe put in a paper filter in line and get rid of the pissee motor bike filter which isn't stopping the very fine dust particles getting into the fuel--the pull starter has also shite itself so back to the manual rope starter.

the magpie larks came back today just to say hello--been missing for about a week --me marque I brought of ebay went west with the wind yesterday--but it did last 2 weeks..shes absolutely ratshit now mangled around a heap of snake bush trees and everything ripped and bent to the proverbial--

the adventure continues..u wouldn't be dead for quids--trust me there are times when u think WTF..

regards
oneday

Stick with it Ray. Life wasn't meant to be easy especially with what you are doing.

 
Cliff

Hi Mike--

sorry mate I can go bush anytime and in 42c its not a lifestyle thing its a working ambition to get a 100ozs of gold--only 93 to go..but hey its one hell of a challenge and it has been hard--

cant wait for the rains to come as that is when I call it quits then mind u if I start heaping dirt and get the tarps out when the rain comes I will stretch my luck..the things we do..

if u have a couple of nice opals --I wouldn't mind a couple of pieces..$$$$


regards
oneday

boobook wrote:
But there is an upside to all of this, and that is the bush lifestyle. Its as close to Freedom as one might get and its the one that gets me out there whenever possible
Good luck to anyone having a go.
Mike

Totally agree with ya Mike.  It's heaven when ya out in the scrub and away from the city crap.  There's nothing that can compare with being camped and sitting around a campfire, spinning yarns (talking bull*), having a few coldies, and a good nights sleep.
Believe it or not, I sleep better in the scrub than I do at home     it's magic
And I don't care if I find anything or not.

 
Cliff

PS.  at night I like watching the sky for UFO's, there's some funny things up there.
If they do a fast right/left hand turn, then ya need another coldie  

Here's a coupla pics, I do have a vid clip stored somewhere, I'll try to find it.  While we were driving east, somewhere between Southern Cross and Coolgardie, this light just appeared outa nowhere.  It kept in front of us but disappeared after awhile.
I'm a great believer in UFO's. We cannot be alone in this universe.
And it wasn't a vehicle coming towards us either. There was nothing out there except the dark.

Ill say it, iv seen it only once , but I wasn't the only one at the time ,1982 maybe , in south QLD coast, coomera river over a mangrove swamp, this was a low level single light that travelled slowly then busted up into about 6 lights that changed colour & dispersed into different directions at high speed . Lots of people saw & reported it , late arvo just before sundown .

 Might be gettin into "min min" light territory here?
Over the years in SW Qld. we have seen lights through the scrub that simply had to be someone moving around with a tilley lamp or whatever. Gone looking to see if it was someone in difficulty only to find the light moving away or simply disappearing. Typical of the min min light phenomenon of which many theories exist as to its possibilities, one line of thought is self igniting gas bubbles or balls (SW Qld. is big oil and gas country) Another is bent/distorted light beams from the sun as it declines over the western states, my thinking is more reflected light from the big gas plant at Jackson closer to the SA border (250km.W).
But the lights have been recorded since settlement in that corner of the state, so "who knows?"

As to the lights in the sky, we have seen only one and that was a glowing ball, same colour but about 1/2 size of a full moon travelling N at an angle of about 5* above horizontal. Trailing a small fiery tail it was visible for about 2 minutes before it went out of site behind distant treeline. Too slow for a conventional aircraft, simply a "what was it?"

Yes Bignuggs, its great to just sit back and look at the night sky, missus and I often just drift off to sleep in the lie back chairs in front of the fire..........wake up an hour later freezin bloody cold.

Glad the mudlarks hav'nt deserted you oneday, at one opal camp (bit of a rough one) we were there for a solid 3 months and the only visitor we had was a willy wagtail who turned up at exactly 9am every day (right on smoko) then left at 4.30, knock off time. Where he came from, or went home to we never found out.
We did have a resident bush mouse though, a little bugger about 2" long who would come out at about 7pm. after our dog had gone to bed and happily chew on a small piece of dog biscuit. We reckoned he must have thought it was Christmas, bet the poor bugger was p*ssed off when we pulled the pegs.
Yeah,three solid months, $12000 diesel and not a colour worth keeping. 
mike

shite, im'e digging holes everywhere here!
Knock the first one off if you like please BN's, a bloke could step back into one:oops: 

Ok, I found the clip and it's short/quick.  I didn't have my camcorder set for night filming.  but you will see the light (it appears as the blur in the middle upper of the clip).
As soon as I started recording it buggered off. Min Min or whatever, make ya own minds up.