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Date Posted: 19:06:41 03/16/02 Sat
Author: Matt
Subject: Re: ARTICLE - The Secrets of "Becoming" a Good Detectorist!
In reply to: Ralph 's message, "ARTICLE - The Secrets of "Becoming" a Good Detectorist!" on 20:49:26 03/15/02 Fri

Where do I start with this one Ralph? First I would like to say there is a difference between a detector operator and a prospector. A prospector finds the gold bearing ground that the detector operator works. In my opinion most beeper freaks today are not optimizing their opportunities by advancing from detector operators to true prospectors.
This transition may take a litte pain and heartache to achieve but once the penny drops detecting is so much more fun and fruitfull. It is very hard these days to make even petrol money off the old patches. Sure you may get the odd nice bit now and then that suckers you into staying and putting in more time but, realistically you are standing on a sinking ship, the best of the gold is long gone and you need to move on and find a "Virgin Patch" of your own.
This is not that hard to do, and I am sure some of you are working like this already. My tips for what they are worth are these.
Get a coloured geological map of your target area, maybe start off at 1 : 250,000 scale. Firstly look at the historical finds that should be marked on there, you should notice two things, the historic discoveries will occur in or contacted with certain rock types and secondly they will be in a line which may not be straight. This is the strike and will usually be associated with faulting. The faults will be marked there as well.
Most gold found in the oxodised zone of the crust is mobilized and has precipitated out as a metal again. The engine that makes this happen are the super heated gases that were forced up through the faults at varying times in the earths development. The other big engine was the granite plutons that rose from deep within the mantle.
On the map look between the known occurences of gold and see if there are any areas that "stick out", that have the same geology as the historic patches but no pick and shovel to denote mining activity. If there are none of these showing start looking for multiple cross faulting close to strike or coming off strike these are your best targets.
Pick yourself a target on the map that you think should produce gold , GPS the cordinates and go and have a look. Don't do half an hour and give up make sure you put the time in on the ground, some times it is worth wide chain gridding to get the best coverage. I know you can't always do this but be inventive.
You may not pick right every time but you will be surprised what you come up with. All the successfull alluvial prospectors are looking for new ground, it is the way of the future and you need to learn how to do it if you don't already know. Good hunting.
Matt

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