In Search of... is a video series where I search for those things hiding under the surface. Episodes will hopefully educate, inspire or possibly entertain as I search Gold, Gemstones, Fossils, Relics, Fish and even Ghosts! All applied in the spirit of old Australian adventure shows like The Leyland Brothers and Malcolm Douglas.
You will find I will respond to comments positively and love feedback...even the harsh stuff. I can handle it. I hope!
Well done . Very relaxing watching you do your thing . As an experiment to satisfy curiosity I would love to see you do another trip to the same spot but take material about one to three metres downstream from where you were. The place you went looks perfect for low pressure drop point but technically more heavies will be slightly further down. Cheers bro Love your work .
Cheers. I did look at that area and considered it, but I had found an underwater cave in this case and chose to clean it out. I’ll certainly give the spot further down a try next time I’m there.
You’re welcome! I feel I need to give it another go sometime. Maybe look for older gravel beds away from the river or dislodge a bolder in the river. You always have Campbell’s River!
Fossicking and prospecting realities, fairly shown, Jason. The sighting of rounded rocks is a good take-away, as is being fair on yourself, that you'd only put in as much effort as the prospects allow for, once you get there. Dams and other earth-moving like road cuts might expose in patches what might take enormous effort to reach with your own steam, and on a smaller scale, digging where others had opened holes for you, and leaving their fieldwork for you to see, maybe as a decoy they'd found the ground unproductive, or didn't dig deep enough or in the right spot. I'd dig behind any of the boulders, work out at least if indeed it were the historic watercourse. Boulder clusters slightly off the current flow that your drone might spy might be the go, depend on whether their entrapment there does the same for gems and for gold. Either will satisfy of course. On that, have there been past success sites, ones you haven't used the drone to visually explore them differently with the new technology? It's comparable to spying on your past sites when satellite images became more easily available, the different perspectives can change your thoughts with new info on features and details previously unknown, historic workings easier to see from above, satellite level to drone scale, thus easier to understand what you're looking at at ground level. Pardon the essay, do! Written while it spits hail on my windows with "Winter Fightback, Part Deux: The Hobarting" going live. May it scour open some paystreaks nearest your abode... You like out-there thinking outside boxes, here in Victoria, certain goldfields sites get disproportionate amounts of lightning strikes, whether you've websites to see for such coincidence for where you know about, eh? Cheers, stay cheery, and uncheesed off!
I certainly will be taking advantage of the drone to find alternative places and possible hotspots. With Racecourse creek I needed to fly it in closer as when I ventured to spots seen from above, the extent of the blackberries hadn’t been made clear. The impromptu stop was a curiosity and, I have to admit, I was mostly looking for indicators. There were considerable diggings in the area, so I think gems had been found. I will return to try and map out the potential places for better results. However, next week it will be back to gold at Tuena and Trunkey where I will apply the advice given to me from my last outing and with the addition of the detector. The constant learner that I am.
@@tasnimweaver1492 that’s true. Unfortunately, their size means they are rarely “cutters” in this case. However, where there are small ones you can find the odd big one. The locations in other more recent videos had far better results in terms of gem quality and size.
@@InSearchOf...Australia how often do people generally find cutters? are these cutters valuable in the gem market or just valuable to someone like me who wants to own a sapphire they found themselves?
@@InSearchOf...Australia the reason I ask is March of 2025 I will be coming to Australia to do some rockhounding..Windera (agates) then Chinchilla (pet wood) then Quilpie (boulder opal) then Lightning Ridge (black opal) then finish off at Glen Innes (sapphire/zircon etc)..3 weeks total for my trip so was just curious...never tried any of these places before..total newbie here
Glenn Innes will have bigger sapphires on average if you can find the right spots. I’ll actually be heading out there in three weeks so you’ll see what I get. Campbell’s River has delivered 5 top sieve sapphires in two outings. They are the most likely to be cutters. But some bottom sieve dog’s tooth sapphires are good as well. Your trip sounds awesome. I hope you manage to find lots of precious stones.
Enjoyable, I hope you know if you get large enough Zircon they cut to beautiful stone very similar to diamond. I found a really nice record zircon in the NT and had it faceted by a professional and its 9.5 mm diameter almost white just a hint of colour. Several jewellers have asked where I got it as it really is a stunning brilliant and refractive gem. I had it mounted it 18ct gold on an Italian 18ct chain. So look for the big ones. Take care.
Cheers. I’ve been keeping my Zircon. Some are quite an amazing red or deep orange. The one you found sounds spectacular. I’ll keep looking out for them. Thanks.
@@markkilley2683 the blue gems are sapphires as are the ones that are a mix of yellow/green/blue which are called parti sapphires. The rest are zircon or possibly garnet.
Nice results, Jason. There's certainly good sizes and surprising variety of colours and saturation of hues with the gems, and although it's the cut value that's eye-popping, it would be an exciting value for a good size and clarity stone of curious colour. It'd outweigh in the right circumstances the value of a good gold panning amount, and that you're concentrating on sieving for gems and the gold is a by-product would similarly seem fortuitous, if there's gems in your gold concentrates, if the classification process catches deliberately and successfully nuggets and larger gems, like a pulsator or a sluice nugget trap, but that is at a different order of scale of operation. We're cogitating long-term a small-scale pulsator, precisely for catching gems, while the washdirt and smaller gravels go on to a normal dream mat run, the force of the water creates suction for vacuuming bedrock cracks, and mechanical pulsation from a simple waterwheel or fill-and-spill mechanism, of the Zen garden sort, make it out of bamboo, do your gem panning with a wickerwork patea pan, doubles as a sunhat. Arigato, Jason-san! (Now I have to listen again to the Sydney synthesizer sensation track, by the local 80's band, Arvø, "Oriental Exotique", you'll get I think a kick out of seeing this, as seems you're partial to the quirky, it's mega so!). Sayonara, and good luck with the next adventure! Gabi of Narre Warren, Victoria.
Thanks! There’s the next issue. Getting them cut. Where? How much will it cost? I’ve had little look into it but it seems to be prohibitive at this point. The mechanism you describe sounds great. In NSW we cannot use any mechanised process for fossicking but I have been wondering about using the energy in the river flow and what you describe sounds intriguing. Even as a fashion statement.
Nice job . Your technique looks good, I find if the heavies are off centre it’s usually the last settling shake and the sieve isn’t quite level. But what you’re doing looks fine to me. And nice pickup of gold too. Look forward to the next one.
Cheers. Yes, I think I can do a final accidental "tap" at times that pushes things aside, or have an odd angle when agitating. The sinker experiment was successful in showing when this happened. At times the heavies would be under the sinker when this happened.
Nice gems, i dont know much about them though its gold we go after - i didnt know about campbells river - thanks for tip, have they mined gold in the area? -pls keep up the great work- i enjoy your videos greatly
Cheers. There are some Minview notifications of drill testing and deposits but no mines that I know of. I would consider waving a metal detector around if I could see quartz near the surface.
i go there a fair bit, youre looking in the wrong areas. The middle of the dry river bed is where you should look. do 6 holes in a line and if you arent getting 50 specs to a pan keep looking. Theres some great easy gold there. usually get .3 to .5 for 4 or 5 buckets. If you ever want to catch up let me know love to have a dig with ya.
Thanks, John. Good to know. Yes, I was going in blind and need that sort of local knowledge to find more success. I tend to give a heads up where I'm heading in the community notes on my channel. I have run into quite a few viewers because of this. I do aim to return to Oallen. It will depend on the viewer's preference. I put up polls to go with interest.
Live next to sunny corner and if you spend enough time there u will get what your looking for and the gio maps mark sunny corner very well for not just gold but gems ect too
Hey Luke, great video. I'm planning to be in the Bathurst region (Trunkey Ck, Sofala etc in a few weeks for an extended stay (6 weeks?) prospecting/camping in my Van. If you are planning to go into a remote area and need a wing man for safety let me know as my schedule is flexible. Keep up the good work. Cheers
Cheers. Glad you liked it and thanks for the offer. I do want to return to Trunkey at some point. It seemed to have the best gold to material ratio I’ve discovered so far. I’m just not sure when. In saying that, I do post on the community page where I’m heading the following weekend so it might line up. Good luck with the trip! I’m jealous that you have six weeks to search!
Thanks for posing this issue. I looked it up and multiple sources suggest 2-3 megawatts at 42% capacity. I understand the variability issue but “next to no power”seems to be an exaggeration. But thanks for getting me to look at this. I like to be informed and not make assumptions.
To move a piece of gold the size of a pin head the volume of water must be moving rocks the size of a brick or more. At that time of water volume the gold will accumulate in pockets in the creek where low pressure points occur. Generally that will be higher away from the water where it is now . The pockets will be dependant on three main points . 1. The width of the river when water is running hard. To understand this point if you stand at water level now and look in a level line to the banks of the river then that will more than likely be where the your attention should be . Note that if river is wide then pay streak may also be wide which makes it difficult There will be no water there now. 2. Gradient of river flow . To understand this point then an easy way is to imagine that the river is a sluice. Running too steep will prevent gold from stopping . Running slow will just drop too much light material and and if any gold drops it will wash away at next high water event because generally it will only be small gold . An inside bend at high water level and bedrock is a good place where a pocket will occur . The better size gold will be closer to the the faster running water and a little bit towards the end of the bend . The furthest extremity of the bend where there will probably be brick size rocks or larger . Just note that there may be no water there now. 3. One of the better places where pockets occur is a steep grade that becomes less steep and more the gradient of your sluice . The gold washes down the steep section and catches in the sluice section. Of course finding crevices and boil holes in the higher up points is wise. Generally gold will drop in a pay streak and working a section with poor yield means that the pay streak was missed . The streak varies in width from two feet to ten feet wide . Main point out of this is to move to higher ground and find a pocket that will have larger gold . Didn't mean for this to be so long but maybe this will be helpful in your search for gold. Cheers🍻🍾
All feedback and suggestions are valuable. Thank you for such detailed information. Some of this I implicitly applied but the focus on higher ground is one that I would love to test in the future as I do tend to focus on the readily exposed crevices and accessible bedrock areas. Cheers, and watch out for a video where I apply your suggestions in the future.
@@InSearchOf...Australia your welcome. The information is from a scientific study in Canada . They actually made a river and changed sharpness of bends , steepness etc until they were satisfied on how gold moves and settles in the river. I don't have the patience or strength these days to do what you young fellas do but I wish you all well in your quest. Cheers
Mitchell’s creek definitely still has some decent little spots, really have to work for em though! Think it’s only a matter of time until I end up running into you, we share a lot of the same areas hahaha
The area certainly does. I’m sure it is likely to happen. I have run into a few viewers now out in the field and even at shops. With my hat and jacket, I’m an easy spot.
I hope you don’t have to wait too long to be the 1000th. I’m sorry to hear you lost your job but I can see you are going to appreciate using the time you get. Good luck finding plenty of shiny stuff!
I was thinking that. I'm very experienced at Saltwater fishing but Freshwater fishing is a bit of a mystery. I'll certainly try when I return to Campbell's River in about two weeks. I did see fish surface there last weekend. I'm going to try spinners and power bait, as I feel they are a good entry point. Won't embarrass myself trying to do fly fishing.😆
Got my first gold speck at ophir when i was 12 lol- i really enjoyed the video-pls keep them coming- what i like is that you dont get ridiculous amounts of gold everytime you go out-your a bit more realistic compared to some other sites-cheers
That’s cool. I spend on average four hours prospecting often in places I’ve never been to so there is a lot of time taken up test panning and finding where to dig. I do find the yield increases each time I return as I learn more about the area. Campbells river is a great example. Thanks for the feedback.
Nice finds! My grandmother used to say that little boys who tell lies grow up to be weather forecasters... I spent today at Oallen instead of Sunny Corner because the forecast was somewhat less crud for down that way, turns out it didn't rain much at either of them. Cheers for the vid :)
@@InSearchOf...Australia Haven't cleaned it up yet. Was getting 10-30 specks per shovel, so hopefully it adds up. Five wheelbarrow loads, something close to a half cubic meter, I can't feel my arms now :)
Very nice colours and size of gems, Jason, a bait pump into the unseen underwater crevices might prove very satisfying, gems and gold in the pan. Would a top sieve worked as you do the smaller gauge classifier, just removing the larger rocks, would that centre any larger gems and nuggets as the heavies centre, when flipping over the pancake? A whopper gem for cutting would be a sought after commodity. RU-vidr Chris of Vogus Prospecting had noted about Gemfest having been revived and he attended it, successful show, and seems a source for making connections online. Good luck to you next out, cheers.
Cheers. Yes, I used the pump but was too carried away to film by that point. I was surprised by how effective it was getting gems. I think i need a larger gauge top sieve on the bucket purely for the really big rocks. I will have to connect with those who know the are of faceting and polishing now that I have sizeable gems. My priority is to return as I have an idea where possibly larger deposits may be found.
