This was incredible to watch. I thought it was just me that continued to dig these kinds of deep holes for prospecting because I never see any other channel do it. Although I don't have the advantage to do it on property so I always have to close it up after I'm done which absolutely sucks but I still love nothing more than sinking a deep hole and nerding out on what I find. Keep up the great work mate! Truly awesome stuff!
Thank you very much for the kind comments mate. Yes it's not a super common way to get gold but it's still just as effective as it was in 1851, just less rich ground now! It's harder out in the bush, I can go down six feet in a day if I put my back into it, more depending on the ground, but deeper ground is hard if you have to fill in when you leave yeah. It's a special sort of excitement when you dig deep and find stuff, I started after sapphires and gold as a teen, still digging.
Hi Tony.. Well I appreciate showing how the old timers did it digging those holes.. One thing for sure.. You definitely can get a job as a grave digger..! Thanks for sharing this. Cheers Tony . Famo59🍻⛏️
Ha ha, thanks mate. I had someone comment once out in the middle of nowhere that they thought I was digging a grave. I thought it strange that someone would walk up and ask a stranger that when we where the only people for miles around!
Fair effort digging those size holes in that hard ground! Nick name you The Excavator ! Your technique for moving dirt makes my back ache! Bend zee nees!
Thanks mate, I like to keep it real, good finds are great to show but the 'hard work for not a lot' reality of most days is important to show too I think. There will be some spectacular finds in this little area I feel, just got to keep digging ;-)
@@daveoc4462 Thanks mate, appreciate the comment ;-) It's better than going to the gym I think! Have a crack at it, there is way more gold in old buried ground than there is in creeks or near surface, it's just a bit harder to get.
Thanks for talking through your thinking and logic to narrow down the better prospects. While I am getting too old for shovelling I have in earlier times done quite a bit of prospecting for alluvial gold. I believe there is a lot more fine gold (even too small for the Mk 1 eyeball) to be found where the courser gold is located. Have you ever considerd crushing some of those quartz rocks especially those showing mineralisation? I know from first hand experience that using a dolly pot is even harder work than shovelling but perhaps there is an easier way with new tech. I tell the grandkids as I to point at a shovel and spade to take their pick (goes right over the head).
Thanks for the comment mate. Yes I think it would be worth crushing some and testing, maybe in another video. I have a decent dollypot but even better an impact mill that can crush several hundred kg an hour with minimum effort ;-) Love the joke, I'll use that on my kids next time we go digging!
Thanks for the video and your knowledge. We can see why they were called 'Diggers'. Interesting how deep the middle hole was. 'Iron oxides' true to the saying 'Gold rides an iron horse'. with thanks.
@@Ross-f1j Thanks for your comment. Yes they were well named the diggers of old! I'm curious as to how deep the next hole down will be, the Gully is way deeper than the middle hole. Indeed, great old saying 😁
Really enjoying these format of videos, I learned a lot. I am currently prospecting a similar area of old alluvial diggings where I found numerous small bits of rough gold in the mullock heaps and a quartz specimen as well. and I have been wondering how to proceed. You have given me a lot of clues. Looking forward to part 2!
Yeah it's a bit of fun digging like that but it is hard and slow work, rewarding though, sometimes. In Victoria you need a hard and expensive mining claim to use machinery but you can dig like this anywhere you are able to prospect so it's handy from that point. Your right though, I do need an excavator ;-) Thanks for the comment .
@@Castlemaine That is a brilliant idea! I have one of those somewhere in the sheds. I'm planning to make a big tumbler set up to puddle, something that can do 500kg to a ton then tip into a trommel.
@@adzoutnabout888 ha yes it is tough on the back, keeps me fit and sane though, well, as sane s I'll ever be 🤣 I have plans for a super clay puddler, pretty much the same as a mixer only much bigger 😁
In Victoria/Australia we are not allowed to prospect with powered equipment, not even electric water pump for high banker. That is the law on our Miner's Right.
@@billingmetals Thanks for that info will check on it as many people are misinformed. Recently at a local Prospectors Fair a stallholder who sold high-bankers and petrol powered pumps was adamant they are legal even in National Parks. It is not my business to tell people what they can do but when illegal mechanical activity is put online the people who want us prospectors locked out of state forest and national parks use it against us. Love your videos, full of great information.
@@wss29-4sf0 yes I agree it's important to do the right thing, more so now than ever with the big movement to lock us out of much of our public land that's going on.
Hi, thank you, glad you enjoy them. Depending on where you are there are a few good gold buyers out there, some you can post your gold to, some face to face. The trick to work out scammy ones v good buyers is to ask what they are paying for 24ct gold, it should be within 10% or so of spot price, look that up on kitco or similar beforehand. The shopping centre popups and kiosk type ones are universally dodgy if not outright scammers, never sell to them ;-)
Good video Toby , interesting looking at the earth profile and your description . Is antimony a common element associated with gold in structures?. Or is it specific to your type of area which I believe is high sulphides ?
@@StephenThompson-o2r Thanks for the comment. Antimony sulphide is a minor accessory mineral in a few reefs, not so much associated with this area though. Some goldfields have lots, Heathcote and the Baccus Marsh goldfields are good examples where Sb was mined as well as gold. You'll find lots of gold without associated antimony but almost never antimony without gold, hence my interest in the reef these specimens shed from.
Keep up the hard work mate ... It's nice to see an actual prospector like my self.. U are the only bloke I will subscribe too ....I love the honesty mate!! Fucking well dobe... Rik
U actually deserve a medal mate!! That's incredible..,..look at that hoke! And ur reaction to no gold is even better.. I'll tell u this ...all my shit be in the pond ( fucking dam) if I where u ...legit ...wtf
@@Rik-h7x Thank you for the comments mate, yeah I keep it real and honest, I hate fake finds and bullcrap videos too. Thanks for the sub, lots more videos coming up soon 😀
I'm planning to film the first bit and start digging Monday, it could take a week, could be a month, depends on what I hit, depth and how distracted I am with my new detector ;-)
I just dug a test hole out of, went down over a meter, didn’t hit the bottom. I dug it coz I found a 6.1gram nugget in the mullek panned half a bucket from the and found eight good size specks
Before 1893 the method of recovery of fine gold from a stamp mill was to run the crushed ore over a copper plate coated with mercury. The mercury amalgam was scrapted off every now and again but this was still a very inefficient recovery method (I have see figures of 23 percent). This got even worse if the guy (being paid wages) did not know what he was doing or if there were Sulphides present such as nearly all gold deposits in the Yackandandah area of Victoria. So a lot of gold was washed down the creek where it remains today unless someone reprocessed it using the cyanide leaching process. The cyanide leaching process is certainly not for the faint of heart.
Yes indeed. On my property the heaps where dug up and reworked with cyanide in around the 1920's we think, the few bits of the original sand heaps do have decent gold in them ;-)
Diggings on your own property?, lucky you, did you research the history of it, any big chunkers found?, if so, i would dig up the whole joint one hole at a time!!!!
Yes, pretty historic property here, old town/camp site, mines, battery sites and diggings, I feel very lucky living here. Nothing big that I've found records of but some amazingly rich reefs, up to 9 ounces a ton! Most gold here seems to be sub 2 grams but I'll find one of those rich patches in a reef here one day, that will make a good video 😁
In the first hole no, it is always possible but highly unlikely, second hole due to the different profile and closer bedrock is is more possible and probably worth metal detecting but further up the hill is going to be more worthwhile where the gold will be shallow.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
This was incredible to watch. I thought it was just me that continued to dig these kinds of deep holes for prospecting because I never see any other channel do it. Although I don't have the advantage to do it on property so I always have to close it up after I'm done which absolutely sucks but I still love nothing more than sinking a deep hole and nerding out on what I find. Keep up the great work mate! Truly awesome stuff!
Thank you very much for the kind comments mate. Yes it's not a super common way to get gold but it's still just as effective as it was in 1851, just less rich ground now!
It's harder out in the bush, I can go down six feet in a day if I put my back into it, more depending on the ground, but deeper ground is hard if you have to fill in when you leave yeah.
It's a special sort of excitement when you dig deep and find stuff, I started after sapphires and gold as a teen, still digging.
Hi Tony..
Well I appreciate showing how the old timers did it digging those holes..
One thing for sure..
You definitely can get a job as a grave digger..!
Thanks for sharing this.
Cheers Tony .
Famo59🍻⛏️
Ha ha, thanks mate. I had someone comment once out in the middle of nowhere that they thought I was digging a grave. I thought it strange that someone would walk up and ask a stranger that when we where the only people for miles around!
Fair effort digging those size holes in that hard ground! Nick name you The Excavator !
Your technique for moving dirt makes my back ache! Bend zee nees!
Ha ha, thanks mate, practice makes perfect they say. Yeah I'm always thinking that to protect my back... 😬
Super interesting video Toby. Thanks
@@jow4040 Thank you, I appreciate the support, glad enjoyed it.
Great information, can’t wait for the next one👍👍
Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it.
Brilliant 👏 great video. Can't wait for the next video.
Thanks mate, I'll start on part two of this one next week. Got another mine exploring video up next Saturday ';-)
Nice work mate. Good to see a you tuber putting in the hard yards for the gold and not seeding the results. Keep it up
Thanks mate, I like to keep it real, good finds are great to show but the 'hard work for not a lot' reality of most days is important to show too I think. There will be some spectacular finds in this little area I feel, just got to keep digging ;-)
@@billingmetals 100% mate keep loaming you find it soon enough
@@Blackwood_gold indeed, there are so many little reefs running though in this stacked reef country.
😮far out mate go hard or go home he says and not a bead of sweat. I'll give ya that your fit bud I'm going to do this for sure good shit bud 👌
@@daveoc4462 Thanks mate, appreciate the comment ;-) It's better than going to the gym I think! Have a crack at it, there is way more gold in old buried ground than there is in creeks or near surface, it's just a bit harder to get.
It is hard work digging holes like that but it is all part and parcel of what we do. Good video Toby.Very informative. I look forward to part 2. 👍
@@fozfoz9362 Thanks heaps for the comment, much appreciated.
Hard work but fun and saves time going to the gym 😁
@@billingmetals Sure does. Been doing a bit lately myself.
@@fozfoz9362 brilliant, getting much yellow metal out of it?
@@billingmetals Nah mate. Just cleaning the forest of buried iron !!!!!
@@fozfoz9362 Well iron and lead removal is an important job 🤣
Great video! Looking forward to part two!
Thank you, I'll be starting sinking the hole for part two next week ;-)
Thanks for talking through your thinking and logic to narrow down the better prospects. While I am getting too old for shovelling I have in earlier times done quite a bit of prospecting for alluvial gold.
I believe there is a lot more fine gold (even too small for the Mk 1 eyeball) to be found where the courser gold is located. Have you ever considerd crushing some of those quartz rocks especially those showing mineralisation?
I know from first hand experience that using a dolly pot is even harder work than shovelling but perhaps there is an easier way with new tech.
I tell the grandkids as I to point at a shovel and spade to take their pick (goes right over the head).
Thanks for the comment mate. Yes I think it would be worth crushing some and testing, maybe in another video. I have a decent dollypot but even better an impact mill that can crush several hundred kg an hour with minimum effort ;-)
Love the joke, I'll use that on my kids next time we go digging!
Great video mate, looking forward to the next one. Cheers
Thanks mate, I was digging and filming for the next one just 20 minutes ago! ;-)
Great video Toby - hope to catch up in the future
Thanks mate, for sure, send us a message, always out in the bush ;-)
Another great vid there Toby, i certainly gleaned some useful info from it to help in the bush. Big thumbs up
@@dianalyons6217 Thank you very much for the nice comment, glad you got some info out of it.
Thanks for the video and your knowledge. We can see why they were called 'Diggers'. Interesting how deep the middle hole was. 'Iron oxides' true to the saying 'Gold rides an iron horse'. with thanks.
@@Ross-f1j Thanks for your comment. Yes they were well named the diggers of old! I'm curious as to how deep the next hole down will be, the Gully is way deeper than the middle hole.
Indeed, great old saying 😁
Good on you Toby. Hard work, good fun. Well done
Thanks mate, hard work and a lot of fun, more fun when decent gold comes out though ;-)
Really enjoying these format of videos, I learned a lot. I am currently prospecting a similar area of old alluvial diggings where I found numerous small bits of rough gold in the mullock heaps and a quartz specimen as well. and I have been wondering how to proceed. You have given me a lot of clues. Looking forward to part 2!
Rough gold is always exciting, more so when there are specimens with it! Glad the video helped, thanks for the nice words mate.
great info your a worker mate
Thanks mate, hard work brings more luck I recon ;-)
Great looking ground for sure
@@garrettmillsap It is, a lot of potential there for sure 😁
@@billingmetals no kidding lol and you already own the land, big extra bonus!
Superb video! Bravo 👏👏👏
Thanks heaps mate, much appreciated.
Great video Toby 👍🏻
Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it.
awesome stuff there mate!
Thanks mate, much appreciated.
Great work...
@@ayetee8403 Thank you, it was a bit of hard work but fun 😊
Very interesting mate, 👍👍👍 cheers
@@evannicholson2823 Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it.
Great video
Thank you, much appreciated ;-)
Wow, big holes by hand, old timers way, u need a little excavator. Thx for the video
Yeah it's a bit of fun digging like that but it is hard and slow work, rewarding though, sometimes. In Victoria you need a hard and expensive mining claim to use machinery but you can dig like this anywhere you are able to prospect so it's handy from that point. Your right though, I do need an excavator ;-) Thanks for the comment .
Try a paint mixer on a drill for puddling heavy clay.
@@Castlemaine That is a brilliant idea! I have one of those somewhere in the sheds. I'm planning to make a big tumbler set up to puddle, something that can do 500kg to a ton then tip into a trommel.
also a small electric powered water pump with a spray nozzle. the water spray is the best way to break down clay.
@@zacktoby Brilliant idea too. I'm thinking about adding that to the rotary puddler when it's created too now...
My back was hurting just watching you mate. Nice results though !
Perhaps an old portable cement mixer to puddle with on site ?
@@adzoutnabout888 ha yes it is tough on the back, keeps me fit and sane though, well, as sane s I'll ever be 🤣
I have plans for a super clay puddler, pretty much the same as a mixer only much bigger 😁
In Victoria/Australia we are not allowed to prospect with powered equipment, not even electric water pump for high banker. That is the law on our Miner's Right.
@@wss29-4sf0 Hi, you can use powered gear to process wash or quartz, just not to excavate. A pump onto a sluice is OK as long as it is fed by hand.
@@billingmetals Thanks for that info will check on it as many people are misinformed. Recently at a local Prospectors Fair a stallholder who sold high-bankers and petrol powered pumps was adamant they are legal even in National Parks. It is not my business to tell people what they can do but when illegal mechanical activity is put online the people who want us prospectors locked out of state forest and national parks use it against us. Love your videos, full of great information.
@@wss29-4sf0 yes I agree it's important to do the right thing, more so now than ever with the big movement to lock us out of much of our public land that's going on.
Hi Toby. I enjoy your videos. I am hoping you can help me. Where is a good place to sell panned and detected gold?
Hi, thank you, glad you enjoy them. Depending on where you are there are a few good gold buyers out there, some you can post your gold to, some face to face. The trick to work out scammy ones v good buyers is to ask what they are paying for 24ct gold, it should be within 10% or so of spot price, look that up on kitco or similar beforehand.
The shopping centre popups and kiosk type ones are universally dodgy if not outright scammers, never sell to them ;-)
Good video Toby , interesting looking at the earth profile and your description . Is antimony a common element associated with gold in structures?. Or is it specific to your type of area which I believe is high sulphides ?
@@StephenThompson-o2r Thanks for the comment. Antimony sulphide is a minor accessory mineral in a few reefs, not so much associated with this area though. Some goldfields have lots, Heathcote and the Baccus Marsh goldfields are good examples where Sb was mined as well as gold.
You'll find lots of gold without associated antimony but almost never antimony without gold, hence my interest in the reef these specimens shed from.
Keep up the hard work mate ...
It's nice to see an actual prospector like my self..
U are the only bloke I will subscribe too ....I love the honesty mate!!
Fucking well dobe...
Rik
U are a machine bro .. holy shit!!
U actually deserve a medal mate!!
That's incredible..,..look at that hoke!
And ur reaction to no gold is even better..
I'll tell u this ...all my shit be in the pond ( fucking dam) if I where u ...legit ...wtf
@@Rik-h7x Thank you for the comments mate, yeah I keep it real and honest, I hate fake finds and bullcrap videos too.
Thanks for the sub, lots more videos coming up soon 😀
When you going to do part 2 ?
I'm planning to film the first bit and start digging Monday, it could take a week, could be a month, depends on what I hit, depth and how distracted I am with my new detector ;-)
I just dug a test hole out of, went down over a meter, didn’t hit the bottom. I dug it coz I found a 6.1gram nugget in the mullek panned half a bucket from the and found eight good size specks
@@ianshugg2681 Nice work! I'd be digging it out to bottom if I was you, if a 6 grammer came out it's well worth investigating.
@@billingmetals m8 bloody hard work but will go back and have another go. Thx m8
@@ianshugg2681 Hard work yes but there could be a whole nest of those 6 gram bits in there somewhere ;-)
Before 1893 the method of recovery of fine gold from a stamp mill was to run the crushed ore over a copper plate coated with mercury. The mercury amalgam was scrapted off every now and again but this was still a very inefficient recovery method (I have see figures of 23 percent). This got even worse if the guy (being paid wages) did not know what he was doing or if there were Sulphides present such as nearly all gold deposits in the Yackandandah area of Victoria.
So a lot of gold was washed down the creek where it remains today unless someone reprocessed it using the cyanide leaching process. The cyanide leaching process is certainly not for the faint of heart.
Yes indeed. On my property the heaps where dug up and reworked with cyanide in around the 1920's we think, the few bits of the original sand heaps do have decent gold in them ;-)
Diggings on your own property?, lucky you, did you research the history of it, any big chunkers found?, if so, i would dig up the whole joint one hole at a time!!!!
Yes, pretty historic property here, old town/camp site, mines, battery sites and diggings, I feel very lucky living here.
Nothing big that I've found records of but some amazingly rich reefs, up to 9 ounces a ton! Most gold here seems to be sub 2 grams but I'll find one of those rich patches in a reef here one day, that will make a good video 😁
@@billingmetals 9oz a ton, yep that's rich alright, goodluck with it all, i know how hard that ground is, so anything found is well deserved!!!!
@@beergold Thanks mate, yes it is damn hard ground alright!
What's with the Tonka truck?
Good spot! My kids where playing miners in my mullock heaps and left it there 🤣
@billingmetals
Start them out early.
@@Bob-h3n Exactly 😁 They are both pretty good prospectors, I'll have a few videos coming up that at least one of them will be in.
23:22 How do you dry out your gold before weighing it?
Hi, I put it on a little stainless steel scoop and heat it us on a Bunsen burner, near instant dry gold ;-)
Thank you.
@@FergHyde my pleasure 🙂
18:43, do you have a licence for that haulpak?
Ha ha ha, I think my kids are qualified, I was going to edit it out of the video then thought nah it can stay and see if anyone notices 🤣
I know just how hard that soil is to dig...
Like concrete hey! At least the holes are solid, until it rains anyhow.
So you wouldn't expect any gold in that top soil
In the first hole no, it is always possible but highly unlikely, second hole due to the different profile and closer bedrock is is more possible and probably worth metal detecting but further up the hill is going to be more worthwhile where the gold will be shallow.
The American Fed might just boost your days wage next week.
@@andysparks1973 Oh yeah, between the US, the Middle East and war in Europe you can't really go wrong digging, buying or owning gold!
Get a long handled shovel
I do use them but find a short handle is easier in holes once you get down a bit, long handle tends to hit the sides.