Prospecting, Where do I start ?

Prospecting for what? Gold, gems, etc?

You can join prospecting clubs, would be a good start, join for 1 yr, find out all the gear you need.... then go out on your own !



Metal detectors are fuggin expensive, I called about a couple 2-3 yrs back, I asked for
"just something general to find gold, or stuff down beach" $2500 ! I laughed.

Apparently machines that do gold are different to ones to use at the beach. So you need 2, or a better one to do both...

Lionel,

I too have pondered the same things at time and maybe oneday I will get around to it.

I have been told on good authority to visit the Prospectors Patch in guildford. I have riden and driven past it many a time and thought to myself that I should stop in, but timing has never been right.

Good luck

Mike

Here's a few links you could look at Lionel:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Goodluck!!

Alan

Well, G'day Lionel.

I'm not a miner or a prospector but I've looked into it a little for SA. I live in NSW and I see you're from WA.

It wasn't that I wanted to go and find my fortune. I thought it would make a good photo story if I could live in an abandoned mine for a while. Didn't work out, though. So here's a bit of what I found out.

Around Coober Peedy in SA, opal area, if you get caught out poking around where you're not supposed to be, they'll throw you down an old shaft. If they have a suitable weapon they might kill you or bash you senseless first, otherwise they'll just throw you down. So be careful about not going where you're not supposed to be.

I went to the government mining people's office in Andamooka, SA a couple of times and each time the inspector was very helpful.

I also found the SA mines website. Something like SAERPA or some such, from memory. Must be a WA equivalent.

There are all sorts of rules about prospecting, digging, miners right, pegging and registering a claim.

If you just happen to go prospecting where some one or a big company has a claim of some sort, and you find something:

1) You can't take it away.

2) If you do take it away you want to be looking over your shoulder.

3) You can't mine it till the lease runs out and you register a claim.

I do recommend that you find the correct online resource and inform yourself.

Oh, and when you strike it rich, think of me, won't you.

Just another thing:

There's not much of this vast country that hasn't had a pretty good going over already. You can get books and geological maps that tell you where the minerals have been found and are likely to be found.

Geoscience have some free download geological maps. Pretty big files though. Fascinating stuff. Even tell you where to look for dinosaur fossils. At the other end of the scale they'll tell you what sort of red dirt to expect.

Best wishes,
Laurie.

Lionel ,

I was like you - I had no idea where to go , or what to use . So last year , I decided to go on a Gold Prospecting Australia tagalong ( goldprospectingaustralia.com.au) .

They took me to where there was gold , showed me how to detect and hired me a detector . I found 12 nuggets and had a great time .

I am doing three tours with them this year . One out of Cue , one out of Halls Creek and one out of Tiboorburra . I can't wait !

Cheers ,

Willie .

This is a metal detectors' Forum:

http://groups.msn.com/golddetecting/messageboard.msnw

And then there's me ......

Previously, on 24 :

I done been thinking about it for nigh on thirty years but just got swamped by life!

Rekindled the interest after talking to my younger bro, who has been doing it for about 10 - 12 years, with some moderate success, some fruitless success [?] and the occassional great success.

So I read me some books, spent absolute ages on the web-thing and generally got enthused.

Took a quick day run to my nearest goldfields [ about 185 k's away!] spent a couple of hours looking over the terrain and came home.
Bought a 2nd hand Minelab SD2000 detector on eBay, went back for a few days by myself and found, as you will, boot-nails, barbed-wire and bottle-tops !!! About 30-bloody-hundred of them, ....as you will.

But then .....it didn't matter, I was out camping in the bush, by myself with just the ubiquitous Beagle, a bottle of port and the tent .......... it don't get no better than that ???

Did several trips like that, from four days to two weeks and all for the same result ..........' poo on a stick!'

Then went to visit the afore-mentioned bro in Charters Towers and self and two bros' went to, dare I say it, a "secret spot" somewhere else.

We camped for a week in the driest, hilliest, hottest waterless spot we could find and I found my first nugget, around half a gram in weight and worth nearly $15 -$18 at least !!!

My other bro, using a similar [SD2000]12 year old detector found ALL the gold shown in my Rig Picture .......... just click on that and see iffen it gets you horny ??? That's my little bit between the Big Kahuna and the $2 coin !!

I kid you not ..... this was his first trip and with an older detector, he found that big nugget at the top, of around thirteen and a half ounces which I have just sold for nearly $15K .... truly.

Plus all the other bits shown and a few more not included ... and I found $15's worth ................ it's just not fair!!!!

A bit like fishing for barra ....... most people catch heaps of bream, flathed, cod and catfish, [boot-nails, barbed-wire and bottle-tops] before they find their first barra [a small nugget] and then get the bug and go chasing the very elusive metre-long plus barra, [the very big nugget !!]

Some never get that metre-long fish/nugget .........
but you don't stop fishing, do you ? Nor will you stop hunting nuggets!!

I'm now in the process of putting a camper-top tent on my trailer so I can go out and 'do it for longer' ......and my best success so far is $15 ???

Want some advice ............... just do it !!

But don't spend huge amounts on the latest 'bells and whistles' gear [UNLESS you can afford it, of course!] get one of the earlier model detectors [but still the best you CAN afford!] and go to where gold has been found before. That last bit is very important, there is still some left somewhere there. And, 'tis best if you get some one experienced to go with you .........

But the best bet is as Willie says above ....... join a club and go on a few outings with them ............. there ain't nothing a bloke likes better than to tell some-one else how to do something that the's doing !! I only did it my way 'cause there ain't no club closer than five hundred miles away ... yep, miles!

And the links shown are really good for learning 'stuff' ........

I treated them as school and read everything I could, downloaded heaps and bunged them in my GOLD file for later reading/referring.

And also bought heaps of past issues of Gold, Gems and Treasure magazies from eBay, quickly read them all once from cover to cover and now am on about my third reading ......... just using them as a reference library is good for me !!

And they also give you a good working knowledge of many of the do's and don'ts of prospecting ..........

you can become an armchair expert in no time flat and then go out into the field, get some experience and come back and read them again and you'll be amazed at the extra info you'll pick up .

Then, AFTER youv've found your nuggets, go out and get some better gear and find some more ..... using those proceeds to finance your next bout of spending. There will be a lot of that ... spending .... just like any other hobby.

Me ..... I'm hooked .............

hope this will give you some ideas ???

g'day lionel,
have a look at the website called 'gold prospecting in western australia'. it has all the info and links etc relevant to w.a.
cheers sparra

I was fascinated to find an entire sub culture of modern day coil swingers. Thousands of them, many working out of caravan parks etc. So I asked the question, did any of them actually make a living from it ?
Yes, especially those who sell the gear and run the tours.
But few individuals appear to do so, mainly because of the taxman. If they find, they dont tell anyone. Plus it's bloody hard work. However, many cover the cost of their holidays, and check Ebay for many more who sell the various forms of it.
I asked one successful pair who graduated to something less physical, what it felt like to actually get into a good "patch".
"It's like picking up $50 notes," they told me.

Good luck and have fun...

Try to find Bilbo He's gone quite lately though. Try and find someone to show you the tricks

G'day Lionel, look up todays Sunday Times readers mart and you'll find adverts for both of Perths Prospecting shops plus a notice for the Metro Prospector Association meeting this week. Its under M for metal detector. These three should get you heading in the right direction. There is a web site done by the Dept of Minerals and Energy call Tengraph, which shows you all the mining leases and their boundries for WA. Once you decide on an area you can check out who owns what via this site.With the current boom here, nearly all ground is marked out. I would hire equipment first up, and don't expect to pay for your fuel and hire cost on your first outing, it can, but don't always work out like that. I'm in the Perth metro and have a good selection of WA specific prospecting books and "bibles" plus a few good dvds for the begginner, drop me a member message if you want to get in touch.
Gold is where you find it, Matt

Thanks everyone for your replies, they have been taken onboard. Ive poked about a few of the sites suggested and Im now suffering an information overload....LOL.

Plenty to keep me out of the bosses hair for weeks.

Thanks Matt, I'll be in touch shortly, as soon as I know when Im going to be in the city next.

Cheers....Lionel.