New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Crevicing looks like the way to go. I was thinking about this, and wondered if you'd done any "crow-barring"; take a decent length crow bar with you so you can lever up the odd boulder or two. or use a strong branch, or a chain and winch... if you can mover a boulder that hadn't been moved over aeons then that would have to increase your chances of finding some of the yellow stuff :)

Crevicing is definitely the way to go, either that or scrub off every bit of moss of the rocks and banks. Now that is a lot of hard work. Saw someone scrub down a whole rock to get the moss off, looked like real hard going for really little reward. He used wire brushes, paint brushes, next thing he brought out was a hearth brush and shovel. The whole rock was scoured clean, beautiful and clean but not as nature intended.

I have added to my tools a bit, I still work light weight, I have an old geologist hammer/pick thing, great for bashing,an old chest drain trocar bent at the end which generally works quite well, I got hold of an old wire coat hanger and made a scraper out of that too, oh yes, don't forget my old toothbrush, a little paint brush, screwdriver, spoons which I have bashed to make them fit into tight spots. Necessity is the mother of invention so....... keep adding. I do need something a bit more heavy duty but the granite I dig around in is rather old and breaks apart reasonably easy. My other favourite spot has a few crevices which go across the river but it hasn't gone down enough yet to really venture out too far. Might have to get me a sucker methinks.