We had a regular customer drop into the BendigoGold store a few days ago, who showed us some great nuggets he had found whilst out prospecting in Western Australia.
One of the nuggets was a 43 grammer found under a bush at about 8″ using his Minelab GPX-4500 Metal Detector and a 20″ Nugget Finder coil.
The other was 12 grams found at about 12-14″.
Great Finds!!
This is something I found early on when I got my Minelab E-TRAC metal detector. I took the E-TRAC to an old hut site that I’d known about as a kid in the bush.
I found a few old coins and detecting near the old creek at the site I dug up the fishing reel at a depth of 6” in hard packed clay.
It was like a rock when I dug it out of the ground and took a lot of cleaning to discover what it was.
Now it turns smoothly. I estimate it to be from the 1800’s or early 1900’s.
Perhaps one of the most interesting finds I’ve had.
I fitted a new Rooster Booster and 24″ Elliptical Nugget Finder coil to my Minelab GPX 5000.
I found them to be a great combination when prospecting in the Central Victorian Goldfields and found a small run of nuggets, some of them were 12 inches deep with a 6.5 grammer at 15-18 inches depth.
In total 18 nuggets were found.
I was detecting with my Minelab E-TRAC in an old house site in a gold mining town , and had on my 8” coil due to the high concentration of trash in the site.
Whilst detecting I got a good signal and dug up a socket piece from a belt buckle. I found it and thought it was a cool buckle and wondered if I could find the other piece to it.
I searched the immediate area thoroughly and found other targets but not the second part to the belt buckle.
Forgetting about the second part of the buckle I continued detecting for about an hour on the opposite side of the site and found the other half!
And straight away thought it was for the other piece. They were found within about 30 feet of each other in two separate parts of the house site.
I’ve had my Minelab CTX 3030 Metal detector for about 1 month and was detecting in a heavy junk area.
Using the Coin/Ground Separation setting I was lucky enough to pick up a signal which turned out to be every treasure hunters dream!
An 1820 Gold Sovereign!! WOO HOO!!
– A Very Happy BendigoGold Customer
I had been doing some research on where gold has been found on the Glendons property.
Between my talks with other prospectors and my friend who had found some rakings on the property I decided to start there. He had already been over the rakings with his Minelab GPX 5000 and at first I thought I won’t bother there. I parked at the area known as ‘The Carpark’ which is where everyone goes for panning on the property, and according to every prospector I speak to has been hammered and they don’t bother detecting there. While I was getting suited up, another member of our local prospecting club arrived and we decided to work together. He is fairly new to detecting and has a Minelab SD 2100v2. While he was getting ready I was just casually swinging the Minelab GPX-4500 about 2m from the car when I got a signal. I decided to dig, and my fellow prospector watched on eagerly as he has not found gold before. I was sure it was junk, but at about 8″ the target was out. It plopped onto the top of the pile and we both spotted the unmistakeable sparkle of gold at the same time. 1.5 grams from the carpark at ‘The Carpark’! The most brilliant light yellow piece I have seen.
Later that day we found ourselves at the rakings I had been told about. Who ever had been there had been very thorough or so they thought…. 2 minutes after beginning there I had a small signal. Again about 8″down out came a 1gram slug.
About 3m from the one gram piece and in someone’s old scraping, I heard the most minute change in the threshold. I asked my friends ‘can you hear that?’. Both said no and thought I was mad. However being a musician I can hear things most others can’t. I scraped out the old dig hole a few inches and it became a ground noise with a slight whip in the middle. Digging further down through the gravel it became evident the soil was highly mineralised and very different to the top soil. The target was still there but hard to distinguish from the ground noise. After 10″ of digging I hit a thick red clay and after one final scoop the target was out. And sure enough it was gold! A 0.7 gram piece in very difficult soil at 10″ measured!
Using a Minelab GPX-4500 with a 14” x 9″ Nugget Finder Coil. A top combo!
After that find, I sat down for a breather and let my friend put the 14” x 9” on his Minelab GPX 5000. 2 minutes later he had a beautiful 3 gram piece from an area I had already been over…..
Gold Nuggets found whilst a customer was on a gold prospecting trip in WA.
A BendigoGold customer recently stopped by the store to show us the gold nuggets that he had found on a gold prospecting trip to Western Australia.
Spending 20 days in Western Australia on a solo gold prospecting trip, 170 individual gold nuggets were found weighing a total of 105 grams.
The best day resulted in 25 nuggets for 10 grams. The nuggets were found using a Minelab GPX 5000 with a 17” Elliptical Nugget Finder Coil.
What a fantastic holiday!
One of Treasure Tim’s most interesting finds is a belt buckle representing the Cambridge v Oxford University Boat Race. A race which started in 1829 and continues today.
I Found the belt buckle in the remains of an old fireplace in an 1860’s early gold mining town in Central Victoria.
I was walking through the bush and I found some remains that looked like a miners hut and could see a lot of broken glass, that gave away that it was an old site. I decided to run the Minelab E-TRAC with an 11” coil around it and found the buckle in the fireplace of a stone chimney. It was about a foot deep into the rubble.
The buckle was gold gilded and in good condition although it was missing its centrepiece.
If you would like to find out the history behind the Boat Race which still occurs today visit theboatrace.org
The Cambridge v Oxford Boat Race belt buckle discovered by Treasure Tim using the Minelab E-TRAC metal detector
Miners Den Australia’s Bendigo Store was pleased to host a delegation from Minelab Australia Gary Shmith (General Manager Asia Pacific), Nenad Lonic (Technical Sales Representative) and Minelab’s Indian distributor Ashish Soni.
Gold found when out prospecting with the group.
We spent two days using Minelab products and demonstrating different coils and techniques for finding gold. We have included some photos of the gold and part of a relic that was found. Gary also did some excellent research on this relic and we have included his find and the research article he located.
In addition to gaining more experience on gold prospecting, Ashish was very interested in larger coils for hunting treasure in India with the GPX series of metal detectors. A good time was had by all and lots of information and ideas shared.
This find is one of my favourite Cricket Belt Buckle finds. I found it in Castlemaine, in the ruins of an old miners hut with many Chinese coins right beside it. Everything on the Buckle was intact – loop and clasp which is unusual as most of them were thrown, dropped or lost because a part had broken.
Interesting to note where the belt buckle was found as these belt buckles were for English people so it’s unusual it was found with many Chinese coins.
What was special about this belt buckle was that it was completely intact including the centrepiece. About 99% of buckles that I have found aren’t completely intact.
It wasn’t until I had returned home and a bit of harsh cleaning and scrubbing was done, that the find was revealed as a cricket buckle with its centrepiece.
This great find was uncovered with a Minelab E-TRAC Metal Detector and I also found an Eaglehawk gold office token at the same site.
