first gold nugget. Armed with a GPZ7000 I had high hopes of finding my first natural piece of gold. On the first day...trash, on the second day...trash, third and fourth day...trash. On the second last day we teamed up with another camper in the campsite and did some exploring into parts of the prospecting areas few people venture into. We find an old mullock heap that had been barely worked and after an hour of clearing branches and grass our new friend got a hit on his SDC. After a few scoops of dirt he is holding a tiny sub gram nugget. Straight away he passes his SDC to me and just above it I get a hit. We scoop the dirt slowly until we reveal an even smaller nugget. But my first. I was ecstatic. We later weighed it and it was 0.06grams a true testament of what the SDC is capable of. The next day, our final day, I went back armed with the GPZ 7000. I decided to walk up further and try and find a new area. Detecting the creek bed as I went I got a scratchy hit. Sifting through the gravels I see gold glinting at me. A beautiful ironstone specimen most likely thrown into the river by the old timers. Then up a little further I find another mullock heap. Working around the outside of it I get a big target. Dig down out pops another nugget. I am beside myself at this point. Swinging the hole again I get the same target still so down I go scooping out dirt until it’s in my hand and I reveal another specimen. I swing again and get another feint target. I couldn't believe it at this point. This last target was tricky to find but once I did it was one of those tiny sub gram nuggets. To make the day better about 20 metres away I get a coke can signal. Thinking its rubbish i almost walk away but my curiosity gets the better of me. Digging down I get onto the grey gravelly wash, I get the target into my scoop and it makes the GPZ scream. Brushing away the dirt onto the coil I hear a trunk and staring right at me is a 1.8 gram. That was the last of the gold we found that day and that trip as we had the big drive back to Brisbane. Thank you to Minelab for making some incredibly powerful machines on both sub gram and deep nuggets.
Samuel - Australia & NZ