Link to Billing Metals Channel: youtube.com/@billingmetals?si=mdjb_rWJCuY-C0l7 Here's the link to the original video he made, it's definitely worth checking out! th-cam.com/video/yWAxfe0-hwU/w-d-xo.html Here's the link to his website and Ebay! Show him some support by purchasing some of his amazing gold specimens! Website: billingmetals.com.au/ Ebay: www.ebay.com.au/usr/billingmetals
Thanks heaps for the shout out and links mate! It is really appreciated, the support really helps. Great work on this video too, I like what you do with the description and explanations of geology.
This was both fascinating and very informative. In my experience (as a retired geologist), sedimentary systems capped with volcanic lava flows are a might understudied, mainly for the reasons you point out and also it is so difficult to image (using seismic or GPR) below the basalt. My company - a large petroleum exploration corporation - investigated using various imaging methods to explore for oil and gas deposits below continental shelf/slope basalt deposits without conspicuous success (this was two decades ago; they may have refined the technique since then). Part of the problem was drilling offshore exploration boreholes through hard basalt to verify/calibrate what we thought we were seeing on seismic surveys once we “processed out” the basalt cap. When we did drill a few test holes, we found that the contact metamorphism and dissolution over time of the basalt in ground water tended to precipitate zeolites and other minerals in the sub basalt reservoir zones that impacted porosity and permeability - which isn’t a problem with the buried stream conglomerates that you highlight, since porosity isn’t an issue in gold mining. One question. I’m from the U.S. and know very little about Australian geology. Are the vents from which these lava flows erupted still extant (albeit plugged with old solidified basalt, I’m sure)? Or has erosion destroyed their surface expression and left only remnants of the lava flows in the vicinity? Thanks again for the video. Fascinating material!
I understand that the lava flows of western Victoria are the third largest (in extent) in the world. There are plenty of visible volcanoes which are apparently dormant rather than extinct, pinched closed by tectonic compression (?). Volcanoes were active until very recently, being recorded by indigenous people within the last few thousand years. Julian Hollis (a well known Australian geologist) told me that an undersea volcano erupted less than two kilometres from the Victorian coast in the late 19th c. producing a large pumice raft noticed by locals. I have not been able to find a reference for this though.
@@earthearthearth-l3l I think K that's Tower Hill, which is near the coast, 3km in diameter, and has Aboriginal artefacts in the tuff .. from 30,000 years ago. Any reference to modern times , 1800s etc, was about investigation of it,not it actually erupting.
@@astr0m0nk oil from marine life, coal from land life. But no animals are only a tiny tiny portion of coal and oil. Mostly they are from plant material.
I had a bit of an unusual one way back when I was trying to earn a living dredging in the Turon river. Usually I'd try to get down to the bedrock. Once there and an area cleared I'd have crow bar, sledge hammer and cold chisel etc to open up any pockets or cracks that looked promising. One spot, about 150 yards down from a bend and shallow bedrock causing a mini set of rapids I started off that way but, there was very little on the bedrock but quite good, actually, very good gold only down about 2 feet below the first layer of gravel scattered all over the top of a (hardpan?) of older gravel more cemented together. There was gold on the bedrock but, not much and though my 5 inch dredge would pull it up it was laborious and very time consuming to get through that extra 3 feet of older gravel and doing it that way I was only averaging about 20% more than enough to pay for the fuel. I hated leaving anything behind but, I could pick up around half an ounce a day by ONLY going down to that hardpan and no more. That's the only time I encountered such a huge difference in my few years at it. That was the best patch I ever hit in my time doing it, then of course, about a third of the way through this lovely rich section, random engine trouble had to strike, of course! I bought all components at a time just before Honda came out with their awesome overhead valve engines. They started so reliably and easily and working a 400 GPM pump like mine, they used almost exactly HALF the fuel too. Try floating in 8 feet of near freezing point water, hanging off 1 of the pontoons whilst 'trying' to to pull start an already primed big and primed pump and air compressor with freezing hands when the thing kicks back and snaps that pull hook arrangement out of your hand, it bloody hurts! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and insights, I just wish the internet had been around back then. I had every book I could find and usually the finest detail topographic maps I could get of areas plus maps of old gold mines etc. That was all great but, trying to guess where there might be fresh gold from floods since the early miners had pretty thoroughly cleaned out, or maybe left alone, trying to estimate where the river may have been running in the past with only basic geology education was an interesting but often frustrating experience. I will say that the years spent living on a river bank with no power or any modern conveniences except a radio that could just barely pick up 2 stations but, in such beautiful mountainous and peaceful countryside has left me with almost nothing but great memories and was probably the best years of my life in most ways, even with the time a mines inspector caught me in the act lol. He was pretty cool actually. He had been sent out after ignoring requests by a local just downstream of where he was dredging who simply asked him not to dredge on Tuesdays as that was when he pumped the usually crystal clear river water up to fill his water tanks. He didn't find him but did find me lol. He thankfully didn't do anything since despite it being illegal, he saw no harm in it. We had a good long chat and if anything at all, I learnt a few tips and general info from him.
Great to see this mine. I seem to remember Toby told me about this site when I conducted his UBE renewal course and that made me curious. Now in retirement I can watch from the distance via TH-cam channels,
This is an awesome example of a deep lead mine! And surprisingly, it's not flooded! Which many old deep lead mines are! Because even though they are covered with a volcanic layer of Basalt, cooked earth/whatever.... They were still ancient river systems And ground-water still moved through them Under the layer of basalt. That part of the equation, killed many miners And made many more mines un-profitable to work Because the cost of getting water (and other gasses) out of the mine Exceeded the profit of finding the gold hidden whithin. The underground, is a fascinating world But it's also a dangerous one Best approached with knowledge and caution!
Yup! You're spot on there! I'll be covering the South Morang ones soon but I wasn't familiar with the Greensborough one! Any chance you know where it used to be?
TVR Exploring on TH-cam has a fantastic couple of videos showing an underground river. They 100% followed the larger stones as they are stacked as roof supports. The smaller pebbles are super clearly visible left in the sides of the tunnels. They have carved out wide shallow stopes.
Hello, OzGeology. I haven't had much time lately with work, leading into the Christmas stand-down, but I look forward to watching the latest adventure soon. I hope you are well!
Wow 😮😊 i think ive seen places like this up behind the ol track behind parawera national Park in Adelaide in the Barossa Goldfields I wonder platypuses and echinacea were around when that bolder got there
I'm pretty sure there's a lot of gold etc under me here, the issue, there's at least a mile of basalt, possibly up to 3 here. I'm at the top end of the Channeled Scablands in Washington. Over the hump the Columbia River valley is full of placer deposits of all kinds, and North of the river there's myriad minerals and metals to be had. Here, buttloads of basalt, lots of loess blown in off the Cascades over the years is kinda our saving grace, great farm dirt. I have to wander an hour or two North or West to have a chance at any AU.
I’m with you, I’d love to buy a mine with a bit of land. About 25 years ago up at Nundle NSW there was one with a home made sign on it. Oh well in the next life. Take care
Link to Billing Metals Channel:
youtube.com/@billingmetals?si=mdjb_rWJCuY-C0l7
Here's the link to the original video he made, it's definitely worth checking out!
th-cam.com/video/yWAxfe0-hwU/w-d-xo.html
Here's the link to his website and Ebay! Show him some support by purchasing some of his amazing gold specimens!
Website: billingmetals.com.au/
Ebay: www.ebay.com.au/usr/billingmetals
Hey bro you should do a video on gold deposits in the Whitsunday and the Bowen region??💪
Do you know anyone who sells large chunks of raw gemstones? Wanting them carve my own sculptures into.
Great video and I'll be checking his channel.
Thanks heaps for the shout out and links mate! It is really appreciated, the support really helps. Great work on this video too, I like what you do with the description and explanations of geology.
This really shows what you have been describing for some time... ancient rivers buried under Basalt... thanks for great video... cheers
👍
Your videos are treasures themselves.
This was both fascinating and very informative. In my experience (as a retired geologist), sedimentary systems capped with volcanic lava flows are a might understudied, mainly for the reasons you point out and also it is so difficult to image (using seismic or GPR) below the basalt. My company - a large petroleum exploration corporation - investigated using various imaging methods to explore for oil and gas deposits below continental shelf/slope basalt deposits without conspicuous success (this was two decades ago; they may have refined the technique since then). Part of the problem was drilling offshore exploration boreholes through hard basalt to verify/calibrate what we thought we were seeing on seismic surveys once we “processed out” the basalt cap. When we did drill a few test holes, we found that the contact metamorphism and dissolution over time of the basalt in ground water tended to precipitate zeolites and other minerals in the sub basalt reservoir zones that impacted porosity and permeability - which isn’t a problem with the buried stream conglomerates that you highlight, since porosity isn’t an issue in gold mining.
One question. I’m from the U.S. and know very little about Australian geology. Are the vents from which these lava flows erupted still extant (albeit plugged with old solidified basalt, I’m sure)? Or has erosion destroyed their surface expression and left only remnants of the lava flows in the vicinity?
Thanks again for the video. Fascinating material!
I understand that the lava flows of western Victoria are the third largest (in extent) in the world. There are plenty of visible volcanoes which are apparently dormant rather than extinct, pinched closed by tectonic compression (?). Volcanoes were active until very recently, being recorded by indigenous people within the last few thousand years. Julian Hollis (a well known Australian geologist) told me that an undersea volcano erupted less than two kilometres from the Victorian coast in the late 19th c. producing a large pumice raft noticed by locals. I have not been able to find a reference for this though.
is oil dinosaurs?
@@earthearthearth-l3l I think K that's Tower Hill, which is near the coast, 3km in diameter, and has Aboriginal artefacts in the tuff .. from 30,000 years ago. Any reference to modern times , 1800s etc, was about investigation of it,not it actually erupting.
@@astr0m0nk oil from marine life, coal from land life. But no animals are only a tiny tiny portion of coal and oil. Mostly they are from plant material.
@isilder thank you👍 you just won me an argument
love the colour of thr rocks and sedements
👍
Absolutely awesome tale. Love the video.
👍
Billing Metals is a great channel, long time sub here, thanks for covering this Oz.
Thanks!
Well..another well edited video..
Cheers Famo59🍻⛏️
👍
I had a bit of an unusual one way back when I was trying to earn a living dredging in the Turon river. Usually I'd try to get down to the bedrock. Once there and an area cleared I'd have crow bar, sledge hammer and cold chisel etc to open up any pockets or cracks that looked promising. One spot, about 150 yards down from a bend and shallow bedrock causing a mini set of rapids I started off that way but, there was very little on the bedrock but quite good, actually, very good gold only down about 2 feet below the first layer of gravel scattered all over the top of a (hardpan?) of older gravel more cemented together. There was gold on the bedrock but, not much and though my 5 inch dredge would pull it up it was laborious and very time consuming to get through that extra 3 feet of older gravel and doing it that way I was only averaging about 20% more than enough to pay for the fuel. I hated leaving anything behind but, I could pick up around half an ounce a day by ONLY going down to that hardpan and no more. That's the only time I encountered such a huge difference in my few years at it. That was the best patch I ever hit in my time doing it, then of course, about a third of the way through this lovely rich section, random engine trouble had to strike, of course! I bought all components at a time just before Honda came out with their awesome overhead valve engines. They started so reliably and easily and working a 400 GPM pump like mine, they used almost exactly HALF the fuel too. Try floating in 8 feet of near freezing point water, hanging off 1 of the pontoons whilst 'trying' to to pull start an already primed big and primed pump and air compressor with freezing hands when the thing kicks back and snaps that pull hook arrangement out of your hand, it bloody hurts!
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and insights, I just wish the internet had been around back then. I had every book I could find and usually the finest detail topographic maps I could get of areas plus maps of old gold mines etc. That was all great but, trying to guess where there might be fresh gold from floods since the early miners had pretty thoroughly cleaned out, or maybe left alone, trying to estimate where the river may have been running in the past with only basic geology education was an interesting but often frustrating experience.
I will say that the years spent living on a river bank with no power or any modern conveniences except a radio that could just barely pick up 2 stations but, in such beautiful mountainous and peaceful countryside has left me with almost nothing but great memories and was probably the best years of my life in most ways, even with the time a mines inspector caught me in the act lol. He was pretty cool actually. He had been sent out after ignoring requests by a local just downstream of where he was dredging who simply asked him not to dredge on Tuesdays as that was when he pumped the usually crystal clear river water up to fill his water tanks. He didn't find him but did find me lol. He thankfully didn't do anything since despite it being illegal, he saw no harm in it. We had a good long chat and if anything at all, I learnt a few tips and general info from him.
Great to see this mine. I seem to remember Toby told me about this site when I conducted his UBE renewal course and that made me curious. Now in retirement I can watch from the distance via TH-cam channels,
This is an awesome example of a deep lead mine!
And surprisingly, it's not flooded!
Which many old deep lead mines are!
Because even though they are covered with a volcanic layer of
Basalt, cooked earth/whatever....
They were still ancient river systems
And ground-water still moved through them
Under the layer of basalt.
That part of the equation, killed many miners
And made many more mines un-profitable to work
Because the cost of getting water (and other gasses) out of the mine
Exceeded the profit of finding the gold hidden whithin.
The underground, is a fascinating world
But it's also a dangerous one
Best approached with knowledge and caution!
Great video mate thanks for posting
As kids we found an extensive mine system under Soith Morang. Also one near Greensborough.
Pretty sure they'd all be well closed off now.
Yup! You're spot on there! I'll be covering the South Morang ones soon but I wasn't familiar with the Greensborough one! Any chance you know where it used to be?
TVR Exploring on TH-cam has a fantastic couple of videos showing an underground river.
They 100% followed the larger stones as they are stacked as roof supports.
The smaller pebbles are super clearly visible left in the sides of the tunnels.
They have carved out wide shallow stopes.
Hello, OzGeology. I haven't had much time lately with work, leading into the Christmas stand-down, but I look forward to watching the latest adventure soon. I hope you are well!
That's cool. We have very similar geology and deposits in western US. Love working drift mines.
Remote rural off grid NSW here opal miner so your uploads intrigue me.
I watch billings metals as well and love your content as well kind sir! Lol
Wow Amazing discovery 😮
Thanks for sharing
Wow 😮😊 i think ive seen places like this up behind the ol track behind parawera national Park in Adelaide in the Barossa Goldfields
I wonder platypuses and echinacea were around when that bolder got there
👍👍
Hey mate..! 😊 8.06 in your video. Look up. Are you familiar with the "Dragons Eye" in England (?)..? I wish i knew more... An acreation?
Great content as usual, I have subbed to billings metals as well. Cheers Andy
Amazing thank you
Good vid about conglomerates. The Pilbra also has gold bearing ones.
Y'all living my dream life.
Wow Toby gets a channel shout out.
Nice one …
I'm pretty sure there's a lot of gold etc under me here, the issue, there's at least a mile of basalt, possibly up to 3 here. I'm at the top end of the Channeled Scablands in Washington. Over the hump the Columbia River valley is full of placer deposits of all kinds, and North of the river there's myriad minerals and metals to be had. Here, buttloads of basalt, lots of loess blown in off the Cascades over the years is kinda our saving grace, great farm dirt. I have to wander an hour or two North or West to have a chance at any AU.
That was so interesting 🤔 thank you and if I ever buy land in Vic you can have at it 😂
Yes, really fascinating - you'd like to run a metal detector around there before wielding a pick!
Do I spy with my little eye the White hills gravel formation?
Hahahaha oh my god I can't tell you how hard I laughed at this one. Hahahahahahahaha far out mate, well done.
Would be pretty easy to hit and miss drift off each side of that main passage .
The big gun bully gang 😬🤣
So we’re looking at the bottom of the conglomerate layer for the gold in this case?
Is it possible hydro thermals where coming up from buried yet to be cemented sediments?
I’m with you, I’d love to buy a mine with a bit of land. About 25 years ago up at Nundle NSW there was one with a home made sign on it. Oh well in the next life. Take care
Have you thought about a lease at lightning ridge? It's cheap and opals are worth way more than gold...but more work I guess 😎
Thanks it’s not a bad idea if leases are available, it would suit me as I know LR reasonably well. I’ll do a search.
It's something I wish I did years ago lol @@barry7608
@@barry7608my friend said it's cheap 😎
Chinese miner's were dominant in this style ... this ground is in Victoria 😂
🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺👍👍👍
Like your reply 😎 but do u-no the blue flag is the corporation and the red flag of Federation is our/we the peoples real flag 😀