View south of the beach. At the minute the sand material is typically 5-6ft deep here from cliff to low water mark. This is taken about 3 hours after top of tide. Notice how there is different sand and gravel accumulations building up from gentle wave action.
I cant prove yet as conditions arnt favourable but i believe best gold accumulation is just below the gravel humps on the beach. Not underneath but below. Its where on rare occasion ive found several larger upto 1cm gold in close proximity.
Looking north. You can see a slight angle the waves come in at. Its very important to be aware of longshore drift and the dominating winds and current causing this. It gives you knowledge of direction of travel of matrials and which side of a deposit is been eroded and the concentration most exposed. Try starting work on this point.
Backwash against the cliff bottom. Every tide hits the cliffs here. Theres a constant backwash of waves colliding. Most black sand deposits in about the first 10ft of here. A partial explanation is the pressure drop when one wave is hitting another in the backwash from the cliff. My testing done here ive found the microgold. Fines and small upto about 2-3mm. Its almost all flattenned flaky type gold.
I hope that helps visualise a little james. Im really very lucky as ive a combination of knowledge all learned independantly what collectively seems to help me nail the best areas to look for gold deposits. Ive just never actually looked until recently explicitly for gold.
How you explained looking for gold as indicator its on the bed i did the same last night. I saw a blacksand deposit went to the northerly eroded exposed side and i could see yellow flashes of light in the wet sand on the surface. Somes pyrite but somes gold and it makes sense if theres some on top theres more underneath.
Most of the deposits are very temporary appearing and disappearing sometimes in one or two tides. But the constant state of flux and fluidity almost of the beach deposits mean theyre replenished. If i can compare the coins ive found over the years to gold deposits accurately theres certain areas what persist in repeatedly depositing material. Ive had over 1500 coins in a small area of beach tens of metres in just a few weeks before. The pre 1950dates on almost every one tells me the coins was lost not long after and theyve been washing around ever since. Theyre certainly not static deposits or id of found them all at once then nothing after.
That type of blacksand i look for already is a concentrate and doesnt sluice well in a normal sluice it fills the riffles and moss up. Or the guy who tried sluicing it here with my uncle a couple decades ago had nt enough waterflow. But from memory when they increased waterflow they also blew the gold out.
I think the limitations on the beach here are a good deposit yields about a gram or so every hour of work put into it. But because of conditions like tide working time is only 3hours. Its an hour to get down and setup same when done. Its good for a hobby more than paying for itself but i bet a hard living to do everyday.
How you could be bothered to move 2-3m of overburden godnose you mustve hit some big paystreaks for it to be worthwhile lol