glot
Gold Digger
Posts: 75
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Post by glot on May 29, 2015 10:08:36 GMT 10
I totally agree. A sluice , even a river sluice, is also not allowed. For fossicking, only hand tools may be used. They say this is to make it accessible for families to have some fun. Then there is a small miner's licence which allows mechanical but also has a lot of other limitations and only the very keen would want to go there. In my opinion, the Qld fossicking Act was designed around the gemfields and Clermont gold fields, even though it covers the whole state. It's actually not a well written Act. It leaves a lot of situations not covered. Under the definitions of hand tools, it lists a short specific list. Many people do not read the definitions and go off half cocked. Fossicking material, in our case, is gold. Not the dirt the gold is in. So, even using a snuffer bottle to recover gold from a pan at home is technically illegal. A snuffer bottle is not in the list of hand tools allowed. When I speak to the mines dept, their verbal definition of a mechanical device is anything not hand operated. But then they also say a sluice, even with out a pump, is a mechanical device and so is a cradle. They seem to make it up as they go. The only thing you are allowed to do with out a fossicker's licence is spec. However, a licence is also good because providing you have written permission from the land owner to be on their property, you are covered by a government liability insurance policy. This can sometimes make the land owner more at ease with allowing you on their property. My personal thoughts are that provide you do the right thing and no one raises a complaint against you, I would imagine no one will really worry you. I know of creek banks being washed away with dredges. This is what the Act is all about stopping. Just my personal opinion though.
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Post by shivan on May 29, 2015 22:54:39 GMT 10
Sounds like a sorry sate of affairs I have read of problems in QLD on a few forums now. Sounds very rough, I cant understand how a sluice is anything but static though..... So pans would be a no no? No different you are using the water to wash away lighter sand and leave the heavies. I have had similar conversations with the NSW DPI so I know it must be frustrating. I use a blue bowl myself, which is why I have the finer mesh classifiers. Even if a lot of your gold is 100- is much of your cons? Some of our gold would be 100- but I have never had to classify any more as there are not much cons. Normally some fine grey zircon sand. Only trying to save you some $$$ your concentrates may be a lot finer than our are. This mob also have some small mesh classifiers. www.armstrongindustries.com.au/#!contact/czpl
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Post by mushmouse on May 30, 2015 2:38:53 GMT 10
Wow, those miners rights for Queensland are pretty pricey. I see Vic has dropped them to $17.20 for a 10 year one. Governments really need to clarify and come up with standards when it comes to definitions within states.
Victoria states : The Mineral Resources Development Act 1990 sets out the rights and obligations of the holder of a Miner’s Right.
Important points of the Act include that you must not:
Enter onto private property without the permission of the landowner. Prospect on a current Mining Licence without the permission of the licence holder. Use any equipment for excavation on the land, other than hand tools. ( < we are permitted to use River Sluices and Bankers with petrol/electrical water pumps as long as the material is fed by a hand tool ) Use explosives. Remove or damage any shrubs or trees. Disturb, destroy, interfere with or endanger an archaeological site or Aboriginal place or object.
NSW States :
What techniques cannot be used for fossicking? Neither explosives nor dredges can be used in fossicking. ( < good one NSW. You have used the Dredge word. No one else has even though its totally illegal )
Power-operated equipment cannot be used on land or in waters for surface disturbance, excavation or processing. Power operated equipment includes mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, battery and electrical equipment or machinery ( < many prospectors work at Tuena and Oallen Ford with Sluices and Bankers legally water fed with pumps )
Tasmania states
Only hand fossicking for material is allowed, and only tools that can be carried by one person may be used. The use of power-operated equipment or mechanical machinery, or any explosives, is prohibited. Environmental care is to be taken in the fossicking of materials and any diggings shall be restored to normal surface level before leaving the area. ( < looks pretty similar to NSW - however only River sluices are allowed to be used with water current )
Queensland states :
Permitted tools and extent of diggings
Hand tools such as picks, shovels, hammers, sieves, shakers, electronic detectors and other similar tools can be used. No machinery is permitted ( < looks like panning only - oh hang on..NSW is 'no machinery' either, but yet you can Sluice and Highbank legally...)
Lol..no wonder they make it up as they go - clear as mud.
Personally glad to see the end of dredging though. They turned creeks into caverns and yabbies into pate.
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Post by shivan on May 30, 2015 8:46:26 GMT 10
Interesting, there does seem to be a big difference in the wording between NSW and QLD. NSW talks about power operated equipment not being allowed for surface disturbance, excavation or processing. The wording of this is where we come into problems with the DPI as the water pump for a highbanker is power operated, but it is not being used for surface disturbance, excavation or processing just transferring water to the highbanker.
QLD just flat states no machinery, but in the previous sentence says you can use shakers which I would have thought would have to be mechanical. A sluice is definitely not machinery so I don't see how they could have a problem there. I would ask the mines dept. to explain how a sluice is machinery. As for the snuffer bottle, QLD states: Hand tools such aspicks, shovels, hammers, sieves, shakers, electronic detectors and other similar tools. Which would seem it is giving you an idea of what to use not a definitive list, just because the snuffer is not listed does not mean it cant be used?
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glot
Gold Digger
Posts: 75
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Post by glot on May 31, 2015 17:38:33 GMT 10
shaker , in this use, is a suspended sieve primarily used in the gemfields. It is necessary to read the definitions and not just the clause when reading regulations. In the cause relating to hand tools, it says it like it is giving an example but in the definitions for hand tools it gives a specific list. I have bashed my head against the wall trying to get clear definite answers but no one seems to have them. According to the verbal definition from the local mines dept, machinery is something operated by any power source other than by a human. So, a cradle comes under hand tools but not according to them. Same with a river sluice or a sluice powered by a bucket or a hand driven water pump. They can't say why not. They just say they class them as machinery.
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