Northern Queensland fossicking
Young's Block fossicking area
Young’s Block near Charters Towers is known as a collecting locality for gold.
Access
Young’s Block is located about 15km from Charters Towers.
From the highway east of Charters Towers, turn south on to New Queen Road (the heavy vehicle bypass road). Travel 2.7km to Millchester Road. Turn east on Millchester Road and travel 4.5km to the corner of Mafeking Road. Turn north onto Mafeking Road and travel 1.2km to the gate marking the entrance to Young’s Block.
Map
Facilities
Camping is not permitted. Accommodation is available in Charters Towers.
Fossicking notes
Young’s Block is situated within the Charters Towers Goldfield, an area located in and around the city of Charters Towers that has had significant historic gold production. The Charters Towers Goldfield lies along the Mosgardies Shear Zone, and it is believed the Devonian gold ore bodies were deposited by ore fluids that used the crustal structures as channel ways.
Historically, mining focused on lode gold contained within the numerous structurally controlled lodes within the Ravenswood Granodiorite complex. Mineralisation occurred at a considerable depth in fissure hosted quartz veins approximately 400Ma. Gold deposits typically occur with sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite. The discovery of high grade epithermal gold mineralisation in the 1980s sparked further exploration within the area.
Of interest to fossickers is alluvial material as well as elluvial deposits that have formed when gold or gold-bearing material have been transported from their original source and been concentrated within the soil horizon.
The easiest method to recover the finer alluvial gold is by panning.
In this guide:
- Agate Creek fossicking area
- Lava Plains fossicking area
- Mount Gibson fossicking area
- Young's Block fossicking area
- O'Briens Creek fossicking area
- Moonstone Hill feldspar locality