Has Anyone Here Done any Gold Prospecting?

[MichSwampbuck]

I also had some spurious luck where a sandbar formed in a creek bend, but often had to go down deep, which is messy if you are panning.   Fortunately for me, I was a caveman, and happily immersed myself in the glittering silt.   I bought a 500 watt Peavey stack with the cumulative money from my panning, and later played in a local band which received some very localized attention.   We would play in outdoor natural bowls, and all manner of personal enhancements were rife.   God, I wish I could do that right now.   Have a kegar.   How great would that be.   Fire up the Peavey, and the 10,000 watt generator and ROCK and ROLL YA PUKES!!!!

If my theories are correct, based on the research I've done on my area, going as deep as possible should do better as you near bedrock around 150 feet down. Gold is heavy and will find the lowest areas to settle in and if the glaciers did scrape the landscape down to the bedrock, then the first melt waters were depositing the material there. Reaching that would require a well that you could pump water down and draw the material back up. Then you'd need one of those big portable sluices pulled by a semi-truck to process it as it was pumped up.

Because I'm not starting a mining company to do that volume of material, I'm stuck with panning and using a sluice or rocker box under the laws for recreational prospecting. Now, using a spade as a digging tool in a flowing stream is problematic, but mostly due to the shallowness it can dig. So, I opted for a pole hole digger to get down to 3 feet (at most). Any deeper and the sand would tend to slip out of the digger and the hole would fill in after getting that deep in flowing water.

I have yet to dig into the cuts, something that is not advised due to bank erosion. If I do that, I'll use the spade to dig there. The post holes are unnatural in the creek bed, so after awhile, I'll fill them back in, but I imagine they would fill in by the end of the season regardless. So I just have been working the sand bars and areas that look like material is getting deposited there.

I've been working on one area because there is a small waterfall there that my sluice works really well with, it looks like a little fish ladder and I have even seen little minnows jump that waterfall actually. There are two more water falls up stream and I am going to set up at those areas as I go along. The thing is, I've been far more busy clearing the dead ash trees away from the stream. Around ten years ago, the invasive Emerald Ash Borer Beetle wiped out the ash trees here, I don't think any I have here survived. Because ash trees prefer wet areas, the swamp is like a bone yard full of dead trees and the creek is right in the middle of that.

Based on the above information, I believe that anything I find at the three foot level is evenly distributed on the property, meaning the sand here contains at least 8 flakes per 5 gallon bucket no matter where you dig. I believe that there is more than 8 flakes per bucket, and I will try to improve my methods until I get more in the range of 12 flakes per bucket. The 12 flake idea came from a video I watched with these guys working a similar stream in the lower peninsula of Michigan. They estimated around 100 flakes per 8 or 9 buckets of material. Their operation was more sophisticated with equipment they bought and they did much of the final work in a garage outfitted with more equipment.

[MichSwampbuck]

Just to add, my stack was also Peavy and so was my five string bass guitar. The music store was run by a guy we called Peavy Stevie, but I thought that brand is pretty good, except I did like my Ibenez 4 string.

[devilhunter69]

Not prospecting but I found this rare solid gold George III 3rd Guinea whilst metal detectoring in the UK many years ago.

[MichSwampbuck]

Not prospecting but I found this rare solid gold George III 3rd Guinea whilst metal detectoring in the UK many years ago.

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Nice. Just like the first lesson: Gold is where you find it!

The Nazi's found it in their death camp prisoner's teeth. That was the first thing I thought of when I found my step dad's gold filling that he kept after he got dentures. I just watched a PBS program where they were showcasing Nazi atrocities, apparently they pulled those teeth out long before they finished the prisoners off.

[NoCorruptionAllowed]

I've always wanted to this as a recreation too. I found https://www.goldprospectors.org/ which I've looked at for a few years to learn more. I haven't yet paid for a membership though, because I still have to work full time, and I probably couldn't afford to travel now, but the future always can bring good changes.

I'm not saying anyone should pay to join them, but when I ever get the chance I would, they offer a lot of benefits and lots of places they own where gold claims are there that they have, and members can go and keep all the gold they find.

They don't allow someone that joins to go in those places and set up a big mining operation though, so the the places aren't stripped of gold. It's supposed to be so members can enjoy these places and find gold.

I retire in a few years, (if I can) and would definitely check it out. I got to pan some gold when I was a lot younger and got a small bit of gold dust in a small vial.. Hehe. 

Cheers

[ReturnofBroccoli]

I noticed the zero response rate on this subject. Maybe I should have rephrased that question to, "Is anyone interested in hearing about gold prospecting?"

I could post about my adventures in gold prospecting, if there is any real interest in any of that. I feel pretty good about the whole thing, considering what I have recovered from my property, which I have the mineral rights to.

I can back it all up, of course, and explain why it is there and how much I think is there, and how it is possible to make some money with my discoveries. Prospecting can mean a couple of things, and the prospect of owning the mineral rights to 40 acres with a creek that produces any amount of gold, especially at current gold prices, sounds promising. Add to that mix the fact that I live in a booming recreational area, and I see an opportunity to make some cash from a number of activities here.

I'm curious in your gold prospecting. My mom is really into treasure hunting and tomorrow she is taking my grandmother out of the assisted living facility to go on a treasure hunt with her and I'll be joining them with my family and although I doubt we will find anything, as Forest Fenn said, it's the thrill of the chase. I just think it's a cool little family activity. My mom is bringing her metal detector supposedly it's over here in the sinton - Rockport area of Texas where we live ill definitely post my findings if I find anything!

[MichSwampbuck]

I'm curious in your gold prospecting. My mom is really into treasure hunting and tomorrow she is taking my grandmother out of the assisted living facility to go on a treasure hunt with her and I'll be joining them with my family and although I doubt we will find anything, as Forest Fenn said, it's the thrill of the chase. I just think it's a cool little family activity. My mom is bringing her metal detector supposedly it's over here in the sinton - Rockport area of Texas where we live ill definitely post my findings if I find anything!

My GF has a metal detector and goes to a couple of annual treasure hunts. I had panning on my bucket list and never took the creek on my own property seriously until last year. I have been successful here where I haven't been the other few spots I've tried.

[MichSwampbuck]

I've always wanted to this as a recreation too. I found https://www.goldprospectors.org/ which I've looked at for a few years to learn more. I haven't yet paid for a membership though, because I still have to work full time, and I probably couldn't afford to travel now, but the future always can bring good changes.

I'm not saying anyone should pay to join them, but when I ever get the chance I would, they offer a lot of benefits and lots of places they own where gold claims are there that they have, and members can go and keep all the gold they find.

They don't allow someone that joins to go in those places and set up a big mining operation though, so the the places aren't stripped of gold. It's supposed to be so members can enjoy these places and find gold.

I retire in a few years, (if I can) and would definitely check it out. I got to pan some gold when I was a lot younger and got a small bit of gold dust in a small vial.. Hehe. 

Cheers

Yeah, I have 10 or so tiny flakes in my vial and I believe that I can get about that much from a five gallon bucket of river sand if I do everything properly with the equipment I have, some of which is home made.

There is teeny tiny flour gold dust in there too, but I have no method to retrieve that yet. I want to set up my camp by the creek to more work by the water there with less physical effort. Also, I'm keeping a ledger of hand written notes about how much material I'm panning and other things.

That shinny golden glow and the way it stays in place while the black sand tumbles around in the pan is a dead give away. They are small flakes, but beautiful and when you have a number of flakes in your pan, it looks like a constellation of golden stars shinning in the night. Once you see color in your pan, the fever starts.

[NoCorruptionAllowed]

Yeah, I have 10 or so tiny flakes in my vial and I believe that I can get about that much from a five gallon bucket of river sand if I do everything properly with the equipment I have, some of which is home made.

There is teeny tiny flour gold dust in there too, but I have no method to retrieve that yet. I want to set up my camp by the creek to more work by the water there with less physical effort. Also, I'm keeping a ledger of hand written notes about how much material I'm panning and other things.

That shinny golden glow and the way it stays in place while the black sand tumbles around in the pan is a dead give away. They are small flakes, but beautiful and when you have a number of flakes in your pan, it looks like a constellation of golden stars shinning in the night. Once you see color in your pan, the fever starts.

Haha, yes the "fever" 

I get the fever just from looking at advertisements for gold mines for sale. Loadstone mines, placer, etc.  Some pretty nice secluded mining claims all over the US. The loadstone mines are often haunted they say. 

IT sounds like you have your own spot to enjoy and mine at leisure, that's great. If you are finding some color, there must be some larger source not too far away?  I'm barely novice at knowing how to prospect if at all, just from reading and watching vids of gold hunters speaking about it. 
I live about 45 minutes from Mt. Baker (which is the closest to any gold from me), where there are a couple abandoned mines, but those are seriously hard to get to. I would prefer a placer mining claim somewhere, Oregon or California. Even Nevada or Utah I suppose. Lots of places. 

Gets me dreaming thinking about it.

Cheers.

[MichSwampbuck]

Haha, yes the "fever" 

I get the fever just from looking at advertisements for gold mines for sale. Loadstone mines, placer, etc.  Some pretty nice secluded mining claims all over the US. The loadstone mines are often haunted they say. 

IT sounds like you have your own spot to enjoy and mine at leisure, that's great. If you are finding some color, there must be some larger source not too far away?  I'm barely novice at knowing how to prospect if at all, just from reading and watching vids of gold hunters speaking about it. 
I live about 45 minutes from Mt. Baker (which is the closest to any gold from me), where there are a couple abandoned mines, but those are seriously hard to get to. I would prefer a placer mining claim somewhere, Oregon or California. Even Nevada or Utah I suppose. Lots of places. 

Gets me dreaming thinking about it.

Cheers.

The "load" or source for the lower peninsula of Michigan is from Canada after the glaciers pushed it down here. here is what I posted earlier.
 

Being on a glacial outwash plain, with a small seasonal creek, I figure any gold within a few feet of the surface is likely evenly distributed on the property. My personal goal is to perfect my methods and produce around 12 flakes per 5 gallon bucket.

Now, the gold fever had set in and I began crunching the numbers if I could get around 12 flakes per bucket. That would have me produce around 360 gold flakes per cubic yard of soil processed. Expanding that down to the bedrock around 150 feet down, and a 3 foot by 3 foot excavation down that far could potential hold around 17,500 gold flakes, the same distance as a three foot stride at the surface, making 58 paces equal to walking over one million gold flakes.