Has Anyone Here Done any Gold Prospecting?

[quintessentone]

I did some panning as a stress-reliever and cheap entertainment when I was going to school more than 40 years ago.    I couldn't afford much, and I've always been comfortable with my own company.    My strategy was to study creeks and look for the downhill side of bends.   Mostly dust, but the occasional small nugget.   I wasn't very aggressive about it;  mostly a way to unwind while being immersed in nature, often places where I thought many feet hadn't ever trod.  I  would look for an accumulation of quartz in the creekbed, thinking that gold and quartz went together.   Saw a lot of agate, chert.   Once found a widening in the stream with some quartz sparkling up at me, and I panned than area for more than a week;  it was about a half-hour walk from the road and I loved the lush woodland forest, so quiet, with just the oscillating bubble of the stream set in a mat of variegated leaves, ferns, bitterbrush and fescue.   That area turned out to be my biggest strike in all the two years I was in Northern Utah.    I had about 1/2 oz.  of dust an small nuggets after a couple of weeks, and that was worth $250, after the assayer took his cut.   That was a hella lot of money then.   I worked that area ten hours a week for the next month, but didn't get much, so let my gold fever die and went back to just panning and walking and hiking to blow off steam.

Thanks for sharing that tidbit of your life's experience. I too enjoy my own company and use to hike alone or with a group on hiking trails too back 40+ years ago too. Too bad I wasn't thinking to myself "may as well look for gold while I'm hiking" because now it would be a struggle. Huh, I still have my hiking boots from back then and I paid $300 for them, so I know what the value of a dollar was back then. They still fit too!

[MichSwampbuck]

That's very interesting, about the placer deposit. It just shows how important it is to study geology and ancient flood waters to even find a place to start, if one is using a metal detector.

At this point in time, I am not near any wilderness areas with those criteria, close enough to make it worth my while and I am somewhat a craftsperson, so the original thought was to incorporate the gold I found into some of my projects and perhaps sell them online. Who knows what the future holds?

With the small size and amount of gold flakes I've been panning, I will eventually invest in a gold spiral wheel that will bring out the smallest of particles. A table would be too large, but would do much the same.

At the moment I'm building sluices with the smallest intended for the tiny stuff. I have considered other designs of my own that use water flow rates and the whirl-pool effect. Eventually I'll be looking to hydrodynamics to speed up the processes. With such small flakes in such low amounts, I'm not worried about waste from experimenting, but whatever I come up with should have a way to prevent losses.

[quintessentone]

With the small size and amount of gold flakes I've been panning, I will eventually invest in a gold spiral wheel that will bring out the smallest of particles. A table would be too large, but would do much the same.

At the moment I'm building sluices with the smallest intended for the tiny stuff. I have considered other designs of my own that use water flow rates and the whirl-pool effect. Eventually I'll be looking to hydrodynamics to speed up the processes. With such small flakes in such low amounts, I'm not worried about waste from experimenting, but whatever I come up with should have a way to prevent losses.

Wow, imagine if you develop a successful working model, you could sell the model online and make a fortune that way? Maybe. Don't we all want all things to be easy?

[MichSwampbuck]

I did some panning as a stress-reliever and cheap entertainment when I was going to school more than 40 years ago.    I couldn't afford much, and I've always been comfortable with my own company.    My strategy was to study creeks and look for the downhill side of bends.   Mostly dust, but the occasional small nugget.   I wasn't very aggressive about it;  mostly a way to unwind while being immersed in nature, often places where I thought many feet hadn't ever trod.  I  would look for an accumulation of quartz in the creekbed, thinking that gold and quartz went together.   Saw a lot of agate, chert.   Once found a widening in the stream with some quartz sparkling up at me, and I panned than area for more than a week;  it was about a half-hour walk from the road and I loved the lush woodland forest, so quiet, with just the oscillating bubble of the stream set in a mat of variegated leaves, ferns, bitterbrush and fescue.   That area turned out to be my biggest strike in all the two years I was in Northern Utah.    I had about 1/2 oz.  of dust an small nuggets after a couple of weeks, and that was worth $250, after the assayer took his cut.   That was a hella lot of money then.   I worked that area ten hours a week for the next month, but didn't get much, so let my gold fever die and went back to just panning and walking and hiking to blow off steam.

Great story, thanks. From my research, the cuts in the bends are where the material is flushed out, with point-bars where gold drops off and deposits. However, the bends will contain the larger gold at certain places. Personally, those stream bed charts that show where gold is found is a just a guide. I feel that I have learned more about how gold accumulates by watching how the material acts in the sluice or looking for where the larger and heavier stones and rocks are deposited on the creek. Just another theory I have based on my scant experience on my little creek.

[MichSwampbuck]

Wow, imagine if you develop a successful working model, you could sell the model online and make a fortune that way? Maybe. Don't we all want all things to be easy?

My prototype sluices are made entirely form material I have on hand, stuff that would be tossed out. Repurposed wood from an old porch deck, flashing I never used on the roof, expanded metal mesh from eave troughs, rifles made from TV antenna elements, etc. A trip to the hardware or home improvement store would of course, expand on the materials I use and likely improve my prototypes. For now, I'm merely playing out in the creek and it is a good idea to be careful about that, I am just getting over a "stomach flu" I suspect was a water born pathogen like giardia.

[quintessentone]

My prototype sluices are made entirely form material I have on hand, stuff that would be tossed out. Repurposed wood from an old porch deck, flashing I never used on the roof, expanded metal mesh from eave troughs, rifles made from TV antenna elements, etc. A trip to the hardware or home improvement store would of course, expand on the materials I use and likely improve my prototypes. For now, I'm merely playing out in the creek and it is a good idea to be careful about that, I am just getting over a "stomach flu" I suspect was a water born pathogen like giardia.

Oh no, giardia - are you a prepper? Maybe you should have some water purification tablets on hand then - I do.

I don't blame you for salvaging materials around if you are just playing - good on you.

My daughter just told me she wants to buy bird houses (which are expensive) so I told her why not build your own out of the piles and piles of branches left by the last ice storm - we have many nails? She didn't respond - typical millenial.

[argentus]

Great story, thanks. From my research, the cuts in the bends are where the material is flushed out, with point-bars where gold drops off and deposits. However, the bends will contain the larger gold at certain places. Personally, those stream bed charts that show where gold is found is a just a guide. I feel that I have learned more about how gold accumulates by watching how the material acts in the sluice or looking for where the larger and heavier stones and rocks are deposited on the creek. Just another theory I have based on my scant experience on my little creek.

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!!!!

[MichSwampbuck]

Oh no, giardia - are you a prepper? Maybe you should have some water purification tablets on hand then - I do.

I don't blame you for salvaging materials around if you are just playing - good on you.

My daughter just told me she wants to buy bird houses (which are expensive) so I told her why not build your own out of the piles and piles of branches left by the last ice storm - we have many nails? She didn't respond - typical millenial.

Giardia. That gives it away? Interesting. Who knows what pathogens are in that stream, I'm only guessing it was from playing in the water and touching my mouth. In fact I remember picking my finger and sticking it in my mouth at one point. Nothing extreme, like projectile vomiting or never ending Hershey squirts, mostly gas that got pretty painful until I treated it.

[quintessentone]

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!!!!

Some situations in life, call for caveman and cave women instincts to come forth, survival, man.

[argentus]

Some situations in life, call for caveman and cave women instincts to come forth, survival, man.

Totally agree.   Our basic instincts seem to often be those impulses that are most applicable.