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Gold prospecting thread

Lil'John

Former #278
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May 20, 2020
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Let's start a thread here about gold prospecting. Talk about your equipment setup. Brag about your finds. Give hints on techniques.

My interest is panning in a creek. I know there is sluice boxes and powered dredges. Let's hit them all.

My property has ~300' of creek going through it. And part of the ad claimed "there's gold in the creek". So did the ad for a neighboring property.

I'm completely new to this. I can't easily get power down to it(300'+). Carrying heavy equipment would be a challenge. Thus my interest in pans.

Anyone have any good info/tutorials for panning? Or classes around Placerville, Auburn, etc?

Here is my target creek:
pirateCreek.jpg
 
I used to enjoy panning for gold in Prescott AZ. I went every fri morning for a while, and found some good spots....and not so good spots.

The panning technique isnt hard, cant really mess it up persay. Just dont be in a hurry to clear the pan, and allow it to settle to the bottom really.

My friend had a small factory made sluice, but the creeks around Prescott are either flowing (monsoon) or pretty stagnant, so using a sluice was pretty hit or miss.

I used to bring my pan and 2 5 gallon buckets. One of the 5 buckets had the bottom cut out about 3/4 the way down and a metal colander with approx 1/2" (maybe 3/8") holes was attatched. I would fill the complete 5 gallon bucket with water, set the colander bucket inside and then fill the colander bucket with potential pay dirt. Swish the colander bucket/hand agitate it around a bit, and dispose of the large rock. That allowed me to classify stuff for panning pretty quickly IMO.
 
The easiest pans to use are the Le Trap rectangle step pans. Shake them back and forth, tip and dip, then repeat the process until you get to the smalls, then fan them out.

 
Here is the pan I started with and the tupperware of dirt I attempted(before I scuffed it):
GoldPan_sml.jpg
Here is the best I got to:
GoldPan2_sml.jpg
I can see a bunch of shiny fines as well as something just a bit larger. In the picture, one of the fines is upper left on the pan.

At this point, I fear to get too vigorous and lose the larger bits I've seen. But, as you can see, I've got lots of "big" stones that I have no luck popping out.
 
Here is the pan I started with and the tupperware of dirt I attempted(before I scuffed it):

I can see a bunch of shiny fines as well as something just a bit larger. In the picture, one of the fines is upper left on the pan.

At this point, I fear to get too vigorous and lose the larger bits I've seen. But, as you can see, I've got lots of "big" stones that I have no luck popping out.

I'm no expert, not even close. But I was able to get gold out of the panning set up at the local gold Nugget days event. :flipoff2:​​​​​​

You just need to let that shit wash out, I don't know how to describe it, but as long as you keep swishing it around, the black sand and gold will sink. Maybe watch some you tube videos.

Also, this might be dumb, but you know you need water in the pan right? :flipoff2:
 
I'm no expert, not even close. But I was able to get gold out of the panning set up at the local gold Nugget days event. :flipoff2:​​​​​​

You just need to let that shit wash out, I don't know how to describe it, but as long as you keep swishing it around, the black sand and gold will sink. Maybe watch some you tube videos.

Also, this might be dumb, but you know you need water in the pan right? :flipoff2:

I've watched a boat load of videos.:lmao:

Maybe I'm just being over cautious because I can see gold and don't want it to end up in the drink.

Yeah... no water because I ran out of spare time and let it sit ;)
 
I've watched a boat load of videos.:lmao:

Maybe I'm just being over cautious because I can see gold and don't want it to end up in the drink.

Yeah... no water because I ran out of spare time and let it sit ;)

That's what the riffles are for, you do the back and forth motion and light the light stuff wash out.
 
Lol you won’t see it tilll the very end. Pick all the big stuff off by hand. If you want to see it shake it at a 30 degree angle then slowly spin while shaking all the lights will go down hill and the gold will stay in corner.

thereareno heavies in that sand. Gold has a specific gravity of about 18-19. Sand is 3-4. The gold will stick to the bottom likes magnet compared to the sand.

when you pan it pan it out into a tub when your done take the sand you planned out and save it to pan out again. That way you can check to make sure you didn’t blow any out.
 
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