Has anyone ever panned for gold? or sluiced a bit?

so I bought my brand new nugget bucket lol, willing to give it a try.. Not from a well known gold producing state but who knows what you'll stumble on.. I see the youtube vids of people sluicing so to say and panning. Just wondered if anyone on ats has tried? I know to look for bedrock and such but any pointers besides hogs sluicing or whatever it is.. don;t have a lot of money but love to be outside so might as well pan, do I need any special license like a claim or fishing license lol I'm pretty new to it all so any pointers would be nice.

a reply to: MarlbBlack

Out here in AZ I have a few spots my buddies and I go to look for gold. You cant just go to any river or any old spot. You have to know that gold is in the area. Or else you're going to be panning for nothing.

The most important thing to keep in mind about gold is that it is more dense and heavier than any other materials out there do you gotta dig for it. You will never find a big nugget just sitting on the surface unless it was after some earth got moved.

Looking in the rivers after a big rain storm is smart because it washes things down the hills. Look for black sand as well. Our here in AZ if you are seeing a lot of Rose Quartz you know you can find gold int he area. But we also have gold everywhere out here. Not all states do.

Sluicing is just easier in a river because the running water get rid of all the lighter particles and the sluice will trap the gold for you. Panning is really only meant for going after the small gold pieces you need tweezers for a sluice is for panning a whole area of river.

a reply to: PraetorianAZ

Nice from what I've seen do you think up north could be better say montana? West wisconsin area? due to the old bedrock? I'm in central Illinois I just bought it to be fun on kayak and canoe trips in other areas. Would and could I get in trouble just panning in different locations?

a reply to: PraetorianAZ

sluicing maybe for a 4 day weekend, probs need to contact someone for that right?

a reply to: MarlbBlack

Find old topographic maps.
Look for old linear depressions indicating an ancient river bed.
Look for old areas that cold of been waterfalls - those are your money pits. The rock will be gravely in those areas.
I have 20 years of exploration and mining experience talking here.
I used to pan after work at the old Pickle-Crow mine site.

You could walk along the river banks and see gold specs in the water on calm summer days.
There was an incident where the mine site built the road to the the mine and used blasted rock they thought was waste. Turns out they built the road out of gold lol.
A bit of an exaggeration but they really did use mid grade gold in the road rock.

Someone got a spanking for that one.

a reply to: MarlbBlack

Don’t draw attention to your self.
If you find something and they know, your gonna be told you have to share lol.

Btw : quartz Is always a good indicator for gold.

Do some searches online for your area. Often you will even find government assay results from old drilling logs. Up here in Canada I can easily find assays back to the 1940s.
You need to become a prospector of sorts to be able to identify indicators.
I’m in a rush right now or I would go into more detail.

I’ll be back in 5 hours

a reply to: Macenroe82

yas don't need a spanking, get many daily.. but I stumble on to jeff williams channel then just kind of sailed around watching .. very good tips not sure I can find any around me maybe up north a bit starved rock there is a state park about a half hour south? It has waterfalls and bedrock and that's about it.

I've panned for gold, but not in the traditional sense.

Some years back when I was in to collecting and sorting eScrap, I was given a bunch of procescors that I didn't recognise.

So, just to kill some time, I pyrolised a sample, crushed them in the pestle and mortar, and panned out the resultant dust.

I'm on phone right now so no pictures, but I did get colour in the pan, 👍

Edit, that was a nightmare lol. I only have a few of my photos from this period in a normal size for some reason, not sure why the other folder is full of thumbnails. They were uploaded to ImageShack a good few years ago and it appears that they're gone now, so sorry for the small size of the last three.

This is the material that I panned after pyrolisation and grinding,



This was the result after panning the first small part of the powder,



The next two are the results of processing the full test sample of 1lb IC's





This last one is a microscopic image I took of gold bonding wires exposed inside a snapped IC



Good luck on your adventure! Wish i could do the same, those stacks of PC's used to take up a lot of space lol 🙂

You could start at a camp. Usually run by a local. They usually will, for a fee, show you how to pan, where to look, what other minerals to look for, etc.

The other well known method is to go out with somebody who already has experience. Usually a friend, or friend of a friend. You may get the crap jobs of hauling buckets of rocks and sand but being with somebody who can show you the ropes is by far a better method than watching on TV and wandering around by yourself.

If you still want to wander around by yourself, your local area should have marked public lands where mining is allowed (or what kind is. For example, we have a local area where no motorized mining is allowed).

It is nice to get into the outdoors! Sometimes, hard, physical labor is good for the soul. And sometimes, you learn enough to catch gold fever!

I haven't been out in 5 years, so do some panning for me! And let us know how your adventure went!

a reply to: MarlbBlack

I live on a river in Oregon. About a decade ago the ''bug'' hit a number of people up here who thought that this would be a good job for them. They went out and bought the float skids with the small engines for sluicing and the whole rigs. There were plenty of supply houses ready to sell them the tools. It became a fad for a number of years.

One of our local swimming holes began to draw more and more attention over the years until once the fad was firmly in swing these miners would bring their rigs down to the water and to to work, day after day. Many came with diving suits to get in the deeper trenches.

What had once been very nice swimming holes for entire families became a slum of gold hungry miners who at one point had almost a dozen rigs floating in one stretch of the river. Of course this destroyed the river bed for any spawning that makes our river famous. Likewise the water ran dirty for miles down stream making all the swimming places less enjoyable.
But once the fad had ended due of course to the fact that the money these guys put out for the rigs and stuff along with the camping life style did not pay off enough to make it worth their wile they were all gone.

If you want to take a pan and head out to some area that is remote and may not have been panned before then you might find a place to make it more than just a way to wile away your time. But chances are there have been many people ahead of you where ever you go . Try instead to buy a nice pole and spend you afternoons fishing .

a reply to: MarlbBlack

Some helpful links for starters.

Geological Survey Maps
Locating Mining Claims on Federal Land
Brochure

Then you have to know the rules on State lands.

It's important you know where the existing claims are so you do not accidentally engage in claim jumping.

You need a basic understanding of where gold is found and why it's there. I suspect you can learn most of that online these days, but some things you learn hands on.

One mistake many people make is walking over valuable minerals or gemstones by focusing only on gold. I know of one case in Idaho where prospectors walked over the top of a huge zinc deposit for a hundred years before a savvy prospector noticed it and mined it.

It's a hobby that requires a lot of study to be successful. Known places where people go to get a few specks of gold can be fun and you might even find a nice nugget, but the known places are left unclaimed for a reason. It costs more to produce than it's worth. Using a metal detector in the right areas can yield large nuggets, but anyone making more than they spend is extremely rare.

The Feds aggressively enforce laws to do with environmental concerns and others and you need to make sure you know what you can and can't do where are prospecting. Panning however is usually not an issue, provided your not on someones claim.

It's fun and addictive. I had an uncle who got rich a couple of times from gold finds, only to lose it all again in failed mines. In the end selling a patent for new kind of dredge he designed in the 1960's was how he retired. I grew up around it, but mainly our finds were other things like precious and semi-precious gemstones. When my father died in 1971 we had 13 tons of gemstone in bins in our backyard we either found or bartered for. Most of it came from areas in Southern Utah you can no longer gain access to. It's not as easy as it once was.

Be careful. If you get hooked on it, it can become and obsession, but it's a fun one. Do your homework first and find someone who knows what they are doing and befriend them. As a kid running with my father, we found most things by talking to old miners and prospectors. If you make a find, keep it to yourself.

a reply to: MarlbBlack

Hey, wife, daughter and I pan every week and metal detect. We would recommend watching Two Toes and Pioneer Pauly amongst others on you tube.

You want to look for hard pack, often on the outside turn of a river, smooth to shiney stones in the pack. Consider crevasing with a hanger or a 5 in one tool.

When panning tilt at about a 30 degree angle, shake side to side to sink the gold, then lap the pan forward and back to dump the blonds and lighter stuff.

Laws differ a bit state to state on motorized equipment, so check with BLM. and National Parks in your area to get the best info.

Wife and I are trying to file a claim here in Southern Oregon, thatll be a 20 acre placer. Feel free to PM for any questions

Panned many times in Dahlonega , Ga.
For fun , not for profit

a reply to: Gothmog

It was always about fun, just like to be outdoors. Come spring going to check out a few locations, like to camp as well.. Not so much bush craft because I like what I need to be comfortable.. Watched many videos, learned a lot over the past year going out.. few flakes here and there but nothing major yet, it's amazingly fun for me, relaxing.

Joke - Has anyone digged for gold and slutted a bit?

Nope, never.

The poor brown mountain trout as soon as I think I'm out mercury pulls me back in...

Fortunately modern techniques like a good sluice or panning can get results without the greed of mercury if that the case just keep your sand with bits and do that in a safe home shop environment of handling etc. and out of the field. It's the real culprit behind "gold fever" anyways. Often mistaken of the urge to go prospect or pan etc.

I personally prefer gemstone hunting... once you know what you're looking at in the rough and raw? Then you know what you are looking for when it comes to gemstones, I've got to get to some lapidation though at some point so I've quit looking but sometimes I see something and I have to pick it up... like a gravel drive pour that had some quartz bits etc and I found a piece of quartz with a nice vein of gold running through it... lapidary doesn't have to occur just a really nice sample is sometimes worth more to a rock collector than faceted.

Pruney hands crack and bleed and rarely have a chance to dry if it's something you do day in and day out so protecting them from water penetration where they don't get over saturated... when they prune it's a good sign to say that's enough looking for now when it comes to gold but some people dig the buckets where they think gold will be and sluice and it's sore back city the larger the bucket etc. there are backpack sluice boxes but "whatcha doing there" makes some people jumpy when on land they don't exactly know whose land it is... some state parks have it as ok to mine and some don't best to ask a local parks or forest ranger often times they'll be happy to tell you where some good local spots are and where it is safe to do such a thing.

Some don't pan or sluice but get out the goggles and swim trunks with a good strong flashlight and bag and use it to spot what shines back at them.