How to pan for Gold; Videos

Okay I got to figure out a way to claim this fits in as a survival thread... so... crossing my fingers... I'm going to claim it gives you the skill to acquire a tradable good... in this case gold... if that doesn't work for ya... well lets at least all agree this would be a pretty cool way to spend a weekend...

Ya know I grew up right in the middle of gold country... I have sat and listened to countless stories about how to pan gold... but ya know what... I have never gone out and did it myself..... but I want too... maybe not to get rich but at least to be able to say I did it... besides it might be something fun to do with the kids...

Remember I've never done this either so lets have some fun learning to do it together...
and before we start don't think for a minute you have to live in California to do this... with just a few mouse clicks I found this gold mine map of Kansas

Finding a Goldfield


Research, research and more research! That is the key my friends! Whether you get your information from the Mines Department, the local farmer or from a prospecting club, it doesn't matter.
When I first went out looking for gold I made sure I went to a spot that I knew people had found alluvial gold before. This means that I had a fair chance of being in the right place to start off with. If you're not where the gold is...you may as well give it away.

So how do you find your first gold bearing site?
First stop is the local bookstore or library. Find out what you can here, more often than not, the information found will be very general and not refer to specific locations. This is alright though, just take note of an area that was worked previously that is close to you and is reasonably well known (eg. Ballarat, Kalgoorlie, Bathurst, Palmer River)

Next step is to find in specific information about the site you have chosen.
My favourite stop is the Mines Department that can be found in your capital city.
Get to know your way around and make friends with the counter staff who are usually very happy to help. The information that you get is very specific and accurate, unlike many of the gold tales often told. ( A friend once told me a gold mine is a "Hole in the ground owned by a liar"

)

The information you will get will include:

The date the area was gazetted as a goldfield.
Locations of shafts, adits and mines
Gold Production figures
Gold Type (alluvial, reef, deep lead etc..)
Current lease holders
Future prospects
Detailed maps

Okay lets start with a vid of how to find Gold
youtu.be...


classic wet panning
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As a kid I head stories about using a wool blanket to dry pan... they would fill that blanket with black earth then two people would toss the material up into the air... letting the wind carry off the lighter stuff... after picking out the rocks and looking for anything shinny they would then burn the blanket and wet pan out the gold dust from the ashes...

Now there is yet another way to find gold
Nugget shooting is using a metal detector to find nuggets located underground. Nugget shooting can be done anywhere you think gold may be hidden. Deserts, forests, riverbed, anyplace. There are many books written on the subject of finding gold with a metal detector.

Any metal detector will find gold, as gold is a metal. But, some metal detectors are geared toward relics or coins, and so the electronics are specifically designed to give the best performance for these types of objects. A metal detector specifically designed for gold usually has no "discrimination," that is, is detects all metals equally well, and is very, very sensitive. A typical gold nugget metal detector can find a nugget slightly larger than the head of a pin (once you know your machine). If you use discrimination to reject nails and other trash, you loose the sensitivity for these small nuggets. However, advances are being made in metal detector technology every day, and discriminating machines are getting better at rejecting trash while still detecting very small nuggets.

Generally, for the average nugget shooter, a higher quality metal detector with some discrimination is a good detector to nugget shoot with. The ability to interpret your detectors signals is more important than the style or cost of the metal detector.

Accessories useful for metal detecting are scoops, knee pads, tweezers, magnifying glass, canteens, belt pouches, knapsacks, hat, etc. Experience is the best determining factor on what you want or don't want while nugget shooting.
Minelabs Makes a Metal detector just for nugget shooting
youtu.be...


well that's what I got for now... your turn to add tips and tricks for a novice like me to learn

reply to post by DaddyBare




Got ya thinkin...didn't I?

Keep 'em comin' Marine..You're on target.

In Eire this is supposed to be illegal, but in the wilderness people don't see you doing it so the mountains are the best place there.

I'm down here in Apple Valley Bare. Go'in looney sett'in at home everyday. Been wanting to go do this for so long and now I might as well. Hell let's go ! Thank you so much for posting this. Very cool.

Nice thread, Daddybare. Funny, but I was just talking to a friend who knew a friend who hit it big panning for gold. I just told my hubby maybe we should go to Alaska to pan for gold. Only, I'd never, ever get him back cuz he'd be so crazy about it he'd never want to come home... It's a nice thought though, isn't it? Panning for gold, hitting the dream and the rest is history as they say. Could life really be that simple? The wild west days always appeal to men for some reason or other. Be it the absolute lawlessness, the ability to be "a man" I guess I just don't know.

Then, to get back into reality...got bills to pay, mortgage and school clothes, etc. But yeah, I want to go pan for gold, especially now that gold is so high. Actually sold some platinum last week and some scrap gold. Sure beats collecting beer and pop cans.

Panning is way too slow though. Unless you're in an extremely rich area, f you want to recover a tradeable amount of gold, the very least piece of equipment you will need is a sluice box:

Home-made:



Home-made, super-portable(although not as quality):


Commercially made:

while west of back in da days..