any gold prospectors?

[corndog-44]

I came across this mural and it shows different methods used by prospectors in search for wealth in California, the Yukon and Alaska. Any gold prospectors here and do you still use these old methods?


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[Rick]

Corndog, You bet. My wife and I pan. We've talked about adding a hand sluice but just haven't done it. We've panned in AK and found some nice flakes. Nothing to write home about but certainly brought it home. We also pan in Indiana. A lot of folks are surprised to learn the Midwest has gold but mining has taken place here since about 1850. Mostly in the southern and western parts of the state and there are a couple of gold prospecting clubs in the state.

All the gold was brought down by the glaciers. Almost all of it in the flakes and smaller size (as opposed to nuggets). All of it placer gold. Just a nice hobby and a lot of fun. Another nice way to get out of the house. You might also be surprised that along with the gold, the glaciers brought us some diamonds and garnets. The largest diamond found (recorded) to date is 4 carats. Much more gold than diamonds but it's here.

[trax]

Glaciers leave behind any iron pyrite?

[Rick]

I haven't found any. But as I said, most of the stuff here is flakes or smaller so you'd be hard pressed to confuse the two. Gold and magnetite are about the only thing you'll find in the bottom of the pan because once you work it down they are the heaviest.

[trax]

How do you determine that you have gold?

[owl_girl]

What’s magnetite? Is it that black sand?

[owl_girl]

Never mind I googled it, now I feel stupid lol

[Rick]

Trax - It's kind of funny, really. When you first start out, you're asking yourself, "Is that gold,' with just about anything that turns up in your pan that is even remotely gold colored. Once you actually see gold in your pan, though, there is no mistaking it. Like a dime in a...well, you know. Most hardened panners are more than happy to give a five minute lesson to newbies. Just like here, they love to impart knowledge.

Owl Girl - Yep. The old timers tell me and I've never had it fail that you will only find gold where there is black sand or magnetite. But just finding black sand doesn't mean you'll find gold. I carry a round magnet in a 35 mm film cannister and if I have a lot of black sand I just run the cannister around the pan and pick up the magnetite. A good shake will roll the magnet up in the cannister and the magnetite will drop off.

[trax]

So go ahead, impart that knowledge, how do you determine that you have gold?

[owl_girl]

It’s yellow heavy and soft.

[trax]

It’s yellow heavy and soft.

Anything else? Anything you're going to add to that Rick?

[Rick]

I guess I'm being dense. Do you want to know how to pan or just identify the gold? Gold is about 19 times heavier than water so it drops to the bottom of the pan. It's heavier than just about everything else, too. Once you work your material down the only thing left is black sand (magnetite) and gold. It's only gold. Iron pyrite, if there was any, will have washed out of the pan because it's so much lighter than gold. If you were working a nugget mine, like you see in the movies, I suppose you could get confused because both the gold and the pyrite are bound in the rock. I've seen some commercial operations in AK and out west and that gold is often bound and has to be separated (usually chemically). When you pan, the gold is free. Pure gold. You won't find it attached to other minerals very often. It's referred to as placer gold or "free metallic" gold. Does that help?

[scabbyota]

I've panned for gold . It's more gold bearing creeks around than you think.

[trax]

See, I just wanted to know if there was anything I'd missed in the 16 years I spent growing up around gold and copper mines and the 18 years I spent working on exploration drills and in mining. I know what placer gold is, thank you. I wanted to know what determinant you may have used because it depends where you are and what other metals are in the area. There are other heavy metals that can be mistaken for gold, and can wind up in water, hence be panned, and there are specific acid tests you can do to make sure you have gold.

There have, historically, been a lot more false alarms discovered by prospectors than there have been gold mines, for instance, and yes, I will give you and scabby that there are plenty of gold bearing creeks still out there.

[Rick]

Playin' me! I didn't know that tug in my cheek was a hook. Here I was tryin' to be all nice and help out and stuff. (sniff) (sniff). Owl Girl and Nell will really feel bad for me now.

[trax]

No, they won't dude, but nice try. I really wasn't playin' ya, I wanted to know...lots of people think they have gold and the most common mistake is they have copper...when it's raw and pure it looks like gold. And there's a lot of simple technology that can be brought into the field for prospecting these days. I understand that you and the wife are panning more for a hobby than anything else, but if you find places where there are veins of quartz showing through bedrock for instance...strong possibility of some gold being present.

Clay sampling too, you can take clay samples and run an acid test on it. I honest to God forget what acid, and it'll change if there's even traces of gold in the clay.

It doesn't take a really high percentage of gold to get mining companies excited. I worked in a huge copper mine where they found one vein of gold...that gold covered the costs of the entire copper operation, so everything from the copper was profit.

Of course, to me, these days (having had my turn at trashing the earth) the last thing I want to hear is someone discovered another mine. The damage that mining does to the earth is mind-boggling.

[Rick]

I saw a number of old worked out commercial operations in AK. I'm going by memory and I may be wrong but I think they used sulphuric acid back then to separate the gold. Nasty looking left overs whatever they used. Nitric acid may be what you're talking about. Maybe not. I think that's what jewelers use to test for gold. I still think they'll feel bad for me. If you look real close at my avatar, you can see a tear drop. (sniff) (sniff).

[trax]

That's snot from running in the wind. I think you're right about the nitric acid, but I should probably check.

[Beo]

LMOA, Trax your so funny... snot... lol... and gold sinks in the water cause like any rock its gonna sink, and Sarge the only gold in thar hills is what was in your teeth. Lol... jk

[Sarge47]

LMOA, Trax your so funny... snot... lol... and gold sinks in the water cause like any rock its gonna sink, and Sarge the only gold in thar hills is what was in your teeth. Lol... jk

The only real winners during the gold rush days were the merchants who were quick to relieve everybody they could of whatever money or gold that they had. BTW, Rick,if Owl Girl feels too sorry for you she'll send you some mushrooms and Nell will ask: "Do you want fries with that?"