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Gold Panning

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 03:47:34 No.1362313 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>1362322 >>1362936 >>1369438

Does anyone here do any gold panning? I was thinking about getting into it but don't know where to start. Can anyone recommend good guides? I'm out of Montana if that matters, I saw some guides were based on location, rather than just being general guides.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 03:50:09 No.1362316 Report

Quoted By: >>1367021

I’m the “not knowing where to start” boat too, drunkenly bought a gold pan off amazon and have yet to use it yet. NCfag here

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO MT_Au deposits.jpg, 437KiB, 1200x1224

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 04:13:33 No.1362322 Report

Quoted By: >>1362325 >>1362447

>>1362313
It's all about location, and it's also more of a hobby in some areas. Only gone panning once in a region known to only have placer deposits, didn't get anything after an hour. You have to move yards of dirt to actually start getting to the good shit *unless* you're in a damn good spot. The mountains I was panning had only produced 2,000 ounces in the past so not very much, A guy in my town actually managed to get 1 ounce, but it took him 1 year of panning and sluicing. While another guy found 200 ounces of gold literally just walking through the mountains, all nuggets. I recommend you research locations of previous placer deposits, then go out and give them a try. I have a whole bunch of old mining maps of my state (AZ) but I ain't posting them, 650k ounces of Gold mined in the state since 1880, MT has even more Au. I'll grab some resources for Montana though.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5158652.pdf

https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0978c/report.pdf

http://www.mbmg.mtech.edu/sp28/mina-l.htm

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 04:25:00 No.1362325 Report

Quoted By:

>>1362322

Amazing!

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 09:30:12 No.1362414 Report

Quoted By: >>1362430 >>1362458

Been a while since I have done it, but it's fairly easy.

Just have a lot of patience and find a good spot, remember that you need mercury to separate the gold from the stone.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 10:28:38 No.1362430 Report

Quoted By: >>1362544

>>1362414
You can’t just heat it?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 11:44:06 No.1362447 Report

Quoted By: >>1362453 >>1362502

>>1362322
>650k ounces of Gold mined in the state since 1880

Is that right? My state mined 6.5 million oz last year. Now I know we are a pretty big gold miner but that is 10 times more in one year than az has ever mined.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 12:00:19 No.1362453 Report

Quoted By: >>1362498

>>1362447
Ya AZ is pretty low, it's the 4th lowest (OR, WA, and NM are lower) in the entire western US, Montana is 9th highest overall in the US for au. At least compared to many other places in the world AZ produces a lot of gold. On the bright side though AZ produces the most copper of any state and even more than many entire countries, and it is the only state to elect a mining inspector to its government, which is now useless btw because they don't actually inspect the 120,000+ abandoned mines in the state anymore. Also most people don't know it, but Nevada produces more gold each year than even Alaska, five times more in 2015 alone.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 12:20:13 No.1362458 Report

Quoted By: >>1362461 >>1362544

>>1362414
>remember that you need mercury to separate the gold from the stone.
Yeah, no.
Panning != mining.
And as a hobbyist, you definitely should not fuck around with mercury.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 12:27:03 No.1362461 Report

Quoted By: >>1362486 >>1363034

>>1362458
You nerds aren't smashing the fuck outta random rocks and pouring mercury on them? Do you even want gold?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 13:25:51 No.1362486 Report

Quoted By: >>1362690

>>1362461
Not sure if sarcasm or genuinely retarded.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 13:47:49 No.1362498 Report

Quoted By:

>>1362453
guess you gotta go to shitty Nevada for the gold

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 13:57:03 No.1362502 Report

Quoted By: >>1363154

>>1362447
Many regulations in your state? Might be a lot more gold but at what cost...at what cost

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 16:25:22 No.1362540 Report

Quoted By: >>1362994

What kind of gear is required? I've seen people with pans, sluice boxes, and other stuff.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 16:33:33 No.1362544 Report

Quoted By: >>1362706

>>1362430
Not at enough temperature as an amateur.

>>1362458
You still get rocks with gold and not just pure nuggets.

Old desert miners use mercury with their bare hands, how they not die it's beyond my understanding.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 20:49:49 No.1362690 Report

Quoted By:

>>1362486
It's both.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 18 Sep 2018 21:11:50 No.1362706 Report

Quoted By:

>>1362544
Quicksilver isn’t absorbed by skin contact all that well. You can even eat it without getting poisoned. The vapors are hazardous af though and so is any contact with other types of mercury.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 02:48:09 No.1362936 Report

Quoted By:

>>1362313
Once had 150 acres of Gold and Platinum claim land in BC, also did some digging/panning all over.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO DSCN8682.jpg, 2MiB, 3264x2448

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 05:25:54 No.1362994 Report

Quoted By: >>1362995 >>1363026

>>1362540
I have the pan. The rubber gloves because the water is cold (Alaska). The RainX bottle is just filled with soapy water to break the surface tension in the pan. The bottle with the red cap is a Snuffer Bottle. After you pane you squeeze the bottle and put the tip in the pan and suck out the gold. And a shovel but you don't really need a shovel you can use a small garden spade

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO DSCN0385.jpg, 2MiB, 3264x2448

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 05:27:12 No.1362995 Report

Quoted By: >>1363007

>>1362994
And I usually pan river moss because the gold get trapped in it. That;s the garden spade. I bent the blade part inward to get into crevices and stuff.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 06:09:33 No.1363007 Report

Quoted By: >>1363014

>>1362995
Is that yellow stuff the gold?

And

If I am near a river, can you dig under the river?

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO DSCN8681.jpg, 2MiB, 3264x2448

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 06:31:32 No.1363014 Report

Quoted By: >>1363016 >>1369441

>>1363007
>Is that yellow stuff the gold?
No
>If I am near a river, can you dig under the river?
Actually you'd want to pan the river bank up from the water, as if a flooding caused a "high tide" (don't know what else to call it), because gold gets stirred up and deposited when the water level goes back down. In the pic you can see the water but see the part that gets filled up during heavy rains? See the center of the pic where the sand seems black? That's a good sign.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO DSCN5624.jpg, 2MiB, 3264x2448

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 06:36:13 No.1363016 Report

Quoted By:

>>1363014
found a better black sand pic. It's one of those things when you spot it you're like "holy crap!"

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO gold?.jpg, 173KiB, 1200x675

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 07:01:20 No.1363026 Report

Quoted By: >>1363034 >>1363040

>>1362994
>The RainX bottle is just filled with soapy water to break the surface tension in the pan
What does that do?
Never heard of that, but then, I'm an absolute n00b.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 07:34:11 No.1363034 Report

Quoted By: >>1363036

>>1363026
When you put dry dirt in water some of it floats because it didn't get completely wet. Even dry gold dust will float.

So you add some soap and it clears the surface of the water causing all the dirt and gold to sink. Then you can pan it.

>>1362461
>You nerds aren't smashing the fuck outta random rocks and pouring mercury on them?
I do that. I have a pretty interesting setup for it.

to be fair the biggest danger from that is actually silicosis from dry crushing quartz ore. Mercury poisoning is relatively easy to avoid, but silica dust gets everywhere.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 08:06:07 No.1363036 Report

Quoted By: >>1363038

>>1363034
>When you put dry dirt in water some of it floats because it didn't get completely wet. Even dry gold dust will float.
I see.
Surface tension is a pretty obvious thing, but I never heard it being mentioned as an issue when panning for gold. But that should be unnecessary when panning only wet stuf?!

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 08:16:33 No.1363038 Report

Quoted By: >>1363040

>>1363036
When you pan you fill it with dirt. Then you fill it wit water. Then you take your hands and stir and scrunch what's in the pan. When the water is soapy it settles a whole lot faster instead of just kinda floating and spinning in the water. It's when you run out or forget it you really notice it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 08:22:26 No.1363040 Report

Quoted By: >>1363547

>>1363038
>When you pan you fill it with dirt. Then you fill it wit water.
Yeah, but where I'm at >>1363026 the dirt I'm getting is almost always wet and free of organic matter, so I never noticed something floating.
But I can imagine if you dig up really dry stuff that also has some leafs or moss in there, a little dash of soap could come in handy.
Damn, I gotta head out again, but the next weekend is already planned to visit some birthday in the middle of a limestone area. Oh well, maybe we'll get some climbing done or at least some chilling at a nice lake or river.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 14:11:17 No.1363154 Report

Quoted By:

>>1362502
Heaps of regs. How they compare to other places I dont know.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 19 Sep 2018 18:09:04 No.1363321 Report

Quoted By:

Californian here. They actually teach us gold panning in 4th grade.

My dad is really into it, he has a fuckton of equipment but a $10 pan is really all you need.

Youtube for technique, google for locations.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Sep 2018 00:51:08 No.1363547 Report

Quoted By: >>1363726

>>1363040
I just suck bad at explaining it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 20 Sep 2018 07:16:58 No.1363726 Report

Quoted By: >>1364472

>>1363547
Really? I thought it seems quite obvious, but maybe not…
You have some link/book/youtube vid on the matter?
Genuinely curious.

Anonymous

Anonymous Fri 21 Sep 2018 04:47:15 No.1364472 Report

Quoted By:

>>1363726
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMpCMQowb3E&feature=youtu.be

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO image.jpg, 2MiB, 3264x1824

Anonymous Sun 23 Sep 2018 02:41:57 No.1365454 Report

Quoted By: >>1365466 >>1365473 >>1370097

Gold panning newb here. I tried several days ago to pan at my local creek but after 8 hours all I got are 6 tiny ass flakes less than a mm long. I guess I should be thankful that I even found something. Are there places where I could get at least 1 ounce a month if I panned full time? Honestly I'd be ok with that if I could live on $1000 a month for free from a local river.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 Sep 2018 02:59:01 No.1365466 Report

Quoted By: >>1365495 >>1365607 >>1367021

>>1365454
10 hours per day, 300 hours per month for $1000, like just get a job

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 Sep 2018 03:25:25 No.1365473 Report

Quoted By: >>1365495

>>1365454
Oh there certainly is anon, I doubt you want to go there through.

Consider prospecting for jade in Wisconsin.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO IMAG3409.jpg, 999KiB, 3264x1824

Anonymous Sun 23 Sep 2018 04:25:39 No.1365495 Report

Quoted By: >>1367179

>>1365466
I do and it fucking sucks. I'd rather earn less if it still meant I could go to this every day

>>1365473
Too far sadly, I'm up in Central California near the Sierra Nevada/Mariposa area

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 23 Sep 2018 12:31:41 No.1365607 Report

Quoted By:

>>1365466
That just makes my back hurt thinking of it

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Sep 2018 05:53:32 No.1366783 Report

Quoted By:

bump for 4chan gold!

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Sep 2018 15:57:35 No.1367021 Report

Quoted By: >>1367070 >>1370711

>>1362316
>NC
We have mountains and gold panning sites. If you pan for long enough you might be able to afford the gas to get into the mountains and back.

>>1365466
I only know of one person that does this for about 6 months out of the year and it's only worth it to him because he likes working and living outside in the middle of nowhere. Worth it if that's your only goal.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Sep 2018 16:58:13 No.1367070 Report

Quoted By:

>>1367021
how much gold does he get?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 25 Sep 2018 19:14:44 No.1367179 Report

Quoted By:

>>1365495
lotta bass in that river. i too live out that way

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 27 Sep 2018 06:48:36 No.1368416 Report

Quoted By:

Cool thread.
Any Austrians happen to be here on /out/ that tried it?
I'm in the Tauern area often, how likely is it that I'll find some of that mystical Tauerngold?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 29 Sep 2018 02:35:31 No.1369438 Report

Quoted By:

>>1362313
its a fun hobby and really easy to get into. all you need is a spoon and gold pan.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 29 Sep 2018 02:38:53 No.1369439 Report

Quoted By:

another fun thing to try in the warmer regions where placer gold can be found is called "creek crawling". basically you get down into the creek swimming, in colder places you need a dry suit, and scrap around looking for nuggets stuck in the bedrock. An old fellow I worked for does it in the Cariboo region and can easily make upwards of 500$ a trip just creek crawling, but he moves a shit load more rocks and sediment than i usually do.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 29 Sep 2018 02:42:10 No.1369441 Report

Quoted By:

>>1363014
some of the biggest pieces are trapped in the bedrock just below the creek bed. issue is you need to be looking at the bottom underwater otherwise its nearly impossible to locate from blindly digging from the surface.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 29 Sep 2018 02:55:58 No.1369447 Report

Quoted By: >>1369452

If I panned in Australia I think my gold would get snatched away by the guvnor

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 29 Sep 2018 03:03:48 No.1369452 Report

Quoted By: >>1369459

>>1369447
australia has a similar claim system to canada. so if you find anything on YOUR claim, than its yours no strings attached.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 29 Sep 2018 03:14:40 No.1369459 Report

Quoted By:

>>1369452
Time to rip out the fly screen door I'm going prospecting

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 29 Sep 2018 05:18:59 No.1369502 Report

Quoted By: >>1369505

DRYWASHER AND pANNER HERE.
i'M DRUNK...

Lode gold and placer gold.

read up.

Moved 1 T of dirt for any taste of gold. typical.

"retort". can be done with Hg and a potato, seriously. (don't eat the fucking potato)

Move around anbd dry pan. when you fiond something, then you'll want to dry wash, sluice, etc for larger amounts.

Stick to streams to start, follow veins.

Gold follows silver follows quartz.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO P7260077.jpg, 173KiB, 1059x584

Anonymous Sat 29 Sep 2018 05:37:41 No.1369505 Report

Quoted By: >>1369522

>>1369502
>typical.
I once got an ounce from a ton of dirt, but it was off the dump of a pretty rich gold mine. I also do pretty good picking up ore that fell out of ore buckets on old tram lines.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 29 Sep 2018 06:41:35 No.1369522 Report

Quoted By:

>>1369505
now thats a smart move with the tram lines, only the highest grade ore went for milling

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 30 Sep 2018 04:48:56 No.1370061 Report

Quoted By: >>1370082 >>1370090

Az anon is table mesa road / pleasent / castle hot springs area good to try to look for gold in or am I wasting my time?

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 30 Sep 2018 05:44:08 No.1370082 Report

Quoted By: >>1370090

>>1370061
Load or Placer ?
I'm in extreme Sw Az.
Yuma County. it's all placer gold, silver, etc.

Other places in Az have lode gold.

1 oz per ton is pretty good.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 155670210.png, 128KiB, 639x777

Anonymous Sun 30 Sep 2018 06:13:36 No.1370090 Report

Quoted By:

>>1370061
>>1370082

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 30 Sep 2018 06:28:23 No.1370097 Report

Quoted By:

>>1365454
that's fucking cool man
I'm on the east coast I wish I could go prospecting

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Oct 2018 04:10:52 No.1370711 Report

Quoted By: >>1370777

>>1367021
Got /out/ this weekend and panned the first time, found one or two tiny flakes and because I’m retarded I realized I didn’t bring anything to keep them in so semi success but big ass fail on my part

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Oct 2018 07:19:50 No.1370777 Report

Quoted By:

>>1370711
its fine, micro gold is basically everywhere. Keep trying bigger gold will show up.

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