>>2480611There is a major difference between panning for gold for fun and actual mining. If your really serious about trying to find some gold small scale for fun / maybe profit though, your going to need to do a LOT of research. Placer gold is getting harder and harder to find in any real amounts worth digging for with heavy machinery, its even harder to find in amounts worth hand mining. Look up regions that your close to, and work from there. While it is true that the further out you explore, the better chances you will find gold, you will also be raising your costs to get to and find that gold by hundreds of times.
Do not expect to instantly find gold right away, its a lot of hard trudging through shit terrain to find nothing most of the time, I ve spent months snooping around areas only to find fly shit gold, only to find fantastic gold in the most unexpected of spots.
Pic related from a friends mine in 2021, clean ups were small but great to look at. Happy hunting!