Gold in KY.

I have found gold in Kentucky! Now, don't anyone come rushing to Louisville in search of gold. There is a story associated with this find...

I generally head up to IN or OH to dredge in known glacial gold locations. From an Ohio trip, I had a pretty good showing of flakes and fines, but some of it wasn't right. It almost looked like lead, but didn't act like it in my cleanup pans. So, I decided to put some heat to it to see if it was mercury coated gold. After just a moment over the propane burner, my "lead" was all shiny gold!

Well, I did this in an only stainless spoon with a welder's golve on. After I heated it, I sat it down on thw asphalt in my driveway. After a moment or two, I decided to transfer it to my pan. But, I figured the spoon was still hot, so tried to pick it up while wearing the welding glove. Mistake! I spilled the entire spoonful of gold onto my driveway.

Now, my asphalt isn't new and shiney, it is old, pitted and in need of sealing. So, I had gold in the crevices of my drive. I first tried wetting my finger and picking it up. That just stuck it down into the crevices. Next, I poured some water on it and tried to suck it up with my snuffer bottle. No go there, either.

This was this past summer and between the mosquitoes and humidity, I gave up. Although, that night in bed, I thought about it and it came to me! Shopvac!!

So, the next evening after work, I emptied my shop vac and did some crevicing right here in KY! After sucking away, I emptied the vaccuum into a pan and panned it down. I found some pretty shiny gold right out in the back of my house here in KY!!

Well, I guess this doesn't really count, but I see it as a success story!

Lookin
 

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sniper100 said:
I am back from my prospecting trip. Here is my report. Like most prospectors I should not reveal the location of my intrest, due to claim jumping. I was 323 yards up Wilson creek, from the main road, about one mile from the rear of the lake in Taylor County. There is a drain feeding the creek that travels a mile or so up into the hills. Gold would be washed down and drop down into a depression. I panned about twenty pans and have determined the following;
If someone shot a deer and while attempting to recover said deer, by grasping the antler, said deer bolted to life, ripping the gold ring of the hunters hand. Ran off up stream, with the gold ring firmly attached to it's antlers. Never recovered and died in the stream and remained there until the antler dissolved releasing the ring, which was reduced to nugget or smaller parts, by storm and wave action along with ATV traffic in the creek. Traveling down to the general location I was prospecting. I might have a better chance of finding gold in that area. The only gold color anything I saw was the label on the bottle of Bud select I nursed. I'll be looking for another spot soon. End of report.
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Look here sir ..Pactric Mcmanus.. that was great....
 

Patrick F. Mc.Manus, is my all time favorite author. Thanks for the complement. He is the reason I was paroled from English 101.
 

Astrobouncer said:
According to the University of Kentucky the conditions for gold and silver formation there are not good. You can read more here:

http://www.uky.edu/KGS/rocksmn/goldsilver.htm

Thanks, I did some reading and was doing pretty good until the last sentence, "The silver occurred in the crystal lattice structure of the galena."
Now the first part was near depressing, making a good case that no gold was to be found. The silver is another proposition all together. Crystal lattice is found in our garden every year after the first frost but I'm guessing, we don't grow our galena close enough to the lattice to form silver. We'll try planting them real close next season and I'll let you know who much we got.
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I have property in Southern Ky, its in the hills with 2 creeks that come together before flowing into the Danial Boon.There is a lot of pea gravel and sand in the creek and black sand in the ripples on the bottom.there is also quarts in the pea gravel.is this a place that I might find gold?
 

Interesting read. Thanks!

All the best,

Lanny
 

I live in Pike co. Ky the eastern most point of KY and plan to start panning a little this year.... I know of several branchs, creeks and just plan ole hollers with tons of black sand is this a good starting point..
 

hope you all the best on your endeavor, but i would make a trip to indiana or ohio
 

Hy friends...

Gold and silver are commonly found in areas where igneous and metamorphic activity has occurred and are generally associated with silicic types of intrusives and Precambrian metamorphic rocks. When gold-bearing rocks weather, the liberated gold, because of its higher specific gravity, is mechanically separated from the accompanying lighter material and concentrated in the stream bottoms in the valleys. This type of mineral concentration is called placer.

In Kentucky, the geology is not favorable for the natural occurrence of gold or silver. Most of the surface and near-surface rocks are sedimentary, and there has not been any igneous, metamorphic, or tectonic event to allow the gold or precious metal to be concentrated in economic quantities.

The most common mineral mistaken for gold is pyrite, an iron sulfide, commonly referred to as "fool's gold." Another mineral that often confuses an amateur rockhound is muscovite, often called white mica. It is nonmetallic, but has a shiny luster, and when weathered it turns brownish gold. Small flakes of muscovite occur disseminated throughout some shales and sandstones in Kentucky. It is remotely possible that minute, noncommercial amounts of gold could be found in glacial outwash deposits along the Ohio River Valley. Some gold has been recovered from glacial debris in southern Ohio near the Kentucky border. If this gold exists in Kentucky, it was derived from sediments in the northeastern part of the United States.

Some silver was recovered from galena concentrates in the Western Kentucky Fluorspar District in the 1960's, but the amount was very small and uneconomic. The silver occurred in the crystal lattice structure of the galena.
 

loby said:
Hy friends...

Gold and silver are commonly found in areas where igneous and metamorphic activity has occurred and are generally associated with silicic types of intrusives and Precambrian metamorphic rocks. When gold-bearing rocks weather, the liberated gold, because of its higher specific gravity, is mechanically separated from the accompanying lighter material and concentrated in the stream bottoms in the valleys. This type of mineral concentration is called placer.

In Kentucky, the geology is not favorable for the natural occurrence of gold or silver. Most of the surface and near-surface rocks are sedimentary, and there has not been any igneous, metamorphic, or tectonic event to allow the gold or precious metal to be concentrated in economic quantities.

The most common mineral mistaken for gold is pyrite, an iron sulfide, commonly referred to as "fool's gold." Another mineral that often confuses an amateur rockhound is muscovite, often called white mica. It is nonmetallic, but has a shiny luster, and when weathered it turns brownish gold. Small flakes of muscovite occur disseminated throughout some shales and sandstones in Kentucky. It is remotely possible that minute, noncommercial amounts of gold could be found in glacial outwash deposits along the Ohio River Valley. Some gold has been recovered from glacial debris in southern Ohio near the Kentucky border. If this gold exists in Kentucky, it was derived from sediments in the northeastern part of the United States.

Some silver was recovered from galena concentrates in the Western Kentucky Fluorspar District in the 1960's, but the amount was very small and uneconomic. The silver occurred in the crystal lattice structure of the galena.
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I know this is an old post but, what the heck. I live in south central Ky and one issue I have with what you posted is about fool's gold. Yes, some has been found around here BUT, the same conditions needed for the formation of fool's gold is also needed for real gold as well. The two are often found together so when I was reading some supposed geology report on Kentucky and it spoke of fool's gold being found but conditions were not right for finding gold I laughed. I was a geology major in college for my first 2 years. Something else that is found in gold producing areas is marble and this area has that as well. It is, indeed mostly sedimentary, ie limestone...But since we have some examples of marble and pyrite, I think there is also, or at least COULD be gold as well. A lot of the texts keep saying it was never commercially viable here in Kentucky, and that is true but that does not mean it is not here at all. Another thing to consider is that being commercially viable at $5/ounce in the gold rush days of CA and commercially viable at $1,400/ounce today are 2 different things. Tom Massey found that gold not 30 miles from where I am right now and there have been a few reports, here and there, of very small amounts being found as well. The only way to know for sure is to look.

Bill
 

PirateLabs said:
Another thing to consider is that being commercially viable at $5/ounce in the gold rush days of CA and commercially viable at $1,400/ounce today are 2 different things.

Bill
Click to expand...
Keep in mind....when gold was $20-30/oz. it took about 30 oz. to buy a standard pickup......today @ $1300/oz. it takes about 30 oz. to buy a standard PU. An ounce will always be an ounce, never changes. IMO...the value of gold never REALLY changes? Just something to think about...wasn't trying to discount anything you said...............
 

oneguy said:
Keep in mind....when gold was $20-30/oz. it took about 30 oz. to buy a standard pickup......today @ $1300/oz. it takes about 30 oz. to buy a standard PU. An ounce will always be an ounce, never changes. IMO...the value of gold never REALLY changes? Just something to think about...wasn't trying to discount anything you said...............
Click to expand...

Good point.

Bill
 

oneguy said:
Keep in mind....when gold was $20-30/oz. it took about 30 oz. to buy a standard pickup......today @ $1300/oz. it takes about 30 oz. to buy a standard PU. An ounce will always be an ounce, never changes. IMO...the value of gold never REALLY changes? Just something to think about...wasn't trying to discount anything you said...............
Click to expand...

It's a good measure of inflation after the price returns to baseline.
 

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