Be SMART Be SIMPLE Be CHEAP

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MadMarshall

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Nov 12, 2012
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I am always amazed at all the equipment I see people bring with them to prospect a new location. All to common people these days people are dictated by their tools then actual gold. people forget that Sluices, hand dredges, ect ect ect are just tools to recover gold.. The sluice is the ruin of many of new prospector most often they dictate their work areas to places they can sluice. People seem to underestimate the gold pan. People seem to forget what prospecting is. In todays age one can be overwhelmed with all the available resources.. One can purchase gold maps that show all the Ancient Rivers and maps that show the fault lines and the types of bedrock, ECT ECT. Plenty of people selling maps and crap telling you where the richest areas are. The Ability to find gold is dependent on the prospector. I can not stress enough on how important actual prospecting is. Let the Gold dictate the equipment.. I can't stress that enough. It is easy to get caught up in all the BULLSHITE and all the "RECREATIONAL GOLD PROPAGANDA" More interested in picking the pocket of the HOPEFULL PROSPECTOR. So much advice from weekend warriors and people who make gold recovery equipment. Plenty of gold out their for the prospector if he is willing to actually prospect.
..

that location was averaging about a half gram a bucket.. Look and you will find!!!
Proper use of a sluice box..
 

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I have to agree with everyone when it comes to saying that too many people haul out everything including the kitchen sink when they don't even know yet if there's gold where they're going! I really don't think that the gold shows on T.V. are helping the new people at all. There's so much of what goes into working an area that never makes it on the show because it isn't "good T.V.". They don't show the actual locating of the gold, getting the permits needed etc etc etc. All of which is important to a real operation.

As to the statement of "make the gear fit the gold" is so true! As an example let's take a look at the Greaterville area where I've been working. We started off in Kentucky Camp. Good gold there but there's also a ton of clay in the soil. It takes a lot of force to break up that clay. That's the main reason that AzViper designed and built his trommel system to bust up those clay balls and get the gold out. Now fast forward a bit and move over to our claim. There's a lot less clay in the soil so a trommel would be overkill to say the least. A simple re-circ sluice system works just fine for production work. Much less gear and water to haul in and set up. (I've got enough stuff to set up to keep us comfortable as it is) With the help of some of the other guys here on the forum, I've been able to get many more areas of the claim explored and tested than Robi and I could have done by ourselves in such a short time. Pretty much gold in varying amounts all over the claim, but no one needed to break out a trommel, excavator, or a D-12 Cat to get to it.

Now a lot of people may not realize what went into picking this area to file on. Research, more research and did I happen to mention RESEARCH? First we had to find an area that was open to claiming that wasn't already taken.(The area around Kentucky Camp is part of a No Mineral Entry area. You can work it but ya can't file a claim there.) Then I had to look at the geology and hydrology of the area. Was it an area that even had the possibility of good gold in it? I looked into fault areas, water flow, composition of the bedrock etc. Then we had to do more research into the history of the area and the productivity of existing claims in the area around us. (Trust me... There's a lot of claims out there of both Lode and Placer types.) Then we had to do the most important part (IMHO) of getting boots on the ground with a pan in hand. We did testing in four areas on that first trip and found gold in every location. Since that first trip the largest nugget we've pulled out so far has been 1.26 grams and I'm sure that there's even larger ones hiding in the area.

The distance between Kentucky Camp and our claim is only 3-1/2 miles by the roads and maybe 2 miles as the crow flies! The difference in soil composition between the two areas is amazing. Everything starts and ends with a pan. Using a pan will show you.. A: where the gold is at. B: What the soil is like. C: What kind of equipment will be needed to work an area on a larger scale. Hauling out a D-12 on the first trip would have been overkill on a massive scale.
 

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I can easily fit all of my prospecting stuff in the trunk of my little Kia Spectra, with room to spare for plenty of fishing tackle, and a few cold barley pops. K.I.S.S. was conceived with me in mind.
 

I call this the Toad Hoffman syndrome!

Spend hundreds of 1000's $$ on equipment, move it 1000's of miles to a barren claim you don't own, never tested and sink your big D-9's into the muck, while the crew mutinies, and man eating cannibals prepare to cook Toad for dinner.

I cant recall how many times I dragged a huge load of stuff down a canyon to a creek. only to fine i didn't need most of it!
But I also had many times I went bare bones with very little, and had to co back to the car for what I missed out on.

The worst situation, is when you make a long trip, and forgot something you left at home!

It can be impossible to figure out what you need, before you have ever gone there to prospect!
 

bedrock bubba said:
I call this the Toad Hoffman syndrome!

Spend hundreds of 1000's $$ on equipment, move it 1000's of miles to a barren claim you don't own, never tested and sink your big D-9's into the muck, while the crew mutinies, and man eating cannibals prepare to cook Toad for dinner.

I cant recall how many times I dragged a huge load of stuff down a canyon to a creek. only to fine i didn't need most of it!
But I also had many times I went bare bones with very little, and had to co back to the car for what I missed out on.

The worst situation, is when you make a long trip, and forgot something you left at home!

It can be impossible to figure out what you need, before you have ever gone there to prospect!
Click to expand...


I went out recently on a Saturday, it was raining a little but I decided to go. 30 minutes into the drive I was horrified as I realized that I had not forgotten something, I had forgotten everything, every piece of mining equipment that I own which I usually keep in the back seat was at home in the garage. I drove to a prospecting supply store so I could at least buy a pan and waited for an hour for it to open. They never opened that day. I finally went to the town's library and got two books on local mining history.
 

Tip if your ever in gold country and happen to forget something, and the prospecting supply store is closed or there isn't one. Hit up the local hardware store the small mom and pops almost always have gold pans and vials at least. Also some of the general store gas stations near river access points carry them too. Any place that gets tourists. There are a lot of people that come and camp out in gold country and decide they want to try and pan. Those stores have been selling pans to those tourists for years.
 

Sam clemens would say something like, man up and keep searching for gold, quiting is for quiters!
 

In a few months I'll have 2 weeks to do my prospecting at a "pay to hunt" claim. I've talked to people that have been there and have a couple of general ideas of what areas to check while there. I have my pan for some quick sampling here and there. I know that what the area has is fine gold. I'll bring for crevacing (if the water is low) a hammer, chisel, pick and crowbar. If the water is up, perhaps a hand suction device. A bit higher and the sluice would work. If the water is too high then perhaps some metal detecting of the ground; And, if all else fails I'll walk around the property with a hammer and pan looking for something that might be in any type of rock I find there. I don't want to buy very much equipment to work the area but when I consider the distance I have to drive to get there and the money spent in gas. To arrive there and find that I can't hunt for gold because I don't have what I need would be less enjoyable and most frustrating to me. Necessary to me for this trip would be a pan, a pick, a small sluice, a metal detector, and a few hand tools. Do I absolutely NEED all of those, no, only the ones necessary to get the gold.
 

Be Cheap

Picked up a 10" & 14" Garret pans for $6. Love them thrift stores.
 

Started with a pan, then sluice, then highbanker, 2inch dredge, 4inch dredge, blue bowl. Then the government shut down dredging here in Ca. Now it is spreading. If you want to work small it is your right, but we all have big dreams. So we move up. What kind of car do you drive? Did you spend more than you needed. How big is your house? It is all relative. We are always mining someone.
 

I build and sell sluice boxes. However when someone ask me what my favorite tool is, or what I use the most, I tell them hand down, its a gold pan. Its small, can be used just about anywhere, fits in a day pack, its cheap, and at the end of the day, if your not any good with a pan, you probably wont be leaving with much gold as you never found it in the first place. When I have someone walk up to me at a gold show that obviously has no idea what they are doing or states they want get into gold prospecting, I hand them a pan and tell them that's their primary tool, and recommend my smallest most portable (and cheapest) model that works well in small creeks. If it turns out that this is something that they really enjoy, cant get enough of, and have a need for a bigger box, that's what my business card is for. selling someone something that they don't need is in the long run just bad business when sales are partly about word of mouth recommendations, and repeat business.
 

When going out to prospect, carrying crude tools that can fit in a backpack with a gold pan are what is necessary. When I had a 5 gallon bucket of black sands in my basement for 2 years, because I didn't want to pan that small of material from dredging, I bought a blue bowl. I'm glad I have it and won't sell it either. It is a very good tool which takes the time of getting the gold out in a fraction of the time it would take to pan. I wouldn't even want to waste my time as I would not have even found as much as I did without it.
 

Well learning to pan and prospect for good gold on your creek is a no-brainer. However, this is a forum populated by recreationists(Yes some will object to not losing the term "miners". Heck- buying a Gold Cube is a heavy expense for most folks here. But it is also a no brainer to find out what folks are using in your area. Most commonly it is hand sluices or high bankers. I do like reading about folks who make their own equipment.

The point is that it is always about time verus money. After learning how to pan folks usually move up to a small sluice box. Now you can save money by panning only but it would take you a hell of a lot of more time to achieve the results without using a sluice box.

Why even buy a clean up tool when you have your trusty pan? Again a matter of time. Want to spend days panning your concentrates- go for it.
The threads here about miller tables were excellent and anything that makes for a better recovery or efficiency is the right way to go.

My time (as I am an older guy) is valuable and I have certainly have spent dough on equipment to save me hours- days in the pursuit of my passion.

George
 

bakergeol said:
Well learning to pan and prospect for good gold on your creek is a no-brainer. However, this is a forum populated by recreationists(Yes some will object to not losing the term "miners". Heck- buying a Gold Cube is a heavy expense for most folks here. But it is also a no brainer to find out what folks are using in your area. Most commonly it is hand sluices or high bankers. I do like reading about folks who make their own equipment. The point is that it is always about time verus money. After learning how to pan folks usually move up to a small sluice box. Now you can save money by panning only but it would take you a hell of a lot of more time to achieve the results without using a sluice box. Why even buy a clean up tool when you have your trusty pan? Again a matter of time. Want to spend days panning your concentrates- go for it. The threads here about miller tables were excellent and anything that makes for a better recovery or efficiency is the right way to go. My time (as I am an older guy) is valuable and I have certainly have spent dough on equipment to save me hours- days in the pursuit of my passion. George
Click to expand...

Fair points and good advice for many. Still, I bet some folks on here can finish pan faster than any blue bowl or miller table. Learning to pan well is a very, very valuable skill. To each his own of course...I'll admit there are real rewards in making tools that work well and in using well made tools you've bought too :)
 

I have a shed just dedicated for prospecting equipment of which only a fraction gets used regularly. Still, when I step inside all that stuff makes me feel happy.:laughing7:
 

Now I can't stop thinking about all the stuff I wish I would have bought at the ICMJ Mining Summit, darn it.
 

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I can pan better than most people out there.I promise you unless you re-pan what you pan out when finishing you are not getting all your gold. Especially when you have a lot of black sand. I bought a blue bowl when I was dredging we dredged five days a week and my partner at the time was dead set on a daily split. I was over panning in a tub for two hours after un -hiding my gear dredging for 6 to 8 hours then re-hiding my gear and heading home. I still had a lot of calories to consume and a family to attend to. Now that I don't dredge and have less cons, I just screen them down to #4 mesh pan that and pull the pickers by hand. then I classify with 50 and 100 mesh and take ten minutes to run the blue bowl...I'm done before I open beer number two. If going light will get you far down canyon to a rich area with awesome cracks great. If you can get ten colors a shovel from a bar or a bend before even hitting bedrock run a sluice.. You have to be familiar with your area, as quick sampling with a pan may not be the best way to find concentrations. Small creeks are spotty. I have pulled many a picker out of cracks that were surrounded by material that showed very little color. If I had decided to move on because I sampled and found two fleas specks I would have missed a nugget. Knowing your local geology and history coupled with good light sniping gear and the ability to seek out good cracks and traps can get you on some good color. The gear you own does not find you gold the head on your shoulders does.The gold is there weather you find it or not...if your gonna scoop it up with a pan or shovel make no difference. How you decide to recover it should be determined on a few conditions but, sometimes you just don't know. Its not like you have a map to follow. who the hell cares who buys what...just because you want to buy more tools for different situations doesn't mean you are not being smart....people used to recover gold with cow-horns....more than one way to skin a polecat.
 

I think the point that was intended was to not make like hoffman and arrive with a 30ft trommel to process essentially unknown ground. You need to use the appropriate tool for the ground that is to be processed. If your purpose is to just have fun, then great have at it. If you want to make a profit, dont spend $500 a day recovering $300.
 

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