Black sand / beach sand - panning technique critique?

[Caribou369]

Im a newbie prospector eager to get started but biding my time until next summer season comes around. I collected some of the black sand rumored to bear very fine gold from the southernmost end of SF's Ocean Beach. Using a green pan and a rare earth magnet, I was able to separate the fine grayish blonde sand from the heavier black sand, but have not found any gold, even very fine gold, so far as I can tell. I noticed some success in separating a small amount of black sands from the lighter sand and have been washing it off to the side, then applying the magnet to get a relatively pure black sand. So far I have a bucket with a small amount of clearly lighter concentration of sands, and another container with extremely fine black sands, most of the latter obtained with the magnet.
although using a combination of quick vibration followed by a wavelet action seems to be good at separating the two types of sand in my pan, pouring off the lighter stuff alone is more difficult. I have not found even very small flecks of gold in what's left and am wondering, should I keep on doing what I'm doing? Re-run the non magnetic sand concentrates? Just process more volume, or what?
And...is it just me, or is panning beach sand really freakin' hard?

Advice appreciated

Heavy pans to ya

 

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[bobw53]

I'm a newbie myself, but I have learned that panning a lot of black sand SUCKS. I find panning to be pretty darn slow to begin with, and panning
almost pure black sand even slower.

Tablespoon or so at a time... How long does it take to get through a yard of material that way?

My experience, finding the really fine stuff... Classify. I can take some dirt classify to minus 20 and find nothing... Take that same dirt and classify through a 40 and an
80 and then I can find some TINY little bits... I'm really liking those dirt cheap "currency microscopes", really helps spot the small stuff.

And VOLUME. That Gold Rush show, they are hoping for one quarter of a gram per yard, a yard is a ton to a ton and half or so, 45 FULL 5 gallon buckets.. How many tablespoons is that in your pan?
Its a lot... I bought a gold cube... I'll be lucky to ever pay it off, but I'm having fun....

My crappy black sand... Its the end of my driveway... And its nowhere near the beach.

What it looks like in a bucket...

What happens after MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANYpans...

What happens in a gold cube...

And what a dozen plus buckets of driveway sand, about 50% black sand looks like in a pan after going through my gold cube.
Figure 1 heaping tablespoon per pan to pan black sands... So an even 3 tablespoons... 85 pans to the gallon of material, 4 gallons in
a bucket, so 340 pans a bucket. A dozen buckets... So 4000 pans, took about 3 or 4 hours to classify and run that with a gold cube....
I could have made more money picking up beer cans, in a non-deposit state.... But I had fun...

So VOLUME...

 

[Caribou369]

bobw53 thanks for the perspective and advice. Sounds like I am doing the right things, I just need to do more of them.

practice practice practice...and volume. sounds like lots of volume. cheers

 

[2cmorau]

there is, and your in the right area, the gold at Ocean Beach is so fine even a 10x loupe has a tough time, pan down and take home and run through cleasn out box, a gold cube would most likely work great in this area GGNRA would have a heartattack
Fine Gold Recovery Equipment

Im a newbie prospector eager to get started but biding my time until next summer season comes around. I collected some of the black sand rumored to bear very fine gold from the southernmost end of SF's Ocean Beach. Using a green pan and a rare earth magnet, I was able to separate the fine grayish blonde sand from the heavier black sand, but have not found any gold, even very fine gold, so far as I can tell. I noticed some success in separating a small amount of black sands from the lighter sand and have been washing it off to the side, then applying the magnet to get a relatively pure black sand. So far I have a bucket with a small amount of clearly lighter concentration of sands, and another container with extremely fine black sands, most of the latter obtained with the magnet.
although using a combination of quick vibration followed by a wavelet action seems to be good at separating the two types of sand in my pan, pouring off the lighter stuff alone is more difficult. I have not found even very small flecks of gold in what's left and am wondering, should I keep on doing what I'm doing? Re-run the non magnetic sand concentrates? Just process more volume, or what?
And...is it just me, or is panning beach sand really freakin' hard?

Advice appreciated

Heavy pans to ya

 

[arizau]

Panning beach sands is extremely tedious and difficult!!!
In my experience of panning Oregon beach gold bearing black sands I have found that almost the entirety of the gold is minus 100 mesh (and most a lot smaller) so screening to that level would be a good first step and if you have smaller screens that would be even better as I wiil expound on below.
At this point, if you have no other way of concentrating, only pan in very small quantities of a tsp or less to see if what you have has any gold at all then proceed or look for another likely spot.
I have tested the Oregon material in as small a quantity as a small pinch and found many tiny particles of gold then tried to pan the same material in a about a tsp quantity and got about the same final result. That demonstrates how hard to pan the beach sand is. Much of the gold is so tiny it just gets dragged around by some of the black sand and washes back with it in the panning effort due it's hydraulic or weight equivalence disadvantage. If you can screen down to only process equivalent sized material you will have much better success as then gold is the king as it will be heavier than all the other same sized particles.
When you use a strong magnet to separate out beach black sands some or a lot of the gold will be trapped with it. A panned small pinch from concentrates told the tale for me.
Even a Gold Cube will not capture a substantial amount of the gold in beach sands but it will concentrate what it does into a more manageable quantity as will other concentrating methods.
Good luck.

PS: If you can pan gold from beach black sand then you will have no problems panning from other sources and screening is still key in making it easier to recover minus 30 (use smaller mesh too) gold from those sources.

 

[arizau]

I'm a newbie myself, but I have learned that panning a lot of black sand SUCKS. I find panning to be pretty darn slow to begin with, and panning
almost pure black sand even slower.

Tablespoon or so at a time... How long does it take to get through a yard of material that way?

My experience, finding the really fine stuff... Classify. I can take some dirt classify to minus 20 and find nothing... Take that same dirt and classify through a 40 and an
80 and then I can find some TINY little bits... I'm really liking those dirt cheap "currency microscopes", really helps spot the small stuff.

And VOLUME. That Gold Rush show, they are hoping for one quarter of a gram per yard, a yard is a ton to a ton and half or so, 45 FULL 5 gallon buckets.. How many tablespoons is that in your pan?
Its a lot... I bought a gold cube... I'll be lucky to ever pay it off, but I'm having fun....

My crappy black sand... Its the end of my driveway... And its nowhere near the beach.

What it looks like in a bucket...

What happens after MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY MANYpans...

What happens in a gold cube...

And what a dozen plus buckets of driveway sand, about 50% black sand looks like in a pan after going through my gold cube.
Figure 1 heaping tablespoon per pan to pan black sands... So an even 3 tablespoons... 85 pans to the gallon of material, 4 gallons in
a bucket, so 340 pans a bucket. A dozen buckets... So 4000 pans, took about 3 or 4 hours to classify and run that with a gold cube....
I could have made more money picking up beer cans, in a non-deposit state.... But I had fun...

So VOLUME...

Glad to see you are still mining your driveway. If you get the rains there in Cruces that we just had here in Tucson (2.33" at my house) you should have some more natural concentrations to play with.
It looks like you could utilize some smaller screens for your final concentrates too or is that an old picture?
Have fun and heavy pans.

 

[Caribou369]

Panning beach sands is extremely tedious and difficult!!!
In my experience of panning Oregon beach gold bearing black sands I have found that almost the entirety of the gold is minus 100 mesh (and most a lot smaller) so screening to that level would be a good first step and if you have smaller screens that would be even better as I wiil expound on below.
At this point, if you have no other way of concentrating, only pan in very small quantities of a tsp or less to see if what you have has any gold at all then proceed or look for another likely spot.
I have tested the Oregon material in as small a quantity as a small pinch and found many tiny particles of gold then tried to pan the same material in a about a tsp quantity and got about the same final result. That demonstrates how hard to pan the beach sand is. Much of the gold is so tiny it just gets dragged around by some of the black sand and washes back with it in the panning effort due it's hydraulic or weight equivalence disadvantage. If you can screen down to only process equivalent sized material you will have much better success as then gold is the king as it will be heavier than all the other same sized particles.
When you use a strong magnet to separate out beach black sands some or a lot of the gold will be trapped with it. A panned small pinch from concentrates told the tale for me.
Even a Gold Cube will not capture a substantial amount of the gold in beach sands but it will concentrate what it does into a more manageable quantity as will other concentrating methods.
Good luck.

PS: If you can pan gold from beach black sand then you will have no problems panning from other sources and screening is still key in making it easier to recover minus 30 (use smaller mesh too) gold from those sources.

Thanks arizau! I was wondering if all this was good practice or not...my intention this summer is to head up to gold country and try panning some of the coarser river and stream gravels. I have a 4 mesh and 30 mesh classifier as I wanted to start light, I'm not sure how much good a 100 mesh would do. I think most of the sands I'm getting at the bottom stage of my pan are about 100 mesh, including a really funny black sand which does not respond to the magnets, I'm wondering if it's black zircon or scheelite or something similar?

I see my work now as kind of like trying to bow drill a fire on a block of green maple...by the time you get to the cured dry oak you've refined your technique so much it's easy by comparison.

Heavy pans

 

[arizau]

Thanks arizau! I was wondering if all this was good practice or not...my intention this summer is to head up to gold country and try panning some of the coarser river and stream gravels. I have a 4 mesh and 30 mesh classifier as I wanted to start light, I'm not sure how much good a 100 mesh would do. I think most of the sands I'm getting at the bottom stage of my pan are about 100 mesh, including a really funny black sand which does not respond to the magnets, I'm wondering if it's black zircon or scheelite or something similar?

I see my work now as kind of like trying to bow drill a fire on a block of green maple...by the time you get to the cured dry oak you've refined your technique so much it's easy by comparison.

Heavy pans

A lot of my reference pertains mostly to handling beach sand which is a different animal than most of the river sands as you acknowledged.
I would be willing to bet that most of what you think is 100 mesh is actually smaller. My experience showed me that almost 100 percent was smaller than 100 and most of what was bigger was shell or pebbles. It was not a total recommendation to get the smaller screens but an easier way to get the gold.
30 and 50 and 100 mesh screens can be of use with the river sands concentrate and are available in 4 to 6" size which are pretty inexpensive and may be something you want to add later as you try to recover gold from them (concentrates) by pan, miller table or blue bowl etc. Each step gives you about 100 percent difference in size. Plus 30 is pretty easy to pan and it becomes more difficult from size to size below that but the gold is advantaged in weight so easier to pan than with mixed sizes.
No idea what the non mag. material is and you will find that, garnets and others in stream material too.
Good luck.

PS: I like your analogy!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Often the nonmag black sand is just hematite, an iron ore but it could even be silver sulfide or a lead compound if those minerals are in your area ( see mining history of Leadville CO for example).

 

[bobw53]

Glad to see you are still mining your driveway. If you get the rains there in Cruces that we just had here in Tucson (2.33" at my house) you should have some more natural concentrations to play with.
It looks like you could utilize some smaller screens for your final concentrates too or is that an old picture?
Have fun and heavy pans.

I haven't been playing that much in the driveway, I've been expanding my horizons and I've been digging mostly up in Hillsboro.

The picture of that pan, I knew I had some good gold, and I just wanted to see it.... I pulled the big stuff out and put the rest in
my "deal with it later" bucket. Actually up until a few days ago, I hadn't found anything small in the driveway, its all been in the
-30 to +40 range, pretty easy to pick out.....

So I have a bucket from the driveway sitting here for almost 2 months, I had screened it down to -40.... Just trying to get black sand for
when I did that science fair thing (I have a post with that over in the Journal section). So the other day, for no reason what so ever, I grabbed
a spoon full, put it in a pan, and went to work... Using the 60X currency microscope... I've got a decent amount of REALLY REALLY FINE FINE gold.
So small it makes the -40 black sand look like boulders. So small you can barely see it with the naked eye, but under the microscope, there is no
mistaking it, its GOLD!!! 4-6 little pieces per spoon full, and that isn't screened down as far as it should be, so there is probably more..

Its SO SMALL, I'm not sure if its even worth trying to get it, I'm going to have to play with it a little more.

 

[arizau]

I haven't been playing that much in the driveway, I've been expanding my horizons and I've been digging mostly up in Hillsboro.

The picture of that pan, I knew I had some good gold, and I just wanted to see it.... I pulled the big stuff out and put the rest in
my "deal with it later" bucket. Actually up until a few days ago, I hadn't found anything small in the driveway, its all been in the
-30 to +40 range, pretty easy to pick out.....

So I have a bucket from the driveway sitting here for almost 2 months, I had screened it down to -40.... Just trying to get black sand for
when I did that science fair thing (I have a post with that over in the Journal section). So the other day, for no reason what so ever, I grabbed
a spoon full, put it in a pan, and went to work... Using the 60X currency microscope... I've got a decent amount of REALLY REALLY FINE FINE gold.
So small it makes the -40 black sand look like boulders. So small you can barely see it with the naked eye, but under the microscope, there is no
mistaking it, its GOLD!!! 4-6 little pieces per spoon full, and that isn't screened down as far as it should be, so there is probably more..

Its SO SMALL, I'm not sure if its even worth trying to get it, I'm going to have to play with it a little more.

The science fair thing sounded like great fun for the kids. Great way to get the kids involved if only for a couple of hours.
As you said, there may not be much overall value in the tiny gold but running them on your Black Magic, which I hear works like a miller table, could be a good way to pass the time on one of those nasty, dusty, windy days that used to drive me up a wall when I lived in Cruces.
Good luck up in Hillsboro!

 

[KevinInColorado]

I would recommend you screen that -40 material down to -80 (or 100 if that's what you can find) and then process the material separately...for much better results. Try panning some of each size after classification. You'll be surprised to see that both are easier to pan once separated. For the best results in a pan learn the shake&tap method via YouTube. Add a bit of Jetdry to avoid floating gold too. You'll be amazed at how easy it becomes to pan fine material this way
...I hope you are also amazed at how the gold adds up this way. Good luck!

 

[goldenmojo]

Im a newbie prospector eager to get started but biding my time until next summer season comes around. I collected some of the black sand rumored to bear very fine gold from the southernmost end of SF's Ocean Beach. Using a green pan and a rare earth magnet, I was able to separate the fine grayish blonde sand from the heavier black sand, but have not found any gold, even very fine gold, so far as I can tell. I noticed some success in separating a small amount of black sands from the lighter sand and have been washing it off to the side, then applying the magnet to get a relatively pure black sand. So far I have a bucket with a small amount of clearly lighter concentration of sands, and another container with extremely fine black sands, most of the latter obtained with the magnet.
although using a combination of quick vibration followed by a wavelet action seems to be good at separating the two types of sand in my pan, pouring off the lighter stuff alone is more difficult. I have not found even very small flecks of gold in what's left and am wondering, should I keep on doing what I'm doing? Re-run the non magnetic sand concentrates? Just process more volume, or what?
And...is it just me, or is panning beach sand really freakin' hard?

Advice appreciated

Heavy pans to ya

Caribou369. I remember being a noob and it wasn't too long ago. The beach sand gold as others have stated is probably very small and hard to process. As you are new the thing I notice in your post was where you say pouring off the lighter stuff. Pouring if you are doing that is not a good technique when panning. The goal is to lightly sweep the light stuff out of your pan keeping it low to the water similar to the way a a small wave will lap onto the shore of a lake very smoothly taking the light stuff with it. Many times you can see where this has happened and black sand is left at shore edge. Soon you will get to a creek or a river that has a large amount of black sand and gold mix and an aggressive angle and sweep out of the lights or pouring off can allow large amounts of black sand covered by lights to slip over the edge of your pan taking valuable gold with it. Practice a light drawback on the pan with a slight tip until you can bleed off the lightest of material easily. When you cant get any more lights out stratify your pan again and more light stuff will magically appear on top to be removed again. Constant Stratification is the key. If you make a trip to the Sacramento area someday PM me and I will help you with panning or PM me anytime. Good Luck and Happy Panning.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Well said and a kind offer too! Goldenmojo for prospector of the week!

 

[goldenmojo]

Kevin can't make it to the awards banquet so no honor for me thanks. Just trying to help. For my first three newby months I panned in the exact same spot. I went back months later and repanned the slump in the water. Lots of gold laying in that pile. That offer goes for for you too Kev.......

 

[KevinInColorado]

The day will come when my wife and I show up sir. Gimme a year or two and I'm there!

 

[Caribou369]

Caribou369. I remember being a noob and it wasn't too long ago. The beach sand gold as others have stated is probably very small and hard to process. As you are new the thing I notice in your post was where you say pouring off the lighter stuff. Pouring if you are doing that is not a good technique when panning. The goal is to lightly sweep the light stuff out of your pan keeping it low to the water similar to the way a a small wave will lap onto the shore of a lake very smoothly taking the light stuff with it. Many times you can see where this has happened and black sand is left at shore edge. Soon you will get to a creek or a river that has a large amount of black sand and gold mix and an aggressive angle and sweep out of the lights or pouring off can allow large amounts of black sand covered by lights to slip over the edge of your pan taking valuable gold with it. Practice a light drawback on the pan with a slight tip until you can bleed off the lightest of material easily. When you cant get any more lights out stratify your pan again and more light stuff will magically appear on top to be removed again. Constant Stratification is the key. If you make a trip to the Sacramento area someday PM me and I will help you with panning or PM me anytime. Good Luck and Happy Panning.

Thanks goldenmojo! That's a generous offer indeed and as I visit family in the Sac/foothills area throughout the year I am inclined to take you up on it. I will PM you when I've got more time to write than "chugging the last of my coffee before work."

 

[goldenmojo]

Caribou coffee is a tough chug. Whenever you get up this way we can hit one of the rivers. Water level should be even lower this year.

Kevin its an open invite whenever you get out here.

 

[Caribou369]

I thought some photos of exactly how fine this sand is might give a better idea of what I'm working with.


a partially classified pan with the lights separating out on the left.



The same dime with individual grains of sand visible. The larger spots on lady liberty's neck are clusters of 4-7 tiny grains.

All of it is this size...I think I will be investing in a 100 mesh classifier soon.

 

[Caribou369]

Caribou coffee is a tough chug. Whenever you get up this way we can hit one of the rivers. Water level should be even lower this year.

Kevin its an open invite whenever you get out here.

Sure and it is, I only managed half the cup before calling it quits.

My past haunts include the south and middle forks of the American river, and the Bear river. I'd like to explore the south fork of the Yuba this summer. Part of me hopes the rivers are low again this year, yet another part of me definitely wants them higher!!