Black Sand beach, would this excite you?

[mofugly13]

Black Sand beach, would this excite you? Update: found gold! See Post #33

I took a walk on the beach today, to an area that supposedly has gold in the black sands. This area is on San Francisco's Ocean Beach and is not open to prospecting. But I am curious to know what you guys think. Not only is the beach covered with black sand fo about 1/2 mile, if not more, but there is also sedimentary layer of black sand visible at the bottom of the cliff. And in one area, black sand "boulders" that have fallen from higher up the cliff.

I have no intention of trying to (illegally) mine any of this, but I like to talk about "what if's."

Apparently, way back when, a mining company was actually established to mine this area, but no actual mining ever happened. Id like to hear thoughts on where you would concentrate your prospecting efforts if one was able to actually mine here.

Its fascinating to know there could be gold just a few miles from my house, in the City of San Francisco.

 

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[Capt Nemo]

I'd raid that beach in a heartbeat, and use the mining gear to build a BIG sand castle. You can DO that....right? Use the banker as a concrete mixer to pour the mix into the plywood forms. The castle moat is the water source for the banker. The genny supplying the pump also drives the concrete vibrator to hardpack the slurry in the forms.

Result: Castle of the evil black knight gets built, and you go home with a banker of gold. And you wouldn't believe how bad black sand sticks to beach towels and buckets!

 

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[smokeythecat]

Insanity does rule. I was having lunch Saturday, this here seagull comes up begging and I gave him a tiny piece of my sandwich. Later somebody tells me it's illegal to feed seagulls in that town. Give me a break.

 

[kcm]

Have heard of that, but have been fortunate to have never been in such a warped-way-of-thinking area. ...At least not knowingly.

 

[Caribou369]

I'd raid that beach in a heartbeat, and use the mining gear to build a BIG sand castle. You can DO that....right? Use the banker as a concrete mixer to pour the mix into the plywood forms. The castle moat is the water source for the banker. The genny supplying the pump also drives the concrete vibrator to hardpack the slurry in the forms.

Result: Castle of the evil black knight gets built, and you go home with a banker of gold. And you wouldn't believe how bad black sand sticks to beach towels and buckets!

I like the way you think! Just might be creative enough to get by, in SF...

 

[mofugly13]

The black sands on Ocean Beach in SF are magnetite sands which have washed down from the Sierras. There's very, very, very fine gold (-200 mesh fine) in it. There's very little, though. The deposits concentrate at the southern end of Ocean beach, which is usually not as busy as the northern end. I couldn't find any specifics on running motorized gold mining equipment, but Ocean Beach is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation / Conservancy area and likely a highbanker would attract some very unwelcome attention and very possibly get you a citation from the rangers. I wouldn't advise it. But, if you want to pan all day long, I'm sure no one would mind. Just keep in mind it can be very windy (35mph plus), with blowing sand, fog, damp cold, and blinding sun on any given day, even if it's perfectly nice or not so bad inland. Also the waves can be treacherous, so watch out!

Reed Lukens made a video of gold detecting / prospecting at Ocean Beach a few years ago; I haven't watched this in its entirety but this will give you some idea (and he was out on a pretty nice day for it, too):



Let us know how it goes if you get out.

Heavy pans,
Caribou369

PS: You might want to look into one of these, I've seen some good reviews on this tech for cleanup fine gold: http://goldpanprospectors.com/sluices.html

I know all about the conditions at Ocean Beach. Born and Raised in the Sunset. Id love to have a bit of Ocean Beach gold, but it sounds like someone would need to work all day for a pinch. If do it if it was legal!

 

[OwenT]

If a mining project was proposed but they did not go into production then it was probably determined that the project would not be profitable.

But it is important that we remember that they were only unprofitable then. For example gold is worth approximately twice what it was 1940 at today's price when adjusted for inflation.

 

[dbritto1969]

Great party beach till 5am back in the day

 

[Capt Nemo]

Insanity does rule. I was having lunch Saturday, this here seagull comes up begging and I gave him a tiny piece of my sandwich. Later somebody tells me it's illegal to feed seagulls in that town. Give me a break.

The seagulls are like little veliciraptors around here! Feed them at your own peril!

Could use a couple of Claymore's for them here!

 

[Jeffrey Harris]

Call Jack Hoffman, maybe he'll let you borrow his backhoe. Then again, maybe he won't.

 

[enamel7]

How much did you run to see that much gold?

Funny, when I was in grammar school, one of my teachers told us that black aand on the beach was from oil spills. Now I know better.

There is an enormous amount of black. sand on this particular section of beach. I would love to have a few specks. I briefly entertained the idea of bringing a quart peanut butter jar and filling it up...but I try my best to stay on the right side of the law.

Here's an article describing the gold on Ocean Beach:

The Auriferous City: Eureka Moments in San Francisco | Tramps of San Francisco

Your teacher was an idiot!

 

[OwenT]

Call Jack Hoffman, maybe he'll let you borrow his backhoe. Then again, maybe he won't.

Maybe he'll come smell the beach for you too

There's a video where he claims he can smell gold but I don't feel like finding it right now.

 

[wildminer]

The seagulls are like little veliciraptors around here! Feed them at your own peril!

Could use a couple of Claymore's for them here!

We call them flying rats in my neck of the woods. Very voracious crappers, to say the least, and will be the first to peck your eyeballs out should you happen to fall overboard.

 

[mofugly13]

So. After posting this, I did some research and couldn't find anything that said I couldn't take any sand home from the Beach. I went back and filled two 48 oz. peanut butter jars. One I filled with the sand off of the beach, and the other I filled from the layer of black sand embedded in the cliff. I ran the beach sand yesterday over a small v mat sluice and after panning down the cons, came up with 5 almost microscopic specks of gold! Later when I get a chance, I'll run the stuff taken from the Cliffside next.

 

[yodi]

Yeah I wouldn't mine that lol yeah right

 

[mofugly13]

I ran the other jar of sand, found about as many specks as I found in the first jar. So, there is gold there!

I decided to try to find where I previously saw that I cant mine the sand at Ocean Beach. It's part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. I think I was conflating the ban on MD'ing with a total ban on mining....

Does anyone know why I couldn't bring my "sand toys" to the beach and 'wash sand' while I help my daughter build sand castles??

 

[hgeiger]

Can only use sluice box, pans on Oregon beaches. I have done my research on this. Non motorized equipment only.

 

[Oregon Viking]

Can only use sluice box, pans on Oregon beaches. I have done my research on this. Non motorized equipment only.

Yes but..... You can run a high banker or a gold cube above the vegetation line. It is done a lot at Nesika beach, Sixes etc.

 

[mofugly13]

Yes, but what about California beaches? Ocean beach is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area