Gold Fever Is Driving Me Nuts!!

[California_Diggin]

So I am a college student liked I stated and I really should be working on my paper but all I can think about it gold. Anyways I have a few more questions to ask and I hope you guys don't mind. I promise I will keep my questions after this to a minimum because I know the answers are out there but being newer to this, sometimes I don't know where to look. Anyways here we go:

For reference again: I am in Fresno, CA

1. If I am at a local river spot where gold panning is allowed, such as "broken bridge" in Fresno, am I allowed to use a sluice or is it strictly limited to gold panning? I understand in CA, unless you are on a claim by ownership/permission, dredging and use of devices not powered by hand are not permitted, correct?

2. Everyone says to dig down deep to find bedrock, but how far am I allowed to dig in an area such as this? Is it only allowed to come from inside the river and not from the bank? I'm just not sure if I am allowed to be making a big hole in the river to dig from. (I know that any holes dug regardless need to be filled for risk of injury and that tailings from a sluice must be removed to not create big piles, correct?)

3. For a sluice, how often do you need to do a clean-up? (Every sluice is different so maybe say what size sluice and your answer)

4. Some people say to simply get as much concentrate you can at a river and take it home then find the gold. What set-up would you recommend for someone who lives more in an apartment setting? If nothing works I will save concentrates over a period of time and take it up north to my family's property. My thoughts are simply a big plastic tub full of water on a kitchen table and pan it by hand.

These are the questions I have for now and honestly I appreciate any help that I can get. If I am wrong on anything, please point it out to me because I am here to learn and respect criticism. Any other pointers are also greatly appreciated. I've already sent messages to a few clubs near my area asking about membership options to see if it is a good fit for me. I am only 22 so I am trying to prove my worth that I am not just looking to get rich, but that I absolutely love spending time in the outdoors doing manual labor and getting to look at gold all day =P Trying to convince my retired father to take up this activity so we could possibly invest in a claim somewhere. You'd think I'd be able to convince a soil's engineer to start digging through some dirt to find gold haha.

Thanks,

California_Diggin

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[bobw53]

I really should be working on my paper but all I can think about it gold

Welcome to the club.... Gold FEVER is no joke.

My thoughts are simply a big plastic tub full of water on a kitchen table and pan it by hand.

Nothing wrong with a panning tub in the kitchen, and rocks and pans all over the counter. Buckets of rocks in
the living room.. Bigger panning tub on the back porch. Piles and piles of rocks in the driveway.. Buckets of
dirt and more rocks in the back of the truck.. The "special" rocks get to ride up front with me, as do some of
the concentrates...

I hope you have an understanding better half like I do... If you don't.. Go find one quick, then fill the house/apartment
with panning tubs.

 

[Aufisher]

 

[jair]

You can quick pan out in the field with several tubes of water and take your con's home in a coffee can ,

I used to bring it all home , then have to get rid of the left over materials , but I would bring home 2000 lbs and get 1/4 oz . Mine is from hard rock ,
Now that I built a crusher for the field hopefully I can do most in the field and like I said bring home maybe a coffee can of good ore. / material to separate .

 

[Oakview2]

Just my opinion, dig outside the waterway fill your holes, inside the waterline, the river will reclaimate for you. Sluicing and highbanking is allowed at Broken Bridge. When highbanking, wet to wet, dry to dry. Other than prospecting, run at the river, clean up at home. You won't find bedrock on the lower SJ without heavy equipment , but you will find a abundance of flood gold 8-10 inches down. Use your pan to find and establish the pay, and then set up your sluice to dig, dig, dig. Run your sluice until your back gives out or it is time to leave. Make sure you have a maonsgnet to remove the heave magnetic black sands from your cons. Be mindfull of floured platnium in that waterway. Plenty of minus 50 gold







The gold in the pictures came from Broken Bridge a number of years ago....

For reference again: I am in Fresno, CA

1. If I am at a local river spot where gold panning is allowed, such as "broken bridge" in Fresno, am I allowed to use a sluice or is it strictly limited to gold panning? I understand in CA, unless you are on a claim by ownership/permission, dredging and use of devices not powered by hand are not permitted, correct?

2. Everyone says to dig down deep to find bedrock, but how far am I allowed to dig in an area such as this? Is it only allowed to come from inside the river and not from the bank? I'm just not sure if I am allowed to be making a big hole in the river to dig from. (I know that any holes dug regardless need to be filled for risk of injury and that tailings from a sluice must be removed to not create big piles, correct?)

3. For a sluice, how often do you need to do a clean-up? (Every sluice is different so maybe say what size sluice and your answer)

4. Some people say to simply get as much concentrate you can at a river and take it home then find the gold. What set-up would you recommend for someone who lives more in an apartment setting? If nothing works I will save concentrates over a period of time and take it up north to my family's property. My thoughts are simply a big plastic tub full of water on a kitchen table and pan it by hand.

These are the questions I have for now and honestly I appreciate any help that I can get. If I am wrong on anything, please point it out to me because I am here to learn and respect criticism. Any other pointers are also greatly appreciated. I've already sent messages to a few clubs near my area asking about membership options to see if it is a good fit for me. I am only 22 so I am trying to prove my worth that I am not just looking to get rich, but that I absolutely love spending time in the outdoors doing manual labor and getting to look at gold all day =P Trying to convince my retired father to take up this activity so we could possibly invest in a claim somewhere. You'd think I'd be able to convince a soil's engineer to start digging through some dirt to find gold haha.

Thanks,

California_Diggin[/QUOTE]

 

[meMiner]

As a general rule, don't try digging by hand to bedrock unless the area has exposed bedrock. Most places do not have a restriction regarding how big or deep your hand dug hole can be. Once you have dug a few, you will know why (there is no need). LOL The thing to remember if you go deep, is make sure the walls don't collapse or cobbles roll on you.

Flood gold on a larger river is usually in the top 6-8 inches and replenishes after every major flood. You only have to skim that layer, but try to find a spot that the river laid down and has not been cleaned out by someone earlier. Testing with pan is always a good idea before going into production mode with a sluice or highbanker. The reason to take your cons home is to save the time at the river for production. In your case, maybe classifying and panning them out at the stream is preferable. It should take about a half hour or so.

If you are properly set up, you can sluice all day without stopping for a cleanup, unless you are in an area with an exceptional amount of heavies (typically, black sand or garnet). Watch you top riffles and they will tell you if you are overfeeding or they are getting clogged up.

Good luck with it.

 

[goldenmojo]

CD Nothing says you have to stand in cold water in your flips flops to mine. There is gold up out of the water to be found. You will get your hands wet when you pan is all. Here is a pic of a boulder suspended over a bedrock trough that is 60 feet up away from the water. Under this setup and others near it were mini gullies, slants, backtraps and pocket. If you are in an area of gold and similar geology this type of mining will work for you. You just need a pan, spoons, prying things paint brush. Easy Deasy work.

 

[arizau]

Aufisher (in his posting above) has the right idea. If the weather permits, you have a patio and, most important for me, a stool you can do your panning outside. You can even put the panning tub on the floor. Don't forget to pick up a set of small classifiers as this will make your panning efforts much easier and efficient. 4 or 6" ones sized 30, 50 and 100 mesh should suffice for concentrate cleanup and are pretty inexpensive. https://www.google.com/webhp?source...espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=pioneer 4" stacking screens Pan all screen fractions separately and, for the smallest of sizes, only about a tablespoon at a time. If all the material in the pan is about equal in size then gold is easy to separate and be collected.

Welcome to the forum and good luck.

 

[Laz7777]

as a college student, you likely ain't a lot of cash for gear. one cheap sluice idea fer ya to consider, before you get into much money:
plastic drainpipe, 4"x10'. the ribbing will catch the gold, slit about 18" up on seam, flatten and cut for an intake end...rocking it in well will be required. this works, I've seen it....cleanup will be frequent and classifying is a must.
screens can be bought at thrift stores. just kitchen screens..get a long flat headed screw driver for cracks, thin and long as possible. bought one for a dollar 3 years ago, best buck I ever spent, bar none.
as for rules, you already got an answer for the spot you mentioned. don't ever expect that rules can't be changed on you, also look at the fact that many rivers in Cali have different authority that varies as you go...(e.g. Private, BLM, Forest Service, State, etc.)
this ain't an easy hobby, it's even harder to live by it. invest in a good pair of hiking boots, the better gold is out where you can't be at the river 5 minutes after you parked.
I got hooked after finding micro-sparklies in my very first pan, careful with dat stuff, it oughta be called heroin instead of gold.
cleaning at home is a good idea, but don't put black sand down your drain or you'll be calling the plumber.

 

[California_Diggin]

as a college student, you likely ain't a lot of cash for gear. one cheap sluice idea fer ya to consider, before you get into much money:
plastic drainpipe, 4"x10'. the ribbing will catch the gold, slit about 18" up on seam, flatten and cut for an intake end...rocking it in well will be required. this works, I've seen it....cleanup will be frequent and classifying is a must.
screens can be bought at thrift stores. just kitchen screens..get a long flat headed screw driver for cracks, thin and long as possible. bought one for a dollar 3 years ago, best buck I ever spent, bar none.
as for rules, you already got an answer for the spot you mentioned. don't ever expect that rules can't be changed on you, also look at the fact that many rivers in Cali have different authority that varies as you go...(e.g. Private, BLM, Forest Service, State, etc.)
this ain't an easy hobby, it's even harder to live by it. invest in a good pair of hiking boots, the better gold is out where you can't be at the river 5 minutes after you parked.
I got hooked after finding micro-sparklies in my very first pan, careful with dat stuff, it oughta be called heroin instead of gold.
cleaning at home is a good idea, but don't put black sand down your drain or you'll be calling the plumber.

Thanks for the advice! I try to be a financially conscious college student and for the longest time I have wanted to get a bernese mountain dog. I have actually saved up a little over $500 for one but unfortunately I won't be able to have enough space for a dog for a few years so I decided I might use this money to help with the cost of some equipment after doing some more research. Black sand down the drain definitely would not be a good idea haha. I plan on using a big plastic tub and possibly building a stand for it. I would be dumping the water outside and the left over concentrates somewhere acceptable after going through it a few times. Might consider saving all my concentrate run-off while I am new so when I am more experienced I can go back and get the stuff I missed before. With the time I have, it is nice to have somewhere relatively close (25 minute drive to broken bridge) to have somewhere to practice. I really want to find a place that forces me to hike and spend time to get to. Camping out in the wilderness would be awesome. That definitely sounds like more of my scene. Thanks again for the info!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Very smart plan to save the heaviest of your concentrates to reprocess after you've learned more...good thinking!

 

[goldenIrishman]

Welcome to the club.... Gold FEVER is no joke.



Nothing wrong with a panning tub in the kitchen, and rocks and pans all over the counter. Buckets of rocks in
the living room.. Bigger panning tub on the back porch. Piles and piles of rocks in the driveway.. Buckets of
dirt and more rocks in the back of the truck.. The "special" rocks get to ride up front with me, as do some of
the concentrates...

I hope you have an understanding better half like I do... If you don't.. Go find one quick, then fill the house/apartment
with panning tubs.

Bob?

Just when did you get pictures of our place? You forgot to mention the small lab area in the office for examining samples and the 2+ yards of materials piled up by the outdoor processing area.....