Gold Panning Creeks

[BrettCo124]

Hey everybody,

I'm new to this area of the forum, and thought I'd ask a couple of questions:

Quick background:
I live in Bucks County, Pennslyvania
I have been searching a creek across the street from me for arrowheads (Which is mainly how I found this amazing forum).
I have recently been suggested to possibly pan my creek for gold.

I know NOTHING about panning for gold, however, I have been (and will continue to) search forums and youtube for advice on how to pan for it. So, my question is most likely the most common newbie question:
Could ANY creek hold gold? I am by new means trying to do this to get rich, it is strictly for the hobby. One flake of gold in the bottom of my pan would be all I talk about to friends and family for the next month straight.

The reason I ask, is because I would not want to travel to pan for gold. I am only interested in my creek. Maybe later on down the line I would, but for now, I am strictly talking about my creek. I know that nobody knows what creek I am speaking of, but here is a quick description:

It has great running water. Subject to flooding almost every time it rains. Rocky, pebbly, sandy, muddy bottom. Connects to a major river (Delaware River) about ten miles down the road. Lastly, the creek seems to just begin about eight miles away from my house in the opposite direction of the major river. It was used as a way of passage for Native Americans (its an older creek).

What I want to avoid (if I can) is purchasing the panning kit online if my area (Bucks County, PA) does not seem like a good area. I did a lot of research on Google, but I could not find any evidence of people discussing panning in my immediate area.

Obviously the kit is not going to break the bank, but I just wanted your opinions on what YOU WOULD DO if you singled yourself out to one creek. The description above about my creek is spot-on, so I hope that offers a good enough description. Again, I've never done this before, so thanks for everybody's advice!

 

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[flyadive]

Here is my playdirt first pan from Goldstrike!
Still have to build a Miller table to catch the flour gold.
Then I'll weigh it!

 

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[BrettCo124]

Here is my playdirt first pan from Goldstrike!View attachment 1281125
Still have to build a Miller table to catch the flour gold.
Then I'll weigh it!

That's awesome! Looks like you have panning down nicely!
do you have to be in a creek "honey hole" or can you set up anywhere and try for it? also, do you HAVE to find bedrock?

also, why do you have to build things? I thought the whole point of that bucket is that it's all you'd need?? I'm about to buy one by the way haha thanks for the tip!

 

[chlsbrns]

We never found any in the pennsaiken creek but there is a large deposit in the pennsauken industrial park. Its near the water tower and can not be mined. Try the beach at the boat ramp under the Betsy Ross bridge. Its loaded with black sand there but we have never panned there to see if there is gold. If I was going to sample there I would go to the flood tide mark close to and into where the trees are. Look for buck rubs! It's amazing how many huge bucks are in them woods!

 

[KevinInColorado]

You definitely don't need a miller-type table to get the fine gold. To go low-tech/cost follow the info in my blog post from a month or so ago at www.findinggoldincolorado.com

 

[brianc053]

Hey Brett, I got your PM and I sent you a private message in response.

I just got caught up on the various comments on this thread, and have some additional thoughts. Since I'm in the same rough geographic area as you are, and now that I'm two years into this hobby, I thought I'd share my experience with equipment since you have some questions about pans, sluices etc.

Earlier you asked about a sluice; I LOVE to use a sluice to take the raw gravels from the river and "concentrate" them down to just the heavy stuff. I own a Buckabilly Sluice (Sluice Box: Buckabilly Sluice Box Gold Prospecting) but any sluice of that style will work well. Some of the guys on here love Bazooka Gold Traps; I've personally tested a mini version of that side by side with my Buckabilly, and the Buckabilly caught more flour gold. That could be a fluke - it wasn't a scientific test - but it made me believe that for this area of the country, a Buckabilly-style sluice may work very well.

You may also want to read up on using classifiers. (for example: http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Rush-Sifting-Classifier-COMBO/dp/B0089OKEUK)
Here's why: if we're looking for really small gold, we have to get rid of the bigger stuff and get the gravels to be more similarly sized. If the gravels are of similar size, then gold will settle down in the sluice and the pan because it's heavier than everything else. The classifier sits on a 5-gallon bucket, and you shovel into the top of the classifier.
So, around here, we end up using a 1/4" classifier to get rid of the big rocks, and then maybe use a 1/12" or 1/20" or similar classifier to separate the larger gravel from the smaller gravel. I run those two batches (larger than 1/12" and smaller than 1/12") separately through the sluice. In the larger batch you'll often find lead pieces - that's a good sign because lead is heavy like gold.

After you've run the gravels through the sluice for a while, you empty the sluice into a bucket and then take those concentrates and put them in a pan, and pan them.

Using this method you're much more likely to find some small Pennsylvania flour gold. When panning alone you are just trying to hit the lottery, in my opinion. You still may want to start with just buying a panning kit, just have the right expectation - not every shovel / pan full of dirt will have a speck of gold. [or maybe I'm just not on the right streams; I haven't tried the Pennypack].

Final thought: I don't know about those Nugget Bucket things. They seem to have a lot of the classifying/panning stuff covered, but I'm not sure you need all the stuff they provide. I do OK with the equipment mentioned above (sluice, classifiers, pans).

Oh, and listen to KevinInColorado - he REALLY knows his stuff and taught me a lot.

-------------------------------------------
Here is a picture of some authentic Pennsylvania flour gold. It was found north of Allentown, PA in a tributary to the Lehigh river, using the methods above.
And yes - that whole shoveling, classifying, sluicing, panning process is a LOT of work for that tiny amount of gold. But hey - it's gold!

- Brian

 

[OwenT]

EXCELENT advice. I will go ahead with a panning kit. Would you suggest a sluice if it would cost the same though?

Not sure if this is really what you were saying but if you have a sluice you're going to need a pan to clean up your sluice concentrates. Everything in mining pretty much always comes back to the pan at some point. About the bazookas, they're neat and can process lots of material but they need a lot of water flow so only the small ones work in really small creeks. They can catch the really small flour gold too but I think the bigger sizes are better at that, I'm sure Kevin will chime in on bazookas. But for now I would focus on panning until you find gold. On your bedrock and "honey hole" questions: In some areas a lot or all the gol is on or near bedrock but usually you can find gold in surface gravels too and through the rest of it. The gold will tend to form lines down the river know as pay streaks, not just spots or holes where there gold just right there, but again a lot of the time in gold bearing creeks you can find a little bit almost anyplace, it's just a matter of finding where the biggest concentrations are (the pay streak). Good luck.

 

[KevinInColorado]

For a really small creek, the Bazooka Supermini is a good choice. Run it quite flat (otherwise you'll lose fine gold like Brian mentions above because the trap is too small to be tipped much) and dam up the water flow so there's at least a little water flowing over the top of the grizzly bars.

Brian, do you remember whether I brought my Supermini or the Sniper when we were last together in NW MA? Here's the only pic I have of me with my sluice that day:

Edit: I figured out it was the Supermini That little sluice rocks!

Whichever it was worked well enough in that tiny creek to send me home with nice gold!


PS thanks for the shout-outs guys, I'm flattered

 

[nh.nugget]

If you want some practice with panning to learn how to keep you gold in the pan. When you get your pan take some small fishing sinkers the smaller the better even cut some in half throw them in some dirt in your pan. Pan over a tub when you can keep them all in you pan without washing any out then go for the river! Don't forget to season your pan. Scrub it with steel wool and some dish soap rinse well to get the oil off the plastic. Good luck!

 

[goldenmojo]

EXCELENT advice. I will go ahead with a panning kit. Would you suggest a sluice if it would cost the same though?

I would get a sluice if there was enough gold and the conditions were right to use a sluice. A sluice is a production recovery tool but does not work in every situation. Once you learn how to find gold then a sluice is a viable tool to speed up recovery. Get the panning kit and learn to pan well. I have places where the gold take is good and I can walk twenty feet to pan it or two hundred yards to sluice it. Learn how to clear a pan in less then three minutes and you will do well. When you decide to get a sluice there are many differences so you will have to know what you intend to do with it to get the right one. Good Luck

 

[brianc053]

Brett, you're getting some great advice from the gang here on Treasurenet. As nh.nugget says, practicing with some fine shavings from lead sinkers is a great way to practice. And he's right - "seasoning" your pan(s) is critical. Also using JetDry in the water helps really fine gold to stay in the pan.

Kevin, you had your Sniper in Mass; I remember because it was able to process SO MUCH more material than my classifier/bucket approach. And I now have a super-mini (I think I said "mini" earlier, but I actually have the super-mini) and it's tiny compared to your Sniper. For the record, there's no question in my mind that your Sniper beat my sluice that day.

Here's a picture of my Mini Bazooka in the river in my neighborhood here in New Jersey.
Brett, for the record: I've never found gold in my NJ river, and I do know how to find flour gold. There may just be no gold in my river - and that may be true of a lot of the creeks/rivers out here near the East Coast. (if there are folks out there who have found any gold in New Jersey, please chime in!)
- Brian

 

[arizau]

Hey Brett, I got your PM and I sent you a private message in response.

I just got caught up on the various comments on this thread, and have some additional thoughts. Since I'm in the same rough geographic area as you are, and now that I'm two years into this hobby, I thought I'd share my experience with equipment since you have some questions about pans, sluices etc.

Earlier you asked about a sluice; I LOVE to use a sluice to take the raw gravels from the river and "concentrate" them down to just the heavy stuff. I own a Buckabilly Sluice (Sluice Box: Buckabilly Sluice Box Gold Prospecting) but any sluice of that style will work well. Some of the guys on here love Bazooka Gold Traps; I've personally tested a mini version of that side by side with my Buckabilly, and the Buckabilly caught more flour gold. That could be a fluke - it wasn't a scientific test - but it made me believe that for this area of the country, a Buckabilly-style sluice may work very well.

You may also want to read up on using classifiers. (for example: Amazon.com - Gold Rush Sifting Classifier FULL COMBO SET (½" 1/8" 1/20" 1/50" 1/100" Mesh) -)
Here's why: if we're looking for really small gold, we have to get rid of the bigger stuff and get the gravels to be more similarly sized. If the gravels are of similar size, then gold will settle down in the sluice and the pan because it's heavier than everything else. The classifier sits on a 5-gallon bucket, and you shovel into the top of the classifier.
So, around here, we end up using a 1/4" classifier to get rid of the big rocks, and then maybe use a 1/12" or 1/20" or similar classifier to separate the larger gravel from the smaller gravel. I run those two batches (larger than 1/12" and smaller than 1/12") separately through the sluice. In the larger batch you'll often find lead pieces - that's a good sign because lead is heavy like gold.

After you've run the gravels through the sluice for a while, you empty the sluice into a bucket and then take those concentrates and put them in a pan, and pan them.

Using this method you're much more likely to find some small Pennsylvania flour gold. When panning alone you are just trying to hit the lottery, in my opinion. You still may want to start with just buying a panning kit, just have the right expectation - not every shovel / pan full of dirt will have a speck of gold. [or maybe I'm just not on the right streams; I haven't tried the Pennypack].

Final thought: I don't know about those Nugget Bucket things. They seem to have a lot of the classifying/panning stuff covered, but I'm not sure you need all the stuff they provide. I do OK with the equipment mentioned above (sluice, classifiers, pans).

Oh, and listen to KevinInColorado - he REALLY knows his stuff and taught me a lot.

-------------------------------------------
Here is a picture of some authentic Pennsylvania flour gold. It was found north of Allentown, PA in a tributary to the Lehigh river, using the methods above.
And yes - that whole shoveling, classifying, sluicing, panning process is a LOT of work for that tiny amount of gold. But hey - it's gold!

- Brian

View attachment 1281137

About the Gold Rush Nugget Bucket.....While I would not have bought one on my own (I already had too much equipment) I was gifted one and now, having used it some, it is eye opening in it's capabilities and I can see some advantages in using it. Since all it needs is a water supply, you can run it anywhere you can dip a bucket, or pan, unlike sluices that require mostly swift running water and sufficient elevation drop for their setup. Testing at home and using it in the field showed that it catches gold that is less than 100 mesh with regularity. About the only drawback for it vs. a sluice is that it is slow in comparison. Overall, it may be more efficient in capturing fine gold particles than most any other gadget with the gold cube and maybe beach boxes being the exceptions.

 

[motohed]

The thing that no one has told you , is you will need the paning equipment with a sluice . The sluices job is to classify the small amount of sands and Gold down to the paning stage . If you buy the sluice with out a pan you won't be able to seperate the Gold from the black sand ,clay ,etc . JMHO I would save up some money for either the Bazooka , or the Gold Hog stream sluice . They are both pricey , I have both and they make a good match for all around water condition . I would not waist my money on any others per say , I know there will be people that disagree and this is my opion . I have a couple cheaper sluices , they work , but not as effectively as the ones I have stated . If your going to work hard at it , you might as well retain the most Gold in your sluice as you can .

 

[BrettCo124]

Thanks everyone. You're advice is really great. I would have never known about any of this. I think I'm going to go for the gold rush nugget bucket, as it seems to be pretty simple to use and all I would ever need. Really excited to see what I may find in my creek. And I'm also excited because I'm going to be checking the traps for arrowheads while I'm at it lol. I'm also excited that it's something I could use for years to come, especially when I have kids.

Can this also be used on a sandy beach of a river/bay? Not sure if it would be pointless, since I'm assuming id be digging but not down to a creek bedrock or anything.

 

[KevinInColorado]

No, it really was my Supermini...mine is just bigger than yours
...the Supermini is the smaller one, and the only one that'll fit in my suitcase so I'm pretty sure

If you are worried about water flow limitations, the 30 inch Supermini will run on just a trickle as we had that day. The price is right too!

 

[BrettCo124]

No, it really was my Supermini...mine is just bigger than yours View attachment 1281348
...the Supermini is the smaller one, and the only one that'll fit in my suitcase so I'm pretty sure

If you are worried about water flow limitations, the 30 inch Supermini will run on just a trickle as we had that day. The price is right too!

I have a question about sluices. Why would people buy one, which seems to be at least a 100 dollar purchase, and not go for the gold rush nugget bucket, which seems to be less work and more convenient? I probably sound like a salesperson for them. I promise I'm not lol. It's just an honest question for someone who narrowed his search down to the super mini sluice vs the gold rush nugget bucket...

 

[Asmbandits]

I have a question about sluices. Why would people buy one, which seems to be at least a 100 dollar purchase, and not go for the gold rush nugget bucket, which seems to be less work and more convenient? I probably sound like a salesperson for them. I promise I'm not lol. It's just an honest question for someone who narrowed his search down to the super mini sluice vs the gold rush nugget bucket...

The sluice is a tried and true way to recover gold, the nugget bucket has not been around for very long. I would think also that the sluice would out preform a nugget bucket in volume of material it can run, im pretty darn sure a bazooka trap would for sure. There is a reason the sluice has been around for so long and still used today, it works great! In the gold world there are sooo many contraptions out there it's easy for someone new to come along and get overwhelmed with what they should use, I'd stick to the basics first and foremost. Get a pan and get good with that most of all and then confirm the presence of gold. Then you can decide which method would be most practical for extraction.

 

[OwenT]

I have a question about sluices. Why would people buy one, which seems to be at least a 100 dollar purchase, and not go for the gold rush nugget bucket, which seems to be less work and more convenient? I probably sound like a salesperson for them. I promise I'm not lol. It's just an honest question for someone who narrowed his search down to the super mini sluice vs the gold rush nugget bucket...

I watched a video of the guy using a nugget bucket and it looked like a lot of work to me. If you're out there all day or just an hour you will be able to process so much more material with a sluice than with a nugget bucket. The only thing it's probably good for is if you don't have fast enough flow to run a sluice.

 

[Au-N-Rod]

I have a question about sluices. Why would people buy one, which seems to be at least a 100 dollar purchase, and not go for the gold rush nugget bucket, which seems to be less work and more convenient? I probably sound like a salesperson for them. I promise I'm not lol. It's just an honest question for someone who narrowed his search down to the super mini sluice vs the gold rush nugget bucket...

If you read enough threads, you will see where guys may run their sluices and only do a clean out 2 or 3 times a day. The rest of the day they are shoveling dirt into the sluice.

Here is an example, just for fun. Numbers are way over what you would have. Say there was one ounce of gold in every 100 pounds of dirt. The sluice catches 75% and the bucket catches 95%.

After 500 pounds of dirt, the sluice has caught 3.75 ounces. The bucket has caught 4.75 ounces. But how long would it take to process that 500 pounds? Time is gold(money). I am betting it would take more than twice as long.

Don't worry about getting every little flour piece. Put a lot of dirt thru and get more in the long run.

 

[BrettCo124]

If you read enough threads, you will see where guys may run their sluices and only do a clean out 2 or 3 times a day. The rest of the day they are shoveling dirt into the sluice.

Here is an example, just for fun. Numbers are way over what you would have. Say there was one ounce of gold in every 100 pounds of dirt. The sluice catches 75% and the bucket catches 95%.

After 500 pounds of dirt, the sluice has caught 3.75 ounces. The bucket has caught 4.75 ounces. But how long would it take to process that 500 pounds? Time is gold(money). I am betting it would take more than twice as long.

Don't worry about getting every little flour piece. Put a lot of dirt thru and get more in the long run.

Wow all of your answers are great. And very informative. I think both setups are great but the bazooka mini looks fantastic. I didn't know it didn't have the carpet and all that stuff. So I think I'm leaning towards the bazooka! Can you all confirm its a great product to buy? Does it perform equally to the standard sluices with the rug lining them? I think I'm going for it after your last suggestions between the two

 

[motohed]

Do your research on some sluices , there are a few that will catch more than 75% of the gold . Thats why I said look at the Bazooka Gold Trap and the Gold hog stream sluice . I'm sure you can fined others , maybe the Letrap [check spelling] and the Angus Mackirk . I would just start out paning and give yourself some time to look for a good sluice . You owe it too yourself to buy the best sluice that you decide on . Otherwise you may end up buying many in the long run if you get the Gold Fever . The reason I like the Bazooka and Gold Hog is you don't have to classify , this means you run more material over the sluice in less time . more material mean more Gold if it's available where your sluicing . So use your pan to prospect and when you find Gold start sluicing .