Gold prospecting in South Carolina

[Cstyle00]

Hey fellow prospectors and treasure hunters. I started this thread to see what people had to say about gold still in South Carolina. I aq'uired a small tract of land in Smyrna, York County. Land has been untouched since the California rush (except the little old lady that lived there since 1912). Basically I'm wondering has anyone ever picked up a nug in SC. I understand that it would be rare and would be quartz, not like a nug found in the west. If anyone knows of the Dixon Mine, Martin Mine, Horn Mine, or Southern Gold Mine which all closed in 1939 I think by Roosevelt because of the war. I'm near there. They were pulling some good size nugs from the myths. So let me know of your stories of gold found in SC.

Using a White's GMT. So far about 20 hrs. prospecting. Digging everything under 85% iron somtimes I dig targets anyway off of fence lines. Slow going lots of nails and .22 cal. bullets in rocky soil. Found a few buttons with no markings and some worn down axe heads about 14" down under large roots. Makes you wonder what happened to make someone be so careless with such a valuable asset of the time. I'm going to search it all of course, consentrating on the tickest areas of the forest first since the leaves are down and try to hit as many ridges and hillsides before summer slows things even worse. I'm detecting the area first then I'll dig some prostpecting pits. What gold have you guys seen in SC?

 

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[djpitr]

Sideshowmick nice , how did you clean it , thats small stuff , i have some too small like that i just leavi it in the black sand , for later

 

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[sideshowmick]

I classify it ,then pan it. It is very important to classify. I lost a lot of gold before I started to clasify. I got more than that from that run,I just took pics of the stuff smaller than 200. However, the other wasnt much bigger. Nothing bigger than 100 mesh.

 

[skeeter86]

AAAAh that's what is called onshoring that when a forgien company buys our land and gives U.S. jobs!

 

[bradsallbusiness]

Howdy all I was up here in Pickens today panning a beautiful stream my family owns and I'm finding thousands of these quartz that are clear as glass some are quite large and even have that cool octagon shape with the point at the end any one else ever came across quarts like these

 

[Buckshotnc]

Howdy all I was up here in Pickens today panning a beautiful stream my family owns and I'm finding thousands of these quartz that are clear as glass some are quite large and even have that cool octagon shape with the point at the end any one else ever came across quarts like these

Will let others more knowledgeable than me weigh in on this but, yes those are terminated quartz crystals and should be pretty close to original source since they have the terminated ends on it.

 

[bradsallbusiness]

Are they worth anything or should I bust them up and pan for gold

 

[KevinInColorado]

Yup, worth more than any tiny gold you'd get..which you wouldn't...not in a true Crystal like that.

 

[bradsallbusiness]

Thanks y'all guess I'll start saving these I'm going to try and find the source tommorow maybe I'll get lucky

 

[djpitr]

Bradsallbusines
You will find them a lot , like this one

 

[Astrobouncer]

Here's a good article on how those crystals form and yeah they are very common but also quite neat. The Quartz Page: Formation and Growth

 

[bradsallbusiness]

Awesome I found one some what similar to that one still haven't found the source yet thanks for that article quite educating kinda gives me some clues on what to look for around the area that could be producing these

 

[bradsallbusiness]

Even if there not worth anything I'm gonna keep collecting them just cause they look cool lol

 

[sideshowmick]

Sideshowmick nice , how did you clean it , thats small stuff , i have some too small like that i just leavi it in the black sand , for later

Its the only gold we get here.

 

[bradsallbusiness]

Anyone have a little fine gold pieces that they wanna sell I'm still tryna figure out if I'm panning right or if I'm just not in a good spot and I figure if I put some real gold in my pan and it's there when I'm done then atleast I'm doing it right so just let me know thanks

 

[Astrobouncer]

Brad, you are probably doing it right but you are in a bad area for gold. If you can handle the wait till March 15th which is opening day up at Thermal City Gold Mine I will be glad to show ya some of the shiny stuff in person (and find plenty there as well). Plus that will give it a little time for the temps to come up.

 

[bradsallbusiness]

Never been up there but sounds like a plan to me my wife is leaving for a year in February so this is my new hobby and I'll have plenty of time to come check out spots like that being on my own

 

[bradsallbusiness]

This stuff I'm panning right now is still frozen from the other day my hands are still frozen as well lol

 

[sluicelee]

When I'm out on the creek, I like to look for mineralized quartz and any other interesting rock. Something I can take home and later crush and pan. The pictures below are some mineralized quartz and what I believe is conglomerate to the right. I found these a few months ago and just haven't found the time to crush. I've had some luck finding gold in these types of rock and always keep an eye out for them. I still have lots to learn about geology/rock, but rock crushing has created a whole new dimension to prospecting for me and recommend it to anyone looking for something outside of placer mining.

To crush rock, I use an air hammer I purchased from harbor freight and a "smoothing hammer" bit I purchased from northern tool. I put the rocks in a sturdy 5 gallon bucket, then place a towel of the opening of the bucket to keep any debris from coming out. I then place aluminum screen door mesh over my pan and dump the crushed rock onto the screen. What doesn't make it through the screen, goes back in the bucket and worked again. It can get a little loud and messy, especially if you don't put a towel over the bucket while your using the air hammer, but it does a decent job. I will eventually try and build a rock crusher, but till then, the air hammer will have to do. So if you don't crush rock, try it, you'll like it.

 

[bradsallbusiness]

I've got some small one like that in my bucket but not many mainly just clear and cloudy quarts and river rocks

 

[bradsallbusiness]

Some of these quarts appear to have pyrite on them or it's just mica stuck in the crevisis of the stones