I have the fever....but not the location....Im in Minnesota!

[bottlecap]

I have the fever....but not the location....I'm in Minnesota!

Hi guys I have gold fever....bad. I recently went to a gold and treasure show here in Mn and bought a bag of pay dirt, a pan and a couple classifiers, I have panned most of the bag and gotten some great gold out of it, I am hooked for sure. I have been kicking around the idea of diving into this hobby for quite a while and I think it's time to try my hand. After talking to some of the folks at the treasure show I know there's gold in Mn for sure but it seems to be pretty fine gold. Has anyone heard of people finding any flake type gold around here? I would think there has to be a chance that not everything is flour gold but maybe I am just being too optimistic, I am not talking about finding nuggets or anything, just stuff you can see without a microscope.
Doing that first pan and at the end swirling that last bit of dirt and seeing all of that warm colored gold smiling at me in the corner, I can't get enough! The pay dirt I bought was from Alaska so it's really good stuff, I just thought it would be good first time practice and it was.
Also what do you folks recommend for retrieving the really fine gold? I have read a lot of threads on here about it and everyone seems to have a different opinion. I am extremely grateful to any of you that reply and take the time to read this! Thanks!

 

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[B&E prospecting]

I have the fever....but not the location....I'm in Minnesota!

I agree yes you definitely want to classify down and I do. I do not fast wash over the edge that would be wasteful and would defeat the point of trying to keep any gold. Stopping the material in the pan to wash the top layers out of the pan allows to micro gold to be suspended in the material that could potentially be washed out. By keeping material in a slow but constant motion gives the fines a better chance to settle.
MN fines

 

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[kcm]

Motley! Hmm...I used to live real close there. Never realized there was ANY gold in that area. Please let us know how your trip pans out.

 

[B&E prospecting]

Oh ya! That whole area is glacially carved. Lots of agates and minerals, it's just spread out and under a lot of top soil. I'm going to check out a good gold creek today to see how it looks and run the Gold Bug around before the vegetation and floods show up

 

[bottlecap]

Everyone-I know I miss gold, for sure, without a doubt. There are two reasons for this. Number one I am new at this, number two I pan fairly aggressively, usually the aggression progresses with every pan, I am not a patient person, before anyone jumps down my throat realize I KNOW I AM MISSING GOLD!! The larger pieces still end up in the pan and those are the ones I want. NOW, if I could hook something up in the basement with a hose or pump to do a final clean up I would completely change my strategy, I would get a gold hog or pyramid pro pan, pan the hell out of as much material as I could, bring the concentrates home and enter patient mode. There is SOOOO much black sand left in one pan, literally one shovel of dirt in the pan will yield the entire bottom of the pan being covered a half inch thick in black sand, when I try to pan that at the river I start losing patience because taking those layers of black sand off results in lost gold. One other thing getting to me is knowing there are better spots available but all the rivers are so high right now you can't get to them so I am restricted to smaller streams, I actually love these small streams but most of the places available to the public for access are.....well......very public, I am not the type that enjoys gawkers and 20 questions, dogs running at me, being the center of attention, you know what I am saying, if people approach me I am polite and make them laugh because I am hilarious() but I would prefer to be left to my devices undisturbed. One thing I am is very determined and I WILL have a substantial amount of gold by the time winter hits one way or another!!

 

[motohed]

Miller table ,some classifiers and a nugget bucket , for you would be the ticket since you can't sluice , and of coarse your pan .

 

[bottlecap]

Hey bottlecap. I saw the picture of your captured "speck"! It looks nice and yep that's about the size and amount I find in the land of 10,000 restrictions! I was thinking maybe we should meet and compare techniques? And if you can find ur way northward a bit I could show you a few spots I have found. ? In mid June there's a guy I know that wants me to check out his property ( has a creek on it!) around Motley. I gotta tel ya reading your posts has started the fever in me again. I've made a system of classifying and processing about 4 buckets of classified material in under an hour. Might be helpful in your quest

Hey I meant to reply to this sooner but I would definitely be up to meeting up sometime! Like I mentioned before I think the key to our area is volume and doing the volume as efficiently as possible, would love to see the ridge in the bottom of my pan filled up with Mn. gold! Motley is about two hours for me though so if that worked out it would have to be a weekend thing.

 

[motohed]

Everyone-I know I miss gold, for sure, without a doubt. There are two reasons for this. Number one I am new at this, number two I pan fairly aggressively, usually the aggression progresses with every pan, I am not a patient person, before anyone jumps down my throat realize I KNOW I AM MISSING GOLD!! The larger pieces still end up in the pan and those are the ones I want. NOW, if I could hook something up in the basement with a hose or pump to do a final clean up I would completely change my strategy, I would get a gold hog or pyramid pro pan, pan the hell out of as much material as I could, bring the concentrates home and enter patient mode. There is SOOOO much black sand left in one pan, literally one shovel of dirt in the pan will yield the entire bottom of the pan being covered a half inch thick in black sand, when I try to pan that at the river I start losing patience because taking those layers of black sand off results in lost gold. One other thing getting to me is knowing there are better spots available but all the rivers are so high right now you can't get to them so I am restricted to smaller streams, I actually love these small streams but most of the places available to the public for access are.....well......very public, I am not the type that enjoys gawkers and 20 questions, dogs running at me, being the center of attention, you know what I am saying, if people approach me I am polite and make them laugh because I am hilarious() but I would prefer to be left to my devices undisturbed. One thing I am is very determined and I WILL have a substantial amount of gold by the time winter hits one way or another!!

You can also go to Gold Hog site and look at the mini sluice , its desighed as a clean up sluice so you can recirulate with it .

 

[bottlecap]

You can also go to Gold Hog site and look at the mini sluice , its desighed as a clean up sluice so you can recirulate with it .

Are you referring to The Piglet?

 

[motohed]

Are you referring to The Piglet?

No , it's called the Multi Sluice , sorry .

 

[bottlecap]

Ok, just checked it out, very nice, little spendy though!!

 

[motohed]

Ok, just checked it out, very nice, little spendy though!!

Yes , but it can be used dual purpose , In about any other state than yours . The miller table is somewhat time consuming , the multi sluice will make a minimum of the fines to run over the miller table . this would allow you to get buckets of material from the areas you fined a small amount of Gold and be able to run them at home . JMHO

 

[triple d]

You can also build a wooden sluice. With gold hog mats. This is what I use for a clean up sluice. Also build a header box with some pvc pipe. And some some fittings to make a power sluce. It works great and you will get about a cup of cons. And fairly cheap. If your on a budget.

 

[bottlecap]

Yes , but it can be used dual purpose , In about any other state than yours . The miller table is somewhat time consuming , the multi sluice will make a minimum of the fines to run over the miller table . this would allow you to get buckets of material from the areas you fined a small amount of Gold and be able to run them at home . JMHO

Oh it definitely looks like an awesome sluice! Do you think if I just ran cons through it I could skip the first mat and just use the finishing mat??

 

[motohed]

Oh it definitely looks like an awesome sluice! Do you think if I just ran cons through it I could skip the first mat and just use the finishing mat??

I would think if you clasify too 50 mesh , probly . That would be a good question for Gold Hog you can Email them they answer back quickly .

 

[bottlecap]

You can also build a wooden sluice. With gold hog mats. This is what I use for a clean up sluice. Also build a header box with some pvc pipe. And some some fittings to make a power sluce. It works great and you will get about a cup of cons. And fairly cheap. If your on a budget.

Guess I am not the handiest guy but if it can be done cheap and in a day might be worth a shot!

 

[bottlecap]

Just to update all of you who have been helping me I have not been laying idle! Ordered a Pro Pan and took that out today for the first time, found some more gold! Caught some really fine stuff with it too, once I decide on a clean up sluice I will post some pictures of the rare Minnesota gold!

 

[smokeythecat]

I'm getting ready to stop for the season. Getting warmer and horrible monsters like tics are lurking in the woods.

 

[Silversurfer79]

Here is my minnesota take yesterday

 

[kcm]

Beautiful!!

 

[bottlecap]

Here is my minnesota take yesterday

Nice!!!