Hello everyone, I've been looking at this site for a couple weeks now admiring the gold prospecting section.. I'm a fabricator by trade so the equipment used in gold prospecting has really intrigued me. I've ALWAYS wanted to go gold panning and find my own small treasures since I was young, it wasnt untill recently where I finally decided to go ahead and try it. I acquired a couple books and a simple gold panning kit, I also plan on building a recirulating sluice that can also be used on a small 2" or so dredging outfit.
I've spent the last few days just practicing panning with small lead shavings mixed in with some dirt I dug out the frozen ground by the Cedar River and had no problem finding those pieces of heavy metal, just a little slow I think. I'm under the impression there is not much gold to be found in my area so I would like to plan a small vacation sometime in the near future where I can use my equipment and hopefully find something to keep me motivated..
I made a promise to myself I WILL NOT STOP untill I can pan out gold, if I have to travel somewhere, bring dirt home, ship dirt, keep digging mud and clay from my local areas I need to at least find something.
Any advice on what you would recomend to try first would be appreciated, where to go? keep trying around here? Im afraid I will be wasting time and effort in iowa rivers. Thanks treasurenet for the good info here!!
I've spent the last few days just practicing panning with small lead shavings mixed in with some dirt I dug out the frozen ground by the Cedar River and had no problem finding those pieces of heavy metal, just a little slow I think. I'm under the impression there is not much gold to be found in my area so I would like to plan a small vacation sometime in the near future where I can use my equipment and hopefully find something to keep me motivated..
I made a promise to myself I WILL NOT STOP untill I can pan out gold, if I have to travel somewhere, bring dirt home, ship dirt, keep digging mud and clay from my local areas I need to at least find something.
Any advice on what you would recomend to try first would be appreciated, where to go? keep trying around here? Im afraid I will be wasting time and effort in iowa rivers. Thanks treasurenet for the good info here!!
The other half have already found something and then get interested.
