Hello everyone! Just signed up to the site. Definitely need to be communicating with experienced people that have been doing this. So I began prospecting last year after I had a dream of finding gold. It made me very ambitious and I believe it happened for a reason! I had no knowledge in gold or prospecting. I had no pan or any other equipment. After hours of research I decided to follow the ancient glacier trail geology maps of Wisconsin. Learned a lot of till was left behind, I also live 5 minutes away from an ancient glaciated public forest with a glacier moraine, visible ancient waterfall bedrock, and a nice creek. I'll post pictures soon. My first time I took a dinner plate from my cupboard (LOL) and dug with my hands in a part of this creek. I eventually found a small micron piece of what I believed was gold. Now I use a hex pan and built a custom sluice in my garage. I thought I better get a little more serious. I'm noticing a lot of small quartz, granite, small iron pyrite, and some cool looking small rusted iron rocks.
Here's my problem, this glaciated gold has been crushed into micron flakes. It also comes with a lot of iron pyrite and its very hard to tell the difference because the small gold I have recovered is the same size. After digging yesterday, classifying, sluicing and panning, I was left with a mixture of sand a decent amount of black sand and iron pyrite swirling with the gold. I have gotten my first decent piece and noticed a few pieces did not move with my lighter stuff in the pan like the pyrite and pebbles after swirling it around. I used my finger nail on the somewhat larger piece and it did bend. Could this small micron gold still break apart because it is so small/flat? The piece I tested is about 1 centimeter.
I will post pictures soon of what my location looks like and the material. Also, anyone know of where a possible load could be deposited in an area like this? I think I'm on the smaller washed away particles from a larger deposit. I've been digging in an area where the creek bends and slows. I recovered this from half a bucket full of test material.
Here's my problem, this glaciated gold has been crushed into micron flakes. It also comes with a lot of iron pyrite and its very hard to tell the difference because the small gold I have recovered is the same size. After digging yesterday, classifying, sluicing and panning, I was left with a mixture of sand a decent amount of black sand and iron pyrite swirling with the gold. I have gotten my first decent piece and noticed a few pieces did not move with my lighter stuff in the pan like the pyrite and pebbles after swirling it around. I used my finger nail on the somewhat larger piece and it did bend. Could this small micron gold still break apart because it is so small/flat? The piece I tested is about 1 centimeter.
I will post pictures soon of what my location looks like and the material. Also, anyone know of where a possible load could be deposited in an area like this? I think I'm on the smaller washed away particles from a larger deposit. I've been digging in an area where the creek bends and slows. I recovered this from half a bucket full of test material.
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