Seeking advice and knowledge

[Gagoldnoob]

Hello gentlemen -

I just started my search for gold. Its been something ive wanted to do for a while and ive finally pulled the trigger. Literally like 3 days ago i purchased my first set of pans. I live in north georgia. Forsyth county to be more precise. Right along the etowah. Im 2 miles away from the old Franklin-Crieghton mine. On my property i have a small stream that eventually runs into Settingdown Creek. Ive started digging in the most active portion of the stream i have access to. The stream bed is littered with quartz. I can see a few places of exposed bedrock as well. The place ive started with im maybe just a footdown and ive started digging up clay - is clay a good sign or should i move? So far ive panned through close to two buckets of classified material. Ive found a few flakes but mostly flour gold. I have alot of fine gold specks in my pan. My question is - finding flour gold should i move upstream? Or keep digging deeper? What should i look for to find the bigger peices of gold. I dont know much about gold recovery yet but im guessing the flour gold has to be coming from bigger peices right? Any tips or advice on what i should look for would be great.

 

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[Gagoldnoob]

Also - im saving all of my black sand until i get something to sort it. Do you guys think the martin table is worth the money or should i just get a blue bowl?

 

[Icewing]

You just need to find old Mr Pocket.

 

[Gagoldnoob]

We are all searching for Mr. Pocket arent we? Ha.

 

[vpnavy]

I noticed this was your very first post - so, Welcome Aboard GAGoldNoob! Take a look at Forum:Georgia for information (i.e., clubs, etc.) directly related to your state.

 

[RTR]

Also - im saving all of my black sand until i get something to sort it. Do you guys think the martin table is worth the money or should i just get a blue bowl?

Blue bowls work but their slow. Just finished building this(20x44) Miller a few days ago and loving it Good luck,sounds like you have a good spot there.
Good all the way down to minus 150 mesh

 

[arizau]

Hello gentlemen -

I just started my search for gold. Its been something ive wanted to do for a while and ive finally pulled the trigger. Literally like 3 days ago i purchased my first set of pans. I live in north georgia. Forsyth county to be more precise. Right along the etowah. Im 2 miles away from the old Franklin-Crieghton mine. On my property i have a small stream that eventually runs into Settingdown Creek. Ive started digging in the most active portion of the stream i have access to. The stream bed is littered with quartz. I can see a few places of exposed bedrock as well. The place ive started with im maybe just a footdown and ive started digging up clay - is clay a good sign or should i move? So far ive panned through close to two buckets of classified material. Ive found a few flakes but mostly flour gold. I have alot of fine gold specks in my pan. My question is - finding flour gold should i move upstream? Or keep digging deeper? What should i look for to find the bigger peices of gold. I dont know much about gold recovery yet but im guessing the flour gold has to be coming from bigger peices right? Any tips or advice on what i should look for would be great.

If you were finding gold above a clay layer then it was likely acting as false bedrock and a pay layer formed on it. If you were to punch through it there may be another layer of sand and gravel but it may or may not contain gold. Only testing will tell. Logic tells me that prospecting in spots that have current bed rock exposed will probably yield bigger pieces and more gold because there are more drops, crevices and natural riffles for it to collect in than a smooth clay layer.

Fine gold is not necessarily an indication that the gold has eroded in size since most original lode deposits worldwide consist mainly of gold of small to tiny to invisible to the naked eye sizes. If the gold you are finding is from the source vein of the nearby mine then what you are now finding may just be the nature of the beast.

Find yourself a set of small (4 or 6") classifier screens with sizes of about 30, 50 and 100 mesh and you will make your life much easier to recover your gold from concentrates. Pan the screened batches separately. Gold is relatively easy to pan when it's only competition in a pan is with like sized material.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

PS Look for indications of other creek channels on your property. Rounded rocks on the surface usually mean that an ancient stream crossed in that area. Digging them may be productive too as well as drainages that lead to the creek.

 

[Gagoldnoob]

Great input arizau thank you! I was just about to ask about mesh!

 

[mytimetoshine]

Don't waste your time with a miller table. Get a blue bowl. Clay is a good sign and usually will hold gold as well as bedrock does. Classifiers are a must, for final cleanups.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Can I just add, don't rush out and start buying expensive equipment!!!!!

Stick with a shovel, classifier, bucket, and pan until you find a spot that is producing. Test, Test, Test! When you have some gold in your poke THEN think about a dredge, highbanker, and blue bowl. Good Luck!

 

[Bonaro]

Don't waste your time with a miller table. Get a blue bowl. Clay is a good sign and usually will hold gold as well as bedrock does. Classifiers are a must, for final cleanups.

I would disagree about the blue bowl vs. the miller style table. Proper feed and watering of the table will produce the same result as the bowl but many times faster. Careful classification is critical for either

 

[delnorter]

I agree with what Terry said. Start with basic tools and learn where to find gold. Keep your very fine concentrates for later processing as you become more proficient as it come to you quickly. Faster and more elaborate equipment can always be had when needed.

Mike

 

[Gagoldnoob]

So i moved spots today... upstream and on the bank where i think the stream wouldve been 100-200 years ago... and my first pan is ****ing nuts....

 

[Icewing]

Try the inside bank of the closest bend

 

[Gagoldnoob]

Will a sluice catch all of this very fine flour gold?

 

[Gagoldnoob]

I dont have anything other than 3 different size sifters, and a couple pans. The picture i posted is misleading that is a small pan (i think 8") and the peices are comparable to the size of sand or smaller, but i am finding alot of it.

I did order a 1/50" and a 1/100" sifter today. Wont be here til wednesday tho. I have been eyeing some sluices.

 

[63bkpkr]

Gagoldnoob,
The advice to "Keep it Simple" is very WISE! 1) It keeps a person from wasting a lot of money for NOTHING 2) The simple stuff is all one needs while they learn how to use the simple stuff Properly 3) The simple stuff is all the 1849ers had in the California rush and it worked for them


In all honesty, I headed for the expensive stuff "too early " in my prospecting life. Then I dropped back to the pan and a classifier and found more gold without using the expensive equipment. One item that helped me was a really good VLF prospecting detector but even then it is NOT necessary. Prospecting is just like buying real estate - Location, Location, Location. At the right location you will do OK with a pan and a sifter and a shovel, and a few more simple tools like a crack cleaning tool (bent metal rod), cheapest 1" paint brush, ~ 16" x 16" drop cloth (for brushing crack cleanings onto so they don't become lost) and a good sun shade hat (bought at a second hand store).

When you do find a good spot, the results might look like this -



Can we Please have a close up, in focus picture of that pan of golden glitter without the water ? Thank you, Usn's

Also, pans are a personal preference and there are all sorts of them to choose from. They've been discussed many times on Tnet and the threads are here and are searchable. Me, I like the 'Batpan' though it may or may not be available now but beware it will not lay flat when put down on the ground as it comes to a point on the touching the ground side (not a flat bottom).

 

[KevinInColorado]

So i moved spots today... upstream and on the bank where i think the stream wouldve been 100-200 years ago... and my first pan is ****ing nuts....

This looks like a lot of mica to me. Does it move with a gentle swirl of water?

Gold looks like this:

 

[Goldwasher]

So i moved spots today... upstream and on the bank where i think the stream wouldve been 100-200 years ago... and my first pan is ****ing nuts....

sorry man but thats not gold

 

[Goldwasher]

pretty much everything you will ever need to know about life can be found in a Little House on the Prairie episode.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5x4vbz