Should I keep trying? Opinions....

[DeepseekerADS]

I have a farm on the North slope of a mountain in Southwest Virginia. On this farm I have a couple of streams.

2 miles down the road from me, off the same slope, there was gold found in a different stream.

I have been planning to pan one of my streams for years, and I've been watching videos on Youtube about how to pan, and where to pan in a stream.

So, yesterday I picked two spots where the water drops over rocks, and dug out underneath the drops, two spots, two heaping pan fulls, and panned them out.

At the end in the bottom of both pans was quite a bit of black sand.

Played with that black sand for quite a while.

There was not one single speck of gold in either pan.

Should I continue panning this stream at other locations along this stream, or accept the apparent fact that there is no gold in this stream?

 

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[dvdtharaldson]

Deepseeker ADS.

Its is very encouraging that you found a lot of black sands in your concentrates. One pan full per spot isn't enough to determine whether gold is present. If your new to panning make sure you understand that most colors (gold) are between the size of a grain of sugar and a grain of flour. Try digging deeper and process at least 3-5 pans per spot. Also try different areas of the stream, especially behind big rocks.
Good Luck

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Thanks for the encouragement, I'll try again. I'm new to panning, for sure.

I did put one heck of a lot of attention to the black sand, much longer actually than I probably should have - just wanted to find the encouragement of one little speck!

 

[kazcoro]

If you have a lot of bs in your pans, the gold can hide in the bs really well. I run my bs through a miller table later to get all that gold thathides. In your case, you should try panning only a portion of the bs at a time in the pan. Makes it a lot easier to find the little hiders.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

If you have a lot of bs in your pans, the gold can hide in the bs really well. I run my bs through a miller table later to get all that gold thathides. In your case, you should try panning only a portion of the bs at a time in the pan. Makes it a lot easier to find the little hiders.

When I was down to the black sand, I kept panning to thin layers praying there might be some small bits of gold hiding there.

Would you suggest that I take the pans down to the black sand, and then dump that into a bucket for later panning?

I thought about that, and then taking a magnet to it.

I have about a kilometer of that specific stream, and plenty spots to try on that. I also have a fairly large creek to hit as well, and another very small spring feeding into the stream I tested.

 

[kazcoro]

YOu could do that. I would just take a portion of what is in the pan, and drop it into another pan right there on the spot and pan the smaller portion. That way, you could spread the bs out some and see under it alot easier. Whatever you do, don't throw the bs away. Keep it so you can work it hard in the future. Make a miller table down the road, and then run it through the table. I haven't tried the "shake and bake" method yet, but that is an additional method to recover the gold that is embedded in the black sands themselves. You basically heat the piss out of the bs and throw them into a bucket of ice cold water and it fractures the bs open, releasing any locked in gold.

 

[kazcoro]

Read this thread. Explains the shake and bake better. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/panning-gold/375991-black-sand-magnet.html

 

[DeepseekerADS]

You guys are great!

Thanks for the info! I won't give up, and will take what you've said to heart.

I had heard the term "Miller Table" but did not actually know what it was. I looked on Youtube for a DIY. The shake and bake method sounds like an option as well. The BS I found was pretty fine, a powder in itself. I don't believe I will get rich on this, but there is great entertainment value.

I'm beginning to believe, or have convinced myself that any gold I find will be very very fine powder - age of the mountains here - so it is unlikely I will find much coarse stuff. That creek is probably the better location to pan since it comes off many other streams off this slope. But, I have time, and retirement will be filled with activities.

 

[Underburden]

Probe for bedrock. Take a steel fence post and cut the blade off the bottom. Now grab your fence post pounder and hit the creek. If you hit bedrock, remove the over burden and pan the material that sits on bedrock. That's the only was to determine if the creek ever held gold. (hint-start with a large hole so that when you get to bedrock, you have more than a couple inches of bedrock to work)
Bob

 

[Prospector70]

Right, down you go then. Drill, drill drill.
How else you gonna know what's @#$%'in down there, eh?

How's that for a Beets impression? lol!
sounds like a fantastic adventure! I hope you find it!
Be sure you are looking everywhere, imagine where and how high the water flows when it gets deep. then look for things that the gold will drop over (may be 10 feet out of the creek/river!). Remember gold is heavy and lazy.
look for bedrock, or cobble. Lots more sampling and deeper is needed to be sure. The hunt is half the fun! Best of luck.

 

[B H Prospector]

You said you dug below a small waterfall or where water flowed over some large rocks correct? Remember gold is 19 times heavier than water and twice as heavy as blacksand. So if you only dug up a pan or two and found alot of blacksand, chances are you haven't reached the gold yet. It will be below the blacksand for the most part as well as mixed in with it. Also remember that where you find gold you usually find blacksand, but where you find blacksand you don't always find gold. Don't give up! keep digging and dig deep!

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

 

[dvdtharaldson]

What I do with my concentrates (mostly black sands) is to classify them to different sizes (-20,-30,-50) and pan them separately. If you don't it's easy to miss the smaller colors (gold pieces) when they are mixed in with larger pieces of black sand. Use jet dry because extremely small colors will float. Also use a magnifying glass and/or loupe when looking at extra small cons.

 

[Sick4gold]

I agree that a 1 pan in a few spots is not a great indicator.
First thing is read up on how to "read a creek" and see where the gold will most likely be found.
Next grab your shovel pick a spot. Use a 1/4 inch classifier and shovel into it until your pan is 3/4 full.
Hold it underwater and agitate vigorously. Then tip the pan 45 degrees and using your hand rake off the top 50%.
Then fill the pan again and agitate UNDERWATER and then take off 50% again.
Repeat this up to 10 times then take a while and pan it all the way until there is nothing but black sand.
I feel this is a better sample of the spots you pick. It's faster then fully panning down 10 pans and your able to sample more material this way.
Just FYI this is just a sampling technique. You probably shouldn't pan this way all the time as it is easier to miss gold this way.
You don't need to get to bedrock to find flood gold, it will be anywhere within the matrix.
You will at least know if there is any gold in your spots you picked.
Do this in the "best" places all around your creek before you condemn it as gold less.
Hope this was helpful

 

[austin]

Ads, you ought to give it up, sell the farm and you and me can retire to some little town in Mexico(oh that's right, I already live in northern Mexico\ SAN ANTONIO/) where we can drink ourselves to death and entertain barely legal latinas while we do it. I'll take you up the Llano and you can pan to your heart's content. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Of course you should stick with it. There's gold in the area and most likely some in your streams. Hate to suggesst this, but walk up stream with a pick and shovel and start looking for veins. They may be buried, but I'm bettin they are there...

 

[Red James Cash]

What do you have to lose buddy except a little time.You wont find unless you look.