Re: Tom and Perry's Gol Bag??
BangTango,
You've received lots of good advice about how to pan and what to do with your purchased concentrates. You've also gotten some inputs on chemicals and mercury both pros and cons and now I will add my 2 cents worth. I personally would not work with any of the chemicals or the mercury as they are dangerous by themselves and without being taught by an expert on the safe use of these items well, I enjoy being with my great grandson and would like to be able to do that for several more years so I do not mess with these dangerous items and I would suggest you learn to pan and then go out and find your own bags of concentrates to pan your gold from.
I've played at prospecting for several years and first and foremost I LOVE being "out there", secondly I LOVE to fish, third I LOVE to share this with my children and fourth I enjoy prospecting, actually the kids come before the fishing but the fishing is close. If you are in an area where gold has been found before then you should be able to find flour gold just by understanding where to look for it, like on the down river side of boulders. The boulders do not have to be in the river that is, not right in the water. Try the boulders where its dry as when the rivers floods those boulders that are now dry were UNDER water. There is just Tons of information on the internet about HOW TO PROSPECT with simple tools like a pan and a bucket so spend time looking for it. Type in beginner gold panning and see what you get. Look for the article by a fellow from Oregon and you will learn a lot from his tutorial on panning/prospecting.
Attached is a picture of some gold I found last year I started by using a small folding shovel, a 1/4" mesh sifter and a gold pan. Before I started digging, now listen carefully for the secret, I LOOKED at the river and decided to dig on the down river side of a large boulder that was in the spring flood plain but was now on dry ground. The boulder was about the size of a VW Beetle and there were lots of smaller rocks on the down river side of the main boulder. Before this I've made it really hard on myself by trying to find the "perfect spot" but I did not really look around to actually see what was right in front of me. Sorting out the raw materials IS an important first step and I've played with a variety of home made sifters. Go to a Wall Mart or a Bed Bath & Beyond store or an office supply store (look in their prospecting area though they will call it "drawer organizers"). Check out the ones made of expanded metal and buy one then take it out and sift dirt with it, done. Lots of simple items do a great job for prospecting tools, just slow down and think about what "things" can be used for, I believe it is called "thinking out of the box".
Remember to be safe!! You want all of your fingers and toes when you come home to mama and the children and you want to be able to come back home so do not allow a large boulder you've been digging under fall on you.
Oh, do not forget to have fun as that is a very important factor! 63bkpkr
The sifters: round one is home made with 1/4" mesh pop rivited into an old style tuna fish can, square one to the right is a "drawer organizer", triangular one in the back is the "grizzly" I bought with my Batpan (Batpan.com).