finding a meteorite. while gold prospecting.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
while gold prospecting
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
How to Talk like a Miner
It's hard not to be confused and kinda left out of the conversation the first time you talk to a "real" miner. They have a distinctive vocabulary that was developed by prospectors and hard rock miners over the years. At times it is almost like hearing a different language when a miner describes his work day. Translate the following conversation and you will be an expert!
The old mine isn't played out like everyone thought, yesterday we put up the bellows on the east adit, there was some bad air beyond the cave in 'bout half way down the tunnel. Johnny was the mucker shoveling into the conveyor in the stope but he was spooked 'cause he kept hearing tommyknockers. We were all glad to get the shaft cleared and shored up. This should get us back to the the good ore and that one quartz vein that has all the little vugs in it. Sure be good if we didn't have to nurse the equipment while we drill and blast another shaft.
* Adit: A horizontal passage driven from the surface to access or remove water from a mine.
* Bad Air: Air that does not have enough oxygen in it to breath. This can be caused by methane build up or CO2 build up among other reactions with the minerals that are exposed to the air.
* Cave in: A collapse or subsidence of ground in the mine creating a blockage restricting access in the mine.
* Mucker: The laborer who shovels ore or rock into the mine cars or onto a conveyor clearing the loose material from mine.
* Nugget: A mass of metal, such as gold or silver, found free in nature, usually associated with placer mining.
* Nurse: The action of carefully handling drilling tools to conserve on wear and breakage costs.
* Ore: Rock and minerals that can be mined for a profit.
* Play: A mine at idle, as in played out.
* Tommyknocker: The term originated with Welsh and Cornish miners, who believed leprechauns or tiny elves, wearing standard miners gear, committed mischief such as stealing tools and food in the mine. Their name comes from the knocking sound on mine walls that occurs just before cave ins happen. Some believe the sound is the elves warning the miners to get out.
* Shaft: A vertical access to the mine.
* Stope: The underground opening from which the ore and muck is extracted.
* Tunnel: A horizontal underground passage that is open to the atmosphere at both ends.
* Vein: A mineralized filling of a fracture or fault.
* Vug: A small cavity in rock often lined with crystalized minerals.
The old mine isn't played out like everyone thought, yesterday we put up the bellows on the east adit, there was some bad air beyond the cave in 'bout half way down the tunnel. Johnny was the mucker shoveling into the conveyor in the stope but he was spooked 'cause he kept hearing tommyknockers. We were all glad to get the shaft cleared and shored up. This should get us back to the the good ore and that one quartz vein that has all the little vugs in it. Sure be good if we didn't have to nurse the equipment while we drill and blast another shaft.
* Adit: A horizontal passage driven from the surface to access or remove water from a mine.
* Bad Air: Air that does not have enough oxygen in it to breath. This can be caused by methane build up or CO2 build up among other reactions with the minerals that are exposed to the air.
* Cave in: A collapse or subsidence of ground in the mine creating a blockage restricting access in the mine.
* Mucker: The laborer who shovels ore or rock into the mine cars or onto a conveyor clearing the loose material from mine.
* Nugget: A mass of metal, such as gold or silver, found free in nature, usually associated with placer mining.
* Nurse: The action of carefully handling drilling tools to conserve on wear and breakage costs.
* Ore: Rock and minerals that can be mined for a profit.
* Play: A mine at idle, as in played out.
* Tommyknocker: The term originated with Welsh and Cornish miners, who believed leprechauns or tiny elves, wearing standard miners gear, committed mischief such as stealing tools and food in the mine. Their name comes from the knocking sound on mine walls that occurs just before cave ins happen. Some believe the sound is the elves warning the miners to get out.
* Shaft: A vertical access to the mine.
* Stope: The underground opening from which the ore and muck is extracted.
* Tunnel: A horizontal underground passage that is open to the atmosphere at both ends.
* Vein: A mineralized filling of a fracture or fault.
* Vug: A small cavity in rock often lined with crystalized minerals.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Black Sand Concentrators
Black beach gold concentrators - the best in automated gold break equipment. Save time and affliction and balance added of your accomplished gold bound and finer with these accurate gold prospecting tools. Removing accomplished and abrade gold from abundant atramentous beach is consistently backbreaking but this accomplished gold accretion accessories will admonition accomplish this contrarily backbreaking assignment abundant easier. Many prospectors accept their admired accoutrement and we backpack all types of accretion accessories from mini douse aerial bankers to automated circling animadversion auto and the accepted dejected basin force separator. Sometimes a aggregate of accessories is best - if you accept any questions accord us a alarm for aloof advice.
Sluice Box Clean Up Tips
Don't absence our added apple-pie up tips for atramentous bank and concentrates in our chargeless prospecting tips section.
BY DAVE McCRACKEN
WHEN TO CLEAN UP A SLUICE BOX
Some miners like to apple-pie up their douse boxes afterwards every hour of operation. Some adopt to do apple-pie up at the end of the day. Others will go for canicule at a time afore charwoman up. This is a bulk of alternative and hardly has abundant to do with the absolute needs of the douse box. Some of the all-embracing operations, which ran during the aboriginal 1900's acclimated to acquiesce the lower two-thirds of their boxes to run for months at a amplitude after charwoman them up, and after actual abundant affair about accident gold. However, it is accurate that douse boxes were best in those days.
There is a adjustment of free back a douse box needs to be bankrupt up to accumulate it operating at its absolute efficiency. If the majority of gold is communicable in the high third area of the douse box, again the accretion arrangement is alive well.
After a douse box has been run for an continued aeon of time after actuality cleaned, the riffles will accept concentrated a ample bulk of abundant abstracts abaft them. Sometimes a lot of abundant concentrated actual in a douse box will affect the ability of the riffles' gold recovery. This is not consistently the case; it depends on a cardinal of altered factors, like the admeasurement and appearance of the gold, the admeasurement and blazon of riffles actuality acclimated and how they are set up in the box.
The accurate analysis of back a set of riffles is accident its ability because of actuality loaded bottomward with abundant concentrates is back the gold starts actuality trapped added bottomward the breadth of the box than area you are adequate seeing it. Back this occurs, it is absolutely time to apple-pie up your box.
Otherwise, apple-pie them whenever you like.
Expanded metal riffles, actuality short, will tend to bulk up with abundant atramentous bank faster than the beyond types of riffles. But beneath riffles about apply accomplished gold more good than added riffles.
A large, arresting bulk of atramentous beach actuality present is not necessarily a assurance that you are accident gold. Gold is four times added than atramentous sand. In some cases, the atramentous beach will accept little aftereffect on gold recovery. Again, it depends on how the arrangement is set up, the blazon of actual actuality run, the abstention (and accordingly weight) and appearance of the gold, as able-bodied as added factors.
The best way to appraise your accretion arrangement is by absolute ascertainment of area the gold is actuality trapped.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Gold Magnet
Black Sand Magnets for cleaning up your gold panning concentrates. Don't forget to grab the second best tool too - a snuffer bottle!
Scroll down for various magnets for sale.
See our free prospecting tips and tricks for removing black sands from your gold below.
Gold magnets are an invaluable tool for the final stage of gold panning. Removing those pesky black sands or magnetite from your concentrates can be a real chore - make life much easier with one of our proven gold magnets. Works best dry - but will work wet as well.
Scroll down for various magnets for sale.
See our free prospecting tips and tricks for removing black sands from your gold below.
Gold magnets are an invaluable tool for the final stage of gold panning. Removing those pesky black sands or magnetite from your concentrates can be a real chore - make life much easier with one of our proven gold magnets. Works best dry - but will work wet as well.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
How to Make Extra Money by Gold Mining
In case you haven't heard, Battle Mountain, Nevada is one of the few cities angry off the recession - the abstruse is in the hills - there's gold in them thair hills! Following the instructions in this eHow to plan a fun leisure time for the ancestors and go gold mining!
Instructions
1.
Battle Mountain, Nevada has afresh laid a affirmation to it's own gold rush. People are accession by the bags to try their duke at gold mining by animadversion for gold. The aboriginal affair you charge is a pan. You can acquirement this online (see ability section) but any pan with angled abandon will assignment - do not use teflon admitting as the sand/gravel will abrade the surface.
2.
Gold tends to be in beck beds so acquisition an aerial beck in the Battle Mountain breadth - or, well, anywhere abroad for that matter. If you're prospecting for gold with kids, it ability be fun to bead in a few affected gold nuggets in a apparent breadth and let the kids pan for the gold and acquisition them. Anyway, already you acquisition a beck that looks promising, dip your pan in and beat up some of the basal material.
3.
Agitate the pan gently, aback and forth, to and fro. Gold, actuality a abundant metal, will bead to the basal while the alluvium and added lighter stones can calmly be caked off. Pour off the balance water. If there is added alluvium in the pan, add aloof baptize from the beck and agitate acclaim again.
4.
Hopefully, if you've called wisely, there will be gold in the basal of the pan. Don't abatement baby gold flakes - these are admired too as gold is actual big-ticket ($800-900 an ounce). Place all the gold you acquisition in a canteen (if you're lucky, a tupperware container!). Make abiding to bathe off your fingers as the flakes will stick to them.
Instructions
1.
Battle Mountain, Nevada has afresh laid a affirmation to it's own gold rush. People are accession by the bags to try their duke at gold mining by animadversion for gold. The aboriginal affair you charge is a pan. You can acquirement this online (see ability section) but any pan with angled abandon will assignment - do not use teflon admitting as the sand/gravel will abrade the surface.
2.
Gold tends to be in beck beds so acquisition an aerial beck in the Battle Mountain breadth - or, well, anywhere abroad for that matter. If you're prospecting for gold with kids, it ability be fun to bead in a few affected gold nuggets in a apparent breadth and let the kids pan for the gold and acquisition them. Anyway, already you acquisition a beck that looks promising, dip your pan in and beat up some of the basal material.
3.
Agitate the pan gently, aback and forth, to and fro. Gold, actuality a abundant metal, will bead to the basal while the alluvium and added lighter stones can calmly be caked off. Pour off the balance water. If there is added alluvium in the pan, add aloof baptize from the beck and agitate acclaim again.
4.
Hopefully, if you've called wisely, there will be gold in the basal of the pan. Don't abatement baby gold flakes - these are admired too as gold is actual big-ticket ($800-900 an ounce). Place all the gold you acquisition in a canteen (if you're lucky, a tupperware container!). Make abiding to bathe off your fingers as the flakes will stick to them.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Gold Panning in Indiana
Gold in the New Mexico Areas
The very interesting state of New Mexico was at once number seven of the largest gold producing areas of the west part of the states. This place has more than thirty placer gold districts as well as a lot of lode districts in it. The gold deposits that have been worked on in this area have been around since the early days of the Indians. As a matter a fact, the gold ornaments that the Indians wore and that were seen by an early explorer was what initiated the Spanish invasion of the region. There was a soldier that had fled and then went back to Mexico and who told stories of the gold and that they should get a large expedition together to find where the gold was coming from. He was never able to find the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola while he was on his expedition in 1540 however, it is known that the Spanish settlers mined the deposits until the ending of the 1600’s until a uprising of the Indians caused them to have to stop. In 1828 the more modern production of gold was discovered in the Ortiz Mountains. Later one more finds were still made even in 1908 when the finding of the placer deposits at Sylvanite caused a little gold rush to occur in the area. A good amount of gold is still out there to be found given the fact that the early miners did not have the right type of equipment and lacked water in most of the places they went to.
The Sylvanite district The Sylvanite district is located in Hidalgo County in New Mexico and on the side of the southern part of the Little Hatchet Mountains. To get to this area, all you need to do is go south on state highway 146-81 from its junction with interstate 10 close to twenty miles from Hachita. The deposits can be found south of this area in the gravels in the gulches and washes. The best and most productive area here is Livermore Springs and Cottonwood. Production was first recorded here in 1880. The following biggest production activity occurred in 1908. This district however was never considered to be a very big production area nonetheless there have been some prospectors that have been able to find some good size nuggets in the area.
Where to Find Gold
The USA’ southern desert has one of the biggest reserves of gold that still remains to be revealed. In this site we are going to be providing information on detecting gold, dry washing as well as the different locations in the desert that bare gold in the south-western states. The different anecdotes that have been told about the desert are tales that fill one with a feeling of adventure and excitement. There are many stories that have been told about lost treasures in the desert than in any other area. It is very easy to believe these stories especially when one comes to learn about the strange beauty that exists in the isolated areas of the desert and the huge amounts of wealth that have been taken from it. the objective of this site is to help prospectors and people in general find out where gold has been located in the past and where it can be found now in this modern age, as well as provide information on the lost treasure stories in each place and the different interesting facts. One thing that must always be kept in mind before going on a prospecting trip is to make sure the vehicle that is going to be used is in tip top shape, especially when traveling in the desert. We have all heard of true stories where a person’s vehicle breaks down on an isolated road and the passengers end up dead because of exposure to the sun etc. therefore this is a very important point that should be highlighted on. The vehicle that is to be used should have enough gas and at least one extra five gallon can of water for the people going on the trip and for the vehicle. Do not forget to let somebody know where it is you and your party is going and when you are returning.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Panning Instructions
Panning gold is basically simple, once you realize that you are doing the same thing that the river does when it causes gold to concentrate and deposit during flood storms.
The process basically consists of placing the material that you want to process into your pan and shaking it in a left to right motion underwater to cause the gold, which is heavy, to work its way down toward the bottom of your pan. At the same time, the lighter materials, which are worthless, are worked up to the surface of the gold pan where they can be swept away. The process of shaking and sweeping is repeated until only the heaviest of materials are left-namely the gold and heaviest black sand.
Once you are out in the field, you will notice that no two people pan gold exactly alike. After you have been at it awhile, you will develop your own little twists and shakes to accomplish the proper result.
Here follows a basic gold panning procedure to start off with which works well and is easy to learn:
STEP 1: Once you have located some gravel that you want to sample, place it in your gold pan-filling it about 3/4 of the way to the top. After you have been at it awhile, you can fill your pan to the top without losing any gold. While placing material in your pan, pick out the larger-sized rocks, so that you can get more of the smaller material and gold into the pan.
STEP 2: Choose a spot to do your panning. It is best to pick a location where the water is at least six inches deep and preferably flowing just enough to sweep away any silty water that may be washed from your pan. This way, you can see what you are doing better. You do not want the water moving so swiftly that it will upset your panning actions. A mild current will do, if available.
It is always best to find a spot where there’s a rock or log or stream-bank or something that you can sit down upon while panning. You can pan effectively while squatting, kneeling or bending over, but it does get tiresome. If you are planning to process more than just one or two pans, sitting down will make the activity much more pleasant.
STEP 3: Carry the pan over to your determined spot and submerge it underwater.
STEP 4: Use your fingers to knead the contents of the pan to break it up fully and cause all of the material to become saturated with water. This is the time to work apart all the clay, dirt, roots, moss and such with your fingers to ensure that all the materials are fully broken up and in a liquid state of suspension whithin the pan.
The pan should be underwater while doing this. Mud and silt will float up and out. Do not concern yourself about losing any gold when this happens. Remember: gold is heavy and will sink deeper in your pan while these lighter materials are floating out and away.
STEP 5: After the entire contents of the pan have been thoroughly broken up, take the pan in your hands (with cheater riffles on the far side of the pan) and shake it, using a vigorous left and right motion just under the surface of the water. This action will help to break up the contents of the pan even more and will also start to work the heavier materials downwards in the pan while the lighter materials will start to surface.
Be careful not to get so vigorous in your left and right shaking that you slosh material out of the pan during this step. Depending upon the consistency of the material that you are working, it may be necessary to alternate doing steps four and five over again a few times to get all of the pan’s contents into a liquid state of suspension. It is this same liquid state of suspension that allows the heavier materials to sink in the pan while the lighter materials emerge to the surface.
STEP 6: As the shaking action causes rocks to rise up to the surface, sweep them out of the pan using your fingers or the side of your hand. Just sweep off the top layer of rocks which have worked their way up to the pan’s surface.
Don’t worry about losing gold while doing this, because the same action which has brought the lighter rocks to the surface will have worked the gold deeper down toward the bottom of the pan.
When picking the larger rocks out of the pan, make sure that they are clean of clay and other particles before you toss them out. Clay sometimes contains pieces of gold and also has a tendency to grab onto the gold in your pan.
Note: Working the raw material through a classification screen into the gold pan during Step 1 or Step 3 will eliminate the need to sweep out larger rocks in Step 6. This will also allow you to pan a larger sample of the finer-sized material(which contains all the gold you will find in a pan sample).
STEP 7: Continue to do steps five and six, shaking the pan and sweeping out the rocks and pebbles(if present), until most of the medium-sized material is out of your pan.
STEP 8: Tilt the forward edge of your pan downward slightly to bring the forward-bottom edge of the pan to a lower position. With the pan tilted forward, shake it back and forth using the same left and right motion. Be careful not to tilt the pan forward so much that any material is spilled over the forward-edge while shaking.
This tilted shaking action causes the gold to start working its way down to the pan's forward-bottom edge, and continues to work the lighter materials to the surface where they will be more easily swept off.
STEP 9: Carefully, by using a forward and backward movement, or a slight circular motion just below the surface of the water, allow the water to sweep the top layer of worthless, lighter materials out of the pan. Only allow the water to sweep out a little at a time, while watching closely for the heavier materials to be uncovered as the lighter materials are swept out. It takes some judgment in this step to determine just how much material to sweep off before having to shake again so that no gold is lost. It will just take a little practice in panning gold before you will begin to see the difference between the lighter materials and the heavier materials in your pan. You will develop a feel for knowing how much material can be safely swept out before re-shaking is necessary. When you are first starting, it is best to re-shake as often as you feel that it is needed to prevent losing any gold. When in doubt, shake! There are a few factors which can be pointed out to help you with this. Heavier materials are usually darker in color than the lighter materials. You will notice while shaking the pan that it is the lighter-colored materials that are vibrating on the surface. You will also notice that as the lighter materials are swept out of the pan, the darker-colored materials are uncovered.
Materials tend to get darker (and heavier) as you work your way down toward the bottom of the pan, where the darkest and heaviest materials will be found, they being the purple and black sands, which are usually minerals of the iron family. The exception to this is gold, which is heaviest of all. Gold usually is of a bright and shiny metallic color and shows out well in contrast to the other heavier materials at the bottom of the gold pan.
One other factor to keep in mind is that the lighter materials sweep out of your pan more easily than do the heavier materials. As the heavier materials are uncovered, they are increasingly more resistant to being swept out of the pan, and will give you an indication of when it is time to re-shake.
As you work your way down through your pan, sometimes gold particles will show themselves as you get down to the heavier materials. When you see gold, you know it is time to re-shake your pan.
There is another popular method of sweeping the lighter materials out of the top of your pan which you might prefer to use. It is done by dipping your pan under the water and lifting it up, while allowing the water to run off the forward edge of the pan, taking the top layer of material along with it.
STEP 10: Once the top layer of lighter material is washed out of your pan, re-shake to bring more lighter materials to the top. By "lighter materials," I mean in comparison to the other materials. If you continue to shake the lighter materials to the top and sweep them off, eventually you will be left with the heaviest material of all, which is the gold. It does not take much shaking to bring a new layer of lighter material to the surface. Maybe 5 or 6 seconds of shaking will do it, maybe less. It all depends upon the consistency of the material and how much gold is present.
Continue to pluck out the larger-sized rocks and pebbles as they show themselves during the process.
STEP 11: Every few cycles of sweeping and re-shaking, tilt your pan back to the level position and re-shake. This keeps any gold from being allowed to work its way up the forward-edge of your pan.
STEP 12:Continue the above steps of sweeping and re-shaking until you are down to the heaviest materials in your pan. These usually consist of old pieces of lead and other metal, coins, BB's, old bullets, buckshot, nails, garnets, small purple and black iron rocks, and the heavy black sand concentrates. Black sands consist mainly or in part of the following: magnetite (magnetic black sands), hematite (non-magnetic black sands), titanium, zircon, rhodolite, monazite, tungsten materials, and sometimes pyrites (fool's gold), plus any other items which might be present in that location which have a high specific gravity-like gold and platinum.
Once down to the heaviest black sands in your pan, you can get a quick look at the concentrates to see how much gold is present by allowing about a half-cup of water into the pan, tilting the pan forward as before, and shaking from left to right to place the concentrates in the forward-bottom section of your pan. Then, level the pan off and swirl the water around in slow circles. This action will gradually uncover the concentrates, and you can get a look at any gold that is present. The amount of gold in your pan will give you an idea how rich the raw material is that you are sampling.
A magnet can be used to help remove the magnetic black sands from the gold pan. Take care when doing this. While gold is not magnetic, sometimes particles of gold will become trapped in the magnetic net of iron particles which clump together and attach to the magnet. I prefer to drop the magnetic sands into a second plastic gold pan, swish them around, and then pick them up once again with the magnet. Depending upon how much gold this leaves behind, I might do this several times before finally discarding the magnetic sands.
Many beginners like to stop panning at this point and pick out all the pieces of gold (colors) with tweezers. This is one way of recovering the gold from your pan, but it is a pretty slow method.
Most prospectors who have been at it for awhile will pan down through the black sands as far as they feel that they can go without losing any gold. Then they check the pan for any colors by swirling it, and pick out any of the larger-sized flakes and nuggets to place them in a gold sample bottle. Then the remaining concentrates are poured into a small coffee can or bucket and allowed to accumulate there until the end of the day, or week, or whenever enough concentrates have been collected to make it worthwhile further process them. This is really the better method if you are interested in recovering more gold, because it allows you to get on with the job of panning and sampling without getting deeply involved with a pair of tweezers. Otherwise, you can end up spending 25% of your time panning and up to 75% of your time picking out small colors from the pan!
It is possible to pan all the way down to the gold-with no black sands, lead or other foreign materials remaining in the pan. This is often done among prospectors when cleaning up a set of concentrates which have been taken from the recovery system of a larger piece of equipment-like a sluice box or suction dredge.
Panning all the way down to gold is really not very difficult once you get the hang of it. It is just a matter of a little practice and being a bit more careful. When doing so, most prospectors prefer to use the smooth surface of the gold pan, rather than using the cheater riffles. The key is to run the concentrates through several sizes of classification screens and pan each size-fraction separately. Use of a smaller-sized pan ("finishing pan") makes this process go easier.
When panning a set of concentrates all the way down to the gold-or nearly so, it is good to have a medium-sized funnel and a large-mouthed gold sample bottle on hand. This way, once you have finished panning, it is just a matter of pouring the gold from your pan into the sample bottle through the funnel. Pill bottles and baby food jars can make good gold sample bottles for field use, because they are usually made of thick glass and have wide mouth. Plastic bottles are even safer.
Another method is with the use of a gold snifter bottle. This is a small hand-sized flexible bottle with a small sucking tube attached to it. Squeezing the snifter bottle creates a vacuum inside. Submerged gold from the pan can consequently be sucked up through the tube.
If you do not have a snifter bottle or funnel, try wetting your finger with saliva and fingering the gold into a container, which should be filled with water. The saliva will cause the gold and concentrates to stick to your finger until it touches the water in the container. This works, but the funnel method is faster.
If you are not in a known gold-producing location, but want to do some practice panning to acquire some skills before going out into the field, you can practice in your own backyard. Use a washtub to pan into and some diggings from your garden (or wherever) to simulate streambed materials. I recommend that you throw in some rocks and gravel along with the dirt so that it takes on an actual streambed consistency. Take some pieces of lead, buckshot or small lead fishing weights, cut them up into various sizes ranging from pellet-size down to pinhead-size, and pound some of them flat with a hammer. This puts the pieces of lead in the same form as the majority of gold found in a streambed-flake form. They will act in much the same way as will flakes and grains of gold. Leave a few of the pieces of lead shot so that gold nuggets can also be simulated.
When panning into the tub, place some of these pieces of lead into your pan, starting off with the larger-sized pieces first. Keep track of how many pieces of lead you use each time so that you can see how well you are doing when you get down to the bottom of the pan. Practice panning in this manner can be very revealing to a beginner, especially when he or she continues to put smaller pieces of lead into the pan as progress is made.
If you can pan small pieces of lead successfully, then you will not have much difficulty panning gold (higher specific gravity) out of a riverbed. And, who knows? You may end up with gold in your pan-right out of your own backyard! It wouldn't be the first time.
Bags of real panning material are also available from different sources within the industry. These bags usually contain some real gold along with the type of materials you would commonly encounter when panning out in the field. Practice panning with the “real thing” is the best way to get started!
The process basically consists of placing the material that you want to process into your pan and shaking it in a left to right motion underwater to cause the gold, which is heavy, to work its way down toward the bottom of your pan. At the same time, the lighter materials, which are worthless, are worked up to the surface of the gold pan where they can be swept away. The process of shaking and sweeping is repeated until only the heaviest of materials are left-namely the gold and heaviest black sand.
Once you are out in the field, you will notice that no two people pan gold exactly alike. After you have been at it awhile, you will develop your own little twists and shakes to accomplish the proper result.
Here follows a basic gold panning procedure to start off with which works well and is easy to learn:
STEP 1: Once you have located some gravel that you want to sample, place it in your gold pan-filling it about 3/4 of the way to the top. After you have been at it awhile, you can fill your pan to the top without losing any gold. While placing material in your pan, pick out the larger-sized rocks, so that you can get more of the smaller material and gold into the pan.
It is always best to find a spot where there’s a rock or log or stream-bank or something that you can sit down upon while panning. You can pan effectively while squatting, kneeling or bending over, but it does get tiresome. If you are planning to process more than just one or two pans, sitting down will make the activity much more pleasant.
STEP 3: Carry the pan over to your determined spot and submerge it underwater.
The pan should be underwater while doing this. Mud and silt will float up and out. Do not concern yourself about losing any gold when this happens. Remember: gold is heavy and will sink deeper in your pan while these lighter materials are floating out and away.
STEP 5: After the entire contents of the pan have been thoroughly broken up, take the pan in your hands (with cheater riffles on the far side of the pan) and shake it, using a vigorous left and right motion just under the surface of the water. This action will help to break up the contents of the pan even more and will also start to work the heavier materials downwards in the pan while the lighter materials will start to surface.
Be careful not to get so vigorous in your left and right shaking that you slosh material out of the pan during this step. Depending upon the consistency of the material that you are working, it may be necessary to alternate doing steps four and five over again a few times to get all of the pan’s contents into a liquid state of suspension. It is this same liquid state of suspension that allows the heavier materials to sink in the pan while the lighter materials emerge to the surface.
When picking the larger rocks out of the pan, make sure that they are clean of clay and other particles before you toss them out. Clay sometimes contains pieces of gold and also has a tendency to grab onto the gold in your pan.
Note: Working the raw material through a classification screen into the gold pan during Step 1 or Step 3 will eliminate the need to sweep out larger rocks in Step 6. This will also allow you to pan a larger sample of the finer-sized material(which contains all the gold you will find in a pan sample).
STEP 7: Continue to do steps five and six, shaking the pan and sweeping out the rocks and pebbles(if present), until most of the medium-sized material is out of your pan.
STEP 8: Tilt the forward edge of your pan downward slightly to bring the forward-bottom edge of the pan to a lower position. With the pan tilted forward, shake it back and forth using the same left and right motion. Be careful not to tilt the pan forward so much that any material is spilled over the forward-edge while shaking.
STEP 9: Carefully, by using a forward and backward movement, or a slight circular motion just below the surface of the water, allow the water to sweep the top layer of worthless, lighter materials out of the pan. Only allow the water to sweep out a little at a time, while watching closely for the heavier materials to be uncovered as the lighter materials are swept out. It takes some judgment in this step to determine just how much material to sweep off before having to shake again so that no gold is lost. It will just take a little practice in panning gold before you will begin to see the difference between the lighter materials and the heavier materials in your pan. You will develop a feel for knowing how much material can be safely swept out before re-shaking is necessary. When you are first starting, it is best to re-shake as often as you feel that it is needed to prevent losing any gold. When in doubt, shake! There are a few factors which can be pointed out to help you with this. Heavier materials are usually darker in color than the lighter materials. You will notice while shaking the pan that it is the lighter-colored materials that are vibrating on the surface. You will also notice that as the lighter materials are swept out of the pan, the darker-colored materials are uncovered.
Materials tend to get darker (and heavier) as you work your way down toward the bottom of the pan, where the darkest and heaviest materials will be found, they being the purple and black sands, which are usually minerals of the iron family. The exception to this is gold, which is heaviest of all. Gold usually is of a bright and shiny metallic color and shows out well in contrast to the other heavier materials at the bottom of the gold pan.
One other factor to keep in mind is that the lighter materials sweep out of your pan more easily than do the heavier materials. As the heavier materials are uncovered, they are increasingly more resistant to being swept out of the pan, and will give you an indication of when it is time to re-shake.
As you work your way down through your pan, sometimes gold particles will show themselves as you get down to the heavier materials. When you see gold, you know it is time to re-shake your pan.
There is another popular method of sweeping the lighter materials out of the top of your pan which you might prefer to use. It is done by dipping your pan under the water and lifting it up, while allowing the water to run off the forward edge of the pan, taking the top layer of material along with it.
Continue to pluck out the larger-sized rocks and pebbles as they show themselves during the process.
STEP 11: Every few cycles of sweeping and re-shaking, tilt your pan back to the level position and re-shake. This keeps any gold from being allowed to work its way up the forward-edge of your pan.
STEP 12:Continue the above steps of sweeping and re-shaking until you are down to the heaviest materials in your pan. These usually consist of old pieces of lead and other metal, coins, BB's, old bullets, buckshot, nails, garnets, small purple and black iron rocks, and the heavy black sand concentrates. Black sands consist mainly or in part of the following: magnetite (magnetic black sands), hematite (non-magnetic black sands), titanium, zircon, rhodolite, monazite, tungsten materials, and sometimes pyrites (fool's gold), plus any other items which might be present in that location which have a high specific gravity-like gold and platinum.
Many beginners like to stop panning at this point and pick out all the pieces of gold (colors) with tweezers. This is one way of recovering the gold from your pan, but it is a pretty slow method.
Most prospectors who have been at it for awhile will pan down through the black sands as far as they feel that they can go without losing any gold. Then they check the pan for any colors by swirling it, and pick out any of the larger-sized flakes and nuggets to place them in a gold sample bottle. Then the remaining concentrates are poured into a small coffee can or bucket and allowed to accumulate there until the end of the day, or week, or whenever enough concentrates have been collected to make it worthwhile further process them. This is really the better method if you are interested in recovering more gold, because it allows you to get on with the job of panning and sampling without getting deeply involved with a pair of tweezers. Otherwise, you can end up spending 25% of your time panning and up to 75% of your time picking out small colors from the pan!
Panning Down All The Way To Gold
Panning all the way down to gold is really not very difficult once you get the hang of it. It is just a matter of a little practice and being a bit more careful. When doing so, most prospectors prefer to use the smooth surface of the gold pan, rather than using the cheater riffles. The key is to run the concentrates through several sizes of classification screens and pan each size-fraction separately. Use of a smaller-sized pan ("finishing pan") makes this process go easier.
When panning a set of concentrates all the way down to the gold-or nearly so, it is good to have a medium-sized funnel and a large-mouthed gold sample bottle on hand. This way, once you have finished panning, it is just a matter of pouring the gold from your pan into the sample bottle through the funnel. Pill bottles and baby food jars can make good gold sample bottles for field use, because they are usually made of thick glass and have wide mouth. Plastic bottles are even safer.
Practice Gold Panning
When panning into the tub, place some of these pieces of lead into your pan, starting off with the larger-sized pieces first. Keep track of how many pieces of lead you use each time so that you can see how well you are doing when you get down to the bottom of the pan. Practice panning in this manner can be very revealing to a beginner, especially when he or she continues to put smaller pieces of lead into the pan as progress is made.
If you can pan small pieces of lead successfully, then you will not have much difficulty panning gold (higher specific gravity) out of a riverbed. And, who knows? You may end up with gold in your pan-right out of your own backyard! It wouldn't be the first time.
Bags of real panning material are also available from different sources within the industry. These bags usually contain some real gold along with the type of materials you would commonly encounter when panning out in the field. Practice panning with the “real thing” is the best way to get started!
Australian Gold Nuggets
In Australia the geology that evolved was different than North America in that it produced big, exceptionally pure gold. In North America most of the gold mined is microscopic.
The quartz veins in Australia produced the highest concentration of large solid masses of gold on Earth. Millions of years of erosion dissolved the quartz veins and scattered the gold nuggets throughout the goldfields.
After 150 years of mining history there is still a small group of dedicated individual prospectors searching these areas with high tech metal detectors.
Every year a few hundred ounces of premium quality gold nuggets are discovered. Each nugget is hand dug along with nails, bullets, bottle caps, etc.
Unlike the big gold mining companies with their multi-million dollar investments in heavy equipment and massive fuel bills, a cold beer is more relevant to the Australian seeker. Keep in mind, the Australian prospector’s mine consists of a one-foot hole which is filled in afterwards.
The quartz veins in Australia produced the highest concentration of large solid masses of gold on Earth. Millions of years of erosion dissolved the quartz veins and scattered the gold nuggets throughout the goldfields.
After 150 years of mining history there is still a small group of dedicated individual prospectors searching these areas with high tech metal detectors.
Every year a few hundred ounces of premium quality gold nuggets are discovered. Each nugget is hand dug along with nails, bullets, bottle caps, etc.
Unlike the big gold mining companies with their multi-million dollar investments in heavy equipment and massive fuel bills, a cold beer is more relevant to the Australian seeker. Keep in mind, the Australian prospector’s mine consists of a one-foot hole which is filled in afterwards.
Gold Prospecting at Cache Creek
Gold Prospecting at Cache Creek
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
How to use a Sluice to recover Gold
In the early gold rush days prospectors used sluice boxes to remove gold from vast amounts of gold ore and gold bearing gravel deposits. The sluice box consisted of a simple wooden trough lined with raised obstructions placed at a ninety-degree angle to the flow of the stream, these are known as riffels.
The water is shut off and the riffels removed, and the heavy materials containing the gold known as concentrates would be gathered. This "run" would sometimes be the gold from several tons of gold bearing gravel. Years ago sluice boxes were built of long wood planks because lumber was cheap and usually easy to get.
The gold bearing gravel was dumped into the upper end of the sluice, the flow of water washed the material down the length of the trough. The lighter pieces of gravel would be carried in suspension down the entire length of the sluice to come out as tailings at the lower end of the sluice box.
These days sluice boxes are made with materials that are drastically lighter and more durable. Most modern sluice boxes are made of sheet aluminum or one of the new composite plastic materials.This results in lighter and more portable units that are considerably more efficient at gathering even the finest of gold dust.
The heavy material such as GOLD, iron sand, silver, lead and sometimes even platinum, sink quickly and are caught by the riffels. Once the riffels gather a goodly amount of the "iron sand" a cleanup would be done.
Portability is the name of the game because most of the gold deposits within easy reach have long since been worked to death. It will be necessary to do a little hiking to be in the best spots for prospecting in the 21st century.
Step 1
After you have located a promising deposit of gold bearing gravel, walk along the stream bank and look for a convenient place to set up your sluice box. You should look for a spot where the current is moving swiftly. Once you find the spot, set your sluice box directly in the current so that the box is filled with water almost to the top of the trough. To test the current's ability to carry gravel through the sluice, scoop up a handful of gravel from the creek bed and drop it into the upper end of the trough. If the current washes the lighter gravel down the trough within a matter of seconds, you have found a good location. Brace your sluice box so it doesn't rock, by the time a couple of shovels of gravel are placed in your sluice should be secure.
Step 2
Feed your gold bearing gravel into the upper portion of the sluice box in carefully regulated amounts. Do Not overload the riffels! How can you tell if the riffels are overloaded? The top of each riffel should be visible at all times, if you can't see it then it's overloaded, you are feeding the gravel too fast. If you overload the riffels the gold will be lost out with the tailings.
Step 3
Tending the sluice: After dumping each load of gravel into the sluice box check the riffel section for large waste rocks which may be too big to wash down and are hanging up. Remove them immediately because, large rocks are allowed to rest in the riffel section they will cause the current to wash out all the concentrate from the immediate area of the rock. If a rock is lodged in the uppermost portion of the trough the washed out concentrate will merely settle in the next few riffels down. But if the wash out occurs at the lower end of the trough the concentrate may flow out of the sluice box altogether! Watch the rocks! Don't forget to shovel away the tailings from the bottom of the sluice, never allow the tailings to back up into the bottom of the sluice box.
Step 4
The Cleanup: When the riffels have accumulated black iron sand in amounts extending more than halfway toward the next lower bar it is time to perform a cleanup. Carefully lift the sluice box from the current, keeping it as level as possible. Carry it over to the bank and set it down on as level a spot as is available. Remove the riffle section of the sluice, exercising care not to disturb the gravel adhering to it. Roll up the matting which lines the bottom of the sluice box trough and thoroughly rinse off all the concentrate. This should be done with the matting safely contained in a DEEP BUCKET so you don't lose any of the concentrate. Rinse the riffel bars and the trough itself into the bucket, a lot of gold will work it's way under the matting and may accumulate there.
Step 5
Pan out your concentrate, do this very carefully since the material in your pan contains all the gold once spread through the several hundred pounds of gravel you have processed through your sluice.
The water is shut off and the riffels removed, and the heavy materials containing the gold known as concentrates would be gathered. This "run" would sometimes be the gold from several tons of gold bearing gravel. Years ago sluice boxes were built of long wood planks because lumber was cheap and usually easy to get.
The gold bearing gravel was dumped into the upper end of the sluice, the flow of water washed the material down the length of the trough. The lighter pieces of gravel would be carried in suspension down the entire length of the sluice to come out as tailings at the lower end of the sluice box.
These days sluice boxes are made with materials that are drastically lighter and more durable. Most modern sluice boxes are made of sheet aluminum or one of the new composite plastic materials.This results in lighter and more portable units that are considerably more efficient at gathering even the finest of gold dust.
The heavy material such as GOLD, iron sand, silver, lead and sometimes even platinum, sink quickly and are caught by the riffels. Once the riffels gather a goodly amount of the "iron sand" a cleanup would be done.
Portability is the name of the game because most of the gold deposits within easy reach have long since been worked to death. It will be necessary to do a little hiking to be in the best spots for prospecting in the 21st century.
Step 1
After you have located a promising deposit of gold bearing gravel, walk along the stream bank and look for a convenient place to set up your sluice box. You should look for a spot where the current is moving swiftly. Once you find the spot, set your sluice box directly in the current so that the box is filled with water almost to the top of the trough. To test the current's ability to carry gravel through the sluice, scoop up a handful of gravel from the creek bed and drop it into the upper end of the trough. If the current washes the lighter gravel down the trough within a matter of seconds, you have found a good location. Brace your sluice box so it doesn't rock, by the time a couple of shovels of gravel are placed in your sluice should be secure.
Step 2
Feed your gold bearing gravel into the upper portion of the sluice box in carefully regulated amounts. Do Not overload the riffels! How can you tell if the riffels are overloaded? The top of each riffel should be visible at all times, if you can't see it then it's overloaded, you are feeding the gravel too fast. If you overload the riffels the gold will be lost out with the tailings.
Step 3
Tending the sluice: After dumping each load of gravel into the sluice box check the riffel section for large waste rocks which may be too big to wash down and are hanging up. Remove them immediately because, large rocks are allowed to rest in the riffel section they will cause the current to wash out all the concentrate from the immediate area of the rock. If a rock is lodged in the uppermost portion of the trough the washed out concentrate will merely settle in the next few riffels down. But if the wash out occurs at the lower end of the trough the concentrate may flow out of the sluice box altogether! Watch the rocks! Don't forget to shovel away the tailings from the bottom of the sluice, never allow the tailings to back up into the bottom of the sluice box.
Step 4
The Cleanup: When the riffels have accumulated black iron sand in amounts extending more than halfway toward the next lower bar it is time to perform a cleanup. Carefully lift the sluice box from the current, keeping it as level as possible. Carry it over to the bank and set it down on as level a spot as is available. Remove the riffle section of the sluice, exercising care not to disturb the gravel adhering to it. Roll up the matting which lines the bottom of the sluice box trough and thoroughly rinse off all the concentrate. This should be done with the matting safely contained in a DEEP BUCKET so you don't lose any of the concentrate. Rinse the riffel bars and the trough itself into the bucket, a lot of gold will work it's way under the matting and may accumulate there.
Step 5
Pan out your concentrate, do this very carefully since the material in your pan contains all the gold once spread through the several hundred pounds of gravel you have processed through your sluice.
Greenhorn – Oregon Gold Locations
The Greenhorn Mountains are found in the middle of the Umatilla National Forest. The area extends both Grant and Baker Counties. Gold was first discovered in 1864 on Olive Creek, where gold was found in decomposed quartz. The elevation in this area is high and many miners faced snow and hard long winters. In it’s heyday around 1,500 miners lived in the area and worked the many streams and creeks for placer deposits. Once these deposits were worked down, lode deposits were sought out and lode mining began. The lode gold in this area was primarily found in quartz veins.
One of the gold mines in the area was known as the Virginian Mine, which was reported to have had a pocket of quartz gold worth approximately $70,000 at that time. Other mines in the area were: the Morning Glory Mine, Phoenix Mine, Golden Gate Mine, Humbolt Mine, Gold Coin Mine, Don Juan Mine, Royal White Mine, Golden Eagle Mine, Black Hawk Mine, Rabbit Mine, Worley Mine, I.X.L. Mine and Red Bird Mine. These oregon gold locations are all found around the town of Robinsonville and the Greenhorn area. The Worley Mine was reported has one of the richest mines with it’s gold ore being estimated at $1,100 a ton.
The ghost town of Greenhorn City, or Greenhorn is located in both Grant and Baker County has it straddles the county lines. Although not easy to get to in the winter it is a good place to get out your metal detector. Miners first came to Old Greenhorn in 1864 or 1865 for the prospect of gold. Ten years later the town was relocated as just a mining camp. The town was incorporated in 1903. At that time Greenhorn was the highest town in the State of Oregon, with it’s county seat being in Baker County. The location on the map above is the newer location since it lasted much longer and is still referred to; just Greenhorn. Robinsonville is located one mile to the east of Greenhorn. Mining laws prohibited Chinese from gold mining anywhere in the area. The area is mainly known for it’s underground mining, and like most mining towns, Greenhorn went extinct during World War II, but ironically still has a mayor.
Prospecting Tips and Tricks
Prospecting Tips and Tricks:Prospecting and locating Gold
Geologists appraisal alone 5% of Earth's Gold has been found!
1. Do your homework! Start by activity to the library and attending into the history of breadth you plan to go on your prospecting vacation. The mineral address areas of every accompaniment accept been able-bodied authentic over the aftermost 300 years or so. Gold has been begin in capricious amounts in every accompaniment in the union!
2. Study up on the cartography of the area, attending at the map. Acquisition the streams and creeks that breeze out from the gold address areas. Attending for celebrated mines acclaimed on the map. USGS topo maps, cloister maps, are abundant abundant to booty you to the appropriate place. Some of them haven't been adapted in absolutely a continued time so be abiding to analysis the date and conceivably attending for a abundant topographic map that is newer. DeLorme has a abundant alternation of maps that assignment for this absolutely well. GPS coordinates are actual helpfull as technology works for the prospector!
3. Use the Internet to acquisition out accepted advice on the areas you plan to visit. Attending into abutting a club and allotment in the affiliate benefits. As a affiliate abounding clubs and organizations will acquiesce you admission to accurate gold claims. Forums and babble apartment are additionally abundant places to get accomplished in the accomplished art of prospecting.
4. Get out on the beck and attending for the "signs". Gold is actual close and abundant compaired to about aggregate else. Attending for a angle in the beck or a basement that creates an eddy. Gold actuality abundant will aggregate in these areas. As the baptize slows about the angle or abaft the rock, the gold drops out of the current.
5. Gold, argent and platinum are deposited as an advance by agitable pressures into fissures in harder actual such as granite. Gold is associated with quartz because the aforementioned geologic armament are all-important to actualize both. Attending for orange to chicken stains created by adamant and chestnut oxides. These oxides are what actualize the "black sand", and actuality heavy, will be alloyed in breadth you acquisition the gold. Baptize and weathering abrade the deposits and the gold actuality close works it's way bottomward to the everyman levels ultimately sitting on the bedrock. Attending for places breadth the beck has cut bottomward to the bedrock.
6. Glaciers acerbic the abundance abandon took the ore deposits and arena them up as they boring slid bottomward the valleys. These placer deposits accept been historically the best abode to acquisition "free" or apart gold.
7. Apocryphal bedrock... a band of adobe or close actual will act as a apocryphal basement and the gold won't access that layer. Dig bottomward to and again "skim" actual from the top of that layer. Moss and roots will act as a allurement for accomplished gold and baby nuggets. Wash this actual acclaim and throughly and replant it animate breadth you begin it. Always ample in your holes, don't attenuate copse and brush.
Gold Bar
What is a gold bar?
A gold bar can appear in abounding forms, sizes and weights.
A gold bar is absolutely authentic as any gold artefact fabricated by a accustomed bar manufacturer, behindhand of shape. On the bar is recorded the name of the manufacturer, the exact weight and purity. A gold bar is awash with a exceptional aloft the bulk of the gold at the time of sale. The bulk of this exceptional is abased on the admeasurement of the gold bar. The beyond the bar the beneath the exceptional in proportion.
The weight of a gold bar is abstinent in troy ounces and abstention is abstinent as karats (not to be abashed with the carats of diamonds).
One can shop for gold confined from as baby as one gram up to one kilo and for bartering purposes, 400 ounces.
There are aloof 55 refineries in the apple today who accomplish 400 ounce gold confined adequate internationally and these are accepted as 'London Good Delivery'. Some elbowroom is accustomed in the weight of a 400 ounce gold bar which can absolutely weight amid 350 and 430 ounces. The abstention charge be 99.5 percent or more. It is estimated that about 150,000 of these confined are fabricated anniversary year although it is acceptable to be added than that. Most banks that abundance gold do so in this anatomy and are believed to authority about about 2.5 actor of them. That is a lot of gold!
The kilobar, which is to say 1000 grams in weight, is the bar that is added acquiescent and is acclimated abundantly for trading and investment. The exceptional on these confined back traded is actual low over the atom bulk of the gold authoritative it ideal for small, transfers amid banks and traders. Most of the kilobars are collapsed although you will additionally acquisition some investors in Europe will adopt the brick shape.
The abate one ounce, ten ounce, one kilo and alike ten kilo confined are advantaged by the baby broker as easier to shop for alike admitting the exceptional on the confined are higher.
Gold confined accomplish a abundant way to abundance assets with the bulk of gold steadily accretion in the continued term.
A gold bar can appear in abounding forms, sizes and weights.
A gold bar is absolutely authentic as any gold artefact fabricated by a accustomed bar manufacturer, behindhand of shape. On the bar is recorded the name of the manufacturer, the exact weight and purity. A gold bar is awash with a exceptional aloft the bulk of the gold at the time of sale. The bulk of this exceptional is abased on the admeasurement of the gold bar. The beyond the bar the beneath the exceptional in proportion.
The weight of a gold bar is abstinent in troy ounces and abstention is abstinent as karats (not to be abashed with the carats of diamonds).
One can shop for gold confined from as baby as one gram up to one kilo and for bartering purposes, 400 ounces.
There are aloof 55 refineries in the apple today who accomplish 400 ounce gold confined adequate internationally and these are accepted as 'London Good Delivery'. Some elbowroom is accustomed in the weight of a 400 ounce gold bar which can absolutely weight amid 350 and 430 ounces. The abstention charge be 99.5 percent or more. It is estimated that about 150,000 of these confined are fabricated anniversary year although it is acceptable to be added than that. Most banks that abundance gold do so in this anatomy and are believed to authority about about 2.5 actor of them. That is a lot of gold!
The kilobar, which is to say 1000 grams in weight, is the bar that is added acquiescent and is acclimated abundantly for trading and investment. The exceptional on these confined back traded is actual low over the atom bulk of the gold authoritative it ideal for small, transfers amid banks and traders. Most of the kilobars are collapsed although you will additionally acquisition some investors in Europe will adopt the brick shape.
The abate one ounce, ten ounce, one kilo and alike ten kilo confined are advantaged by the baby broker as easier to shop for alike admitting the exceptional on the confined are higher.
Gold confined accomplish a abundant way to abundance assets with the bulk of gold steadily accretion in the continued term.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
