Paying for PayDirt....Its time to get a fair deal

afreakofnature

Full Member
Nov 16, 2010
166
39
Being that I live quite far from prospecting most of the year and I know we all have the winter blues when it comes to panning, I have set forth to find all that offer paydirt for sale. I am going to start a website that will show how much gold ones gets (in grams) vs amount paid and lbs of dirt received. I belive that if one is going to pay a large some for these they better get at least their monies worth, otherwise these people are just "mining the miners." Before I venture on this quest I have put together a list, after extensive research, companines/people who sell onine and people who sell via phone or email. I want to run this list out to all of you to see if I have missed anybody. When I am back in the the house for the fall I will begin to order and process the material the same way every time. My method will be to first classify to 1/8 of an inch everything above that I will pan out, everything under that I will do what I pasted below:

A.) Dry out the gold by pouring it into a metal pan and heating it over a hotplate outside. Don't get it so hot that any pieces of lead which are still with the gold will melt. Heat it up just hot enough to dry it out. It is a good idea to stay upwind anytime you put gold in a pan and heat it up. Mercury attaches itself to gold in different amounts. Often it's there but you can't see it. When heating the gold to certain temperature, the mercury vaporizes off. These vapors are very dangerous. So it is good practice to heat your gold outside and downwind of you, even when heating it up just enough to dry it out. Also, the pan you use for heating up gold during cleanup should be used only to cleanup, not for cooking.

B.) Once the gold is dry, we begin the process of getting out the black sands. Using a 16lb pull magnet. First dump some of the cons into a small dish, but the magnet over it and shake the magnet up in the square pan, then put the magnet over this container and drop the black sands, repeat this same process again in the 2nd dish with the new black sands. Everytime you do this in a new container you are breaking up the black sands releasing the gold, do this in about 6 different dishes until you get very clean black sand. Do not discard the black sand yet, this will be use later in the wheel. Combine the non black sands in one square pan for the wheel later too. You can now pick out the larger gold with tweezers. Then use the sieves to super classify your material and keep separate in pans or jars for use on the wheel. Use the sieves too to super classify your clean black sands as well.

4.)Now Use Your Wheel

It is very important to go through the above steps before attempting to use your wheel to process your non black sand and black sand super concentrates from above. Remember, the wheel works on the principles of weight, angle (pitch), and water-flow. The first separation should be done using your wheel's fastest speed if you have a variable speed wheel at a 45 degree angle. This split will take a little time. At this stage, you'll want to pull the black sands and gold from the blonde sands. It's okay if a small portions of black sand are still there your magnet might not have got all of them

When running the wheel it will pack just like the riffles of a dredge. When this occurs, for better results, you can spoon material from the bottom of the wheel up onto the riffles. We also seem to get better results by spooning material onto the drier section of the wheel so that it passes into the flow of water as the wheel turns. Watch yourself very closely because this is the step where many of the larger flat flakes are lost simply by scooping the material out of the wheel too soon. Once complete, you should find that you have cut your material in half or more.

Now you should have what we call salt and pepper sand and gold. If you have only black sands at this point, you have probably lost some of the finer gold already. Look closely; and if this is the case, stop, back up and rerun it again. Remember, the wheel will only recover as well as the skill of the operator permits. So take your time and make sure you're not losing your fines at each stage of the process. Make sure to dump the center hole material into separate pans to run again so you do not have to reclassify through the sieves wet.

Round 2. This time you'll only have half as much material so it will go very fast. Now it's time to tackle the material from the center hole. When using a variable speed wheel, this time it should be processed at the slowest speed, and the pitch of the wheel should be set at a steeper angle. Use a moderate-to-slow water flow, adjusting the wheel to pull just a little black sand, and all the gold. Once you've run it through, simply adjust the wheel a bit steeper and rerun this gold-laden material once more, only this time just pull the gold.

This process will leave you with all your gold, and perhaps just a very very small amount of fine black sand. I find that if you dry this final product, it is very easy to blow the remaining black sand of by sorting through it on a clean piece of paper and blowing gently with dry snuffer bottle. It is a nice way to end your day!
5.)Dry it out and weigh it.


Not only will I give a review and a worth on my website, but I also will allow other users to state their comments too for each company or person. For now here is a list of who I found that sells PayDirt, please add to this list if I have missed anyone and again in the Fall I will start the reviews. Thank you in advance to all you will help me fill in some people I missed or advice on how to make it better.

People/Companies selling PayDirt:

Jim Miller www.panningpaydirt.com

Felix Paydirt Gourmet Gold www.felixpaydirt.com

R and R www.rrpaydirt.com

Prospector John www.goldpan-alaska.com

Gold Adventures www.goldadventures.biz

Gold Fever Prospecting www.goldfeverprospecting.com/goldpanning.html

Gold Getters www.goldgetters.net

Alaska Discount Gold (could be the same owners of Felix) http://www.alaskadiscountgold.com/

Crisson Gold Mine http://www.crissongoldmine.com/

Tom and Perry’s Golden Dirt Bag http://www.goldprospectors.org/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8_27&products_id=27

CMJ Mining http://www.cmjmining.com/

Gold and Gem Grubbin http://www.goldngem.com/

Arizona Gold Fever http://www.arizona-gold-fever.com/



Ebay sellers that over 100 feebacks and alot on paydirt

Jandjprospecting1998 http://www.jandjgoldprospecting.biz/

steepcanyonpaydirt

whiskey_petes_gold www.whiskeypetesgold.com

ljaprospecting

tsclover345678

ron0346

jbiadventures

sundancegoldmine

jarhtay

prospectorruss

goldfeverusa

g-manthebossman

idgold25

knicks2525

treasure_valley_minerals

atomicbear

smaprospecting

jckesl

931lovemusic

alaskadredgeman



Not online

Nome Alaska Gold Concentrate, LLC [email protected] 1-877-6663465

DreaMail-GP, P.O. Box 1790, Fairview, NC 28730 (write for information)

J. Wammack P.O. Box 2263, Bentonville, AR 72712 (write for information)

B. Sullins P.O. Box 1031, Meadview, AZ 86444 479-220-7754

[email protected] (email for prices and ordering)
 

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prospectordamon

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Mar 31, 2011
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sounds very interesting, but you got to know ALL these people salt their bags or else they will have a bunch of pissed off customers. they are in this business to make money and only that!
 

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afreakofnature

Full Member
Nov 16, 2010
166
39
I understand they salt them and are in it to make money, however so are people who just sell gold straight out and their mark ups are not even close to the mark ups that people use to sell "paydirt." I feel that if you are going to "do the work" the mark up should be less, but a mark up none the less. So my "experiment" is to find who rips you off and who is fair.
 

mu50stang

Full Member
Mar 2, 2011
216
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I like your idea, this helps people like me who can't get out alot due to time or distance. Thanks.
 

DesertNuggets

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Mar 29, 2011
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Sounds like a nice idea but there is many variables. I've bought paydirt a ton of times. Every batch varies. I've never received the same amount of gold for the same price from the same seller before. Just because you bought one bag doesn't mean the next one is going to be the same or bette/worse. Or the seller may start selling dirt from a new location.

This would also be a costly venture. Felix and Alaska Gold isn't cheap. You can't just buy 1 bag. You need to buy multiple bags over a period of time to come up with an average if your results are going to be any good.

And if the seller knows you're going to post the results I bet they'd salt it with a little extra.

The variables is a huge issue.
 

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afreakofnature

Full Member
Nov 16, 2010
166
39
Well it is better than nothing at all. Sure there are variables. That is why I also want comments and reviews from others on this website, besides my own results. When people comment they can say weather or not they liked a product as so forth. I am just going to have my own personal results posted too. They buyer can always maker their own decision.
 

prospectordamon

Full Member
Mar 31, 2011
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afreakofnature said:
Well it is better than nothing at all. Sure there are variables. That is why I also want comments and reviews from others on this website, besides my own results. When people comment they can say weather or not they liked a product as so forth. I am just going to have my own personal results posted too. They buyer can always maker their own decision.

I can vouch for the tsclover seller, when I first got into panning I only bought from him, seemed like real good paydirt. Many different sized gold, almost got my money worth everytime and came out on top on occasion
 

poorhunter78

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Jul 13, 2008
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I Always wanted to learn how to pan for gold. So I went to ebay got myself a kit. gold pan, snuffer, vials. Then I had to have material to use. So I sank lots os cheese into paydirt. I then watched and researched on youtube, Got pretty good at panning. I still once panned dirt from a couple years ago. The ones that would read.

(example1) Paydirt guarranteed 1.2 grams of gold. I stayed away from these.
This example is evidently salted.

Example2- 5 lbs. virgin NC gold bearing sand. This I bought. It sounded more real and I had better results.

I had my best luck buying from a fella out in Idaho. Who sold on Ebay. Cant remember the name.

Biggest piece I found: About the size of 3 grains of rice.

Smallest was like specks of dust.

I almost bought from Felix Paydirt but just so expensive, When yuh can't swing the Cheese. $$$.

Biggest
 

poorhunter78

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Jul 13, 2008
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russau said:
this intitial post just goes to show everyone how new you are to this!
How else is a rookie suppose to learn, Can you tell me that?
 

falcolnx

Jr. Member
Dec 22, 2008
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If thats how he wants to treat the fever in the summer I will certainly read along. If he is buying a few bags throughout the year it may give a decent average of the current site the pay dirt is coming from. Either way the website should be fun to look at and read through. He might even mine some sponcers and ads to help pay for all them bags
 

russau

Gold Member
May 29, 2005
7,244
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St. Louis, missouri
poorhunter78 said:
russau said:
this intitial post just goes to show everyone how new you are to this!
How else is a rookie suppose to learn, Can you tell me that?
join a gold club. its free and meet with other people that know how to pan! theres even videos on the net thatll show a person how to pan if hes not close to a club. or just buy his own gold peices of various sizes and pan his own mixture untill he saves it all.
 

drewan29

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Apr 2, 2010
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bill-costa rica said:
WHAT A WASTE OF TIME.......
Not really! not every one lives in a gold bearing state or like me I live in Michigan yes we do have gold not much but we have gold ! BUT with all the laws and bi-laws and distance that has to be traveled is it worth it? like me I would have to drive 2-3 hours one way spend $40-$50.00 in gas to get to an area that is known to have gold but with the laws here in MI where do ya go can't pan in any rivers that are designated trout streams just about every bloody river in the U.P. is a trout stream, and your not garunteed anything.At least this way buying paydirt you can find something in the pan. I was looking at T S clover on ebay for 25 bucks I might buy a 2lb bag and if I find 3 little pcs of gold GREAT! even though he says some pickers and maybe a nugget, thats what I bought it for and I saved 15.00 -25.00 bucks in gas. So I wouldn't say IT'S A WASTE OF TIME. I'm looking forward to the reviews.
RE: JOIN A CLUB: The only club really here is the GPAA I would join BUT all of their meets are Down State over 10 hrs away for a weekend I don't think so!
 

chucktownkid

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Mar 15, 2012
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Felix is the way to go. If I don't have time to be out in the field then I call Felix.
I will go ahead and tell you NOT to go to JandJgoldprospecting, they will straight up steal your money, by this I mean either they will send you a broken item or nothing at all. Good luck trying to call them they never answer their phone, let alone return a call. Leave all the messages you want, they will never call you back. They don't return emails either. They have a 3 day return policy on ebay which means if they DO actually call or email you back, they will wait until the 3 day period is over, but that's like a 1 in a billion chance that they will return your call. If you check them out on Ebay, look at their feedback. Ridiculous. I had to open a case against them. And I will be turning them into the Better Business Bureau this week. I have never had this much trouble dealing with a business although Kelly Co. was pretty close. I suggest doing a little bit of research before spending money and avoid these two companies. Check out my post on Kelly Co. falsely advertising products. If they deny it, I still have the recorded conversations of them telling me that no one would ever believe me. Ha! That's why I recorded the conversions. No one has to believe me I have them saying it on tape. But trust me when I say don't deal with Kelly Co. or JandJgoldprospecting.
 

TerryC

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Jun 26, 2008
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I would like to throw in... enough to "rattle the cage". First, no need to heat the gold, simply pan down to "almost" dry and put on a plate to dry in the sun. Or soft heat from a hair drier.... don't blow it out of the plate! Second, skip the magnet part. No need. If your wheel is "set right" you will get very little, if any, black sands in the cup. If you feel you MUST use a magnet, be sure it is in a baggie so that the magnetite sticks to the bag instead of the mag... MUCH easier to remove. My Gold Miner wheel pitch is at 52 degrees. Which one suggests 45? If the wheel is set right, the specific gravity of gold is what separates it from the other stuff. Watching and using a wheel (always wet cons) is a wonder to behold! A wheel is only as good as the operator. It is, in fact, just a form of panning. A pan still works better. Sorry, Afreakofnature, but a 20 mesh will work better than the magnet. Last, I am not trying to "redden" your face but much of your post is not required and is, in fact, making the process more tedious. Comments? If you wish to "lambast" my post, please do so by personal message.... I can take a hit and get back up. TTC
 

jcbdc

Newbie
Dec 25, 2011
2
1
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Have been thinking or ordering some pay dirt. When you consider your time and today's gas cost it makes more sence. Especially if you are disabled and unable to drive. Either way you pay or money to see a little color in your pan!
 

KevinInColorado

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Jan 9, 2012
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In another thread Kuger, gold adventures and http://goldstrikepaydirt.com/ all got pretty good 'scores' .

The first poster said he felt he should get more gold since he was doing some of the work...vs buying clean gold. This is wrong since all these guys take clean gold and add it to their material so they KNOW you are getting decent gold. Some of them, like those listed above, are sending you material they went out and dug, screened, concentrated/salted, packaged, marketed and mailed to you. All of those steps cost money and time. It is only fair to expect us customers to pay for the convenience of play/pay dirt arriving at our doorstep!

Mine it and recycle it!
 

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