Gold prospecting in South Carolina

[Cstyle00]

Hey fellow prospectors and treasure hunters. I started this thread to see what people had to say about gold still in South Carolina. I aq'uired a small tract of land in Smyrna, York County. Land has been untouched since the California rush (except the little old lady that lived there since 1912). Basically I'm wondering has anyone ever picked up a nug in SC. I understand that it would be rare and would be quartz, not like a nug found in the west. If anyone knows of the Dixon Mine, Martin Mine, Horn Mine, or Southern Gold Mine which all closed in 1939 I think by Roosevelt because of the war. I'm near there. They were pulling some good size nugs from the myths. So let me know of your stories of gold found in SC.

Using a White's GMT. So far about 20 hrs. prospecting. Digging everything under 85% iron somtimes I dig targets anyway off of fence lines. Slow going lots of nails and .22 cal. bullets in rocky soil. Found a few buttons with no markings and some worn down axe heads about 14" down under large roots. Makes you wonder what happened to make someone be so careless with such a valuable asset of the time. I'm going to search it all of course, consentrating on the tickest areas of the forest first since the leaves are down and try to hit as many ridges and hillsides before summer slows things even worse. I'm detecting the area first then I'll dig some prostpecting pits. What gold have you guys seen in SC?

 

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[sideshowmick]

Woo hoo!good job jason. Mine is much smaller but ive yet to get deep enough I fear.

 

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[djpitr]

Hi guys i found little in Abbebille county , fixing go to Oconee county around chatuga river .

 

[CRFaulk]

Hello All,
I purchased 11.15 acres of property in chesterfield county SC around 6 years ago, its roughly 8-10 miles west of Pageland SC, almost centrally located in between the Haile, Brewer and old Howie Mine Waxhaw, NC. After buying the property I found a large hole on the rear property line near a low area near the start of a Natural spring fed creek, (Dead pine Creek) My neighbor, an older fellow informed me it was a gold mine. Which would make since due to its location and large amounts of quartz laying around it, at least what I know about finding gold it makes since.

How or where would I go about finding out if gold was actually discovered there or if a claim had been made etc.? Anyone know of any old maps containing such info? On all of my property, it seems you cant walk a foot in any direction with out kicking a quartz rock, I feel like there's still gold here. But that's just a gut feeling how would be the best way to find it? From my research, my best bet would to be to look for mineralized quartz as most gold in quartz was probably over looked if they were placer mining before and piling quartz up by the hole.

 

[behappyjason]

Hello All,
I purchased 11.15 acres of property in chesterfield county SC around 6 years ago, its roughly 8-10 miles west of Pageland SC, almost centrally located in between the Haile, Brewer and old Howie Mine Waxhaw, NC. After buying the property I found a large hole on the rear property line near a low area near the start of a Natural spring fed creek, (Dead pine Creek) My neighbor, an older fellow informed me it was a gold mine. Which would make since due to its location and large amounts of quartz laying around it, at least what I know about finding gold it makes since.

How or where would I go about finding out if gold was actually discovered there or if a claim had been made etc.? Anyone know of any old maps containing such info? On all of my property, it seems you cant walk a foot in any direction with out kicking a quartz rock, I feel like there's still gold here. But that's just a gut feeling how would be the best way to find it? From my research, my best bet would to be to look for mineralized quartz as most gold in quartz was probably over looked if they were placer mining before and piling quartz up by the hole.

It's hard to tell. I would be interested in coming over and looking around with u sometime to see. I know there is gold in that area but a lot depends on the terrain. I've got the same here and I have found gold in the quartz and in the stream. Send me a private message if ur interested in getting together. I'm In kershaw about 3 miles from the haile gold mine. Even if it was mined the old timers went for the easy stuff so there's a good chance they didn't get it all. Problem is in this area when it was an ocean shoreline the gold got broken in to small pieces. Everything I've been finding is 100 mesh or smaller which means I would have to find like 40000 pieces to make an ounce and on average I have found 600 pieces per ton of dirt. Figuring 40 five gallon buckets of dirt is about a ton. U could be in a lucky spot though and have bigger stuff. Let me know if u have any questions or stuff I'm home everyday and always looking for the gold.

Jason

 

[sideshowmick]

Hello All,
I purchased 11.15 acres of property in chesterfield county SC around 6 years ago, its roughly 8-10 miles west of Pageland SC, almost centrally located in between the Haile, Brewer and old Howie Mine Waxhaw, NC. After buying the property I found a large hole on the rear property line near a low area near the start of a Natural spring fed creek, (Dead pine Creek) My neighbor, an older fellow informed me it was a gold mine. Which would make since due to its location and large amounts of quartz laying around it, at least what I know about finding gold it makes since.

How or where would I go about finding out if gold was actually discovered there or if a claim had been made etc.? Anyone know of any old maps containing such info? On all of my property, it seems you cant walk a foot in any direction with out kicking a quartz rock, I feel like there's still gold here. But that's just a gut feeling how would be the best way to find it? From my research, my best bet would to be to look for mineralized quartz as most gold in quartz was probably over looked if they were placer mining before and piling quartz up by the hole.

Try to run a metal detector over the quartz next to the hole. Then crush and pan.

 

[johnnysau]

Ive got a pretty cool calculator if you need a rough estimate of OZ per ton / yard. Just let me know how much ore material and the grains of gold based upon a size
of 480 grains per OZ - Example 50 LBS of ore material gave 3 grains, or whatever. Its never evenly disbursed but a rough guide. I'm in Reno,NV arm chair prospecting
though i've done research around your area (could be a HOT ZONE). Good luck

johnnysau

 

[huntsman53]

Thats a 120 lb dog.

Looks like a Gold Hound sniffing out the Gold! Hey, don't laugh. Many hounds can be taught to find almost anything based on smell if trained correctly and if you could train a hound to sniff out Gold, who would need a metal detector??!!


Frank

 

[huntsman53]

I found this study and report that may be of interest to you folks that own property in or you live in or near the areas shown on the maps.

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/v...v.51156542,d.cWc#search="gold slate layer sc"


Frank

 

[behappyjason]

Good info frank.

 

[behappyjason]

Ran my mini sluice yesterday and ran about 8 buckets and found my biggest piece yet!!!!! WooHoo

 

[DesertNuggets]

Ran my mini sluice yesterday and ran about 8 buckets and found my biggest piece yet!!!!! WooHoo

Good going!

 

[behappyjason]

Thanks

 

[sideshowmick]

Ive solved my water issue. Now im having trouble with my sluice clogging up.



Do I need more or less pitch?

 

[behappyjason]

Where is it clogging. If its just building up a little behind the riffles it's normal and a good thing basically as long as the material is just less then half way between the riffles then ur good. And just make sure ur classifying the material because the bigger stuff will push the gold out or cause it to clog. To check to see if ur sluice is working u can cut up a lead fishing weight into small pieces and even sand shaving from it and run it the ought the sluice to see where it's catching the heavy s. nice looking sluice good job bro.

 

[sideshowmick]

Thanks jason. Its piling up just behind the riffles.i have good flow and ive classified my material. In the picture of the top of the sluice,you can see the tan color where im getting sand clogging. Thats good?

 

[behappyjason]

Thanks jason. Its piling up just behind the riffles.i have good flow and ive classified my material. In the picture of the top of the sluice,you can see the tan color where im getting sand clogging. Thats good?

It's fine as long as its just at the top there just means u may have to slow ur feed rate a little but as long as behind the riffles u can see the material bouncing around. Usually u can watch the tan color sand bounce around and disappear then start showing the black sand or darker colored material like garnets and stuff. But ur good as long ad u can see the stuff bouncing around behind the riffles. Hope u find some good stuff.

 

[sideshowmick]

Thanks jason. Its piling up just behind the riffles.i have good flow and ive classified my material. In the picture of the top of the sluice,you can see the tan color where im getting sand clogging. Thats good?

So this is what the tailing sands look like.

 

[behappyjason]

So are finding the gold. Looks like u got it running good just remember not to get to excited like I do and feed it to fast. Just keep it slow and constant and u will catch the gold, and as long as the material behind the riffle is moving and it doesn't go more then half way to the next riffle u will catch it.

 

[southern gent]

I set my sluice up to run about 1" of water +/- with 1" fall per foot of sluice. Classify your material down to 1/4 then feed it slow with a hand scoop. Works like a champ. Our gold is mostly 100-200 mesh and we get a lot of it this way. Good luck

 

[sideshowmick]

So this is what the tailing sands look like.

This gold is micro. At least I know my sluice box works