Looking for some advice from the experts

[Buckingham311]

I'm a newbie in panning world and looking for some advice. Since I'm not 100% sure if I'm doing the technique right I wanted to know what this material may be that I found today. I've got a creek which runs behind my property and decided I would try to pan a couple areas today, but I'm trying to figure out what is mixed in with the black sand. I don't expect it to be gold, but want to educate myself on what it could be. Any advice would be appreciated.



Thanks,
KB

 

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[smokeythecat]

Use a magnet (even the refrigerator kind) to pick out the black sand. Use a good close up lens to look at the golden material. Pick out 1 piece. Put it between a rock and a hard spot and try to flatten it with steady pressure. If it flattens, it's gold, if it shatters it's pyrite or mice. Pliers (tiny type) will work too. You're a little too far east of the gold belt, but you never know.

 

[et1955]

A quick way to test if it is gold is to block the light going to it, if the material goes dark, it's not gold. Mica and iron pyrite will both go dark with this test.

 

[Goldfleks]

said this to another new prospector. Buy some cheap paydirt off amazon or ebay. Once you pan with REAL gold, you'll know how gold acts, and you'll know if it's in your creek.

 

[winners58]

could be rare earth Monazite sands No. 52027: Monazite-(Ce) Sand from North Carolina in Online Mineral Museum
& USGS https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1953/0237/report.pdf

 

[Golden_Crab]

I'm a newbie in panning world and looking for some advice. Since I'm not 100% sure if I'm doing the technique right I wanted to know what this material may be that I found today. I've got a creek which runs behind my property and decided I would try to pan a couple areas today, but I'm trying to figure out what is mixed in with the black sand. I don't expect it to be gold, but want to educate myself on what it could be. Any advice would be appreciated.

View attachment 1397140

Thanks,
KB

So the good news is you have black sands! You happen to be near the eastern granite belt inbetween Raleigh and Rocky Mount, so there is a chance however much of the mining done in that area was hardrocking after finding traces of placer gold in the streams nearby. You'll find gold, just don't expect a lot, look for quartz + granite. Gold will be the last particle to move as you swirl the pan and it is honestly pretty difficult to not get gold to the bototm of the pan even with bad technique (unless its super flat small gold) a little bit of jet dry may make things easier since you will be dealing with fine stuff. The yellowish looking sands can actually be tiny particles of peridotite from remanents of the triassic dikes, threw me off first time I saw it in a pan until I was able to look at it with a loupe.

 

[Buckingham311]

Thanks to everyone for your feedback. I'll try to do some more work today to get a better idea of what it is in the pan. I just want to make sure I'm not chasing the white rabbit to only find out it was a dream, and I'm doing a bunch of work for nothing.

Good luck to all,
KB

 

[Laz7777]

chasing wabbits (white, brown, black, mulit-racial) is what gold miners do!
if'n I had a buck for every worthless hole I dun dug, I'd be livin' large in Trump Tower.

 

[Buckingham311]

So I've done a bit amount of research on how to do a better job panning out the fine material and have separated as much of the sand I could then died out the material so I could take a magnet to pull out all the black sand here is what I am left with. I know there is some sand in the material, but not much. My goal now is to take this sample somewhere to see if the material is gold or just a learning lesson on how to pan and patiently do things correctly. Thanks again to all those folks who gave some advice to a newbie.



KB

 

[Bonaro]

You really cant do a positive ID from a internet pic. Gold is significantly heavier and will tend to stick to the pan. Did this behave that way?

 

[Buckingham311]

@Bonaro it did seem to always be the heaviest portion in the material. I watched several different videos from Goldhog and some others on panning techniques for fine gold material. The material was so fine I had to pan a portion and suck up what was in the corner and continued repeating until I didn't see the yellowish colored material. Once I got it down as small as I could I then heated up the material I had left and dragged a powerful magnet through it, that pulled out any and all black sand material and this is what I was left with.

 

[Golden_Crab]

Hope that helps

 

[Clay Diggins]

You may have Monazite sands. The gold color would be from the Monazite itself. Monazite is a rare earth mineral that will sit in the bottom of the pan. If you have a geiger counter you will probably find it's radioactive - most rare earth deposits are.

You can see the small gold colored Monazite crystals with a loupe. A loupe can help you a lot in studying the materials you encounter in prospecting. Get a loupe before you get a shovel and you will save yourself a lot of backbreaking work trying to mine worthless material.

Heavy Pans

 

[Hunt4gold]

Agree with Clay, a 10x and 20x loupe will show you structure of the material. If faceted you may see the crystalline shapes with a 20X loupe.
Image of monazite:

 

[kcm]

Learn something new every day! MY problem is, remembering it!!

 

[Buckingham311]

@Clay, that is what I was leaning towards mainly because I didn't think I would be that lucky right out the gate. Thank you for your advice on the loupe, I'll definitely do my research and try to get one. I know there is gold around my area from some of the good ole boys I've talked to, but since I am so new at this I'm still trying to learn the ropes. Thankfully I haven't had to work to hard to get the material or results I've got so far, I'm a believer in work smarter not harder mentality.

Thanks again for your help.
Kellen

 

[Buckingham311]

@Hunt4Gold Thanks for the image, that looks very similar to what I have.

Kellen

 

[Buckingham311]

Learn something new every day! MY problem is, remembering it!!

Thanks again for all your suggestions to my earlier questions.

Good luck,
KB

 

[Buckingham311]

Google Earth map



@ Golden Crab Appreciate you helping me find this information. I was able to go closer into where my actual property is and I went ahead and drew in where Crooked Creek and Tar River are. It's showing my entire property sits in Foliated to Massive Granitic Rock and then my neighbor owns 100 acres next to me which he has given me permission to be on, but his shows the Biotite Gneiss and Schist (Cambrian/Late Proterozoic) ground which I believe is where you were saying to concentrate on?

Kellen