Divulging areas you'll never get to, but are aware of or heard about.

[johnnysau]

Let the information flow here, let others research new areas. Something you read about, heard, or knowledge you came upon. The internet is cool, but tidbits of of old info is way cooler. Add your story. johnnysau

 

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[UncleMatt]

Its also true that we have far fewer opportunities these days when it comes to mineral discovery , simply because there are no new lands where people can be the first there that can identify and extract the minerals found there.

 

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[HappySwede]

well as you put it that way, I would say yes most were stupid. Many died there without getting rich. Relatively few struck it rich.

Back then, people were dying by staying home aswell working on farms without getting rich.

Gold mining today is something different. None of us go out there to escape poverty and bring back fortunes. It is the opposite - we spend money on fun gadgets and long trips that might get us a few flakes. Over here in Europe, as there's not very much gold but still lots of people watching the Discovery Channel - there's an industry to get tourists to your land for mining. It works something like put and take fishing, most of this gold is planted, and it's all about marketing and showing the internet what your visitors found.

So yes, people travel places when they hear or see there's gold. I've done so myself for years. Turns out, plenty of the locations I went to as a rookie were completely made up as for the gold. There are groups of "senior miners" making up for finds whatever their reason is - to gain crediblity, to get attention, to sell equipment or charge visitor fees.

Whichever it is, I'm not a fan of this. There is real gold to be found, but the expectations must be realistic. People are busy with their lives. We all work our butts off for all of the year to get a few free weeks here and there, and I know too many people that were tricked into making huge operations and wasting half the vacation to get a few flakes. I also know we "shouldn't be talking" about this, but rather agree and pretend all of this is real. But I cant do so, took me years to understand gold mining because people refused to be honest about it - and I dont want other newcomers to start out that rough...or get fined in wealthy Luxembourgh as there is supposedly huge placers over there just waiting to be pulled out in the city.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Back then, people were dying by staying home aswell working on farms without getting rich.

Gold mining today is something different. None of us go out there to escape poverty and bring back fortunes. It is the opposite - we spend money on fun gadgets and long trips that might get us a few flakes. Over here in Europe, as there's not very much gold but still lots of people watching the Discovery Channel - there's an industry to get tourists to your land for mining. It works something like put and take fishing, most of this gold is planted, and it's all about marketing and showing the internet what your visitors found.

There were 2,460.000 (2.46 million) ounces of gold mined last year from just three of Newmont's Nevada mines. Barrick's Nevada Goldstrike mine alone produced 792,000 ounces of gold in 2015. Worldwide 77,064,000 (77.064 million) ounces of gold was mined in 2015.

California is often seen as the big gold producing state. It has done well but the biggest year for gold mining in California was way back in 1852. That year 3.8 million ounces were mined. In 2015 California produced 160,767 ounces of mined gold worth a little more than 187 million dollars.

About 10,000 people in the U.S. State of Nevada are full time gold miners earning some of the highest wages on the continent. The average Nevada gold miner earns $2,017 a week. There are about 250,000 full time miners in the United States alone.

Escaping poverty? A few flakes? Although some people do treat "mining" as a hobby there are millions of people worldwide that make a very good living mining.

Gold mining today is something different.

It sure is. There is more gold being mined today than at any point in history. More people are successfully employed in gold mining today than at any time in history. The standard of living for gold miners is the highest it's ever been.

TV dramas aside real life gold mining is alive and well. Look beyond the produced drama and you will see a vibrant, innovative, productive and profitable gold mining industry mining gold wherever it's found.

Gold mining is far from dead. It's still out there! - go get u sum.

Heavy Pans

 

[HappySwede]

Yes, Sweden also produces more gold than ever and has a bunch of people employed in the mining industry. None of these miners have ever seen gold. Even the largest gold mine in Europe, the Kittilä mine, consists out of invisible gold only. The geologists have not seen gold by the eye it in, ever.

There are a few families in Finland living out of placer mining in the Lemmenjoki area by using heavy equipment, and except for that, there's a handful of miners doing this as their primary occupation, also in Finland. I've spent time living with them in remote areas, on the best ground avaliable, and they find 0,1-0,2 ounces a day on average. Most of the miners up there make more on the tourists visiting than mining itself, so all kind of methods are used to keep the tourists coming

Some friends of mine spend weeks each year detecting in Australia. They, and everyone else detecting, find an average of 0,05 ounces per day.

This is what even professionals can expect out of recreational mining in Europe. You don't get a 4" Dahkle and turn up with 2 ounces a day whereever you put the nozzle down throughout our continent. We would all go crazy and tear Europe up if it even held 1/10 of that, but it just doesnt.

 

[Clay Diggins]

hmmm...



Really Heavy Pans

 

[HappySwede]

Yeup, nice Picture. But how many of us here have gotten even a fraction of that?

Most of us "tourists" dig up Australian gold here in Europe, without knowing it. Nuggets are sold and re-sold plenty of times, often rebranded as something more unique than their real origin.

I often joke that most placer gold gets dug up two or three times at least.

I'm not saying gold doesn't exist. Im just saying we should let people know that they are doing just fine getting a pennyweight here and there, it almost never gets better than that. At least in Europe.

 

[Oddjob]

Im just saying we should let people know that they are doing just fine getting a pennyweight here and there, it almost never gets better than that. At least in Europe.

You may want to consider researching before you head out, start networking a great deal more in the correct circles and speaking with some of the mineral departments at the universities in Europe.

If your counting in pennyweight then you need to move to better ground or start shooting in the very well known areas.

 

[HappySwede]

I've done nothing but researching and networking the last few years. I know all of the active miners in northern Europe, I've found gold in 8 different European countries and I know what others find. Despite a few years and countless of trips, I have not yet collected an ounce of gold.

I have not operated a dredge of my own thought but been present while others were doing this in Sweden, Norway and Serbia.

 

[Reed Lukens]

I have not operated a dredge of my own...

And that's why you don't think people are making wages. It sounds like you know the wrong people because I know people in Eastern Europe who are dredging 10 - 15ozt an hour on an average day... It's deep and dangerous, but there's still plenty of people here also making well over 6 figures right here in the Western US in different styles of gold mining. You simply see it as recreation and that's why you don't have the contacts needed to earn a decent wage in mining. Simply put, you don't have the background to get your foot in the right doors... Yet! Keep working at it and learning from others, but skip working with the people who are not coming home with large quantities.

 

[HappySwede]

ozt - troy ounces?

300-500 grams per hour?

 

[Oddjob]

I know people in Eastern Europe who are dredging 10 - 15ozt an hour on an average day...

I met a Canadian in Germany back in 2002 that was on 9 a day, and that was just what he could get to with a 5 inch. Over the next couple of years I kept hearing his name around in regards to getting your permit issued in Germany, all the old timers and retired guys dredging the rivers would tell new guys they could either go to the court house to get their permit or just go ask Tom directly. Never really caught the joke until about 5 years after meeting that guy and some documentary was coming on that was just about him. The way the show went was he basically could point at ground in Germany and they would issue him a permit for it. But by the time that show came out he had a really nice dredge with I think an 8 inch, but they where making this big deal out of it that if needed it could be run alone but for safety reasons as deep as he was going there was always an EMT Diver on deck. during the time of that show they where pulling out 12 a day.

Last I heard back in 2012 he headed east as well, Tajikistan I think it was.

That was the best part about doing this in Europe, the closed minded mentality presents such great opportunities for those willing to get out there and get it done, beit their job or just something that you do a few times a year. Tell you one thing, back in Texas on one of our ranches the Llano went through a corner of the property, and every now an again you would see folks out their prospecting. Now I am not one of those will claim if I did not find any then it does not exist, but Europe was way better that Texas. LOL

Many places in Europe if you check the mining register on the individual person you will see a pattern of people, like in Germany it is mainly retired folks and immigrants with a vast presence of North Americans. Luxembourg is mostly North Americans, infact that was the first place I saw a Gold Hog high banker. Switzerland is mainly land owners or families.

Great thing also I noticed in all the countries I have prospected or dredged in through out Europe is that finding information as to where to go is really simple, Federal refineries take that information down when you sell and they will let you know, they always have the scoop and no issues with sharing that information. They want people going out and finding it to bring back and sell.

 

[Reed Lukens]

ozt - troy ounces?

300-500 grams per hour?

Yes, there are a lot of untouched areas where people just never understood or knew anything about the gold mining technology until recently with help from the internet. The eastern Mediterranean countries are loaded with gold also, but the oil there out weighs it so much that they don't bother with it, because you can't just stick a pipe into the ground and pump gold... Look at the ancient history of where gold was found there, today there are plenty of people still making their living in gold mining in those same places, many generations later. My family was mining here in California 400 years ago for Spain along with many others. They were paid to come here and stayed, then 250+ years later the word got out, was printed in the newly invented news papers, and the gold rush here began. Then many of the old gold mining families that had been here were killed off entirely or run off of their lands. Over where you are, in many places it has simply never been advertised...

 

[HappySwede]

I am from eastern Europe myself, Ive mined down there, talked to people etc.

The Romans mined these areas extensivly. They knew pretty much about mining actually.

They found the Serbian river Pek to hold most gold of all rivers in the area, and put up mining headquarters around there. The river was diverted back and forth, as still can be seen on satellite maps.

After the gold rushes in the US, bucket dredging technology was brought to the river. Three huge dredges were working the whole valley, and by reaching down to 7 meters/yards, they went deeper than anyone have done before or after.

Those dredges were sunk in WW2 by the locals as the germans approached.

The largest of these dredges were producing 1,4 ounces per hour according to official data. People today dredge everywhere in the area, some with primitive tools, some with modern 6” with air compressors etc. Others with excevators.

I have not yet seen or heard anyone getting even an ounce a day, numbers are far less than this. I also have drilling data for placers, some old, some new. None support anything close to getting pounds of gold every day, not by any methods.

I might be wrong but Ive never heard of anything close to the numbers in this thread.

 

[HappySwede]

This is more like it, few days of dredging ending up in half an ounce or so.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Amateurs always know best

 

[HappySwede]

Amateurs always know best

So who has been mining in Eastern Europe, me or you?

This is the weirdest thread ever. We can obviously dredge 10 pounds of gold each day but we dont, because any local could make even more on oil with less effort. However, we dont do any of that as most people there prefer working for an average of 300 USD per month.

 

[HappySwede]

This is what creeks look like in the areas known for gold, traces everywhere from new mining and old mining. Sure there is untouched spots at places but no, they aint that rich.

As for Sweden, I’ll send thousands of dollars to whomever can point out these areas with ounces of gold to be found.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Being that neither Serbia nor Sweden are in Eastern Europe... You have once again proved my statement above.

 

[HappySwede]

 

[Reed Lukens]

View attachment 1525950

Oh, you mean central... Lmao
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