Should I move locations or keep trying on this one

[Astrobouncer]

Hello all. I am quite new to prospecting. I live in the upstate of South Carolina (Blue Ridge) near the mtns, and gold was once found here back in 1908 and again in 1966 or so.

I just built my own sluice, a copy of the one here: ( http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.p...,176317.0.html ) and I spent about 3 hours yesterday on the stream near my house (with the permission of the owner of the land). The sluice caught a whole lot of black sand, but when I panned it down I couldnt see any gold. I still have a small amount of regular sand in the black sand because its hard for me to pan that last little bit out. The rocks in this stream seem to be lots of sedimentary rock, and there is definitely some kind of mica vein because I am getting some larger mica ore pieces and mica chips are visible encased in a lot of the different rocks in this river. I will get some pictures of the stream and post them up here. There is no less than 3 (old) gold mines within about 2 miles of my house here, 2 of which are off this same stream, downstream from me. I cant go to the gold mines because they are private property and have been unable to find the owners. The stream comes up from an old spring.

Should I keep trying on this piece of stream or should I move locations?

{Edit: Heres some pictures of the stream}

[Mr. Slate]

Can you locate any visible bedrock, either already exposed or by digging a test hole in a likely area near the stream? The gold will be sitting on the bedrock or any false bedrock. Is there any public access downstream from the old mines? You may want to try there. I once visited a GPAA claim that looked great, but gave up only pyrite.

[Astrobouncer]

Thanks for the reply and help! I didnt realize bedrock was so important to finding gold. No I havent seen any bedrock at this location nor anywhere around this stream, its very shallow. One of the pictures I posted showed the deepest part of the stream that I could see. There might be public access downstream further past the old mines, I will try to find an overpass or bridge to test pan from. Thanks again for the help. I will post an update this weekend when I have some time off from college to check that out.

I went over the black sand again tonight with a magnifying glass and was unable to find anything besides lots of magnetite. I am giving up on that small stream, its too bad cause its so close to my house (walking distance). I guess if the gold was that easy to find though someone would have already!

[russau]

dig deeper!

[montgomeryjrm]

See if you can get a small dredge, ie 2" or even a high banker in there. Sometimes just picking around with a shovel and a sluice box is not a good way to tell. If there was gold being found on the surface I guess it would be good but if you have to dig down. Then...

[pvillehunter]

look for the bedrock astro. read up on the mining history of the area look for the placer deposits. find bedrock above the creek rock you can be sure isnt just big boulders.Try and follow it to the creek look for the roughest stuff stuff that will break especially near curves and if you have gravel bars dig the front of them alot of the time the start to build up do to shallow bedrock. when you find bedrock break cracks break cracks break cracks most signifigant deposits will be in cracks and rough bedrock.

[Hoser John]

#1 rule of mining-no gold move your butt. To find owners simply go to the local recorder/tax assesors office and the info is readily available. from what I've seen you are in a HARDROCK AREA and you are looking for PLACER GOLD. Yes you'll find a bit of float but NOT like a paying placer paystreak. Life is short and new scenery and more gold is to be found-seek and you shall find-it's not called prospecting for nothing- tons a au 2 u 2 -John

[lperry3]

Sounds like you may have found a place in the creek that was deep and fast enough to run your homemade sluice. I'd spend some time walking the creek to test pan spots that look good. In a spring fed creek that runs fairly slowly, the gold you find will probably be coming from the uphill side of the creek vs. being carried downstream.

[goldfever1978]

I would test pan from one end of the property to the other. If I didn't find anything test panning, I would then find a sandbar and dig a hole until I hit the bedrock. If you still don't see any gold, time to move on. Now, you can save yourself alot of time if you can find someone with a dredge or a highbanker. Either way, good luck and If you find it post some pics!

[Astrobouncer]

Thanks guys. I Have not had much time to prospect at all with college this semester but I will keep you updated if anything changes. And John your right they were hard rockin it here mostly but I figured some of that color might be loose in the ground and concentrated by the stream.

I am actually glad the weathers cooling down, hopefully I can spot some interesting rock formations that are hidden by all the undergrowth. This area has a lot of quartz, most of it is the purest white I have ever seen.