Newbie panner black sand question

[oldblues]

Is black sand a good sign when panning or is it common in all streams?

[enamel7]

You will find black sand mostly everywhere. No guarantee you will find gold.
HH
enamel7

[Bumpstick]

If there is known gold in the area you are on the right track.
Gold is the heavy and black sand is kinda heavy.
So any gold would have the tendency to settle out of the current in the same general area.
When I find the larger chunks of hematite or magnetite I am on the prowl for that yeller stuff.
I use a metal detector for a lot less digging as age creeps in.
It takes an au-full lot of fly specks to add up to anything.

[freddy williams]

If you find allot of black sands and the areas know for gold I would keep the sands and roast them very hot over a camp stove keep stirring them and after about 10 minutes and they get hot fracture the gold loose. Dump the sands in a bucket of ice water and if they contain gold ( usually ) fine powder's. you can then take the sand and fractured gold and run it all on a float table. Check out the 49's web site I believe I downloaded a float table plan from there when I joined. It works great you get allot of fines and powder's from black sands. Hope this helps...