New panner

[brettga2]

Hello

I am a new panner and I have a few questions.

I went to a fast moving stream today in Southeast Ga. I boated up the stream looking for natural traps in bends and behind shoals,
every place I panned I found a lot of black sand but no gold of any kind so all I wound up with was some pictures, sore arms and four sheared shear pins on my outboard.

When I got bank home I checked the black sand with a magnet and it was not magnetic.
I also think I found some quartz but I need to upload my pictures so someone can verify if it's quartz or something else.

Questions
#1- Is non magnetic black sand still a good indicator that gold is around or does it have to be magnetic to rule out some other mineral?

#2-I scrapped down with my pan and then panned that material. Did I dig deep enough to at least find some gold ?
Thanks

 

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[B H Prospector]

Hi brettga2,
Welcone to the net. Black sand is made up of iron oxides. The more common being hemetite and magnatite. Magnatite is as the name says is magnetic, hemetite is not. Both are an indicator that gold may be present and will occur together with gold. You will almost always find black sand with gold but you won't always find gold with black sand. To answer your second question, you most likely didn't get deep enough if you only scraped into the material with your pan. You need to use a shovel and dig as deep as possible and to bedrock if you can find it. The deeper you dig the better the gold. I'm not familiar with Georgia geology as far as types of quartz but here in South Dakota our gold is associated with milky white and bluish gray granite quartz. Alot of other areas gold will be in milky white quartz. Hope this helps.

Good Luck!

B H Prospector

 

[brettga2]

Thanks B H Prospector
I attached some pictures does anyone know if that is quartz ?
And does the black sand look good ?
I found the black sand in every spot I checked,
Thanks

 

[mattfink]

did you check behind boulders and large rocks?

 

[B H Prospector]

Looks like quartz to me. Kind of like the type found in granite. More clear han milky. Sand looks good as does the area you're in.

Good Luck!

B H Prospector

 

[brettga2]

Hey Mattfink

Most of the boulders are under water or the water is deep behind them, on the boulders shallow enough to dig behind the flow is so strong it just blows the material out of the shovel.

The sides of the creek are solid rock and almost vertical so their are not too many pockets to catch anything, the black sand I found was behind several boulders where the water was shallow, I also found some black sand behind a few large trees thay had took root.

I think their is gold their I might just have to get a dredge to find it.
Thanks

 

[Goodyguy]

Unless that stream was loaded with gold you really did not dig deep enough.
Also I am not sure I've heard of much gold in southeast Georgia. The main gold belts are in northern Georgia and run from the northeast in a southwest direction through central Georgia.



There are over 500 “gold occurrence” locations listed for Georgia in the: USGSMineralResourcesDataSystem But only 19 placer mines. Check to see if there are any in your neck of the woods.

 

[brettga2]

I found it I found it !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for everyones help it kept me motivated.

So I started up the creek this morning and it was fairly cold 1/2 mile up sheared a pin when I hit a rock paddled over installed new pin then I found me a small limb to jack the motor up some more and when I got to some fast water the motor was not deep enough to push the boat through the swify section so I pulled out the limb and you guessed it ! sheared the pin so I put in another and just waded in and pulled the boat through the swift section made it to the best looking spot and went to digging and panning and found nothing so I kept digging until I thought I was going to freeze to death so I shoveled my sand in a bucket and headed home to change clothes and warm up, once warm I got me a large plastic tote to pan over and I started panning the bucket I panned the whole bucket and did not find squat I was getting a little depressed so I grabbed the tote and started dumping it out and then I saw color in the sunlight and I thought WOW !!!! their it is.

So I raked everything back in the tote and started over this time I took my time panning.
Being a newbie at panning and lacking the experience I was just panning too fast and blowing the gold out of the pan, then gold is real fine even wet it's dusty and wind can blow it away.

Does anyone know how you are suppose to catch it ?
I think it would almost have to be caught through a filter like you use on your home drinking water.
Is it economically feasible to process and remove the gold ?

 

[Fullpan]

Hate to be a downer but at 400 mag. the five biggest pieces in your pic appear to be cubed shape - if so its probably pyrite - hope i'm wrong.

 

[soupfreak]

To get the fine gold out of your pan you will need a snuffer bottle.

Also, check out the gold panning video thread. Some great videos in there on panning technique.

And be encouraged!!! Every experience is a learning experience. Research the areas you are going to and look for those low pressure areas that gold will drop out into.

Good Hunting!!!

 

[TerryC]

Brett, in most cases, if you did not dig until you hit bedrock, you probably did not dig deep enough. After hitting BR, use a homemade or store bought "shrimp gun" (an oversized snuffer bottle) to suck up the stuff you could not shovel off the rock. This is a very good method of sampling but this is best done in an area already known to contain gold. Don't give up! TTC

 

[brettga2]

Hey Fullpan

It's not a downer the bigger pieces are pyrite, but if you take out all the pyrite everything else in the pan is gold I guess it looks Red because it was cloudy and I don't have a flash on my phone.
Only the black specs are sand, the gold is more fine than flour.

I am only guessing the red fine stuff is gold it looks gold under a light and using a mag, I will know when I melt it down what it is and it may still be pyrite.
Thanks

 

[brettga2]

Thanks soupfreak and TerryC

I am not going to give up and I am not in it to get rich I am in it to have fun with the family ! Heck they are just happy to dig around, set on the bank and throw rocks at me.

 

[walldo]

My 13 year old was excited on our first prospecting adventure. Did not find any gold , but I still have the pictures. PRICELESS!!