Anyone panned sand from Lowes or Home Depot?

[Lownslow]

Hi, I've seen or read about people finding gold in bags of sand from the Home improvement stores. I'm just wondering what the response is from different parts of the country.

 

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[tyeechinook]

I've found it in the sand bags at Home Depot. Roseville, ca. Not very much, but it's in there still...


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[roadrunner]

I must have bought the wrong brand, or it came from AZ and not Cali.
Mine had nothing. I think a 40#.

 

[Hamfist]

I'm in CA. Had two bags of Quickrete sand left over after a project. Not one spec in 100 lbs of sand.

 

[jeff of pa]

I forgot about This

I just saw about 5 Bags of Sand (I forgot the Brand )
at a Yard Sale Friday I didn't check their Price
I'll have to check today when I head out, But I'm pretty sure the sale was only Fri. & sat. odds are PA isn't getting west coast sand anyway

 

[russau]

Id only aquire this sand if you needed some sand! OR go to a sand and gravel plant close to where you live to save on fuel. I bought some years ago and asked about where they get their sand and I called them to ask exactly where the got it from. my next project will be to goto the sand and gravel plant that gets their material directly from the river. and ill buy a trailer load of unprocessed material and run it through a hibanker while fixing my brothers road of pot holes! 1 trailer load will let me know if ill do another. why pay a inflated price for this material when I could get a better deal on a trailer load.

 

[Lownslow]

So after making this post yesterday, I went down to Lowes and bought 1 50lb bag of Quickcrete sand. It was from Georgia. cost $3.96 so I thought why not, after all they have gold in GA. I'm in Fayetteville AR. not much gold in these parts. I'll give my results after I pan this bag. (Something to do=))

 

[Sick4gold]

It depends on where your at really. Lowes/Home Depot sand is usually locally sourced if at all possible because is not cost effective to ship sand hundreds of miles. If your in a gold area it's worth a shot. If there's no gold in your area then the sand will probably be barren as well.
It's rare to see sand bags from GA as far away as Arkansas so I say go for it.

 

[Lownslow]

Here in AR they do mine sand out of the Arkansas River about 50 miles from me. So I guess it could have a little gold, I know one guy on here (TQ) who goes to the AR river around Ft Smith for material. He runs it through a cool trumel he built and then through a Gold Cube. He gets like 100 mesh gold out of it.

 

[TravyLeigh]

Wow, panning lowes sand!? Funny!! I was seriously thinking panning here at the bay.. I'm
In the Bay Area CA, I've been going to the gold country every weekend, but I'm bored here... So I metal detect when I'm not working. There's a lot of sandstone and giant walls of dirt by the shore here (I live like 50' from the bay). I'm seriously considering just running a few pans of that dirt, or even check the cracks in the sand stone for the hell of it... What do you folks think?


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[Armchair prospector]

I posted a similar thread about a year ago on Home Depot sand and got many replies. But I would say unless you are doing a project that requires sand I wouldn't waste to much time .

 

[Duckwalk]

i saw a video on youtube about this. Gold was recovered but nothing worth the time from my understanding.

 

[Asmbandits]

There is an episode of gold fever where Tom buys quick rite sand which is dug down in so cal and runs it through his sluice and finds pretty decent gold, our atleast more than a few specs.. All depends on where the sand comes from.. in the same episode he finds gold in the cracks of the huge aqua duct system they have down there in la, also finds a huge kitchen knife someone threw in there, prolly a murder weapon lol..

 

[gunlocators]

I tried 2 bags once and found some gold not enough to be worth the trouble but it had color

 

[goldenmojo]

If your in Gold country pan downstream from the gravel plant....

 

[arizau]

If your in Gold country pan downstream from the gravel plant....

A person from the upper midwest has made a deal with the owner of a gravel pit to clean out his sand screws, etc. periodically. A "you scratch my back and I will scratch yours" situation as it is free labor for the operator and a convenient source of preclassified material for the man. The source of the sand and gravel is an ancient glacial outwash deposit. The gold finds pictures he posts on Doc's goldprospectingforum (google it) are pretty impressive.
I wonder how many California operations have their own means of recovery or sweetheart deals?

 

[Jason in Enid]

I wonder how many California operations have their own means of recovery or sweetheart deals?

The ones that have enough to bother with have their own recovery operations, but if you are just curious about it, you CAN find gold in the bagged sand. The trick is that it needs to be the unwashed, unscreened sand. If you buy the "playground" sand it's been processed and you aren't likely to find anything.

 

[Timmy Tom]

Okay. What I found out about the dredging operation on the Arkansas River near fort smith. They only go down just enough to clear the depth of the channel. If they go deeper they will run a lot of rock and not sand. They are in the sand business not rocks. So with that, the gold will settle in these rocks and travel on down to bedrock. So, I have wandered of ways to get samples in the channel, but the sand and rock will fill in the hole. So a lot of filling in will take place. Where I have found gold is on the corners, next to the bank in the dikes that run out to the middle of the river. During high flood stage, there are eddies created and gold drops out. I have not been back up there in a year and a half. But have been looking at places to go and try out later this year. I have bought about 1000 lbs of coarse sand and only found a couple of specks. Lots of black sand in this but very little gold. Best idea I have is check out the dikes. Upriver side and down river side as well.

 

[russau]

the best time to get this material is when the streams are low in the Winter/Fall from the actual business that does the dredgeing. that time of year is when they need to deepen the channel and when they are closest to the gold. this year , weve had to much rain and the creeks/streams are at flood stage and that's when they don't get much material that im interested in! my trailer is ready to get some material ifn the waters will recede!

 

[welerini]

It depends on where your at really. Lowes/Home Depot sand is usually locally sourced if at all possible because is not cost effective to ship sand hundreds of miles. Lowes employees using MyLowesLife. If your in a gold area it's worth a shot. If there's no gold in your area then the sand will probably be barren as well.
It's rare to see sand bags from GA as far away as Arkansas so I say go for it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I am also looking for the same.