IS THE PROCESS THE SAME FOR SAMPLING OPPOSED TO PANNING A KNOWN SOURCE?

geolover

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I'm relatively new to all of this.
Right now I am strictly sampling material from my property. I run it through a sluce then I pan it out. My question is do I pan sample material the same way I would a known source? I think I take way too long (I'm working on building the confidence to pan faster). At this sampling stage (I have yet to find a speck) I feel like I should move faster, after all, I'm sampling an area I have yet to find anything. Right or wrong?

I know a lot of people are going to suggest that I go to a known gold bearing area, and I could through my GPAA membership. But I don't want to, I'm dead set on discovering my own source. I'm really into geology, I like to identify and study rocks as well as the geological history of an area. For me, I like the hunt, that's what I love about this. After I determine whether or not I have gold on my 20-acre metamorphic mountain, then I will systematically search the BLM land within walking distance. I'm really trying to speed up my processes right now.

Pan faster sampling?
 

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arizau

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Some will suggest, myself included, that you sample pan prior to setting up a sluice. Pick likely spots such as an inside bend, natural riffles in bed rock, dirt attached to exposed roots, etc. as the source for your sample pans. When and if you find some gold is the time to set up your sluice.
 

goldenIrishman

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You say that you need to build up your confidence on panning? Here is a simple way to get your technique down better and build up trust in your abilities. Get some BBs or lead shot and mix a know number of them in some material that is similar to what you're panning. As long as you can keep the BBs in your pan you're doing fine. Panning isn't always a speed event although the do have contests for it at many gold shows and gatherings. The main trick is to make sure that everything is in a liquidized state. IE: the dirt is moving with the water in the pan. This causes the materials to stratify by weight with the heavies on the bottom. Wash the lighter stuff off until you start seeing hints of black sand at the corners then re-stratify everything again and wash. AS long as your salted BBs or shot is still in the pan you know you're not loosing anything important. Work on getting faster and keeping the BBs in the pan and soon you'll be panning like an old timer.

Another thing to consider is your pan size. If it's too big for your hand(s) to hold comfortably then it's going to be more work than it needs to be. Make sure that the pan feels good in your hand when you use it. I prefer the 14 inch Garrett "Gravity Trap" pans myself. The GPAA pans have steeper walls and just don't feel right to me for my style of panning. Pans are cheap as a rule so experiment with different ones to find what is best for you.
 

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geolover

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You say that you need to build up your confidence on panning? Here is a simple way to get your technique down better and build up trust in your abilities. Get some BBs or lead shot and mix a know number of them in some material that is similar to what you're panning. As long as you can keep the BBs in your pan you're doing fine. Panning isn't always a speed event although the do have contests for it at many gold shows and gatherings. The main trick is to make sure that everything is in a liquidized state. IE: the dirt is moving with the water in the pan. This causes the materials to stratify by weight with the heavies on the bottom. Wash the lighter stuff off until you start seeing hints of black sand at the corners then re-stratify everything again and wash. AS long as your salted BBs or shot is still in the pan you know you're not loosing anything important. Work on getting faster and keeping the BBs in the pan and soon you'll be panning like an old timer.

Another thing to consider is your pan size. If it's too big for your hand(s) to hold comfortably then it's going to be more work than it needs to be. Make sure that the pan feels good in your hand when you use it. I prefer the 14 inch Garrett "Gravity Trap" pans myself. The GPAA pans have steeper walls and just don't feel right to me for my style of panning. Pans are cheap as a rule so experiment with different ones to find what is best for you.

I like the part where you say "Wash the lighter stuff off until you start seeing hints of black sand at the corners then re-stratify" I'll try that, I think I really question that point(s) of the process, I probably don't wash enough off. I'll look for black sand in the corners. Thanks
 

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geolover

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Some will suggest, myself included, that you sample pan prior to setting up a sluice. Pick likely spots such as an inside bend, natural riffles in bed rock, dirt attached to exposed roots, etc. as the source for your sample pans. When and if you find some gold is the time to set up your sluice.

Thanks, I see Jeff Williams sample with a pan.
My question is mostly about speed of panning when I'm testing apposed to panning a known source. What do you think
 

goldenIrishman

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As you wash more and more material out of your pan, the more important it is to make sure that you shake everything down good between wash cycles. Provided you're panning in clean water, keep your eyes on the materials as you shake it down. You should be able to see the blonde sands rising to the top of the slurry. Once you've covered the black sands up with the rising blondes, stop shaking the pan for a second or two and let everything settle a bit before you wash off the blondes. When you've washed them down start shaking again and make sure that everything is back to a fluid state and the blonde sands are working their way to the top.


You will reach a point where the blondes don't seem to want to come up to the top any more. Now you need to remove as much of the magnetic sands as possible with a magnet. DO NOT allow the magnet to actually touch the materials and be sure you have plenty of water in the pan. This will allow the water to wash off the magnetic sands as they travel to the magnet. Put the magnetic materials into a separate container so you can go through them again later. Get as much of the magnetic materials out as you can then go back to panning the materials down. The magnetic black sands will "lock up" the blonde sands and once they're out of the way you can pan a lot more of the blonde sand out. Pretty soon you'll have nothing but the heavy black sand and gold left in your pan. Try to not allow any of the black sands to escape out of the pan if you can. How far you can take it will depend on what type of pan you're using and your own skill at panning. As you get better your speed will pick up. Don't be afraid of loosing gold! AS long as you're panning over a catch pan you can always do the materials again if you have to.
 

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geolover

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Dec 5, 2015
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As you wash more and more material out of your pan, the more important it is to make sure that you shake everything down good between wash cycles. Provided you're panning in clean water, keep your eyes on the materials as you shake it down. You should be able to see the blonde sands rising to the top of the slurry. Once you've covered the black sands up with the rising blondes, stop shaking the pan for a second or two and let everything settle a bit before you wash off the blondes. When you've washed them down start shaking again and make sure that everything is back to a fluid state and the blonde sands are working their way to the top.


You will reach a point where the blondes don't seem to want to come up to the top any more. Now you need to remove as much of the magnetic sands as possible with a magnet. DO NOT allow the magnet to actually touch the materials and be sure you have plenty of water in the pan. This will allow the water to wash off the magnetic sands as they travel to the magnet. Put the magnetic materials into a separate container so you can go through them again later. Get as much of the magnetic materials out as you can then go back to panning the materials down. The magnetic black sands will "lock up" the blonde sands and once they're out of the way you can pan a lot more of the blonde sand out. Pretty soon you'll have nothing but the heavy black sand and gold left in your pan. Try to not allow any of the black sands to escape out of the pan if you can. How far you can take it will depend on what type of pan you're using and your own skill at panning. As you get better your speed will pick up. Don't be afraid of loosing gold! AS long as you're panning over a catch pan you can always do the materials again if you have to.

Awsome advice! Thamks
 

Duckshot

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I'm guessing here, but if you find a spot sampling you might want to switch to Not finishing each pan. Just get pan-fulls down to black sand, give it a swirl to make sure there is some gold in it, then dump the pans in a bucket to finish them all together later. There's only so much daylight in a day. : )
 

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russau

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AND bring a 7.5 topo map of the area your working and a note pad/pencil and record all the results so you know where/what you've found and the best place to start. ALSO a camara is nice to pinpoint it also! PLUS keep this info to yourself or youll have visitors to your locations you found !!!!! a GPS device will also help lots if you want to claim a location or return to the exact spot! plastic zip lock bags for your samples and a majic marker pen to mark your samples with ! Have fun! Be safe!
 

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Goldwasher

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Please don't be offended but....get over it:laughing7: join a club or find someone who knows what they're doing....I know where you are I grew up in the area north of you. There were a few producing areas north of you. Some northwest of you and if you don't know what happened to the east and south east of you, you are not into geology as much as you need to be . You can learn to pan all you want become a pro even that will not make gold magically appear in an area it doesn't exist. You can learn all on your own keep asking questions here and learn but, why on earth wouldn't you at least join the gpaa they are headquartered in Temecula. They have a big chapter down there. You can keep panning material that warrants no panning and wonder if your doing it wrong when your not...or you can go learn to find gold in places there is actually gold you can find I guess its up to you.
 

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geolover

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Please don't be offended but....get over it:laughing7: join a club or find someone who knows what they're doing....I know where you are I grew up in the area north of you. There were a few producing areas north of you. Some northwest of you and if you don't know what happened to the east and south east of you, you are not into geology as much as you need to be . You can learn to pan all you want become a pro even that will not make gold magically appear in an area it doesn't exist. You can learn all on your own keep asking questions here and learn but, why on earth wouldn't you at least join the gpaa they are headquartered in Temecula. They have a big chapter down there. You can keep panning material that warrants no panning and wonder if your doing it wrong when your not...or you can go learn to find gold in places there is actually gold you can find I guess its up to you.

Okay, you've got my interest! "and if you don't know what happened to the east and south east of you, you are not into geology as much as you need to be" What do you mean by that? Tell me what happened. I live a little north of Vail Lake. Your post may be the most important one so far, provided that you tell me what I'm missing.

I am a member of GPAA, just haven't gone on any outings. Having too much fun finding nothing? Can't wait to hear from you about this area.
 

Goldwasher

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Sorry man but, I am going to just have faith in your research skills...the only tip I will give you is ...if you want to find gold on top of geology you need to research where gold has been mine near you.There are several areas near you. I know where they are the info is available online and in books.My land matters would be a good place to look for historical claims...once you get some place names and historical mine names you can do some Internet searching...The info is there promise.
 

KevinInColorado

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These days learning to mine the Internet is part of learning to prospect. Do like Goldwasher says: get to some club meetings and go to the gold bearing areas. Start where you know there's gold and later you can expand to unpublished areas.
 

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geolover

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Sorry man but, I am going to just have faith in your research skills...the only tip I will give you is ...if you want to find gold on top of geology you need to research where gold has been mine near you.There are several areas near you. I know where they are the info is available online and in books.My land matters would be a good place to look for historical claims...once you get some place names and historical mine names you can do some Internet searching...The info is there promise.

Why don't they have an unlike button, Id press it. Come on, I thought you were going to give me some geologic reason why there's no gold in this area. Geez! If your simply suggesting that I didn't do my geographical/geology research, I did. I found two claims near me (the rice claim and the anita louise claim). Rice is gold and anita "says" feldspar. They are prety close, as a matter of fact, I could hit a golf ball to the nearest piles from my property. I've found the mutiple shafts near by. I'm not saying it's a great area but a decent amount of mining was being done for some reason. Having said that, they also stopped for a reason.
I couldn't sleep because I thought you were going to enlighten me with some type of geologic holy grail as to why finding gold is not possible in my area. So I did my geographic research (even at landmatters). If you know something about the geology, please let me know, give me a hint. I'll put the research time in. Make sure you like my post please. It's 4am, gotta run off to work.
 

Duckshot

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Goldwasher is doing you a favor Geolover.If he put an X on the map and said "pan here" you would not learn anything. Ever.

Getting there is half the fun, at least that is the way you will remember it once you get there. : )
 

Goldwasher

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My point was there are actual gold districts near you....you are not in one. A gold mine does not even mean there was gold. You can scoop all the dirt up around a hole in the ground you want...be as good at panning as possible and still not find gold in your pan....in your area there could be gold in your pan and you still wouldn't see it. There were producing mines in Menifee....and placers east around Julian. You need to find an area that was placered so you have a chance of concentrations. The range you are in and the areas I cut my teeth in north of you were known for very very small gold. There is a mine that produced a million dollars north of you with no visible gold. There were small placer operations that were reworked during the depression. East of you are old river channels that hold better gold. I like old mines I know where most of them are in your area. There is a reason they are basically just abandoned holes in the ground and you see very little evidence of permanence.....they explored and left because it wasn't worth it. Even if you find evidence of gold the type of deposits there are not conducive to pan and tub work. My point was if you actually want to find gold worth working for you need to familiarize your self with the viable locations around you. I've given hints....and names that's more than usual and I'm still leaving a lot out because I'm protective of my research:laughing7:........and I had to search it all out on my own in the first place...I will say that everything I ever found started out with a book! I am teasing you and giving you a hard time but, its for your own good I promise!!!
 

GoldpannerDave

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geolover--you have been given good advice. Get with a local gold club, find some gold, learn to recognize gold in the pan, improve you panning skills and then come back to your place if you wish. Starting there if there's no decent gold, is...well...counterproductive.
 

OwenT

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Hard rock areas often aren't good for finding placer gold (that's what you're looking for). Go somewhere where yo know you can find gold. When you see some in your pan, you'll know it and then you'll have much more confidence in your abilities. As for your original question, you're pretty much always going to pan the same way. The way learned to pan good in by watching lots of different videos of people panning, people that know what they're doing. There's a video by Freddy Dodge which is a good introduction but he goes much too slow. Look up Two Toes and Dan Hurd on youtube, both have good panning as well as other prospecting tip videos.
 

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geolover

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Dec 5, 2015
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Goldwasher is doing you a favor Geolover.If he put an X on the map and said "pan here" you would not learn anything. Ever.

Getting there is half the fun, at least that is the way you will remember it once you get there. : )

Whoa whoa whoa! Go back to my original post. On the contrary, I'm the guy that doesn't want someone to tell him where it is. I'm only looking on my property and some BLM land nearby. I could go to a GPAA claim, which is the equivalent of putting an x on the map, but I don't want to (as I stated before). I love the research and the hunt, I'm having a blast. Goldwasher simply implied that there was some geologic reason why there was no gold where I live. If so, I'd like to know. I'm deadset on finding my own gold through research and hard work. Thanks
 

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geolover

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My point was there are actual gold districts near you....you are not in one. A gold mine does not even mean there was gold. You can scoop all the dirt up around a hole in the ground you want...be as good at panning as possible and still not find gold in your pan....in your area there could be gold in your pan and you still wouldn't see it. There were producing mines in Menifee....and placers east around Julian. You need to find an area that was placered so you have a chance of concentrations. The range you are in and the areas I cut my teeth in north of you were known for very very small gold. There is a mine that produced a million dollars north of you with no visible gold. There were small placer operations that were reworked during the depression. East of you are old river channels that hold better gold. I like old mines I know where most of them are in your area. There is a reason they are basically just abandoned holes in the ground and you see very little evidence of permanence.....they explored and left because it wasn't worth it. Even if you find evidence of gold the type of deposits there are not conducive to pan and tub work. My point was if you actually want to find gold worth working for you need to familiarize your self with the viable locations around you. I've given hints....and names that's more than usual and I'm still leaving a lot out because I'm protective of my research:laughing7:........and I had to search it all out on my own in the first place...I will say that everything I ever found started out with a book! I am teasing you and giving you a hard time but, its for your own good I promise!!!

I know you're giving me good advice, but I'm hard-headed. I've researched this region, I've seen mines in gold bearing areas. I simply have no desire to go where it's already been discovered. I am having a blast trying to find it right here. I post questions so that I can hone my processing skills. I like all of your hints, but like I said, I'm hard-headed. I'm going to process/test my 20 acre metamorphic mountain (about a million sf, figure that out), then move on to the mines/areas on the BLM land nearby (I just want to do it well). Thanks
 

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