Cheap way to get gold

[elijahhenry10]

Hello,
I was just wondering what the cheapest way to get gold would be other than panning. I have a pan, but it is not too easy to find gold with, and when you do, there is not much(at least where I'm at). I don't have much money(well, rephrase that, about $20) and I'm looking for something better and more productive than a pan, but also cheap. Thanks.

Elijah

 

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[OKIE]

Your pan is the cheapest piece of prospecting equipment you can get and yet its the most important!! You can build your own sluice box but it depends what you build it out of, $20.00 isn't going to get u much of anything you can really use to get a lot of gold. I don't know where you live either so the gold may not be where you are.
I wish I could help more, there are a lot of more experienced guys on here that may be able to tell you more.
Good luck and God Bless!!

 

[jmoller99]

It all depends on where you are as to what you might try next. If you are near water and that is where you are panning for gold, you can put a sluice together. If you are operating in the desert (and dry panning there), you might try to build a dry washer. There are lots of DIY plans for these floating around. You might find some used equipment too - look at Craigslist.com. or on eBay.com, or check with a local prospecting club (if you have one in your area). Some places need special equipment (or you need to build for that area), so find out what people are using in your area.

Where are you located and tell us generally where you are looking.

Panning is great for sampling an area, and for cleanup of your concentrates. Otherwise it takes too long to work a yard of material.

 

[Hoser John]

Ifn' your lookn' for EZ FORGET MINING

 

[placertogo]

Unless you are willing to run a large amount of material, which would require a sluice, high banker, trommel, etc., the best way to find gold with a pan is to crack open crevices in bedrock, snipe the bottom of the stream bed, or work natural gold catchers such as moss, grass roots, etc. These methods do not develop a large volume of material but what material is recovered is more likely to contain gold and can easily be worked with a gold pan. Opening crevices in bedrock is hard work but it pays off in gold bearing areas. That piece of gold in a bedrock crack may have been there since the last high water or may have been there 10,000 years since the last glacier. Once the gold drops into the bedrock crevice it waits there until someone shows up willing to do the work to get it out. Good luck!

 

[elijahhenry10]

I am in south-western PA, where there normally isn't much gold. I did find a little bit on my 3rd pan though, so I thought it might be useful to make a sort of sluice. I have 3 different creeks within a mile of my house, the one being where I found the flake, so I guess a sluice would be the best choice. I actually have more than $20, that is just what I have right now to spend( quite a bit more in change from coin roll hunting.).

I saw someone mad a small sluice from a piece of black plastic pipe with the riffle type things in it. Does anyone know if this would work?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Astrobouncer]

Make a drop riffle sluice. You can make a cheap one for around 20 bucks if you forgo painting it and just buy the wood +varnish. Checkout my past threads on drop riffles. You will never pan as fast as one of those can process material.

 

[elijahhenry10]

Ok, I'll have to check it out then. Paint should be no problem as my dad is a professional painter. He might also be able to get some 'junk' lumber from a job. Thanks

 

[elijahhenry10]

Make a drop riffle sluice. You can make a cheap one for around 20 bucks if you forgo painting it and just buy the wood +varnish. Checkout my past threads on drop riffles. You will never pan as fast as one of those can process material.

How wide are your actual riffles? Also, do you think that it would be possible to hook it to a hose?

Thanks

 

[ohiochris]

Make yourself a 1/4 " screen classifier out of a 5 gal. bucket and some 1/4 in mesh hardware cloth. Use this to classify your material into another bucket full of water. This will do a couple different things , it removes all the large stuff you dont need and is just in the way , it reduces everything down to a size that works well in a gold pan , and its literally concentrating the best part of your material....not as well or thoroughly as a sluice would but it takes care of a lot of it. You should be able to make do for a while without a sluice by doing this and it allows you to be mobile and really looking at the material and location. This is probably the cheapest and easiest solution to your delimma at this point. Id advise against trying to build a sluice at first , or you will most likely do like I did and waste 20 or 30 dollars. In order to make a sluice that actually works it takes knowing how they work in the first place , and how to best use them , so Im not saying you couldnt make a good sluice necessarily but if you are just starting out and have little experience you would be better off getting the experience before taking on that project. But like everybody else said , the gold pan is the cheapest piece of equipment , and even with a sluice it will all end up in the pan anyway.

 

[elijahhenry10]

Make yourself a 1/4 " screen classifier out of a 5 gal. bucket and some 1/4 in mesh hardware cloth. Use this to classify your material into another bucket full of water. This will do a couple different things , it removes all the large stuff you dont need and is just in the way , it reduces everything down to a size that works well in a gold pan , and its literally concentrating the best part of your material....not as well or thoroughly as a sluice would but it takes care of a lot of it. You should be able to make do for a while without a sluice by doing this and it allows you to be mobile and really looking at the material and location. This is probably the cheapest and easiest solution to your delimma at this point. Id advise against trying to build a sluice at first , or you will most likely do like I did and waste 20 or 30 dollars. In order to make a sluice that actually works it takes knowing how they work in the first place , and how to best use them , so Im not saying you couldnt make a good sluice necessarily but if you are just starting out and have little experience you would be better off getting the experience before taking on that project. But like everybody else said , the gold pan is the cheapest piece of equipment , and even with a sluice it will all end up in the pan anyway.

.
I have actually been using a window screen to classify my material because I honestly don't think I'll find a bigger piece than that where I am at.

I have already made a sluice from pices of scrap wood out of my grandma's basement, but I don't know if I don't know if I have the riffles wide enough.

 

[ohiochris]

Window screen is a good size , or even smaller for folks in our area since the gold is really fine , but if you dont take it down in size a step at a time some of your ultra fines may not make it through the screen , plus you never know there might just be a picker in there.

 

[Keppy]

Ifn' your lookn' for EZ FORGET MINING

I don't think he ment EZ the way you took it........... He ment a way that does not cost a lot......But will find the fine gold better than a pan............. And we all try to spend as little as we can...........

 

[KevinInColorado]

For the fine gold where you are:
1. Screen material as you said
2. Get rid of riffles in the sluice
3. Line sluice top to bottom with black ribbed rubber mat like they sell for stair treads

The ribs will catch the gold just fine. Find a local club to teach you where to look for gold (or read a lot online...it's all out there on the web. Ditto for how to setup the sluice in the stream - easy to do it wrong but easy to learn!