grey dirt?

[kemosabi]

Im new to panning. I have recently been digging a hole in a dry creek bed. I have dug thru about 1 foot of sand and 3 feet of thick grey dirt. After that I hit a layer hard packed gravel with a rust color dirt. But all I am panning out is a fine powder gold.
I just bought a gold n sand hand dregde. Is it worth filling the hole with water and sucking it?
Any advice?

 

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[Oldyoungtimer]

Have you found any bigger flakes or pieces of gold to help you identify it in the pan? The only reason I'm saying this is because i thought i was finding powder gold when i first started panning. Turned out it want gold at all lol. Is the creek known to have gold in it? Before you go excavating the creek bed i would check the area to make sure your investing your time wisely. I have only been doing this since last October. But i have spent a few hundred hours on the creek and panned about a thousand pans. If you know there is gold in the creek then by all means dig away. Sounds like your highly motivated to get after it! Good luck.

 

[kemosabi]

Im not really sure if the creek is gold baring. This is the first my first attempt at finding a little gold. Could the powder that I was assuming was good be mica? There is also about 1 tablespoon of black sand in a 14 inch pan after I pan it down. Is that a good thing?

 

[Oldyoungtimer]

It could be anything in the pan really. Once you see gold in the pan for your first time it hits you like a ton of bricks, ooooooo that's what gold really looks like lol. Black sand tells you that your in a spot where heavy things settle, among those could be gold. If you sample other spots is there more or less black sand? It's relative to the creek itself if your getting in a spot with more heavies than other places on the creek. Some creeks i find almost my whole pan is black sand and no gold. Others little black sand but find gold. What state you in if you don't mind me asking?

 

[kemosabi]

I live in s.c. and the creek is in cherrokee county.
I have sampled other parts of the creek but I always get about the same results.

 

[Oldyoungtimer]

Your not to far from me i live in Oconee. I would sample other parts of the ancient creek bed. From what I'm thinking your not to far from kings mountain. That place is a good producer of gold. You're in a decent place for gold. I think your hot on it's trail just keep sampling and think outside the box sometimes.

 

[kemosabi]

yes Im pretty close to kings mountian. Thanks for the tips and good luck

 

[mattfink]

gold is where you find it....I find gold in creeks here in minnesota that are not known to be gold bearing as matter of fact I think there is only one river in all of minnesota to be known as gold bearing and that is the Zumbro.....

 

[Indianametal]

That red gravel is where the gold should be if its there, but something had to make it stop there. You need to be behind boulders and other eddy causing structures.

 

[kemosabi]

The dry creek connects to a active creek. I probaly walked up the dry creek 25 feet, moved a bunch of rock and started digging. The rocks I moved was probaly the size of a watermelon.

 

[carnet56]

there is a old gold mine over in goucher and on the pacolet river at hammet grove