likelyhood of NJ gold in a local creek?

[DaneD28]

Hi names Dane and i mostly metal detect but I was walking along an old creek for about a mile by my dads house and noticed that every bend in the creek had either gravel or black sand, I know nothing about gold prospecting and I know that NJ is not known for gold but is there any likely hood that there is gold in these spots and what would be the best places to at least dig and test. I know there is some gold in the area because we found flakes in a river about 20 min away, also this creek is at the bottom of a valley. None the less any and all advice to approaching this would be a great help. Im new and obviously not trying to get rich but would be cool to find some color in an area that is not known for its gold.

 

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[chlsbrns]

Purple of Cassius test.
nitric acid in one part of concentrated hydrochloric acid.

Doesn't sound very safe or effective for the hobby gold prospector?!

I think what you are looking for is glacial....
The Appalachian mountains are glacial in the north west corner of NJ. Something like that?

The test is as safe as the person doing the test. It detects gold down to parts per billion that would surely be missed doing fast test pans. Sample using a few feet of pipe to sample at depths that could take hours to dig & sample with a pan. I sample at numerous locations & test at home. i sample when driving. I stop bang a piece of pipe in tne ground, put the soil in a plastic bag, note the location & im gone! I test at home when i have time to test.

Ive found gold in NJ at 14 locations in 3 counties. Chatsworth, Medford near the airport, Pennsauken, Woodstown, outside of Avalon, Dennisville and a few other towns Actually 4 counties. I thought Pennsauken was Burlington County.

 

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[KevinInColorado]

(edit) Sample using a few feet of pipe to sample at depths that could take hours to dig & sample with a pan. I sample at numerous locations & test at home. i sample when driving. I stop bang a piece of pipe in tne ground, put the soil in a plastic bag, note the location & im gone! I test at home when i have time to test. Ive found gold in NJ at 14 locations in 3 counties. Chatsworth, Medford near the airport, Pennsauken, Woodstown, outside of Avalon, Dennisville and a few other towns Actually 4 counties. I thought Pennsauken was Burlington County.

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about...boots on the ground, pans in the creek! That's how I found a honey hole in metro Denver that is producing 10x the usual spots in town! Get out there boys and girls...

 

[flyadive]

The test is as safe as the person doing the test. It detects gold down to parts per billion that would surely be missed doing fast test pans. Sample using a few feet of pipe to sample at depths that could take hours to dig & sample with a pan. I sample at numerous locations & test at home. i sample when driving. I stop bang a piece of pipe in tne ground, put the soil in a plastic bag, note the location & im gone! I test at home when i have time to test. Ive found gold in NJ at 14 locations in 3 counties. Chatsworth, Medford near the airport, Pennsauken, Woodstown, outside of Avalon, Dennisville and a few other towns Actually 4 counties. I thought Pennsauken was Burlington County.

Well thank you for being a great sport, helping us gold green horns that is! I may try it this spring!? I am assuming that your test were on the light pink side of the color spectrum? Why else would you give detailed gold areas as you mentioned the Medford location that you know I am familiar with? Nice guy?
What diameter pipe works best for ya N?
How do you remove the sand/dirt/clay& stone from the pipe? Split it in half, weld a hinge to the pipe lengthwise?
Are you sluicing the areas that test positive?
Finding any decent amount of flour?

Anyhow thanks again, we appreciate it!
HH

 

[Born2fish]

So there is gold in SJ

The test is as safe as the person doing the test. It detects gold down to parts per billion that would surely be missed doing fast test pans. Sample using a few feet of pipe to sample at depths that could take hours to dig & sample with a pan. I sample at numerous locations & test at home. i sample when driving. I stop bang a piece of pipe in tne ground, put the soil in a plastic bag, note the location & im gone! I test at home when i have time to test.

Ive found gold in NJ at 14 locations in 3 counties. Chatsworth, Medford near the airport, Pennsauken, Woodstown, outside of Avalon, Dennisville and a few other towns Actually 4 counties. I thought Pennsauken was Burlington County.

Great info to know. I’m in Burlington county too and think I may have located a nice lode of flour gold mixed with black sand. Can you pan this gold or do you need to Sluice it? I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw it glittering back at me mixed in the black sand. I figured it was just pyrite at first but now I know it is most likely gold since it in magnetic black sand. It was some rather large flour and quite a good bit of it mixed in with the black sand. Hopefully the water will go down soon so I can suck some up with a squeeze bottle to test it. The current is so high & fast right now I won’t be able to see it. Can wait until I can get out there!

 

[brianc053]

Great info to know. I’m in Burlington county too and think I may have located a nice lode of flour gold mixed with black sand. Can you pan this gold or do you need to Sluice it? I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw it glittering back at me mixed in the black sand. I figured it was just pyrite at first but now I know it is most likely gold since it in magnetic black sand. It was some rather large flour and quite a good bit of it mixed in with the black sand. Hopefully the water will go down soon so I can suck some up with a squeeze bottle to test it. The current is so high & fast right now I won’t be able to see it. Can wait until I can get out there!

Hi Born2fish, and welcome to Treasurenet.
So...about this black sand and other material that you are investigating: I certainly do hope it's gold, but I feel like I have to caution you that gold isn't very common in NJ. It's almost certainly not going to be visible to the naked eye mixed in with black sand. Sorry to rain on your parade.
I've been recreationally prospecting for about 5 years now and I spent a lot of time as part of the Delaware Valley GPAA chapter; we would meet over in the Leigh River area of Pennsylvania and dig on some private properties there. After some hours of digging, sluicing, classifying and panning we'd end up with a few pieces of flour gold - if we were lucky. I'll put a picture at the bottom of what we'd typically recover.
And that was in an area that was covered by the glaciers that came through northern PA and northern NJ thousands of years ago. (Apparently the glaciers brought with them a little gold from Canada, or something like that).

If you're new to panning I'd recommend buying a pan and some pay dirt from a reputable provider (I've purchased from Dirthogg Paydirt up in Canada and from Carolina Prospectors - I have no connection to either operation and hope that naming them doesn't break the rules here). Panning that pay dirt will teach you how gold behaves (pan it into a plastic tub, like a cement mixing tub, so you can re-pan the material later).
Then, once you feel comfortable as to how gold behaves, grab some of that black sand you're finding and pan that. (If you already know how to pan jump right to this step.) You can use a magnet in a plastic bag to remove the magnetic sand (without it sticking directly to the magnet), and that'll make it easier to get the other material in the pan by itself.

Anyway, I hope you find gold in NJ, and please tell us about it. Thanks for renewing this thread - I love chlsbrns' idea of pounding pipe into the ground and then panning that material, I may have to try that here in Morris County where I live.
- Brian

Picture of flour gold from the Lehigh River area of PA:

 

[arizau]

Great info to know. I’m in Burlington county too and think I may have located a nice lode of flour gold mixed with black sand. Can you pan this gold or do you need to Sluice it? I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw it glittering back at me mixed in the black sand. I figured it was just pyrite at first but now I know it is most likely gold since it in magnetic black sand. It was some rather large flour and quite a good bit of it mixed in with the black sand. Hopefully the water will go down soon so I can suck some up with a squeeze bottle to test it. The current is so high & fast right now I won’t be able to see it. Can wait until I can get out there!

I agree with brianco53 about the "glitter" you are seeing amongst the black sands. There are several or many minerals that reflect light and have a gold appearance but lose the shine in shaded light not the least of which is mica. FYI gold does not lose it's color in shaded light and that is a primary way to identify it. Do a shade test the next time you are out. That said gold can associate with black sands but more often than not, most black sand deposits do not have gold with them. Heavy black sands are usually iron minerals and iron is one of the most common elements found on earth. Gold is one of the rarest! I hope that you will find gold in the sands that you collect.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[JeffA]

Don't let the fact that not a lot of gold has been found in NJ deter you. I'm in RI, where it's basically the same deal. Despite this, my relentless efforts have resulted in me finding a few locations now that have produced. Although it's been small amounts, it's still a lot of fun and I don't give up hope. Just because it hasn't been found much, doesn't mean it's not there.

 

[N-Lionberger]

I lived in Salem and Cumberland counties for a few years while going to school. I never even thought of looking for gold while I was there.

 

[Homer2625]

I’m over in the Woodstown area. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Looking for a local place to grab some dirt to pan with my kids. Nothing serious.

 

[Boarteats]

Check out the website mindat.org. Site has a great search feature that provides mineral info by locality (among other options). Really great resource.