black sand on/near surface

[hall]

hey guys i started doing a little bit of prospecting last year. only got a couple of days at it. i just dug and panned a couple of areas(never found anything).

in one spot i did manage to get a little bit of black sand. it came from within a foot of the surface. i was just wondering if this is a good sign or just something that is normal?

 

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[goldenIrishman]

That depends on the area. You can find a ton of black sand but no gold in one area while in another area you can find gold but very little black sand. Out here I've hit both types of areas. The wash behind our house has tons of black sands in it but to date we've only found two pieces of very tiny gold. Yet where our claim is we find some nice gold but very little black sands. It's almost as if they've been replaced with a silvery sand that pans like blacks.

 

[kazcoro]

Finding black sand means your technique is good. Also means you are looking in the right areas in the area you are in.

 

[Aurabbit79er]

Gold is where you find it...It just ain't always where you look.

 

[keitha43]

Due to black sand being heavy, if there is gold in the area it will gather in the same places as the black sand. But there may not be gold in that area. In other words when you find gold you will often find black sand. But you can find black sand without any gold. Especially in Oklahoma

 

[Lanny in AB]

Black sand is an indicator, but sadly, not always an indicator of gold. They are good friends, and if you found it a foot below the surface, test the next foot of material to see if there's any gold. Always follow the three rules of prospecting: 1. Test 2. Test 3. Test

Sometimes the gold is just below the black sand, and sometimes it's never with the black sand as other have said.

I've found nuggets and coarse gold with absolutely no black sand at all. My prospecting buddy that's in his 80's couldn't believe it. He kept testing for black sand where we were pulling out the nuggets. He never found any, and it messed with his head for quite a while as he'd chased the gold from Alaska to Arizona and always found at least some black sand with the gold. Go figure, as this time there was none in that entire deposit where we were working.

All the best,

Lanny

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/69-bedrock-gold-mysteries.html

 

[LP13]

When there is sufficient magnetite in the sands in a stream (or a wash in the desert), as the water flow diminishes to just a trickle, the water flow at one point, can only move the light material (the light colored sands, generally quartz), but is not able to move the heavier magnetite. This results in a concentration of black sands on the surface. In my experience, black sands on the surface (but no great concentration underneath) is not a good place for gold.

The black sands can be an indication for gold, but you would need to look for the place (perhaps nearby) where heavier larger material deposits and the black sand is depositing deeper in the sediments, like on top of bedrock. Things like magnetite, quartz, olivine, etc., are general indicators that you might be in an area that has gold. However you could have an entire mountain of quartz and magnetite and not have a single speck of gold in it! It all depends on where you are.

I generally look for the black sands in good concentration mixed in with small pebbles and larger rocks, but then I also live in the middle of a large known gold producing area.

 

[golden sluice]

Black sand can pocket in a sand gravel bar and dry there. I've panned that stuff, never finding the gold, ticked me off too. But ive found gold pockets with very little blacksand involved. Just take into consideration that black sand is only one of golds good friends. When you start to run into lead shot, black sand, garnet, and other heavies, gold should just glow when you shake that pan. If not head up that river, and git that gold source.

Gold also resides deeper than a foot in the bank.

 

[hall]

thanks guys. great site and community here.