Gold in our state

[bottlecap]

Gonna try some panning tomorrow and was wondering how many other folks on the forum have tried panning in Mn and if any of you have had any success. Thought it would be fun to talk to other folks with the fever!

 

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[B&E prospecting]

I have had good success in almost every creek I have tried. Very small finds but pan slow and classify down. Then again my avatar pic is of a 4.5 oz gold/copper nugget found just west of Long Prairie in the ditch. I live in Brainerd and I have a few creeks that pay out nice.

 

[bottlecap]

Hey that's great! How do you do your final clean up? Just panning or do you have a little sluice type set up you run at home with cons?

 

[B&E prospecting]

I made a recirculating system from a mini sluice and we just bought a blue fox spiral from a friend I've been learning to use. Then it's pan it out.

 

[B&E prospecting]

Have you tried anything yet? How successful? I saw u detect also.

 

[bottlecap]

Yes I also detect, just got a CTX yesterday but having issues with it right out of the box. I have tried some panning and found small amounts of small gold here and there but have yet to get it all separated, sooooo much black sand where I am panning. I am hooked for sure but would like a way to get more material worked, looking into the gold hog pan or pyramid pro pan. Doing single pan by pan gets old, I don't mind the work but without a sluice it is pretty damn inefficient. I think there is a decent amount of gold to be had if a guy puts in the time and develops a good system.

 

[B&E prospecting]

I agree but with state restrictions it makes it difficult but I almost have a faster system than panning. Black sands are a good sign tho. Magnetic?I also picked up a better detector- Gold Bug M-scope, but haven't found anything much.

 

[bottlecap]

Well my system sucks. You detecting for gold or just detecting general parks and stuff?

 

[B&E prospecting]

Well right now I have 4 detectors, 2 Bounty Hunter (type), 1 old Whites Coinmaster, and my Gold Bug. I've been raiding the car wash/ laundromat dirt piles for coins:
15 Quarters, incl. 1 Canadian
26 pennies incl. 3 wheat back
2 dimes
1 nickel
I'm gonna take the Gold Bug to the place I found the nugget and search around. It's been about 12-15 yrs since I found it. So y'all mostly parks and beaches.
Speaking of beaches: I did find gold specks on one local beach. I was detecting it one day and pulling out decent coins when I noticed all the black sand at the waters edge. I bought my gold pan the next time and scooped a couple of scoops in and panned it out and poof yellow stuff! Some kids and their mom came by to see what I was doing so I showed em my finds and told em about the gold in the sand. They didn't believe me so I panned out a couple of more scoops and found more. Their comment was "It's not very big" and walked away lol. I thought about setting up my recirculating processing setup on the beach early in the am and seeing what's there but haven't yet- not sure what the city would say if found out. It's on the South side of the lake so that should line up correctly with the glacial movement and deposits. I'm working on an underwater dredge/ sub with fish camera for some of these lakes with stream flow. Shhhh lol

 

[bottlecap]

Secret's safe with me. Did you say you found a nugget in this state!!?

 

[B&E prospecting]

Yep
Its mostly copper but in the top of the photo you can see the gold( not tarnished). The bottom of the nugget(green) is the color I found it as. 4.5 oz

 

[Silversurfer79]

Nice nugget! Very cool. I found a 2.5 ounce copper nugget detecting a local park

 

[B&E prospecting]

Any pictures silversurfer?

 

[Silversurfer79]

There it is! 2.5 ounces

 

[toadspaghetti]

I found two big nuggets while detecting last year. The 5-6 lb. nugget was found in Moose Lake, MN. The smaller nugget, approx. 1 lb., was found in Sandstone, MN.

I bead blasted the big one and left the natural oxidation on the smaller.

There is gold in northern Pine County MN, the rocks out in Denham, (the Denham Formation) are some of the oldest in the world & have deposits of many heavy metals. There is even Uranium there.

 

[B&E prospecting]

Wow! Those are impressive. Pine Co. huh? Thanks I will add that to areas to visit soon. Any particular area? Like public access?

 

[mattfink]

I pan in the cities and find gold

 

[The Viking]

I am in South Mpls. and have recently been thinking about trying to pan somewhere but not sure where I should be trying. All I ever hear about is up on the Iron Range. Not sure what kind of luck I would have here...