lonesomebob
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I have heard tell of gravel pit panning for gold on a small scale. Like a wheelbarrow at a time . Does anyone know anything about this?
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I have heard tell of gravel pit panning for gold on a small scale. Like a wheelbarrow at a time . Does anyone know anything about this?
Bob,
I've been working in a gravel pit in Ohio for 35 years, and there are specific places where gold accumulates.
If you have access to the crushing and washing equipment, be very careful. Even a simple conveyor belt can rip your arm out of its socket in a split second. Be sure the plant is locked out before you begin.
The best places to look in the machinery, are where water and material are held as part of the washing process. Sand screws are probably the best place, because most glacialy deposited, and most gold in general is sand size and finer.
A sand screw is a giant screw, in a long inclined tub of water, where sand is added to the low end, agitated and washed by the screws action, then dumped on a conveyor belt to be stacked. The screw has to fit loosely in the tub so the heaviest material works its way past the screw and is trapped in the low end. I made a sluice box that hooks onto the drain, then I use a water hose to flush the material through.
It works fairly well, but it is hard to regulate the ammount of material and the riffles are full of sand too often.
Even sampling from around the sand screw drains can show alot of gold. In freezing temperatures, the screws are drained daily to protect from freezing, and the heavies will build up on the ground close to the drains.....just look for the black sand.
I've got several places i pick up gold at the pit, let me know if you are interested in hearing more.
I’m a buckeye also. Dayton area, Where about a are you digging gold?
I have used gravel pits here in Ohio to look for good sections of river to hunt. Basically find a gravel pit on google earth, then look for streams or rivers that cut through or just past it. Then prospect just down stream of the pit. Makes it easy to see a good deposit of glacial material and you let the flowing water collect it for you. Love me a gravel pit!
Interesting. That glacial gold must be tricky to follow.
Around my part of California, although nearly all “gravel” pits are crushing/screening river rock that was a byproduct of gold mining operations, I’m not aware of a single one that incorporates gold recovery into their operation.
The crushed/screened product is a known commodity, there is a lack of useable water, and the use permit usually doesn’t describe that type of activity. Not worth risking the entire operation running a covert gold mining plant.
Doesn’t seem like it should matter but it does.
At least that’s my take.
For the casual recreational prospector, it’s much easier to find better paying wheel barrow ground than shoveling seconds or thirds two or three more times.