Gravel pit gold

[lonesomebob]

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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[et1955]

So true but rivers used to higher, an example , Grand Canyon

 

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[SnowdogAk20]

Easy flood gold recovery

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?

I live in a lower elevation valley area in South central Alaska. Down stream from Knik glacier. We are a huge flood plain, in a glaciated area, just like you in Michigan.

Check the gravels briefly but doubtful you'll get anything. Rather what I learned is to buy about $30 worth of magnet tape at any of the sign shops, about four feet, or however big you wanna make it. You're just building a flat homemade sluice box with just the magnet tape.

So find a lowly area and hit the lumpy piles of mossier/more vegged areas. These areas have been hit untold times by flooding in past millenia.

Use a 1/2 inch screener, or 1/4 inch if you really want to punish yourself, and only run the overburden. The deeper it is, the better. Run a yard. Then use paint scraper to scrape the sands into your processing tool of choice for your cons. You'll trap a lot. Add second box at end if it's really rich.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

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!

 

[1637]

do most gravel pits try to catch gold? if not,why? i all way wonder when i drive by.
thanks brad

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

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.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

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.

We have vastly different gold deposits when you compare our areas. California has produced its own gold and spent eons spreading it around. Ohio doesn't have the geological history that creates load so everything we have here (it’s not much) has been pushed down here from Canada mostly. Bedrock is not always an easy find around here and when it is exposed it’s often limestone so what it has collected has only been washed over its surface.

The gravel pits are an easy way to find where depressions in the ground were filled by the glaciers as they scraped everything flat. It’s not a dead ringer but works pretty well for me. My best spots are often just a stones throw from a pit.

Mind you we are chasing dust around here. Hell it’s nearly catch and release because it hardly adds up to anything even over time. Still fun seeing 10-20 little flecks in the pan.

 

[russau]

Years back our gpaa club had a member that owned several dump trucks that hauled sand & gravel from a plant in Western Illinois and we (as a club) were allowed to go in wand work their tailings outwash with specific rules on where /when we could dig. I found that the hopper for the 36 inch sand screw was the BEST spot to recover fine gold. And in the temps dropped or the threat of frizzing looked threatening they would open a valve to dewater their equipment and dump all that black sand & gold into their outwash sump. There was so much material that we could not move it all . When we started up our gpaa club we offered all that signed up with their contact info a 10 lb. bag of these super cons. We ran out quickly and I still had offers from a lady in Canada that wanted so (for shipping costs) The club broke up after there were to many lookie lou's and not enough helpers /supporters ! This plant layed in the ancient Mississippi River channel and the current river is about 5 miles west of that location ! We found LOT'S of semi-precious stones and other objects . It was fun while it lasted ! That plant was getting material with a clam shell bucket at 100 / 150 feet down ! Watch those types of plant's and where they get their material from. I'd LOVE to build a 10 inch dredge and go up the Mississippi /Missouri Rivers and dredge ! Also look for access to company's that have to claim for dredging the river's depth into a barge and transport it to their offloading facility . the bottom of these barges are loaded with B.S. and probly more of that same fine gold. Good luck !
gde.