my day prospecting in georgia

[Teenagegoldminer]

it was rainy and depressing here in forsyth county GA
but it was Sunday and i had nothing better to do, so i got together some pretty primitive mining equipment and a homemade sluice box
and i worked some land my neighborhood owns that im allowed to prospect


my sluice box is made up of wood and an old tuppware top that has little indents in it that work as riffles

ive found that if you can get some good water flow in it you can just pick out the big rocks and run the rest through it because of the low profile riffles

i worked a gravel bar from a delta in a small creek feeding into a river

and if your wondering the small creek is aweful ive found the oxidized hard-pac we get in the southeast and it is worthless(a huge disappointment)

so i just took gravel from random spots around this delta where it was course and hard packed, heres the pile of dirt i build up over about 2 hours

(sorry if the images are sideways)

but even so i only found like 8 flakes from that pile once i had put it through my sluice


so after that i did some exploring and i found a spot where i was getting flakes in every scoop!!!

but with my luck there's not enough water flow there to set up a sluice

anyone have any ideas that can help me instead of the pyramid pan(too expensive for what it is)

 

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[goldenmojo]

Pan it

 

[Teenagegoldminer]

Pan it

Panning isnt fast enough to move good anounts of material ive tried panning spots i end up losing 30% of my gold and moving little material

 

[JayeLK]

If you have any water, then use a storage tub filled from whatever trickle you have as a panning trough. Get your material into a bucket, move to the tub, fast pan down to just the heavies, then go after another bucket of material. In other words, use your pan as a concentrator.

If your samples are consistant, don't worry about finishing every pan down to the last crumb, just get rid of the majority of the light stuff and dump the concentrates into a bucket to process further at some other time, or later in the day. Then go after another pan. You can pan quite a bit more material this way when you elliminate the slow finish panning effort on every pan. Get as large a pan as you can handle, too, for the concentrating pan.

If the material is really dry, you can even do this dry. Look up dry panning techniques and try it.

JayeLK

 

[DizzyDigger]

Panning isnt fast enough to move good amounts of
material Ive tried panning spots i end up losing 30% of my gold and moving little material

FWIW, if you are losing 30% of your gold by panning, then take the time
to learn how to pan correctly. You shouldn't be losing any gold out of
your pan. It does take practice, but with that practice comes faster
panning, and soon you'll be able to take a full pan of material and pan
it down to the concentrates in about a minute (or less).

The bar I am currently working has loads of black sand...more than
I've ever seen, so when I sample there I'll take a bucketful of material
classified to -1/8" down to the river and pan it down to just the cons,
pour them off into another bucket to bring those home for close inspection.

You said:

...but it was Sunday and i had nothing better to do

On a Sunday (or any day) there is nothing better than going prospecting...

Ya got the right ideas, and you're leaning where to find color..keep at it!

 

[Teenagegoldminer]

FWIW, if you are losing 30% of your gold by panning, then take the time
to learn how to pan correctly. You shouldn't be losing any gold out of
your pan. It does take practice, but with that practice comes faster
panning, and soon you'll be able to take a full pan of material and pan
it down to the concentrates in about a minute (or less).

The bar I am currently working has loads of black sand...more than
I've ever seen, so when I sample there I'll take a bucketful of material
classified to -1/8" down to the river and pan it down to just the cons,
pour them off into another bucket to bring those home for close inspection.

You said:

On a Sunday (or any day) there is nothing better than going prospecting...

Ya got the right ideas, and you're leaning where to find color..keep at it!

My problem is i cantkeep track of when i should empty the cons in my pan and it gets overloaded

 

[Teenagegoldminer]

Could i use a bucket to stratify my material and only take material in the bottom of the bucket

 

[Arachnofreak]

Dizz is right kiddo, You need to pan it and if your losing gold that way then practice your panning. I have the same problem here is AZ, the area that I love to work is always low on water. I am super lucky if I have enough water to set up a sluice but usually I just end up sitting in a muddy puddle panning out my classified material. If you practice your panning you should be able to get through an entire 5 gallen bucket of classified material in less than a half an hour.

Go and get a lead fishing weight and use your pocket knife to cut 10 small flakes of lead off into a pan full of dirt. Pan that out as fast as you can until you can get through an entire pan in less than a minute and still recover all 10 flakes of lead. Then you know your not losing any gold. Then just sit and pan out your material. Use your sucker bottle to get the large pieces and keep your black sands for closer inspection at home.

Sluicing would be WAY better but we do what we have to when water is low. Good luck!