My first gold nugget!

[EriktheProspector]

Howdy gold prospectors!
updated 4/27/15

My name is Erik, and like many of you I'm obsessed with gold prospecting. I've been doing this very frequently for nearly 4 years now. I just finally got my first nugget. It's small, but a nugget nonetheless.

This was my best day panning simply because of the nugget find. We were using simple hand tools for the most part.
I know many of you are getting much more gold than this, but for me this is a big deal and I'm so happy this moment finally came! My friend Jerry also got a nugget!

Good luck all and keep on sampling!





The black pan photo is Jerry's gold.
His nugget weighed in at .85g, with a total of 1.55g.

NUGGET weigh 1.4 grams
Total: at or slightly less than 3 grams.

Not an amazing gold count, but a good day and we got our first nuggets!

ALSO,
We did end up going back to that location and looking for more nuggets.. to no avail. It was a real ass-kicker, and the gold wasn't great. I took home a sore ass body and only .3 grams in fines, no pickers, and definitely no nuggets. There may be more nuggets there, but they're going to be too hard to get to for us to bother for the time being. On to the next !

 

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[Dirt Fisherman]

Howdy gold prospectors!

My name is Erik, and like many of you I'm obsessed with gold prospecting. I've been doing this very frequently for over 4 years now. I just finally got my first nugget. It's small, but a nugget nonetheless. I'll have a video of this great day of prospecting up soon (next week) on my YouTube channel (EriktheProspector/Goldventures) and on my website (Goldventures.US).

This was probably my best day panning. We were using simple tools.
I know many of you are getting much more gold than this, but for me this is a big deal and I'm so happy this moment finally came! My friend I was with that day also got a nugget! It'll all be in the video. I'll ad a link in this forum when it's up.

Good luck all and keep on sampling!

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Thats a nice nugget there! Finding a nugget like that is on my bucket list. Keep em comin'.
-Dirt Fisherman

 

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[EriktheProspector]

Hey Uglymailman, not sure the value because I don't have a scale. I'll weigh it soon and show you all. So eager to get back there and get the rest of the nuggets that are probably there!

 

[EriktheProspector]

Thanks Dirt,
I felt like it was something I needed to get just to feel like I'm a real prospector. I've been in crevices I feel should have produced gold like this but they never did. I got this nugget amongst grass roots, with unconsolidated sand overburden of 1/2 inch, no hard packed cobbles, on smooth bedrock, about 3ft above water line, opposite inside bend in a possible eddy zone.
I will have more and bigger nuggets soon I believe. This may be one of those 'patches' !!

 

[EriktheProspector]

It was a tributary to a river, not inside bend, on smooth bedrock in a small pocket (~3 in deep/4 in wide), no overburden to speak, just sand and some grass roots wedging it in there. It was about 3ft above water line. The pocket did not seem promising at all but I saw it shining very bright once I got a little sand out of there.

 

[EriktheProspector]

Thanks for being a subscriber Darrow! I have some real fun, GOLDEN as all hell videos coming up!

 

[TheHunterGT]

I would probably go to a knee if I found a nugget that big in Colorado. Might have to wipe a tear away. Ya know....pollen out there and all.

 

[EriktheProspector]

Hey Oregon Viking, I can hardly think about anything else other than hitting that spot.. You know how it is. Show us those huge Oregon nuggets!
Best,
Erik

 

[Asmbandits]

I would probably go to a knee if I found a nugget that big in Colorado. Might have to wipe a tear away. Ya know....pollen out there and all.

Erik darn near broke his knee when I found my nugget, I yelled to him and told him what I found and he jumped up and hurried over and fell pretty hard on the bedrock in doing so, sounded like a pile of rocks hitting the bedrock! It scared me I though we was done for but he shrugged it off and went on to find his nugget soon after.

Theirs nothing like panning back and seeing that yellow glimmer get bigger and bigger an bigger as the black sand washes away... Its funny I was working next to him when I saw a nice flake staring at me in the crevice and shouted for joy and looked over and saw him look up at me then back down then his face lit up as he caught a glimpse of his nugget at almost the same time! was one hell of a day to say the least..

 

[EriktheProspector]

Thanks for subscribing Darrow! Contact me any time and we can talk gold forever

 

[EriktheProspector]

Erik darn near broke his knee when I found my nugget, I.

Lol, Jerry's right, I did go to a knee.. I damn near put myself in a wheel chair running to see Jerry's nugget. I got it all on video and it's pretty hilarious actually. Jerry was kind enough to come over and check on me.

We did make our finds almost one right after the other. What a great experience to share for our first time prospecting together!

Video will be put up in a week or so at this rate. Gotta go get more gold with Jerry first !

 

[EriktheProspector]

what kind of area did you find all that?

Smooth bedrock NOT inside bed, EDDY zone after boulder, SMALL pocket the size of 1/2 a baseball amongst grass roots and unconsolidated sand.. Want GPS coordinates? Just kidding

Heavy pans !

 

[EriktheProspector]

Eric, that's a nice size nugget! It's a good size and be proud of it. What's the weight? Keep up the good work!

1 Pennyweight, or 1.5 grams. I thought it would only be a gram, but I'm happy to say it's a full pennyweight on the nose!!

WAIT: My roomies scale said 1.5. My new scale which I tested calibration with a dime and nickel shows it to be 1.4 grams. Doh! I was wrong. Just shy of a pennyweight. Oh well, still a nice find for me!

You guys will get your nuggets, and thank you all so much for the congrats! Much appreciated. Much bigger nuggets to show off soon, most likely

 

[Duckwalk]

Man so jealous! Not only the nug itself but having someone to prospect with! What a find. All i get in my neck of the woods is flypoop. i would most likely S*** a brick if i found that in my pan. Congrats and hoping for some more coming your way!

 

[EriktheProspector]

Hi Eric. I know nothing about gold mining except the shows on and what I see on this site. That's one of the better pans I've seen on here. As I know nothing about it, whats the value of that pan? Just trying to figure if a guy knew what he was doing could he make wages if he got lucky. Thanks for the post. Good luck.

You CAN make wages gold mining/prospecting on a small scale. The value of that pan is not much, however. Nugget is maybe 1.5-2 times spot at best perhaps, and rest of the gold is maybe under $100 in value.

I have ran gravels and averaged about ~1+ gram per 45 minutes or 6 buckets on 20+ color gravels. It's not easy to get there, gas is expensive, gotta stay on gold for a while to really get your return.

It's super hard to make a living at this no matter which way you cut it, but it is absolutely possible, and I'm going to show that soon in a Goldventure episode entitled, Production! (All about pushing gravels and the math of it).

 

[EriktheProspector]

Man so jealous! Not only the nug itself but having someone to prospect with! What a find. All i get in my neck of the woods is flypoop. i would most likely S*** a brick if i found that in my pan. Congrats and hoping for some more coming your way!

Thanks Duckwalk! Sorry your gold in your area hasn't been panning out. I'm pretty sure there's nice nuggets in Georgia though right?
You'll get your nugget with persistence too bud.
Good luck to you! And yes, I damn near was beside myself for several days after finding it. I'm very grateful of that find, and I freakin' cherish it!

Oh yeah, and having a great prospecting partner makes the whole thing 10 times more fun! Go get yourself a partner so no matter what you're having fun, and you'll get more gold by helping each other understand the gold deposition in an area.

Heavy pans!

 

[EriktheProspector]

It was a great day Erick, we both had our best day of gold and with just hand tools and pans! Much more to come!

Heres my take for the day, My first nugget as well ( I know looks like a large flake) but its a nugget to me lol, it alone is .84 grams.. Cant wait to hit it again!

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You definitely got a nugget Jerry! It's a big, substantial piece that makes a loud noise when dropped in the pan. You had a great day yourself too! Awesome bud! Rock on!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Ducky, you gotta get out sampling more...I hear there's good gold in some unlikely spots in Metro Atlanta!

 

[Duckwalk]

I just don't have the time to travel anywhere. I have to get out SUPER local. I'm prospecting 5 min from the house. Up north near lake allatoona and of course lumpkin county there is plenty of bigger stuff.

 

[Asmbandits]

Here is the video of our goldventure that day, courtesy of Erik the prospector and Goldventures

 

[Aufisher]

Nice hunk of golden goodness! Much respect my friend!