Prospecting Northern Sierras Feather River Tributaries

[northern_sierras]

Hello. I live out in the northern sierras (plumas county). My backyard is forest and small year round creeks everywhere. I decided to start prospecting these creeks, all of which eventually flow into the feather river. I know this area is known for the gold rush and placer gold, so i like to think there would be gold in these tributaries. I've been panning and just today, i started sleucing. I think im panning right because I end up with a nice batch of black sand which I think is heavy, but not as heavy as gold. I really dont know where to look so Im just digging behind rocks and in crevices, running the dirt through my suece and then panning it out after a while. I took some pictures so hopefully you guys can give me some pointers..

There is a lot of quartz in the creek also. Please see attached pictures. Also, this is a remote area and the only creeks I will be prospecting this summer will be extremley remote.

 

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[ratler]

Hi , ratler here .I'm new also at least to panning but have mastered the pan now.My unprofessional opinion is to buy the Keene super gold pan .It is easier to trap the gold in it's riffles.
I had a Gold Genie Wheel too ,but had to sell it and now it is over $500,but that works really well. I've got my eye on the Mountain Goat Gold Trommel as we tend to have alot of fine gold here. in Oregon.and they say you will pull more gold with a trommel.And with the Desert Fox for finishing, I should have quite and arsenal of weapons in which to find gold.I hate to put out alot of money right away , but I've got enough if I budget it.I want to make the finds first with the detector then earn the other equipment as I find enough gold to purchase them.The trommel is $695, and by budgeting for it It would only take 2 months to get it so that is first on my list.then the Desert Fox is next at $339, I could get that the following month.But got to wait till July as I need some more classifiers and rock chizels etc.

 

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[ratler]

Thanks sorry.

 

[northern_sierras]

Thanks for all the info and responses. Today I went to a different creek and found gold! My pan had a TON of those square iron looking minerals and overall the minerals on the bottom of my pan where much, much different than the first creek i prospected. Nearly every pan after that had at least 1 flake of gold. Im still working on my panning technique so it takes me a good 15 min to the pan, so I really only went through a couple shovels of dirt.

 

[Fullpan]

Rock on!!!!

 

[Alex Burke]

Good Job, keep at it, "money doesn't grow on trees but you can dig it up".

 

[Vance in AK]

looks like you are having fun & in a beautiful spot!

 

[northern_sierras]

pulled a gram out of that hole today with my sluece box. Only got a couple buckets in because i was experimenting with the level and water velocity of the sluece, never really used one before. I think i lost a lot of gold. Any advice or recommendations? Also, there's real fine gold in there that is impossible to get out. I spent more time picking the flakes out with tweasers than anything else. I'll post a picture of my gold stash after 5 days work to show. Also, when panning how much material should i have left before looking for gold?

 

[Hoser John]

Just dip a pan smack in the middle of the tailings pile about mid day and check to see how your doing on recovery as confidence in your equipment and yourself needs to be bolstered. Have fun,be careful-John

 

[Fullpan]

A good panner can "make the gold show" with a quarter pan of material, or he can hide the gold til there's a couple tablespoons left - it comes with experience.

Now that you've got a location for sluicing, I assume you use at least a 1/4 inch classifier before feeding the sluice? And during clean-up panning of the black
sands concentrates, always pan into a safety pan til you get good at it.

 

[northern_sierras]

Thanks for the info fellas, I need all the tips i can get! I've been working my ass off digging the dirt out and playing around with my sluice box, and im taking today off to let my body recover and plan my strategy for the next few days. The picture is what i've found since may 31st or about 3 days of work. What do you all think? This doesn't include the fine gold in the black sand that i have sitting in a small bucket. I'll tell you one thing, i cant stop looking at the gold.

So far my main issue (besides swarms of devil mesquitos) is trying to get the right amount of water at the right speed at the right drop going through my sluece box. It seems that if the water flow is not strong enough, the black sand fills the black crevices at the front of my sluece box and the gold bounces off. Also, i was not using a classifier and was just picking out some of the larger rocks before putting them in the sluece, but sending the smaller rocks right down. I have since bought a 1/4" screen which i will use tomorrow. Do you guys have any tips on the ideal flow rate/angle of a sluece box? It seems all the youtube videos differ on there approach to this, and is probably my main problem. The good thing is nearly every time i run a bucket through my box there is at least 2-3 nice flaks of gold in the front black part of my sluece.

 

[Alex Burke]

You could pump some water into a large container or baby swimming pool then pump it back out through sluice as you run buckets? Or try and build a cheap recirculating sluice that would probably be easiest, I would guess you are losing some gold with the setup how you explained it, so that is good amount of gold to carry on they way you described black sand still to finish and sluice flow problems. Kmart sells mosquito nets I think. Hope this helps keep digging. When you get more gold you can dig a well for more water flow

 

[ghampton]

Northern Sierras I am up in your neck of the woods. Do you live in Quincy, Greenville, Chester?

 

[northern_sierras]

Northern Sierras I am up in your neck of the woods. Do you live in Quincy, Greenville, Chester?

Spring Garden. Where you at?

 

[ghampton]

I am in Greenville.

 

[Fullpan]

You both probably know that the ancient Jurassic gold bearing river, the Jura River, passed through Spring Garden in a north trending direction. If not, its
worth researching. HH

http://www.goldmaps.com/ancient_tertiary_rivers_of_gold.htm

 

[northern_sierras]

I spend most my time out in the mountains, and ive been wondering how to tell where ancient streambeds are located. I hear to look for green vegetation growing out from the ground but there are a lot of springs around here.

 

[skscott]

We spend a lot of time in Plumas (when we can get our work schedules to coincide)- like the area out of Taylorsville. Seems like most of that area is pretty claimed up though. Any suggestions as where we can get to that's open? We have the goldmapsonline overlay on google but don't know how often its updated. Thanks. Steve