Has anyone here done any gold panning?

[Michigan Swampbuck]

I have been panning around Michigan in areas where gold has been found before but I am a novice really. Could you describe how you went about choosing where to pan and if you found any gold, be it fine dust, flakes or nuggets? Also, what techniques did you use, like a sluice or rocker, or how you use the pan to concentrate the heavy materials?

 

[White 6]

I have been panning around Michigan in areas where gold has been found before but I am a novice really. Could you describe how you went about choosing where to pan and if you found any gold, be it fine dust, flakes or nuggets? Also, what techniques did you use, like a sluice or rocker, or how you use the pan to concentrate the heavy materials?

Nope. Been seeing vids on YouTube about it, though. I don't think anybody ever found gold in West Tennessee. I never knew there was gold in Michigan, until now.

Gold In Michigan Map

Oconto County Plat Map, oconto county survey map, marinette county plat map, oconto county public records, oconto county zoning map, oconto county map

ocontocountyplatmap.blogspot.com

 

[leftwinger]

Fishing, Golf, gold-panning. The only winner is the Dermotologist.//

 

[boevans]

Some, but not like my grandparents. I went with them for a couple of weeks a summer.

 

[1srelluc]

LOL....I found more Virginia "gemstones" like Agates and Garnets than gold.....A bit of flake and a lot of arrowheads but that was it. I soon lost interest.

 

[Votto]

I have been panning around Michigan in areas where gold has been found before but I am a novice really. Could you describe how you went about choosing where to pan and if you found any gold, be it fine dust, flakes or nuggets? Also, what techniques did you use, like a sluice or rocker, or how you use the pan to concentrate the heavy materials?

First thing you need is to find a good gold digger.

 

[progressive hunter]

I have been panning around Michigan in areas where gold has been found before but I am a novice really. Could you describe how you went about choosing where to pan and if you found any gold, be it fine dust, flakes or nuggets? Also, what techniques did you use, like a sluice or rocker, or how you use the pan to concentrate the heavy materials?

 

[Synthaholic]

I've panned movies and albums I didn't like. But not gold.

 

[JustAnotherNut]

Location, location, location!!!

All depends on your area and laws/regulations, and active claims as to what you can do, where you can do it and what type of gold you might find.

Your best bet is to check into any prospectors clubs or groups in your area. Also check with GPAA (Gold Prospectors Assoc of America) for a local chapter. Either of these can be a tremendous help in answering your questions.


My late hubs used to go dredging. We'd find a little here & there, usually enough to pay for the trip. Mostly small flakes and a few small nuggets. Less than a 1/8 inch(?).


Things I've learned is this for panning rivers & creeks.......

1. Look for bedrock, better chance of gold in the area

2. Study the flow of the river, imagining where heavy material travels is probably where & how gold travels........if the creek or river has a bend or curve, then look to the outer edges.

3. Also look for any markers to show the highest water mark. Normally after spring thaws, the water level rises......and can possibly trap gold around rocks, trees, branches, etc that aren't even in the water later in the year.

4. While looking in the river to get material to pan, look around any large rocks and boulders........kinda like looking at how gold acts in a sluice, will be similar to a river

5. Black sand and small garnets are a good indicator of possible gold in the area.

6. Most important of all??? Don't go panning if you expect to get rich. You are better off going for a camping trip, and maybe do some panning while there.

 

[toobfreak]

I have been panning around Michigan in areas where gold has been found before but I am a novice really. Could you describe how you went about choosing where to pan and if you found any gold, be it fine dust, flakes or nuggets? Also, what techniques did you use, like a sluice or rocker, or how you use the pan to concentrate the heavy materials?

I've never panned, but I know that key to finding real veins of gold is finding the right types of rock formations. Knowing how gold comes to the surface, it appears that where there is gold are first found veins of quartz.

 

[MarathonMike]

No but I watch the gold miner shows, I like to see the designs of the different sluicing machine setups. That's the engineer in me.

 

[JGalt]

I have been panning around Michigan in areas where gold has been found before but I am a novice really. Could you describe how you went about choosing where to pan and if you found any gold, be it fine dust, flakes or nuggets? Also, what techniques did you use, like a sluice or rocker, or how you use the pan to concentrate the heavy materials?

Nope, but I did hunt for diamonds once in Murfreesboro, Arkansas near where I was born. It's the only diamond mine in the US.

Crater of Diamonds State Park | Murfreesboro, AR | Arkansas.com

One day of digging and sluicing mud through a sieve under the hot sun was more than enough for me. All I found was a pull tab from a beer can. We Arkansans likes us some beer.

 

[toobfreak]

No but I watch the gold miner shows, I like to see the designs of the different sluicing machine setups. That's the engineer in me.

There are a couple of good TV series I've watched, one is mostly guys sluicing in the Yukon regions that were given up on years ago by traditional methods. They use huge amounts of water during the summer in the far north to free up fine gold bound in the permafrost and mine it, usually with pretty good success. Another show I've watched I think is called Aussie gold hunters, where they bake in intense SW Australian heat and hunt for nuggets in the outback with metal detectors and often find big nuggets of gold in the soil!

 

[JustAnotherNut]

There are a couple of good TV series I've watched, one is mostly guys sluicing in the Yukon regions that were given up on years ago by traditional methods. They use huge amounts of water during the summer in the far north to free up fine gold bound in the permafrost and mine it, usually with pretty good success. Another show I've watched I think is called Aussie gold hunters, where they bake in intense SW Australian heat and hunt for nuggets in the outback with metal detectors and often find big nuggets of gold in the soil!

Hubs used to say Australia has the largest undisturbed gold field(?) in the world. And that is where the "Hand of Faith' nugget came from.

 

[d0gbreath]

I panned a little when we lived in Alaska. We went to a tourist trap that allowed you to pan in the stream. They put my accumulated dusk into a small glass vial which I probably lost 60 years ago.

 

[Resnic]

Neighbor I had was retired and he panned for good for fun in a little Miami river in ohio and paid for his big ass pickup truck after a year of doing it part time.

The only information he imparted to me was he did it after winter, especially if it was ever below freezing. He said when the ground freezes and then thaws you find more flakes or whatever in the very early spring. Said he found more in the spring than he did during summer and fall combined.

That's about all I remember, I don't have time to do it so I never looked into it too much.

First thing you need is to find a good gold digger.

View attachment 987314

That would be Jill Biden. She is the ultimate gold digger.

The other one is an evil, coniving, ruthless bitch and the other is just an highly successful idiot that slutted herself to the top. Not sure they are gold diggers.

 

[Roy C]

Gold panning. Is that euphemism for sugar mama?

 

[Michigan Swampbuck]

The Hand of Faith nugget is unbelievably huge. I've found a number of tiny flakes so small they are hard to pick out and hard to see in the specimen vial, but they are there. I've tried the snuffer, an eyedropper and the like while it is in the water, but a knife point or even a pin works the best.

Gold is a lot heavier than the rest of the material and it wants to stay put on the bottom of the pan. Swishing and rocking the pan at the proper rate and angle can tease up the smaller flakes. Also, I've found that removing the magnetite from the black sand with the magnet tool works best when the black sand is dry.

ETA: I've found the flakes after going down a foot and a half to the gravel bed. I think that I'll run the upper foot of sand through the sluice, then screen and pan the gravel. This way I don't have to deal with all that sand and I'll get a better idea of what is down in the lower deposits.

If I can find some flakes here, I should be ready to find something better in other regions like the Upper Peninsula where these local deposits originally came from due to the melting glaciers.

 

[JustAnotherNut]

The Hand of Faith nugget is unbelievably huge. I've found a number of tiny flakes so small they are hard to pick out and hard to see in the specimen vial, but they are there. I've tried the snuffer, an eyedropper and the like while it is in the water, but a knife point or even a pin works the best.

Gold is a lot heavier than the rest of the material and it wants to stay put on the bottom of the pan. Swishing and rocking the pan at the proper rate and angle can tease up the smaller flakes. Also, I've found that removing the magnetite from the black sand with the magnet tool works best when the black sand is dry.

ETA: I've found the flakes after going down a foot and a half to the gravel bed. I think that I'll run the upper foot of sand through the sluice, then screen and pan the gravel. This way I don't have to deal with all that sand and I'll get a better idea of what is down in the lower deposits.

If I can find some flakes here, I should be ready to find something better in other regions like the Upper Peninsula where these local deposits originally came from due to the melting glaciers.

If while panning you see some of those smaller flakes or 'flour' gold floating in the water??? Add a small drop of Dawn dish soap to the water in the pan. It will clean off whatever oils are in the pan or on the gold. Give it a few good swishes to penetrate all the material, then dip the pan into fresh water to get rid of the bubbles. Once the oils are gone, the gold should sink to the bottom.

Also, when you pan your materials........always do it over some kind of 'trap' to catch any gold that may come out of your pan. The smaller the gold, the lighter the weight of it