Goldpanning

There is a lot to be learned when it comes to gold panning

and placer mining, more then I can cover on my little site,

please follow my links to sites that can truly teach you all you

need to know and equip you with the right tools, but lets touch

on what

I have learned

looks promising in the first place.

- First off your stream should be unregulated, which means

no damns, which can control or eliminate the spring flooding

necessary

to churn and move about the minerals that are

found in the stream bed.

- Second your stream should be located in a Mineral rich

area. The most

obvious

way to detect this is if there was

historic mining taking place, but looking at the geological

formations can help. Soft

Sedimentary

rock such as

Sandstone is usually not the best choice, hard rock such as

Quarts and Feldspar is more apt to contain heavy minerals

such as Gold and of course if the

is black sand present,

which is often

Galena

a.k.a.

Lead

, this is a good sign.

-Third,

Gold being heavy needs some swift water flow to

move it to

where you are, so the lazy snake-like stream will

rarely

lead

success

, what you are looking for is white

water and

waterfalls indicating a quick

elevation

drop. This

rapid water

movement will add to the

spring

flooding churning

up the

expanded

boundary's

of the creek bed and washing

the Gold

down to you.

-fourth and finally you need to think like a nugget of gold

and ask yourself where would I sink. This spot could be the

pay streak so look for where the water flow slows down

significantly, the inside of bends, where the stream levels out

after a steeper run and the down stream sides of large

boulders and other obstacles is often where the highly dense

materials can concentrate. Don't forget to think out side of

the creek bed, try to imagine what the creek would have

looked like during the flood because the best rock formations

that can help the

prospector

are those that trap dense

materials during the flood. Look for gravel bars, to include

ones found on the inside of a bend,( usually very fine flakes

but some times a lot of them) newly formed and up on high

benches out side of the banks of the creek. Check where the

creek levels out after a rapid or waterfall and where a

obstacle is in the shortest, straightest path down the

creek

bed

. Investigate all cracks and pot holes in the bedrock,

moss and grass roots near the creek and any place else you

can think of because as they say " Gold is where you find it".

I hope this may help you when you are out there, but first

you need to be out there, I doubt there is any gold under you

recliner.

learn more about prospecting and to get set up

with the proper equipment please explore some of these

Links.