How Deep Do I Dig When Panning?

How Deep Do I Dig When Panning?

This is a good question! At times and in places you may not find any gold on the surface and need to go to bed rock so they say. Then on the other hand the gold may only be in the first few feet of wash and nothing on the bottom. Why would that be you may ask well it goes back to the early days when the old timers did the area they cleaned out the bottoms and now the gold is finding it’s way back down again. As a rule of thumb you pan everything from top to bottom taking note of what type of material is left in each pan, this gives you the indicators for the area in which you are working. Some people use a sieve while panning but unless you know how to gravitate your sieve then it is not a good idea to use them. You will miss any larger size gold which will not go through the sieve. If it was me testing an area I would start at the top and go as far as I could weather gold was present or not I would also check for a false bottom. If I was not using my Banjo and only panning I would find where the indicators for the area I was working were concentrated and work that area. Taking note at which level gave the most colour per dish and that would be the level I would work at. Sure there may be gold below but at a much poorer value. The way I see it is like this you need to get the maximum returns for your effort spent. The same rule applies for using a Banjo. What are your views on this subject I would love to hear what you think.
Cheers
James 101

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JB 26/4/2011

Hey james,
Just spent the last few days with skysite on the turon river sluiceing and panning
most of all the gold that we got came from a level of about 200mm that we had dug
the deeper we went down the less we got i ended up with a few grams but dave stay
a few more days ended up with more i will let him say how much he got,
tryed out one of those EZ Sluice from the states cost 38.00 bucks they work a treat..

Happy panning and sluiceing
Goldrocs

This topic has more questions than answers? If your panning an old favorite spot, then recent floods could have the gold at every level depending on the severity of the flood waters!
If on the other hand your panning waters simply because your imagination said give it a go, If gold was recovered you need to find out if gold has been previously found in that water course? If No then get your butt higher in the hills and do it quickly? I always chose to move in leaps, go 2km up stream, if nothing come back a km, if something go up 500 yards.
Rather than the old school of slowly panning up stream until the colors run out, which can take weeks? The walls have ears, especially when it comes to GOLD.

Goldrocs mate I am glade ya found some gold it makes the trip worth while indeed. I have heard those EZ Sluice Are ok and work well.
Someday mate thanks for your input, the more minds we get tougher the more choices we get. Great points indeed. Cheers.

someday wrote:This topic has more questions than answers? If your panning an old favorite spot, then recent floods could have the gold at every level depending on the severity of the flood waters!
If on the other hand your panning waters simply because your imagination said give it a go, If gold was recovered you need to find out if gold has been previously found in that water course? If No then get your butt higher in the hills and do it quickly? I always chose to move in leaps, go 2km up stream, if nothing come back a km, if something go up 500 yards.
Rather than the old school of slowly panning up stream until the colors run out, which can take weeks? The walls have ears, especially when it comes to GOLD.

I can agree with most of what your saying and in a perfect world a man wouldn't have to worry about "the walls have ears" but unfortunately there are some who will just sit back and let others do the hard yards and then just move in. and in that I couldn't agree more "someday"

G'day Someday,

Yes, you are right, there are endless questions when it comes to finding concentrations of Gold. In the end, both you and James are doing the same thing - only a little differently.

Concentrations of fine Gold are usually found where waterflow has dropped them. Sometimes in a gravel bar, sometimes on the inside of a bend in the stream, sometimes where streamflow exits a pinched area and the waterflow slows down and sometimes from old concentrations which have been breached by the wandering stream. Sometimes those events happened many, many years (or centuries) ago and they now reside underneath later layers of flood material. That is why unraveling a stream's secrets is so challenging.

As an example, I mine in Alaska and there I tend to usually mine in very small mountain streams which flow down mountains. For the most part these steep streams are called 'melt streams' and result from snow melt (and rainfall) which gathers from melting snow within the higher ground. The mountains gather the water in the spring and slowly release it during the warmer months.

This is in an area which had glacial activity in the past and that activity completely filled all of the mountain valleys, to the top, with rubble. Over hundreds of centuries that rubble breaks down due to weathering and slowly washes away downstream, which usually leaves all but the smallest Gold behind to concentrate in place.

While this is, I'm sure, much different than your Gold fields, there will be certain aspects which are similar. Closer to the source, the larger Gold sizes will concentrate in the same stream activity as smaller ones, only the smallest Gold will be more active in then traveling far downstream. In the end, in a given streambed, there will be simultaneous migration situations for the Gold.

Generally the finest Gold (we call it "Flood Gold") is mostly found far downstream from the head of the stream. By working upstream (if that stream bed hasn't moved) the Gold will become more plentiful and slowly will show increases in size. In my case, I almost always work to bedrock - unless - a glacial deposit of clay is found. In that case, water action and natural settling may leave the Gold on top of this 'false bedrock'. Depending on other circumstances the top of that clay layer may be as deep as you ever need to go. Only testing to bedrock will tell for sure.

Of course, the vital key to all this is to have tested the various ins and outs where you work. In your case, your testing interval might be much larger than other areas, and by traveling longer intervals between test locations you could be galloping to the best concentrations upstream. On the other hand, when you get to the areas with better concentrations and bigger Gold you, too, will have to slow up to 'fine tune' the best Gold.

So, it would seem that there are a variety of specifics here, all doing the same thing.

... and then, of course, there is always luck, too.

Oh, even the airplanes that fly overhead have ears where I work.


******************************

Goldrocs, Good to hear that you are finding some
Gold!

I used an EZ Sluice a number of years ago, but rather than stream bed material (or classified material) I used it to concentrate my concentrates. We put some different types of 'carpet' in it to help recover the various shapes of Gold at that location. It worked quite well, too.

Hi Guys,
Thanks james your imput and scope on these questions is tops
keep up the good work...
KAEOJ Hope it's not to cold to sluice i'll try a few different sorts of carpet
Thanks guys...
Goldrocs;;;

Someday has stated a very important point {panning waters simply because your imagination said give it a go} this statement has more importance than the new comer thinks. As with any task in life the most important part of performing that task is to have a general awareness or possession of information, facts, ideas, truths about the task you are performing. Research is just as important as prospecting itself, it can and will save you a lot of work.
cheers James 101

Hi guys. When I stated how far my leaps up stream were I should have clarified a bit better.
Obviously "with a tad of exaggeration" If your panning 1 once nuggets? then your next move if any would be about 10 feet to see if you can start panning kilo nuggets? Hmm.
Being able to read what's in your pan & the history of that area would be the most important skill you can learn!

Back to depth's, I've sample panned deep diggings where some of the old timers dug to deep, digging way past the clay layer which in a lot of cases is actually decomposed bed rock! We need to remember how old this planet we inhabit really is?
Cheers~Chris.

One other point a new comer needs to keep in mind is to think out side of the square. What i mean by this is to check areas within the system you are working that should not hold gold. Sure the books tell you where the gold is placed in an ideal system, but mother nature well she plays tricks on you. The prospector must use his eyes take your time to look around do this and you can be well rewarded at times.
cheers
James 101

That reminds me of a miner over here who explained that he found exceptional Gold recovery on the Outside Bend of a stream.

It turned out that in that specific situation, Gold was simply found where an ancient concentration had just left it, originally. The Gold had just dropped in place.

KAEOJ wrote:That reminds me of a miner over here who explained that he found exceptional Gold recovery on the Outside Bend of a stream.

It turned out that in that specific situation, Gold was simply found where an ancient concentration had just left it, originally. The Gold had just dropped in place.

Grin Kaeoj yes it does happen and im itching to get back to the spot !! man its gona be good . A lot of people just read "how to prospect books " and then never challenge what they have read in the field! Mother nature is a B###H sometimes and if you think you are goin to understand all there is to know about a certain area by "just readin about it " you are sadly mistaken Sure you are going to have frustrating times trying to work out an area but over a period of time you will be a much better gold miner for it .

{Mother nature is a B###H sometimes} Murachu how true is that man she has given us the run around at times hey. grin grin

Just another note< thought! When we consider what depth alluvial gold could be found, Can we start to perceive the fact that Victoria's high country umpteen million years ago,
Was in fact eroded away to nothing more than a few hard hills that resisted the erosion process's?
Our Alpine country which stood tall was gone! And now it's back.
So where left to ponder this phenomenal activity. I would hate to do the maths on area and volume of re'distributed soil & rocks, now laying idle on flat country & out to sea?
And or was our flat country full of hill's leveled flat from an abundance of shifted Alpine rock now filling the valleys, so all we see now is flat country where once upon a time could well have been magnificent falls & forests?
This is unfortunately where our deep leads come from, so how deep? bugger me!

Someday mate your dead right. Grin it makes your head spin indeed. This has been a good topic I have enjoyed the ideas. Thanks guys. cheers

I posted this some time back, thought i would bump it back to the top there is some good information here.
cheers
James

Lots of good info here for a new bloke like me, have enjoyed reading this thread and have learnt a bit to.cheers ashley

Hi All,

If Im down to the clay is that considered the bottom or do I need to get to the rock. I find as soon as I get to the clay Im getting nothing but I feel thats probably because its sticking to the gold and Im losing it. What is everyones opinions on it and can I get rid of clay?

whats go'n on here, this spot died
wheres James when you need him

Matt, not all clay can be classed in the same box, hard pack clay, soft mushy clay!
terrace clay, river clay, top of a hill clay, clay met with volcanism, not sure if that's a word?
Soft gravelly fealing clay has a better chance of containing gold than the smooth silky void of that gravelly gritty feel.
on the other side of the coin, the smooth silky could have gold below the clay layer, the clay has formed on top of an old run!
a hand Auger will be your best friend albeit with plenty of swearing..