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New to this "gold thing"..., Not even a member of a club yet... just need pointed in the right dire
ChuckD
post Apr 25 2017, 08:24 AM
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After reading my previous post, I feel I need to clarify something...
After putting the sample pak into the pan, I introduced the water, made a few circular and back and forth motions to stratify. I tilted the pan forward to get everything (remember, only a teaspoon of material) down into the front "v" of the pan. It was at this point that I first looked into the pan. The tan sands and everything else was in the "V"... but the "gold dust" looking stuff was all over the bottom of the pan. I don't know if that helps or not but I was worried I had made it sound like the sample was nothing BUT the "glittering" material, and completely devoid of sand...
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ChuckD
post Apr 25 2017, 08:35 AM
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After reading my previous post, I feel I need to clarify something...
After putting the sample pak into the pan, I introduced the water, made a few circular and back and forth motions to stratify. I tilted the pan forward to get everything (remember, only a teaspoon of material) down into the front "v" of the pan. It was at this point that I first looked into the pan. The tan sands and everything else was in the "V"... but the "gold dust" looking stuff was all over the bottom of the pan. I don't know if that helps or not but I was worried I had made it sound like the sample was nothing BUT the "glittering" material, and completely devoid of sand...
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MikeS
post Apr 25 2017, 09:56 AM
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Sounds like you are seeing mica or pyrite in the pan Chuck. If the material is washing around easily with the water then it is likely not gold. Gold should try to stay put more than all the other material in the pan. The black sand should move more easily then the gold. When the material is agitated or stratified the gold should be working toward the bottom and not the top. Sometimes the lighter material wants to stick to the pan. I recommend washing your pan with dish soap before panning. I also like to add a drop of soap into the pan with the material to prevent stuff sticking to the pan and it helps keep any material from floating on the surface. Small gold flakes will sometimes "float" on the water from surface tension. This happens more often when starting with dry material.

Hope this helps! thumbsupsmileyanim.gif


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ChuckD
post Apr 25 2017, 02:20 PM
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QUOTE (MikeS @ Apr 25 2017, 11:56 AM) *
Sounds like you are seeing mica or pyrite in the pan Chuck. If the material is washing around easily with the water then it is likely not gold. Gold should try to stay put more than all the other material in the pan. The black sand should move more easily then the gold. When the material is agitated or stratified the gold should be working toward the bottom and not the top. Sometimes the lighter material wants to stick to the pan. I recommend washing your pan with dish soap before panning. I also like to add a drop of soap into the pan with the material to prevent stuff sticking to the pan and it helps keep any material from floating on the surface. Small gold flakes will sometimes "float" on the water from surface tension. This happens more often when starting with dry material.

Hope this helps! thumbsupsmileyanim.gif

Again, thanks for the response and the advice. I'm glad to hear that someone with experience thinks it was something other than gold. It definitely wasn't "working it's way to the bottom of the pan". Upon first receiving my pan, I did scrub it several times with soap. I then placed some coarse sand and small gravel in the pan and "swirled" it around for three minutes or so in an attempt to "season" the pan. I did not, however add a drop of soap to the pan when I was getting ready to actually pan out that sample. I will keep that in mind for the future. Again, thanks.
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johnnybravo300
post Apr 25 2017, 02:34 PM
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Make sure your pan is seasoned well too. The factory oils on the pan, greasy or sun screened fingers are all it takes to change surface tension. A drop of soap works wonders like Mike said. YouTube can teach ya.

Gold is so much heavier it's sinks immediately so have faith that it's buried at the bottom. It's actually not easy to lose gold like most people think so just practice with your gold and add more material as you get better. You'll be amazed at how easy it stays in the pan really.
Also learn the "tap and wash" on Docs video. There are good videos on YouTube and Doc from Gold Hog and Jeff Williams have tons. Doc talks and waves his hands around more than I can usually stand to watch but it's good info and I rarely need to keep my concentrates after learning that technique!

Your pan is your most important tool so practice until you feel good about it and you'll get much faster too. I probably use my pan more than any other tool besides my shovel!
You'll have an advantage learning all you can before your trip like your doing so you can just get on the gold and not mess around! Good job studying up!


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ChuckD
post Apr 25 2017, 05:43 PM
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JB300...
Thanks for the info. I've watched endless hours of YouTube videos, and will continue. And I remember the exact video you're referring to with "Doc" seperating the black sands from the gold via that "tap" method. I remember him stressing the importance of keeping your "non-pan holding hand" still, and actually tapping the pan into the hand, rather than tapping the pan with your hand. It's good to be reassured by experienced people that I'm on the right track. Being as I'm so far away from where there's actually any likelihood of finding any gold, and ZERO chance of finding any like-minded individuals to share ideas or discuss the subject with, you guys on here are all I've got! I've mentioned to a couple family members and friends what I'm wanting to do, and they look at me like I'm nuts! So, just let me know if I start bugging you folks too much with questions or get off-subject too often, or perhaps post topics in the wrong place... just know that I'm pretty excited about learning this stuff and one can only watch so many videos before they feel they need to talk to an actual living, breathing person. Someone that is already doing what I can only hope to do someday. You've got to know that the mountains and streams full of melting snow in Colorado, with gold in them, seem a LONG ways off to a man down here in south Texas- where it's almost 90 degrees and I'm surrounded by land so flat that I can see fifteen miles in any direction.
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Crusty
post Apr 26 2017, 08:19 AM
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Not sure what a teaspoon of paydirt is gonna teach you. you actually determine of any of it was gold? Once you know how gold acts in a pan, there is no mistaking it. Find some good paydirt and practice with it. We've got more small stuff here in Colorado than anything, so find something that has like material.

This place has good reviews from what I've seen and gives a good return for your money. No personal interest, just one of the places I've never heard anything bad about. Not sure how fine their gold is, but they do make sure you get some good stuff. http://www.goldbay.com/paydirt-for-sale/


As mentioned above, panning is the most basic and essential skill you'll need, so glad yo hear you're practicing!


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ChuckD
post Apr 26 2017, 10:32 AM
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QUOTE (Crusty @ Apr 26 2017, 10:19 AM) *
Not sure what a teaspoon of paydirt is gonna teach you. you actually determine of any of it was gold? Once you know how gold acts in a pan, there is no mistaking it. Find some good paydirt and practice with it. We've got more small stuff here in Colorado than anything, so find something that has like material.

This place has good reviews from what I've seen and gives a good return for your money. No personal interest, just one of the places I've never heard anything bad about. Not sure how fine their gold is, but they do make sure you get some good stuff. http://www.goldbay.com/paydirt-for-sale/


As mentioned above, panning is the most basic and essential skill you'll need, so glad yo hear you're practicing!

Yes sir, there were three confirmed small flakes in the sample pak. After looking at reviews by others on YouTube, the three flakes seems to be the norm for the sample pak. I do also have a bag of paydirt that I ordered from goldhog. It's the 1/4 gram bag for around 25 dollars. The actual weight of the bag is a little over 2 lbs. I haven't even opened it yet, because like I said before, I was so discouraged with what happened with that sample pak, I was afraid I'd lose every bit of gold in there. But after researching a little more and talking to you guys, I'm pretty sure that it was mica that was giving me fits. What I plan on doing is panning the gold hog paydirt into another pan so that I can save it and pan it over and over for practice. I've heard/read that goldhog's paydirt has very fine gold in it and I figured it would be pretty close to what was usually found in Colorado. I even got a file out and filed down some lead shot and was practicing with that as well. Best I can figure, gold is about 1.7 ? times the weight of lead, so I thought that if I could get halfway decent panning the lead filings, it would help with my overall skills.
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johnnybravo300
post Apr 26 2017, 11:14 AM
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Once you get the feel of the pan try shaking more aggressively and washing larger amounts off the top faster and experiment with just how fast you can actually pan a bucket of material down.
Like I said, you'll be surprised at how well the gold is retained and protected underneath and how fast you can pan down a bucket of material.

Throw your gold into a bucket and pan it all down a pan at a time just reducing to black sands each time and do a clean up at the end of the bucket. The gold should still be there pan after pan if you keep it at the bottom corner and in the bottom riffle.

You can get through a bucket pretty fast with a pan.


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ChuckD
post Apr 26 2017, 12:24 PM
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QUOTE (johnnybravo300 @ Apr 26 2017, 01:14 PM) *
Once you get the feel of the pan try shaking more aggressively and washing larger amounts off the top faster and experiment with just how fast you can actually pan a bucket of material down.
Like I said, you'll be surprised at how well the gold is retained and protected underneath and how fast you can pan down a bucket of material.

Throw your gold into a bucket and pan it all down a pan at a time just reducing to black sands each time and do a clean up at the end of the bucket. The gold should still be there pan after pan if you keep it at the bottom corner and in the bottom riffle.

You can get through a bucket pretty fast with a pan.

That's all good to hear, about the getting through a bucket pretty quick. I'm sure it'll be awhile before I get to that skill level. BTW, I just paid up for my membership, (decided to do a year for now, and see how I adapt to this whole gold thing).
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Crusty
post Apr 26 2017, 12:41 PM
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Lead is indeed a good substitute. You'll often find bird shot with your gold.

Get one of the big black mortar mixing tubs from lowes/hoe depot. They're great panning tubs. Don't forget a few drops of jet dry. Get some of the materiel from the creek you're checking out and mix up the materiel you're panning, so you're used to working different ,arterial.

Congrats on the club membership! Welcome!


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ChuckD
post Apr 26 2017, 01:02 PM
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QUOTE (Crusty @ Apr 26 2017, 02:41 PM) *
Lead is indeed a good substitute. You'll often find bird shot with your gold.

Get one of the big black mortar mixing tubs from lowes/hoe depot. They're great panning tubs. Don't forget a few drops of jet dry. Get some of the materiel from the creek you're checking out and mix up the materiel you're panning, so you're used to working different ,arterial.

Congrats on the club membership! Welcome!

You know, I've heard others talking about "bird shot" and I've been wondering if that was some kind of slang term for something else or if they were actually talking about bird shot! Thanks for clearing that up. I didn't want to ask and have you guys shaking your heads!
And THANKS for the welcome.
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relicsncoins
post Apr 26 2017, 02:25 PM
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Here is a decent video by Freddy Dodge about gold panning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCL6FKQZyoM
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ChuckD
post Apr 26 2017, 03:15 PM
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QUOTE (relicsncoins @ Apr 26 2017, 04:25 PM) *
Here is a decent video by Freddy Dodge about gold panning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCL6FKQZyoM

Thanks for the link. That is a good video. One question I do have at this point is this... Let's say I've added a couple drops of jet dry to my pan...Can I count on even the smallest particles of gold working their way to the bottom of my pan when stratifying vigorously? Even the particles that are the size of a grain of table salt?
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Crusty
post Apr 26 2017, 03:37 PM
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QUOTE (ChuckD @ Apr 26 2017, 03:15 PM) *
Thanks for the link. That is a good video. One question I do have at this point is this... Let's say I've added a couple drops of jet dry to my pan...Can I count on even the smallest particles of gold working their way to the bottom of my pan when stratifying vigorously? Even the particles that are the size of a grain of table salt?


All jet dry does is keep it from floating. Doesn't change panning method. You;ve still got to work it all down, pan some off, work it down and repeat until all you've got is the shiny stuff!!


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