Gold Prospecting: A Good Plan & Preparations

Gold in the pan (Photo credit: anglerp1)

It’s the end of February and cabin fever has you stir crazy, you can’t wait to get out and find some of that elusive gold, the 2012 gold season is almost upon us for some it is already here. Now is the time to make preparations for your prospecting or small-scale mining adventures. It’s time to check your equipment and make sure it’s in good working order and make sure you have everything you need. I know for myself I need to pick up another crowbar I forgot mine in the river on our last dredging trip. Now is a good time to plan your prospecting adventure and this will determine your needs as far as equipment needed.

Some things you want to make sure you have for prospecting:

• Gold pan
• Shovels: a long-handled spade is good, a folding military entrenching tool works great, you can fold it at 90 degrees and it also doubles as a pick, I love mine. You should also have a garden trowel.
• 5 gallon bucket
• classifiers: a spaghetti strainer will work fine for test panning. Other wise you can buy various size classifiers that fit your 5 gallon bucket I find that these are a must for production.
• Crevicing tools to scratch out the cracks in ledge rock, these can produce some nice gold so don’t overlook them. You can make your own or you can buy them.
• Crowbar for prying rocks loose and breaking up that hard pack.
• Gold Vials
• Tweezers
• Snuffer Bottle for the flour gold.
• magnifying glass
• Backpack

You have found yourself a spot that contains a fair amount of gold already and you have decided that you would like to go into the production mode this would be more of a small-scale mining venture. A gold pan is just not practical for this type of venture, it is to time-consuming.

Image via Wikipedia

There is some really great equipment on the market today some equipment to consider:

• Sluice box
• Rocker box
• Highbanker
• Dredge
• Trommel

Where you plan on setting up operation, how much you are willing to spend will determine what you should get. Many states require a permit to use these items and permit cost vary from state to state as do regulations.

You may already have a lot of these items in your tool shed,  use them. Hit those yard sales and flea markets for the hand tools that you don’t have.The local hardware store is a good spot as well, some items you may be able to make yourself use your imagination. You could try Ebay but beware that you are not buying someone elses junk. We have just about everything a prospector or small-scale miner would ever need on our website at: http://www.appalachianprospectors.com

Sluice Box Set Up (Keene A52)

This is how I set up my sluice box, a Keene A 52. This will work for any sluice box.The recomended drop for the sluice box is 1 inch per foot, the Keene A52 is about 3 feet long so a 3 inch drop is good. Meaning that the feed end is 3 inches higher than the discharge end. I find that this varies to some degree depending on water flow. I don’t exceed 3 inches.

1. The first thing I do is locate a good flow of water as near as possible to the location I am going to be working. You don’t want to be lugging buckets of material long distances this will cost you time and reduce production. There are times when you may have to channel water to your sluice box. You accomplish this using river rocks building a small dam fanning out in a Y shape from the feed end of your sluice box. This will channel water flow down through the sluice box.
2. Place the sluice box in the flow of water. I try to get about half to three-quarters of an inch of water flowing through the sluice.
3. Level the sluice box from side to side and I set my desired drop. I don’t get a ruler out but roughly 3 inches. I bought a stand for mine with adjustable legs this makes it easier but rocks work just fine.
4. I check the flow by throwing a handful of rocks between a half-inch and an inch or so into the feed end of the sluice box. If the rocks blow right through then reduce the water flow. If the rocks stop in the sluice box then increase the water flow. The rocks should tumble smoothly through. Once I have this I place a large flat rock on top of the sluice box to hold it firmly in place.
5. Next I shovel a scoop (garden trowel) of material into the sluice. I first classify the material I am working through a half-inch mesh screen (a classifier) into a bucket. I shovel this right into the flare and I am looking for it to move out of there in 5 to 10 seconds.
6. I start processing a bucket watching that the material is flowing evenly through the sluice. I watch for material building up more one side than the other if this is so I level it from side to side until I have even flow. I make sure the riffles are not clogging up if this happens then increase water flow. The opposite is the riffles are washing clean then decrease water flow. You will see gold collecting in the rubber matting and it will stay there while all the lighter material washes away.
7. Clean up is easy just pick the sluice box straight up out of the water being careful not to tip your discharge end to low causing water to gush through this could wash some of your gold out. Put the discharge end into a 5 gallon bucket. disconnect the riffles, take your gold pan with water in it and pour down through the sluice into the bucket. Remove the riffles, remove the expanded metal grating after rinsing it. Slide or roll the carpet or miners moss wich ever you have into the bucket, rinse sluice box thoroughly clean. Check the ribbed matting for gold and remove then set aside. Rinse out you carpet or miners moss then you are ready to process your concentrates.

Notice the flow of water in this picture. Also notice the rock on top holding the sluice box in place. I had recovered some very fine gold.

Notice the water flow here on the feed end this worked very well for us we had recovered some nice pickers and some very fine gold as well.

 Cleaning up the sluice box.

You may have to tweak this process, experiment and have fun with it.

Prospector’s Forum

We have added more discussion topics at www.appalachianprospectors.com so stop by click on the forum tab and join in on the discussion. Together we can create an informative prospecting forum. Weather its gold prospecting, rock, gem or mineral collecting, metal detecting or treasure hunting your input would br greatly valued. If you don’t find a discussion topic you would like to join in on start a new one.

Gold Bugs First Bite

I was 5 years old when I was first bitten by the gold bug, although the gold fever was dormant for many years this is how it started for me. My grandmother Alice Canon was an avid rockhound and gold prospector, I had always taken an interest in her rock collection and her gold that she found. One year about 1970 my grandparents took us,my family dad, mom,  sis and me to Byron Maine for a gold prospecting get away. We stayed in a pretty rustic camp, which I thought was awesome. Now my memory of this trip is sketchy but one thing I do remember for sure is that I was in the back of my grandfather’s ford bronco riding down this dirt road, it was really more like a trail, I can remember trying to drink a can of soda and when I tried to take a drink we would hit a bump and I would spill the soda all over my face and down the front of me, to be honest with you I think my grandfather was doing this on purpose he got a big kick out of it hahaha. We drove to the end of this road and parked, we got out and we forded a river, the East Branch of the Swift River, on the other side was an old rail road bed which the tracks had long been gone. We followed this rail trail down river, I couldn’t tell you how far I couldn’t judge distance very well at that age, but it seemed like a long way to me. We finally reached our destination, my grandfather said this is it and down over the bank sat this curious little camp in the middle of nowhere with a meticulous garden alongside the river. My Grandfather announced this is Carl’s’ place and we walked on into his humble camp. My grandparents introduced us to Carl Shilling The gold miner as they called him they also refered to him as the old prospector or the old hermit. Carl was and still is a bit of a local legend when it comes to prospecting. Carl had been living in that location roughly forty years when we met him that day, he had migrated to the United States from Germany. Carl was in his 80′s at this time.We were not the only ones there that day, there were a few others there as well, but they were out in the middle of the river panning for gold, they were green horns. I remember Carl shouting out to them asking ” Did you find anything” they just shook their heads and replied “no.”  I could see them panning and not having very good luck, so the next thing you know Carl is heading out to their location and he gives them a demonstration, he takes their pan and shovels some material into it and he starts to pan and he works it down and he is pointing in the pan saying see there it is there’s the gold.He did a few more pans and came up with gold every time. Then he brought them back to the shore and he told them you really want to find some nice gold come over here, he brought them to a location on the bank and he told them here dig here, dig down about four feet and that’s where you are going to find the best gold. He came back over to visit with us. My parents, grandparents and he spoke for a while, I don’t recall what they spoke of but I am sure it had something to do with gold, and if my grandfather had anything to do with it I am sure they talked about fishing. I do remember one story that he told it was about a certain bear that had crashed through his house and I believe that he said the roof, to get to his stores, it was bacon or something. He invited us into his cabin. Upon entering the first thing you noticed was a large American flag hanging on his wall and I remember him saying that this American flag was his most prized possession and he loved the United States and that this was his country and he said it with such feeling and conviction that you know he ment it. We had left Carl’s camp,and I had left with a lasting impression, one that forty some odd years later I still remember. I had often thought of the old miner living on the East Branch of the Swift River. How he lived out in the wilderness, no electricity, no television growing his own vegetables, hunting for wild game, I thought he must have been one rugged individual living out there through those hard Maine winters all those years. I also thought he must have found a great deal of gold. The rest of our stay in Byron was a good one I enjoyed the rustic cabin we stayed in, it was very comfortable we had fun, it was a great family experience. The years had passed and I would visit my grandparents, I would spend time going over my grandmothers rock collection and admiring her gold from various places and talking about the old miner up in Byron Maine. If you care to read more about Carl Shilling you can find more of his story in a book by C. J. Stevens called The Next Bend In The River, Gold Mining In Maine, This is a very informative book with a lot of information about prospecting in Maine, you can find this book at www.appalachianprospectors.com in our on-line general store.

These photos were taken by my Grandparents George and Alice Cannon between the years 1967 and 1970, they had frequented the area much.

Intersection of Dingle Hill RD and Buckfield Hill RD

View of Carl Shillins camp from the rail road bed

A view of Carl Shillings camp from the rail road bed

Carl Shilling's camp along side of the East Branch of the Swift River

Side view of Carl Shillings cabin

The front of Carl Shillings cabin

The camp we stayed in, located on Weld Road

School house Byron Maine

Byron Maine

My grandmother panning for gold

My grandmother & friends panning for gold in the East Branch of the Swift River

Coos Canyon, Byron Maine

Swift River,Byron Maine

Coos Canyon in Byron Maine

Coos Canyon in Byron Maine

Coos Canyon in Byron Maine

My Grandmother Alice Cannon

My Grandfather George Cannon, he did more fishing than prospecting.

New Web Site

Check out Appalachian Prospectors new web site at www.appalachianprospectors.com it’s not quite finished yet but it will be a continual work of progress.

Shawangunk Lead Mine

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It was early spring and I had the itch to do some prospecting. I had been surfing the web all winter and I came across this mine, the Shawangunk lead mine also known as the Mamakating lead mine, this place is not far from home near Wurtsboro NY. I had asked my wife Doris if she would be interested in going to check it out with me. I told her that it would be a somewhat strenuous hike up a mountain and that I was not quite sure the exact location and that we had to find it, she said yes. We put our son on the school bus, packed a lunch and we were off. We parked at the VFW which is an old rail road depot and we hiked down the old rail bed this is all state land, the tracks are long since gone. We hiked down this for almost a mile until we came to a road to the right that goes up the mountain. It was the second road which we should have taken the first road we came to. We followed this road and it split, I chose the wrong way so we back tracked to the split and took the other road. It was a beautiful day, the sun shone brightly it was a great day for a hike and we were glad to be out of the house. It took us about two hours to reach the mine adit. When we arrived we sat down on a large rock with a spectacular view of the valley below overlooking the Wurtsboro air port. After we finished our lunch we explored the site, the adit had been filled in so that people can not enter the shaft. On the side of safety it is a good idea to stay out of old mines for they tend to be unstable. This particular shaft has probably not been worked for over 100 years. Stay out, stay alive, keep that in mind while visiting old mines. There was a huge tailing pile, so I pulled out my rock hammer and went to work while Doris gave the metal detector a try. This is what you can find at this site: Galena; Sphalerite ;Quartz; Pyrite; Chalcopyrite; Muscovite. We easily found all of these specimens. I had read in a geological report that this mine also contained small amounts of silver and minute amounts of gold. I have some specimens that may contain gold, I don’t know yet I have to crush the rock and then pan it, I am saving that for a winter project to help stave off the gold fever.

For more information on this mine go to www.nyow.org/mamakating.html

The Bare Essentials

These are the bare essentials for gold prospecting, this is all you need to get started. A gold pan, shovel, tweezers and a vile to put your gold in.

There are numerous types of gold pans, notice this one has  two sets of rifles. The rifles are there to catch the gold, the larger ones are for working your material down and the smaller ones are for finishing. This pan is black, this is my personal preference because it is easier for me to see and retrieve the gold from. Gold pans come in different colors and various sizes made of plastic, it is good to choose one that has a little flexibility not one that is brittle that way if you should step on it don’t break.

Here are two different colors and three different sizes. A 14, 12, 10 inch pan. The 10 inch is for finishing also great for children to use. The 12 inch is lighter than the 14 inch when panning material. I have a harder time seeing the gold in the blue pan, my wife on the other hand has no problem.

Here is a green pan, the rifles in this one are a little larger. The magnetite or black sands show up very well in this pan. This is my second choice.

Here is a metal pan, notice that there are no rifles in this pan. There is more of a chance of losing gold with this one. This pan was my grandmothers pan and I usually bring it on every gold prospecting trip and I do use it and I do find gold with it. It also works good as a wash basin, I can heat water up in it on the camp stove and wash my face. The type of gold pan you use is really a matter of preference. I would suggest starting with either the 14 inch black pan with the two sets of rifles or the 14 inch green one.

You want to have a good set of tweezers to retrieve your gold with. I prefer the ones that are curved at the business end and come down to a nice point. You will also need a vile or small bottle to put your gold in, you don’t want to try to put it in you pocket, you will lose it for sure, unless it’s a nice big nugget.

Here is an alternative to the tweezers and vile, this is a snuffer bottle you use it to suck the gold from the bottom of your pan. This works great for the small stuff and the flour gold, gold dust. I use this as well as tweezers, if I can’t get the gold with the tweezers I use this. The gold dust adds up so don’t throw it away.

Here is Hillbilly John using his tweezers to put the gold he retrieved from his pan into his vile.

Here are some tools you may want to add but not necessary to get started with. These tools I use for crevising. crevising is when you dig in the cracks of the ledge rock I have various sizes for different applications. the small ones are nothing more than scribing tools I bought a Lowes, an awl the long one I made and they all work great. You may even want a magnifying glass.