Ever pan for gold? Would you?...like Goldrush or 49ers.

seebelow

Hi guys,

First of all I'm in absolutely no way associated with miners, panners or the show Goldrush. And have only been to Alaska for a layover on our way to Japan. Didn't go up into the mountains. Although they were beautiful.
Just thought I'd share something interesting.

I saw where you can buy a bucket of "paydirt" from a real mining operation in Alaska. They make it sound like they're a big well-known mining company. It's a sealed bucket of dirt and they state they actually add some gold nuggets in order to guarantee you find some gold. As I read, people buy it for panning parties. When I checked a couple days later the price moved up 20 bucks so tied to the market.

I was reminded of this buy the "apmex 15 oz grab bag of silver" thread. Where the OP was looking to get a little more bang or ounces for his buck. Essentially treasure hunting.

Anyone do this? Fun? How much gold did you end up "panning"? Or is it an absolute scam? I'm thinking the kids may enjoy this if they can get some visible gold flakes.

Timbuk3

I've tried it once many years ago
when I was in Breckinridge, CO.
It was a blast. Spent the whole
day there. Found a few but it
wasn't much. Wish I was back
there doing it again !!!

DrBuster

There's a place in Helen GA that I've been that sells buckets for panning and gem buckets for searching. Only ever saw 1 guy get a 3-4mm little flake out of one of those buckets the couple times I've been there.

Coulport

Tried it a couple of times.

Just seemed like I was washing dirt that somebody had already washed.

topstuf

Did some panning. Then built a rocker.
Rocker is better. Got little.
Gold is valuable for a reason.

MsMorrisine

Would never buy a bucket of paydirt

I'd love to learn prospecting and hit some Alaskan streams

cohodk

Finding gold while panning is icing. Spending time in the outdoors, especially with kids is the cake.

ricko

I have panned for gold in CA, AZ, WA and New Zealand.....lots of fun.... those sacks of dirt usually just have a few flakes of gold dust in them and not worth the money. More chance in a good stream in gold country of finding some dust of appreciable amount. Cheers, RickO

Musky1011

Tried it in wisconsin.. Very little gold here.. Found more copper than gold... Glaciers have been here more than once

SaorAlba

Yes, in a very cold spring water fed creek on federal land in California. Hard work, did I mention the 34' water? Still have the gold somewhere. My family owned a gold mine in N. California until it was closed during WWII. When I was very young I remember sneaking a peak into the mine. My family owned the property until the mid 1970s.

Meltdown

I spent an entire summer panning almost an entire film canister of fools gold when I was a young teen. Didn't know it at the time... when you don't have any real gold to compare it to, it looks a LOT like the real thing!

Aside from that, I agree with Cohodk - getting oustide in a stream with a pan & shovel is a great way to spend an afternoon. Over the years, I've panned quite a bit of dust & flakes. Still looking for that lottery nugget though.

ARCO

I have panned a few times. I once had an avid enthusiast take me to a site in Utah that had been staked by a gold mining club. We spent the three or four hours panning and sluicing with a little machine we brought with us. It was the greatest fun. I loved every second of it. Afterward, we had a tiny glass tube with maybe 1.60 worth of gold.

If I had a place to go with some known placer deposits close by, I would take my kids during the summer and pan, camp, ride dirt bikes etc.

Tyler

DennisH

I never have, but I'm looking forward to trying it.

TJM965

gold

66Tbird

Spent a few summers with pan in hand. Rocker and sluice runs are better. Dredge will really get it done if there is plenty of H2O. The best was the big spinning bowl thingy. Can't recall the exact name but it's basically a centrifugal concentrator. 10hp pump to move water, another to spin the bowl and a backhoe to dump dirt in all day. Pull and pan the concentrats at night.

I was a surveying employee and had use of the claim so I'd pan the good dirt at night. (We all did) Made a few oz of placer each summer. Knowing where to go is key. Most sites are gone. Shooting tailings is a better bet score wise. It's probably best to take it as a nice outing with fresh air and exercise with a few flakes of gold to boot. Maybe a picker will show in your black sand. Let's hope.

TheRegulator

Below is some gold from one trip out to Wisconsin in September 2013. Most of the day yielded next to nothing, then right before leaving I managed to find one little hotspot. Basically a really well-shaped and positioned rock with some good flood gold. Classified about 1/2 gallon of material and then panned the gold at home. Good gold around here is pretty tough. It's pretty much all flour gold without bedrock. Flour gold deposits can be tricky and I still have a lot to learn. Still haven't found any go-to spots in Minnesota, although I have a few more ideas- mostly dry creeks which can be difficult to time.

Personally, I am not a fan of the idea of buying packaged paydirt. As others have stated, it's more fun to just get out there and earn it and do the best you can with what is available. Even if it isn't much. Check out the treasurenet forums on prospecting, as I know the topic has been discussed there.

mrpaseo

<< <i>Would never buy a bucket of paydirt

I'd love to learn prospecting and hit some Alaskan streams >>




^^^This.

seebelow

Looking at it objectively...The Gold rush people, the television show, are happy with $20-$40 per yard. I'm assuming that's cubic yards of pay dirt. So converting that to a 1 or 5 gallon $1000 bucket that they send it in. I would not even be close to obtaining even 10% of my money back. More like 1%. I know that's not the point of buying a bucket. But $1000 seems way steep to me. and better spent elsewhere.

Say....like a trip that all of you guys have shared. I think planning a mountain hike, camping and some panning for gold is def in our future. I'm amazed with how many of guys have done this. And seems all great experiences. And it'd be nice to have a little vial of gold to remind us. Or an ingot.

Meltdown,...I can't imagine going thru what u went thru. Mining all summer, fulling that can.."I'm gonna be rich!". And then...ugh.

Any specific mines or rivers that you'd recommend? About what's a fair price?

Keep sharing your experiences. Maybe I can convince them.
Thanks.

Musky1011

Have any of you tried "mossing"? It is done by going to the outside bends of the river.. Look for moss close to the water line.. The moss will sometimes hold the gold that is washed down the river during high water levels... Worth a try if you have never done it

Musky1011

<< <i>I spent an entire summer panning almost an entire film canister of fools gold when I was a young teen. Didn't know it at the time... when you don't have any real gold to compare it to, it looks a LOT like the real thing!

Aside from that, I agree with Cohodk - getting oustide in a stream with a pan & shovel is a great way to spend an afternoon. Over the years, I've panned quite a bit of dust & flakes. Still looking for that lottery nugget though. >>



This is fools gold in it's natural crystal form

seebelow

Interesting. Can you actually see the gold within the moss? How do you extract it, the best way? Also, wouldn't the dirt below the moss, on the outside bend be a good place to dig and pan?

WildIdea

Instead just buy some flakes from your local gold store and salt your own dirt.....

As far as prospecting goes. It's a lost art for sure. Mostly born from the realization that it's hard work. One can surly go to ones job then buy eagles at whatever premium and be ahead vs going out and hobby mining. Some of us actually have a treasure hunting gene and would prefer walking in the woods scratching around.

For me, the spots I hit produce 2-3 grams an outing with a one hour drive each way. I can skip out at least ten times a year or more depending on what other forms of treasure hunting I'm involved with. I love it. This year I'm laying out my 60 days off with projected weather windows to maximize my results for 2015. Gem hunting in spring and fall, gold in summer, sprinkled with specific sites to metal detect and arrowheading. Winter months invested in research, recon, jewelry, lapidary, fossil prep indeavors, specialized tool accumulation, and most importantly exercise so I can last out in the bush.

I'll surely nail a few good things this year.....it's not easy......I do it because it's hard and I never found anything next to my couch. Getting out isn't about dollars for me. We've inherited this great country from folks that would prefer seeing us out in it. When I think about how killer it would have been to be the first to get in someplace I gotta think they had poor maps, clothing, nutrition, access to roads, vehicles, etc and with the current resources we have a new advantage and it's surly richer than the folks coming after us.

So if you have half the inclination and live in a fly over state, just get out and invest in learning the craft. There are prospecting clubs out there to get going.

Musky1011

You put the moss in a pan withsome water. You just destroy the piece of moss and pan what is left

johnny9434

one day i would like to try it and see what happens

metalmeister

Yep.

California

American river vacation trip


San Bernardino Mtns motorcycle prospecting.


My high school friend has dredged " a bunch" over 200oz before Arnold Swartanuder banned dredging

AUandAG

Have not had much luck with a pan, but then again we don't have much water in the southern Mojave.

Had a walkabout planned for yesterday and today but a dang cold put me down for the week. Maybe next
week I will get out. Have been in this part of the desert before and have seen some pics of big nuggets
that were found back 70-100 years ago. Don't plan on metal detecting at this point as it's more a walk
around and find where you want to be when you return. The last time I was there it was a spring of the
year and the snow was melting fast and it made for a muddy mess. Sat on the back tailgate and wife
and I had lunch while we watched a bunch of fighter jets out of Nellis Air Force base dogfight above us.

Good fun to see those flyboys twist and turn and flare off and scream below us in the valley and rise
up in front of us and over our heads. Noisy as hell and made for a pretty good day anyway!

Found a safe in an abandoned rock shelter that had been busted open long ago....Can you imagine living
in a rock built shelter at 8,000' in elevation and have a safe? Mining must have been good for that
rock buster...

bob_

edit for a couple of pics:

piecesofme

Never have tried.

One thing I'd like to know is just how much those groups of guys actually NET after all that ball busting work?

After purchasing or leasing all the equipment, after paying the land owner their cut if they don't own the land...if they do own the land, factor that monthly note into their expenses, after paying their crew, after paying their lodging and fuel costs, after their repair costs because someting is always breaking down, after food and possibly medical expenses? After paying taxes? OH, can't forget about that!

I know Parker got like 1030 oz's last season, but is that before or after Tony Beets takes his 15% cut? That's like $1.2M gross, but what is the NET after all the above expenses (and probably more) for all that ball busting work?

rawteam1

The only thing they are paying taxes on are appearance fees...

piecesofme

What about the taxes on the land?

rawteam1

Most likely they r paying rent to claim owner... Like Parker paying a percentage...

cohodk

Lets say Parker netted only 10%, thats still over $100k. And he only worked 6 months. Ball busting work, no, its just work.

metalmeister

I see Parker crashed his truck. Oh crap, another expense. Gold Mining is $%@$ back breaking hard work. Don't ask.

seebelow

What do you think Parkers crew makes? They do get a small percentage of the gold but also a base salary. They don't seem to mind putting in a lot of overtime, which leads me to believe they get the percentage as an incentive. Thats why they worked that weekend, not entirely altruistic because it was his birthday. But they don't make enough to actually buy Parker another truck.

piecesofme

Lets say Parker netted only 10%, thats still over $100k. And he only worked 6 months. Ball busting work, no, its just work

That's purely a hypothetical number and estimate of time. What about all the preperation time? That has to count too, right?
But let's say that's what it is. To only make that (net, takehome pay) after 6 months of doing that kind of work and having to live that way (like a pig and away from family) is not for me. He can have it.
Now if it's sitting on my arse at home in a heated/airconditioned home with all the comfortable surroundings making stock trades profiting off of other peoples mistakes and using their money, even putting in 12 hour days-60/wk, then it would be worth it.

cohodk

<< <i>Lets say Parker netted only 10%, thats still over $100k. And he only worked 6 months. Ball busting work, no, its just work

That's purely a hypothetical number and estimate of time. What about all the preperation time? That has to count too, right?
But let's say that's what it is. To only make that (net, takehome pay) after 6 months of doing that kind of work and having to live that way (like a pig and away from family) is not for me. He can have it.
Now if it's sitting on my arse at home in a heated/airconditioned home with all the comfortable surroundings making stock trades profiting off of other peoples mistakes and using their money, even putting in 12 hour days-60/wk, then it would be worth it. >>



To each his own. This is why he makes more $$ than you in less time. Some would say that working in the Klondike is comfortable surrounding while others would say driving all about town visiting pawn shops to make $20 is a lowly endeavor.

I have done both jobs you mentioned (not mining) but on construction crews working in mud and getting dirty and also traded stocks from home and I can tell you neither has an advantage over the other.