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+--- Thread: Has anyone here done any gold panning? (/showthread.php?tid=2252)
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RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - Michigan Swamp Buck - 03-28-2025
Realizing that the State of Michigan and even the Federal Government will certainly deny any permits and licenses I would need to do commercial mining, I have thought about how it might be done.
The standard open pit mine method is where you dig a big hole with heavy equipment and load the material into an industrial-sized sluice. That would seem to be the go-to method for a commercial mining operation. However, the reports I was reading where they had the local depth of the bedrock information were from test drilling operations. They identified all the soil horizon layers and their depths to the bedrock with drilling samples. This reminded me of when I watched the crew drill my home water well when they brought up mostly sand and a little clay as they went down to 100 feet.
So, drilling a series of wells would be far more feasible, esp. if these are merely to "test for minerals". I imagine you could force water down, bring up the material as a slurry, and then refill the well with the processed sand from the sluice to prevent sinkholes. A slant drilling operation would cover the most area.
Of course, any large-scale mining project would destroy the natural flow of the watershed from my property down to the big swamp and river beyond. This would include the water flow below the surface of the swamp. So I'm merely speculating about the "what if I could" ideas of a commercial mining operation on the property.
RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - Michigan Swamp Buck - 05-19-2025
I've had a head cold for a couple weeks and I didn't even get a 1/4 of a five gal bucket of river sand through the sluice when I stopped. Then the creek was getting low so I adjusted the sluice and waited for the next rain. I finished that bucket and did another half bucket while the flow was going so nicely though the sluice. At the end of that, I removed the field stones from the sluice and let it run straight though for a few hours. Yesterday, I took the sluice out and cleaned at the house and panned the sluice material.
Now, I had done a pan here and there before cleaning the sluice and didn't see any color. I kept thinking is that gold? No. Is that gold? No. I was thinking I got skunked and began to wonder why, until I got into the last bit of material from the sluice. The last few pans had produce five nice sized flakes. There is no doubt when you see that color in the pan, it screams GOLD!
I cleaned up the vial and recollected the flakes then added the new ones and now have 16 gold flakes in the vial, six more then before. Not much, but it proves its there and I'm getting better at bringing it up out of the creek sand.
The flour gold is all through the black sand and I have never been able to recover that, so I'm saving the black sand for future experiments. I want to get a spiral gold wheel to extract that fine dust that teases me when I see it.
RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - Bally002 - 05-19-2025
@"Michigan Swamp Buck"#32
G'day. Lately I've been sussing out a sluice, pan and detector. Just getting bored perhaps. I'm lucky to have a large water source flowing though the property. (A small trib to a larger river).
It flows flat at first then drops is small steep water falls and has several flows into it from the hills out the back. Very rocky and is cut through at points by hard black rock and quartz veins particularly near the drop offs. It is heavily forested. Not much in the way of sand or loam but I'm going to give it a go.
As far as history of the property no panning or detecting has taken place here. Your interest has spurred me on somewhat. Just gotta get fit. Lots of up and downs.
Might start by filling some buckets with whatever I can dig from the sides. Bringing that up home and panning it. Have done it before in the 70's t another location but only ended up with specks.
Kind regards,
Bally)
RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - Michigan Swamp Buck - 05-20-2025
(05-19-2025, 11:57 PM)Bally002 Wrote: @"Michigan Swamp Buck"#32
G'day. Lately I've been sussing out a sluice, pan and detector. Just getting bored perhaps. I'm lucky to have a large water source flowing though the property. (A small trib to a larger river).
It flows flat at first then drops is small steep water falls and has several flows into it from the hills out the back. Very rocky and is cut through at points by hard black rock and quartz veins particularly near the drop offs. It is heavily forested. Not much in the way of sand or loam but I'm going to give it a go.
As far as history of the property no panning or detecting has taken place here. Your interest has spurred me on somewhat. Just gotta get fit. Lots of up and downs.
Might start by filling some buckets with whatever I can dig from the sides. Bringing that up home and panning it. Have done it before in the 70's t another location but only ended up with specks.
Kind regards,
Bally)
Sounds excellent. If no one has tried, there may be gold there, because "gold is where you find it". It sure sounds pretty good the way you describe it, perfect in fact, I want to try too! Quartz veins sound really good! I found some pieces of quartz with what I believe is pyrite, but that is a good sign because gold and fool's gold are found together in quartz. A very good sign.
My little creek is seasonal, but I like panning in the flowing creek water. Otherwise, I'll set up a plastic bin, fill it about halfway with water, and pan it there from the sluice material. There is one spot where there is another little waterfall over some roots upstream and a fairly big "hole" behind it, like a small pond. When it dries out, I'll build up those falls and dig material out to put aside for later processing. Anywhere I think the creek needs work, there will be a pile I will process next time the water is flowing after a dry spell.
I'd love to find a spot with a small pay streak of gold that has built up over the years. Just a handful of flakes would be great. This last go round got me two of the biggest flakes yet, compared to the majority that are more like flecks of gold rather than flakes. Still, that color, that shine, the way it stands out in my pan, makes every little bit incredible.
RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - Bally002 - 05-20-2025
(05-20-2025, 12:33 AM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote:(05-19-2025, 11:57 PM)Bally002 Wrote: @"Michigan Swamp Buck"#32
G'day. Lately I've been sussing out a sluice, pan and detector. Just getting bored perhaps. I'm lucky to have a large water source flowing though the property. (A small trib to a larger river).
It flows flat at first then drops is small steep water falls and has several flows into it from the hills out the back. Very rocky and is cut through at points by hard black rock and quartz veins particularly near the drop offs. It is heavily forested. Not much in the way of sand or loam but I'm going to give it a go.
As far as history of the property no panning or detecting has taken place here. Your interest has spurred me on somewhat. Just gotta get fit. Lots of up and downs.
Might start by filling some buckets with whatever I can dig from the sides. Bringing that up home and panning it. Have done it before in the 70's t another location but only ended up with specks.
Kind regards,
Bally)
Sounds excellent. If no one has tried, there may be gold there, because "gold is where you find it". It sure sounds pretty good the way you describe it, perfect in fact, I want to try too! Quartz veins sound really good! I found some pieces of quartz with what I believe is pyrite, but that is a good sign because gold and fool's gold are found together in quartz. A very good sign.
My little creek is seasonal, but I like panning in the flowing creek water. Otherwise, I'll set up a plastic bin, fill it about halfway with water, and pan it there from the sluice material. There is one spot where there is another little waterfall over some roots upstream and a fairly big "hole" behind it, like a small pond. When it dries out, I'll build up those falls and dig material out to put aside for later processing. Anywhere I think the creek needs work, there will be a pile I will process next time the water is flowing after a dry spell.
I'd love to find a spot with a small pay streak of gold that has built up over the years. Just a handful of flakes would be great. This last go round got me two of the biggest flakes yet, compared to the majority that are more like flecks of gold rather than flakes. Still, that color, that shine, the way it stands out in my pan, makes every little bit incredible.
Yeah, I'm gonna start small with pan and buckets and sus the area out. The quartz veins are imbedded in solid rock. Who knows, I'll chip away. Sick of cutting and splitting wood.
Bally )
RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - Michigan Swamp Buck - 05-20-2025
Dear GOD! You too?
My old Lady just "threatened" to get some firewood from the neighbors, and I got pissed. Over seven months burning wood to heat with, THAT IS BULLSHIT.
I'm just healing after cutting my leg with the damn chainsaw, 22 stitches and she needs more firewood. I'm ready to burn this place to the ground! I've got a pile here and there of some old punky shit, she'll have to deal that or burn some damn furniture.
ETA: OK, I played with my gold dust vial, I'm better now. There are some good pieces of oak cut to 16 inches, but they're the ones that are two and a half feet in diameter. Old, but good, hard stuff that I have to split around the edges to be able to hand split it with the maul.
RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - FCD - 05-21-2025
Speaking of firewood... I have a scar on the bridge of my nose right next to my left eye which I see in the mirror every time I look into it. Brings back memories every time. Cutting down timber.
RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - Michigan Swamp Buck - 05-22-2025
(05-21-2025, 06:09 PM)FCD Wrote: Speaking of firewood... I have a scar on the bridge of my nose right next to my left eye which I see in the mirror every time I look into it. Brings back memories every time. Cutting down timber.
I laughed when the doctor was cleaning up that ragged gash and told me I'd have a pretty good scar when it healed. I've been beat-up, busted-up, and left on the road for dead. I love my scars, more bragging rights. I never got a tattoo because Mother Nature gave me a bunch for free.
The thing is, when you do something stupid like I did and tell your story to others, they all have to one-up you with their gory tales. "Scraped yer leg with the chainsaw, did ya? Well, look here! That's where I was decapitated when I was trimming the hedges with a monster gas powered trimmer. You shoud'a seen it, the blood was shooting out like a fountain!"
I could still walk and it didn't even bleed much. I could have kept working if I hadn't watched it happen. Hideous to look at, for sure, and lucky it got just below the skin and into some fat. 22 external stitches and a few internal ones, the doc said it was typical for a chainsaw wound.
ETA: You want some true gory tales of accidental injuries, farmers are the people with some stories. Plus, farmers are the types that will only take you to the hospital if you are dying, so if you loose a finger or what have you, you're out of luck on having it reattached.
RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - FCD - 05-22-2025
Heh, well in my case my little owwie bled...like a stuck pig. Any cut on your head bleeds like crazy. The problem was, I didn't know it, which led to a pretty funny sequence of events.
I was actually pretty lucky. An entire tree had fallen right on top of me, about a 120' lodgepole pine (long story). I was saved by another log on the ground, so the tree didn't land with its full weight on me. Anyway, a small branch collar right up next to the trunk caught me right at the intersection of my forehead, nose bridge and left eye. Didn't hurt, and I totally didn't notice it bleeding (it was dark by the time we left back to town). We decided to stop off at the bar on the way back to the cabin.
I walked in the bar and this chick immediately screamed bloody murder the second I stepped in the door! WTF? Crazy woman. Walked up to the bar and asked for a beer from the bartender who was down at the other end of the bar. He brings my beer and right when he gets to me he gasps like he just saw a monster. "DUDE!! Are you okay??? You need to go in the bathroom right away and look after that!!!". I had no idea what he was talking about. So, I got up and begrudgingly headed to the men's room. When I got there I honestly thought my buddy and the bartender had conspired with each other to punk me. Staring back at me from the mirror was a face that was completely covered in blood like from the movie Carrie. And, the whole front of my shirt was covered in blood too. Plus, I had the remnants of the small branch stub hanging out of my forehead! It was quite a sight. Now I could see why the chick screamed, she probably thought the chainsaw massacre was about to take place. LOL!
I got cleaned up as best I could and went back out. Probably should have gotten a few stitches but that would have involved driving about 100 miles, so I said screw it. Still have the scar to this day. I'm just really fortunate that branch stub didn't get my eye. My buddy has passed away now, but he used to remind me of that story every time we got together and we'd have a good laugh over it. And, I'll never forget that chick freaking out the second she saw me!
RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - Michigan Swamp Buck - 05-22-2025
See, everyone's got a better story.
RE: Has anyone here done any gold panning? - F2d5thCav - 05-22-2025
At MSB--
Ow. Watch those damn chainsaws. Useful but dangerous AF.
