Essentials in Gold Panning Equipment

There are some gold panning tools that you must have to be a successful prospector, and there are some supplies that will make your gold panning efforts so much easier, more fun, and more profitable. Here's a list of basic supplies that will get you started.

• Gold Pan
The gold pan is the most important tool in your search for gold. This is what the 49'ers used in the 1800's to recover millions of dollars worth of gold in the wild west. There's lots of different models and sizes on the market, but the hands who are holding the pan are more important than the pan itself.
• Classifier
By classifying your dirt before you drop it into your pan you don't have to sort out the rocks by hand. This will save a lot of time and you will be able to recover more gold in a shorter amount of time.
• Snuffer Bottle
Prospectors use this bottle to suck up the gold from their pan and then they either transfer it to a vial or let it stay in the bottle until they get home. A good snuffer bottle is made of sturdy plastic and is constructed so that the gold can get in but not get out.
• Bucket
Depending on the location of your gold-bearing pay-dirt, you might have to move it to a nearby water source for panning. That's where a good, sturdy bucket comes in handy. It's also great for storing and carrying your other gold panning tools when you're not panning.
• Shovel
Don't leave home without a sturdy shovel. Using your gold pan as a shovel is not an option, so invest in a quality shovel. A lot of people prefer mini shovels for their weight and mobility, but if you're going to run a serious operation a bigger shovel will come in handy.
• Vial
This is for storing your gold flakes. They're made up of either glass or plastic and comes in a variety of sizes. You fill it up with water and then just drop the gold in there. A gold filled vial is a perfect gift for children, I promise that will spark an interest in them.

These 6 essentials is really all you need to get a good start. When you get more experience and become more serious with your gold recovery efforts you might want to invest in a sluice box or a dredge, but that's a whole other chapter. The first item you should get your hands on is of course a pan. Here's a guide for you who are looking to buy a gold pan

I'm Daniel Westman and I write about gold panning and prospecting over at http://www.operationgold.com/.

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Equipment For Gold Prospecting

Our spare time allows us to do some of the activities we love the most and which help us relax. Some people go fishing in the weekend and others go sailing. Maybe you like surfing, rock-climbing or bird-watching. And if you still have some of the adventurous child you used to be you might enjoy prospecting for gold.

If you are a beginner you should know that you don´t need a donkey to carry all your heavy gold prospecting equipment, you won´t need a long untrimmed beard, but you will need a large hat to protect you from the sun while you are patiently testing different spots on the river for gold. There is modern gold prospecting equipment which may make your work rather efficient.

For example if you want to find gold more rapidly you can always use a gold metal detector, which will only make you dig after gold and not for bottle caps or pieces of wire. Once you know where to find gold you can try cleaning it by using gold pans and classifiers. This method was also used during ancient gold rushes, but it allows you to enjoy the sounds of the nature around you while the water slowly separates the dust and the rocks from the gold. Sluice boxes are also a very popular equipment for finding gold. They are more efficient than the gold pans and require water to help find gold.

When you finally find gold you will need small vials to deposit it for further refinement. A couple of rock hammers will also help you break the small rocks which are likely to be of any use to you. When you get tired of the traditional techniques you can buy the dredges and sluices powered by electricity.

Prospecting for gold is a lot like fishing. You keep hoping that the giant catfish will catch your bait but you keep pulling out of the water frogs, algae and tiny fish. The chances of getting rich through this activity are the same as winning the national lottery. But once you are aware of these facts, you will start enjoying playing all day in the water, admiring the view and maybe finding something shiny in the river sand, something like a gold bullion.

Learn from professionals how to buy gold bullion in times of recession.

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History Facts of Gold Mining

People have been searching for gold ever since Roman times and their methods have diversified over the centuries. You can find the shiny metal by simply using your hands or by making use of complex mechanisms employing special machinery and chemicals.

The pan used to separate gold from sand and water is already a symbol of the quest for this precious metal. The simple manual technique of gold panning is based on the fact that gold is heavier than sand or gravel. Miners have been famously swirling sediment from rivers in a pan of water in the days of the California Gold Rush, during the nineteenth century. This method was also used as a scam to fool people into believing they found gold, but instead all they went home with was fool's gold.

The artificial channel built to conduct water was a step forward in the search for gold. Endowed with a valve or gate to regulate the flow, and riffles set at the bottom, this sluice box creates dead zones in the current that allows gold to deposit. People have also been building dams to redirect water so they could mine the river bottom. On a larger scale, these channels can be maneuvered with diesel-powered equipment like excavators and bulldozers.

Gold can also be encased in rock, rather than being a loose particle in sediment. Extracting it requires underground mining and more complex techniques than the ones used to excavate softer minerals such as salt or coal. Gold ore is extracted through tunnels or shafts, some of which can reach impressive depths. The deepest are considered to be the Savuka gold mines in South Africa, where miners are currently working at depths exceeding 3,900 m (12,800 ft). Nowadays, hard rock mining produces most of the world´s gold.

With the help of a chemical called cyanide, gold can be extracted even from low-grade ore. This metallurgical method converts gold into a water soluble metallic complex. The cyanide technique is straightforward to apply and it processes 99.9% pure metals.

After being separated from other sediments, gold is refined into standard gold bars, labeled and recorded. Cast or minted, the precious metal travels from the Earth's crust to the jeweler or trader in the shape of ingots or small chip-sized plates called ChipGold.

GoldMadeSimple scam? No, GoldMadeSimple is a reputable gold bullion trading retailor.

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Panning For Wild Gold

Wild gold? Of course. It's wild until you catch it. First, you have to find it. Then you capture it using a gold pan or some other means, like maybe a sluice box or a metal detector.
Gold is very clever. It loves to hide deep under rocks, behind boulders, in bedrock cracks and depressions, even mixed at random sometimes within gravel or sand bars. It will even hide on beaches in plain sight (provided your eyesight is good enough).

So seeking gold is a treasure hunt. I call it an "Easter egg hunt for adults." (Wouldn't it be fun to find nuggets that big!)

As a boy, I used to love to go to the site where an outdoor carnival or fair was held, the day after it closed and everything was moved out. I could see the outlines in the grass where the booths had stood. My brothers and I would kneel down and carefully part the grass and find oodles of coins. What a thrill!

We could have made more money going into something useful like mowing the neighbor's lawn for pay or picking cotton in a farmer's field. But treasure hunting was a whole lot more fun.
The adult quest for gold is a romantic adventure. For most, it not a rational economic pursuit (maybe like fishing?). He or she will probably spend far more on equipment and gas and camping gear than the gold justifies, but that is besides the point. The thrill of discovery is priceless.

With a shovel, bucket, gold pan and snuffer bottle, the gold hunter is set to go. The creek or river beckons. Time to scout. Where is Mr. Gold hiding out today? Patience is called for. And hard work. The gold prospector may have to try many different spots, and pan lots of gravel before he makes his strike.

Most gold is going to be little flakes and specks. Size matters less than quantity. Sure, nuggets are the big prizes, but these are wary and take some luck to find. Every pan of gravel holds a fresh surprise waiting to happen. Even a few flakes of gold can lift the heart and ease a sore back.

The serious gold chaser is constantly learning, and refining his skill. While luck does play a part, developing skill is the surest ticket to success. More often than not, the prospector makes his luck.
Chasing gold makes a man a boy again, if he does it with the right frame of mind. While it may tax his body, it liberates his spirit of adventure, and gives him plenty of tall tales to share with his buddies.

To find out more about chasing gold for fun, check out my gold hunting story at http://hubpages.com/hub/Gold-Panning-In-Oregon.

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Pulse Induction Metal Detectors

There is excitement in the air concerning Pulse Induction (PI) metal detectors. It is said that a revolutionary model is about to be released by several manufacturers. The main characteristic of PI detectors is their ability to ignore both conductive and non-conductive mineralization in the environment at the same time, while maintaining high sensitivity to all metal targets.

 Another positive feature is their detection range is not affected by the medium between the coil and the target. Performance for the most part is not hindered by water, sand, silt, solid coral and generally speaking, the air. Some PI's I have used do not go as deep to locate a target in the air as they do for submerged or buried targets.

I dug a 1957 Roosevelt dime at eighteen inches with my Fisher Impulse. It took more than forty minutes to retrieve that coin in the shallow water at Sunset Beach in Tarpon Springs, FL and that is a primary reason I do not use PI's for coin shooting. Another reason is the extreme sensitivity to all metal targets will mean digging about thirty junk items for every good target in most coin shooting environments. You will literally plow a field before you finish covering the ground. In doing a comparative test last year, I dug almost 300 junk items and retrieved only nine coins and three jewelry keepsakes.

 A third negative aspect of most PI's is the difficulty of pinpointing targets.
Pinpointing with a PI is a learned art. Most conventional detectors either the center of the coil or a pinpointing button or switch makes for an easy retrieval of finds. One PI I own the target centering point is to the left side of center and is very difficult to zero in on small targets. My primary uses for PI's are gold prospecting, Civil War relic hunting and bottle digging ventures. They go very deep! I have dug shotgun casings at nearly two feet, nails at fifteen inches and as mentioned above a dime at eighteen inches. Here is my positive thought for using a PI for relic hunting.

The P in Pulse Induction stands "Power"! I feel empowered when hunting fields and woods for relics and an occasional coin is a great bonus. However, as a coin-shooter the P stands for punishment in most of my environments. I cannot use one in hunting a burned-out property lot, or on a sports bleacher area or on a ball diamond to name a few areas where a conventional detector with a small three to five inch coil will produce far greater rewards and not destroy the back or shoulders.

I have listed some of the PI's out there now and they are worth the time to go online and compare their specs and prices. Every serious treasure finder needs to have one as a part of their detecting arsenal. You might want to wait though and see what is coming soon before spending some serious cash. I cannot wait! Bring on those new PI's.

C Scope 7 UMD (UK) - Underwater Pulse detector
C Scope 4PI (UK) - All purpose land detector
Minelab GPX - 4000 (Australia) - Gold Nugget/Prospecting detector
Minelab GP 3500 - (Australia) - Gold Nugget/Prospecting detector
Minelab SD 2100 - (Australia) - Gold Nugget/Prospecting detector
Minelab SD 2200v2 (Australia) - Gold Nugget/Prospecting detector
Aurora Aqua Pulse (Canada) - Wrist mount underwater detector
White's Surfmaster PI Pro - Underwater/Surf/Beach detector
Tesoro Sand Shark - Underwater Detector
Garrett Infinium LS - Water/Land detector
Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II - Underwater detector
Fisher Impulse - Land/Sea detector

DetectorPro Headhunter Pulse - Underwater detector

Larry Smith is an avid coin collector and metal detector enthusiast. He's been collecting coins for over 45 years. Larry is giving away his ebook, "Coin Collecting With The Home Town Advantage" FREE for a limited time. You can get your copy and start building (or expanding) your own collection right now.

Get the ebook (and TONS of other great FREE content) by visiting his blog now:
http://MetalDetectorForCoinCollecting.com/free-report

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Gold Prospecting: For Fun or For Getting Rich?

A modern day gold panning is underway. With prices at an all time high more and more gold prospecting are heading into the mining fields of Arizona, Nevada, California, New Mexico, Alaska and many other places across the U.S. and other gold bearing areas of the earth. In the mining and prospecting world you can now routinely hear of men and women gold seekers spending thousands of dollars on prospecting equipment they have never used, having no experience finding gold and buying worthless mining claims with hopes of striking it rich. Those who are mining the miners are in the real.

Recreational gold mining and prospecting has become a popular outdoor recreation in a number of countries, including New Zealand (especially in Otago), Australia, South Africa, Wales (at Dolaucothi and in Gwynedd), in Canada and in the United States especially in western states but also elsewhere. Recreational gold mining is almost entirely small-scale placer mining.

Gold trommel is the mining of alluvial deposits (deposits of sand and gravel in modern or ancient stream beds) for minerals. This may be done by open-pit (also called open-cast mining) or by various forms of tunneling into ancient riverbeds. Excavation may be accomplished using water pressure (hydraulic mining), surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment.

Gold mining and prospecting activities allowed on public lands vary with the agency and the location. Gold pans and shovels are commonly allowed, but sluice boxes and suction dredges may be prohibited in some areas. The Department of Agriculture in the U.S. is now of the view that recreational gold panning and gold prospecting in national forests is permitted provided that no machinery or explosives are used, no waterways are diverted, and no permanent or semi-permanent structures are built.

 There are public mining areas in many states, and prospecting may allow one to stake a gold placer claim or other type of gold mining claim in certain areas. Some public lands have been set aside for recreational gold panning. Some private land owners also give permission for small-scale gold mining.

The beauty of this new rush is we get to experience it and see the successes and failures as they unfold in the fields. Gold Mining and prospecting equipment sales are at an all time high, advertising in gold prospecting and mining magazines is being sold at premium prices and the BLM is processing more gold claims than any time in the last 20 years.Metal detectors costing $4,000.00 plus designed for gold are selling like gold pans in the days of the gold rush of the 1800s. This is a very exciting time to be a gold prospector.

Gold Trommel is the easiest way to prospect for gold so this article on how to pan for gold will come in handy for those venturing out with gold in their eyes and excitement in their hearts for gold.

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Equipment Used For Gold Prospecting

Prospecting for gold can be done in various ways. The simplest way is to use a gold pan like the old time prospectors did in the days of the gold rush, with simple metal pans equipped with small ridges on the inside to help trap gold.

These days pans come in many varieties and sizes, and plastic pans have become very popular due being lightweight, and design seems to be better and gold holding efficiency increased. Pans are inexpensive ranging from $10 for the simplest metal pans and even the best pans on the market can be found for under $50. This is a pretty simple and inexpensive way to begin searching for gold.

Another piece of equipment which will allow a much greater amount of material to be panned effectively is a sluicebox. These were used extensively in the old days of prospecting and were usually homemade, built with a log or wooden frame, and placed in the shallow water of a river bed allowing water to flow through. The material was then shoveled into the sluice allowing it to flow down over a set of ridges, or riffles on the bottom, creating eddies which trapped the heavier rocks, such as gold, which is one of the heaviest minerals on earth.

These days an amazing variety of sluiceboxes are available, and are usually constructed of lightweight metal, with special rubber mats incorporated to provide much better gold retention than the original sluices. They can be found in a variety of sizes from folding models, which can be carried in a backpack, to much larger one piece sluices used in larger commercial operations. Still affordable, basic sluiceboxes can be found from $50 to $150.

Going one step farther, power sluicers and highbankers are now a popular item for those involved in small to medium size operations where enough revenue is being generated to warrant the use of more powerful and of course more expensive methods.

 Incorporating small gas engines usually, they can suck up large volumes of material from a creek or riverbed to supply to the sluicebox, and use this water supply to wash the material through. Huge amounts of material can be run through this way in a day, which is then removed from the sluice and the smaller, more concentrated volumes of material can then be panned traditionally. Prices for these can run from around $500 to several thousand dollars.

Larger, commercial equipment is available is available, however is beyond the scope of this article which outlines some of the more basic and affordable types of equipment available for recreational type prospecting.

One other accessories within the scope of this article, which is quite popular as well, is the metal detector. Normally used on the beach or in public areas for finding lost items, this piece of equipment has become very popular in the prospecting fiels as well. With this equipment the price tag has a real bearing on the ability of the detector to find precious metals.

The lowest model will be of little value, however a ballpark figure ranging between $500-$1000 will buy something that can produce significant results, once technique is practiced. Even big companies are using detectors now to supplement traditional techniques in known mineral reserves. Some amateur prospectors have had great success using them in old mine workings, where resources were overlooked previously.

A wealth of information exists on all of this equipment and can be searched easily online. Retailers and suppliers of prospecting equipment are readily available online as well. A small amount of money is all it takes to get equipped with the basics and have some fun, and enjoy the thrill of the hunt. For those with bigger wallets and aspirations, the skies the limit.

Terrence Knight is a full time pilot, and recreational prospector and outdoor enthusiast who enjoys writing articles relating to these fields. Additional articles and bio can be found on his blog at http://www.goldisfun.blogspot.com/

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