Gold Panning Site

Gold is obtained by panning from several sites. It is believed that gold occurs in places with special characteristics which make that some site can be base essentially on the general morphology and chemical constitution of a deposit type and on its geological and geochemical setting, particularly the nature of its host rocks. Because of the great diversity of auriferous deposits it is thought that a specific place can show several gold types such free, nuggets or small particles like flour.

In nature, gold occurs predominantly in the native state or as a major constituent of various compounds containing mainly silver, copper or platinum metals. By panning a gold prospector can detect and many times identify how the gold is in a deposit, and why not the potentiality of a deposit.

Auriferous veins or deposits may be of any form, may occur in any rock, and may have received their gold from different sources. Particular classification based on obviously adventitious characters as similarity of deposit, or identity of matrix or of associated minerals, can therefore be some times complicated and tedious. However, such classifications have been current for many years, some have certainly been suggestive, but the majorities have helped the miner and prospector not a wit, and perhaps common and simple criteria has been the most useful.

In the older rocks, the deposits are veins, lodes, stockworks, pipes and irregular mineralized masses generally in extensive fracture and shear zone systems. Some occur in drag folds. The deposits in the younger rocks are usually confined to fissures, fractures, faults, and brecciated zones that cut volcanic rocks of calderas and generally have a limited horizontal and vertical extent. Other, however, are associated with fracture and fault systems that extend for many kilometers across hills. The principal gold minerals are the free gold and some compounds with silver.

Perhaps the most attractive places or sites for practicing panning are eluvial and alluvial placers. These places produce both gold and silver, the latter metal being present usually as a small percentage content of the gold dust and nuggets. Accompanying heavy minerals commonly include variable quantities of several minerals such as monazite, magnetite, ilmenite, wolframite, scheelite and platinoid minerals. The gold/silver ratio is generally greater than 1. in this places, in common to find black sands which are a heavy material with or without magnetic properties and most the time is hiding gold particles.

The black sand are usually the final product of panning and the washing motion must be practiced with extreme precaution so that gold particles can stay in the pan. Normally, prospectors detect free gold in this process and the size of gold particles is variable. Thus, you can find particles so big like a bean or very tiny like ants. No matter what size a prospector got. It is really important to detect and find out the potentiality of the place. Gold prospectors are real miners and must work like geologist and metallurgist due to their experience and skills are the main tool which can employ in each adventure in a river, stream, hill or desert.