One of my favorite past-time activities is recreational gold mining. I have a desk job and so the hunt for gold allows me to spend time outdoors doing a physical activity that is a lot of fun.
While it is nice to dream of finding huge gold nuggets worth a lot of money, gold prospecting as a hobby typically costs more money than the gold found is worth.
If you are interested in recreational gold mining as a way to make extra money, this hobby will probably disappoint you. However, if the thrill of the hunt excites you and finding even a little bit of gold is fun, then grab your shovel and gold pan as there is “gold in them there hills!”
I am not a professional gold miner, but I have picked up some tips and strategies over the last twenty years of doing this hobby that have increased my chances of finding gold. I have also used a lot of different pieces of gold prospecting equipment and some work better than others.
I do my best to share an objective opinion of the prospecting gear with which I am familiar and I like sharing tips and ideas. I am not your stereotypical tight-lipped sourdough.
The topics I cover include where to find gold, finding the best spots to dig for gold, how to recover gold and some do it yourself gold mining projects. My experience comes from gold sniping, gold panning, sluicing, metal detecting for gold, drywashing and dredging. I do not cover hard-rock mining on this site and I never enter abandoned mines or coyote.
If you have a gold mining question that I have not addressed on this site, feel free to contact me with your question.
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Gold pans come in a variety of sizes and shapes with several different features. However, the purpose and function of these gold pans is the same. A gold pan’s primary purpose is to classify gold bearing gravel so that the heaviest materials (such as gold) end up in the bottom of the gold pan, while [...]
When it comes to cleaning up gold concentrates, I am the type of person who will sit down and expend a lot of time and energy sorting through the leftover concentrates in order to pull out every last speck of fine gold that I can see. Now I know that many prospectors either don’t care [...]
Many gold prospectors like to guard their favorite gold panning locations like it was their life depended on keeping the location secret. I am all about enjoying this hobby and helping others get started. I know that competition can lead to less gold in the long run, but I really enjoy seeing newbies get excited. [...]
Prospecting for gold with a metal detector can be a lot of work. With some of the pulse induction metal detectors on the market, it is quite possible to locate metal objects a couple of feet deep. While some of the gold nuggets will be deposited deep, what you don’t want to do is spend [...]
When I first arrive at a new place to pan for gold, one of the first things that I like to do is find a thick patch of moss near the water line and take a sample of the material underneath. Cleaning the moss can be a little tedious as there tends to be a [...]
When you are into the gold deposits, gold prospecting can be extremely fun. Many times, however, prospecting can be frustrating when little gold appears to be present. When this is the case, it is often worth it to spend your time sampling for a better location before getting out all of your gold panning equipment. [...]
For those of you looking to do some gold panning in the United Kingdom, I came across a an article on a UK Gold Panning site that describes the better locations for finding gold as well as information on who to contact to get a gold panning license. The article focuses on the northern, central [...]
When gold prospecting a new stretch of river, it can at times be difficult to pick a place to start gold panning. There are a number of places that are good starting points for any search. I will cover how to read a river for gold and how to sample a stretch of river. Placer [...]