Relive the gold rush by finding your own gold. Prepare your stuff and devote an afternoon to find gold by the river. Looking for gold can be rewarding, if you do it correctly. Follow the steps below to learn how to look for this precious metal.
Garrett ACE 400 Metal Detector with DD Waterproof Search Coil and Pro-Pointer II
Part 1
Wash the biggest stones and mold
1
Fill the pan to ¾ with gravel. Immerse it in the water, just below the surface. [one]
2
Shake the pan vigorously several times. Move it back and forth, from one side to the other. Make sure not to shake the pan too hard, as the materials may fall out of the pan.
3
Stop moving the pan and use gentle circular movements. The gravel should begin to spin in a circle inside the pan. Doing so will cause most of the dirt and mud to come out of the pan or dissolve. Roll any root or piece of moss over the pan with your fingers to make sure the pan traps earth that may have gold.
4
Take out the big stones. Make sure they are clean (they should be clean after following these steps). Repeat these steps until the larger stones are removed and the heavier concentrations (such as gold and sand) are left resting on the bottom of the pan.
Part 2
Wash the lightest sand and gravel
1
Hold your pan just under the water, making sure it is completely submerged. Tilt the pan away from you slightly, as if you were trying to catch the current of water.
2
Shake the pan from side to side. Use a light throwing motion forward, as if you were about to throw a pancake (but do not flip the contents of the pan). Be careful, but use enough force to move the surface of the pan and the lighter gravel off the end of the pan. [two]
3
Level the pan. Shake it back and forth, while the pan is still in the water. Leveling and shaking the pan will cause the gold to settle to the bottom of the pan, and the lighter material will come to the surface.
4
Repeat the process several times. When you finish this part, there should be about 2 cups of heavy material in the pan. There should no longer be any rock or stone left. The materials left in the pan will be the heaviest. They are composed of black sand, or "concentrated", and if you're lucky, gold.
Part 3
Wash the black sand
1
Lift the pan from the water. Make sure there is about 2.5 cm (1 inch) of water in the pan. Water is necessary because you will continue to filter the gold sand when you remove the pan from the stream.
2
Tilt the pan towards you slightly. Shake water and materials slowly in a circular motion. Doing so will allow you to check and see if there is a nugget or large piece of gold that you can pick up by hand. [3]
If you find gold nuggets, place them in the container where you are going to store the gold. This could be a legitimate bottle for samples of gold purchased in the store, a bottle or bottle of pills that you have found at home. [4]
3
Dip the pan back into the water. Repeat steps in part 3 (alternating back and forth between moving the pan in a circular motion, leveling and shaking). Be sure to be extremely careful when doing this step, because if you shake the pan with too much force, you could lose some of your gold.
4
Use a magnet if you have a plastic pan. Remove the pan from the water, keeping as little water as possible. Place a magnet on the bottom of the pan and move it slowly around it. The black sand is magnetic and is attracted by the magnet. This process quickly separates the black sand from the gold.
If you decide to use a magnet, you can throw away the trapped sand or use a bottle to filter the gold. The gold filter bottles have a suction tube on the top (like the bottles with dropper, which you can use). When you squeeze the bottle, a vacuum is created. When you release the bottle, suck anything you are aiming at (in this case, gold and water). This is how your gold will be safe inside the bottle. [5]
Pour the rest of the black and gold sand into a bottle. When you have filtered as much black sand as possible from the gold, it is best to pour the mixture into a bottle. The safest way to pour the contents of the pan into a bottle is to place a funnel in the mouth of the pan. Pour the contents of the pan into the bottle.
Feel free to shout "Eureka! " Once you have separated all the gold. Now you are a true gold seeker.
Part 4
Choose a place to look for gold
1
Go to a stream or river where you heard there is gold. Whether it's a family place, you've heard stories about a creek or you just have a hunch, there's usually some truth behind the family stories and legends. Even if you think there is no gold left in a certain place because it has already been explored, this is not always the case. Streams and rivers carry small flakes and gold stones from water deposits located upstream. Every winter, storms dig up more gold, and that gold can be yours.
2
Choose a place next to a stream or river. Where you choose, the water should be at least 15 cm (6 inches) deep. If the water is more than that deep, it could be too cloudy or it could be full of leaves or other types of dirt that will prevent you from seeing your pan when you submerge it.
3
Choose a place with a slow current. The water should be fast enough to remove sediment and debris from the skillet, but slow enough so that it does not move the pan when submerged.
4
Choose a place that has large stones or a fallen tree along the water's edge. It's optional, but a large stone you can sit on while looking for gold will make your day much easier (and your legs and back will thank you).
5
Choose the pan. The normal pans are made of metal or plastic. Plastic pans are best for beginners because they are rust-proof, lighter than metal pans and come in black (which allows you to see gold more easily), they can also be specially textured to catch gold.
If you use a metal skillet, be sure to remove any traces of oil from the surface (if you use a new skillet, you should not worry about the oil). Remove the oil by holding the pan over a campfire with a pair of tongs or fire-resistant gloves. Heat the pan until it gets a weak red glow and then dip it in the water. This process removes the oil and gives the pan a dark blue color that will allow you to see gold more easily.
6
Learn how to use sieves to search for gold. The sieves can be placed on the pan and serve to separate the larger pieces from the smaller ones. It is not necessary to use a sieve, but it can be useful if you filter the gold from black sand or from concentrates.
Tips
- Try not to shake the pan too much. This creates a centrifugal force, which causes the heavier particles (gold) to shoot out of the pan.
- If you could not find anything, try again. If you still do not get anything, try somewhere else.
- Learn to find places that may have gold. This will help you find gold more easily and prevent you from looking for gold in deceptive places. You can search for photos on the Internet.
- Do not be fooled by the pyrite. This mineral is usually composed of iron or arsenic sulfide and may look a lot like gold. You can distinguish the pyrite from real gold, because it forms small crystalline cubes. The gold is found in irregularly shaped bumps or small "flakes" in the pan.
Things you will need
- Plastic or metal frying pan
- Bottle
- Gold strainer
- River or stream