panning for gold

merenwen-

Flowerpot saucers are good, I use a 10 inch  one to fine down to strictly gold, something like the old timers did by blowing, but I use a little water and save my breath. Its green too, so its easy to see fine particles of black sand, garnet and escapee gold flakes. It also allows the use of a magnet, on the bottom side, to clump the magnetite and bring it to the surface.

A large part of the black sand, in the river system, where I pan/sluice, is Illmenite and only weakly magnetic.... Illmenite is Titanium ore, and I would like to know where to sell it, and what it is worth. Anybody got any ideas??

If it was worth a few $$, I would hang on to it and it could help finance my playing.
(With  green pans of course.)

Brian AKA goldigger (Aye, matey, its pieces of Illmenite.)

Posted on: July 06, 2009, 01:21:12 AM

---

homefire;

The weight of gold depends on what is alloed with it, it can be as light as 12.? because of stuff like copper, etc., but true, its still heavy enough it will go to the bottom unles there is much fine garnet sand or clay.... compacted gravels.... hence paystreak.

A lot of gold settles on false bottom, which can be ancient clay, lake deposit, called by geologists, lacustrine deposites. This is the case, often, in an area that had a glacial lake.

I had a friend who had a claim, south of Prince George, BC, everyone else was washing out nuggets but his claim, although it had the clay layer, had none... was off to the edge, too nfar, I would say. Sadder note: this friend died 2 days ago... cancer.

Brian AKA goldigger.

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,3464.msg38039.html#msg38039

Thanks for the incentive. By the way what do I do with these garnets. If I put them in a rock tumbler will they shine up?

 What kind of media would work best?

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,3464.msg38202.html#msg38202

have photos but not the knowledge

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,3464.msg38297.html#msg38297

drpepper;
Most garnets, here are a purple red and too soft and too dark for gems, but I just read, in Rock and Gem mag, on making spheres, they can be used to further round out the rough spheres, in a tumbler.... use pea size, whole.

Ive seen mountains of a hard schist, with loads of garnets, spaced about 0.75 inches apart.

Some types of sandpaper use garnet.

Oops! I lost my battery, in the middle of this note.... hope it still works.

You would suspect I was way out in the boonies, staring at piles of rocks, but no, Im in the living room with this thing on my lap and the charger handy to plug in.... it has a 3 hour battery that only lasts 2! I have to get a 6 hr one so I can go 4hrs.

Thnx on the regrets, we are going to a memorial, for my friend, on Monday, meanwhile, I bought a 1977 Dodge camper van, for gold hunting, etc. and a bunch of us (3 at least) are going to the memorial in it.

Further on the story, I mentioned, a while back, about murder on the Fort Graham trail, of returning Klondikers.... I'm working on it. I figure to put something on a mini CD and make it available at cost of CD and mailing, for anyone interested.

Well, I will now see if the power outage did anything.....
Brian AKA goldigger


Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,3464.msg38429.html#msg38429

		Quote:			Posted by drpepper
	Question? if a person has a nice sand and gravel site on his property that is not near any water would it be worth checking as it was a steam at some point in time

The question you have asked can only be answered after your general location is known. If you are in Florida, for example, there is almost no chance of finding gold or garnets in a gravel bed. If you are in California, the odds are better but still not guaranteed.

I would advise you to begin a new topic asking the same question in a slightly more specific way. Do not divulge your actual location but do give a few hints about your general location. Your question regarding garnets will get lost in this topic which is about panning for gold.

Linkback:

You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login

http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,3464.msg41816.html#msg41816