Help With Panning and Locations

[Kingsy]

Hey all, new to the forum, I've been out panning a bit while searching for gems but I never manage to even get black sand in my pan, I search for crevices and obstructions and crevice out right to the bottom but no luck, I'm not sure whether it's location or panning technique, any suggestions? Also looking for a point in the right direction in East Gippsland, around the Bairnsdale if anyone know's the area. Thank's.

 

[Diggerdude]

There is a book called 'Shallow Gold Occurences of Eastern Victoria' by Luke Steenhuis. I think Miners Den sell it for about $30. It has loads of spots and old mine reports around your area and others. I have a copy well worth the money.
Goodluck.

DD

 

[Tommtb7]

Hey mate welcome to the forum, when it comes to panning just remember this "when in doubt shake" that's what helps me. As for location, if your on a gold bearing creek just try a couple of pans every 50 meters or so and any promising spots like the crevices you mentioned, when you start finding a few specs that's a good time to close the gap in between your test pans and really get an idea of the gold in that exact location

 

[Kingsy]

I'll give that a look, thanks. I found some old reports (late 1800's) on the net from around this area, but a lot of the creeks and places have different names or are now inaccessible.

 

[Ag Man]

Welcome to the forum Kingsy

I never been there but told an easy location (in the area you ask) with colour is Bullumwaal.
Right in the guts of the town/area is a creek you can pan in.

 

[Guest]

Hey Kingsy, Research is the key to improving your luck. Plenty of resources online to find the old gold fields. I think there nearest to you would be Bulumwaal. Dont stress to much about black sand as we find very little black sand around here but there is still gold in the pan. I havent been up that way (yet) but here is a good place to start your research. http://www.dpcd.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/44572/Bulumwaal-and-BoggyCreek.pdf

 

[Guest]

HAHA Agman you got me by a minute. haha

 

[Kingsy]

Haha Bullumwaal is actually where I go, there's no water though so I've been panning in a tub. That could be my problem, I might need to start moving around more, I usually stay within about a 100m stretch of the creek (plenty of dig holes around, I'm probably crevicing out someone else's backfill).

 

[TenOunce Tone]

As agman said, not all spots have black sands. i go to a couple of areas. in the same river one part will have black sand. other area none... it is an indication that heavies are setteling out of the water flow. if there is gold it may be w the black sand, just depends on what geology the stream passes as to what the heavies will look like..
good luck

 

[XIV]

as for panning if you think you are doing it wrong,
grab an old bit of led (sinker) and scrape of some shavings and put them in your pan, TRY counting how many shavings you put in
then put in some gravel and sand in and pan it out, a quick way to see if you are over panning

It worked for my kids when they started out, but i started off with tiny led pellets then some shavings until they got no losers

 

[Kingsy]

I gave the lead a go, so far I haven't lost any, a couple of piece's have made it past the first riffle on a few pan's though, so I'm not sure if I would have lost finer stuff if it was gold.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

If you are saving the lead, you should not lose gold. gold is 4times heavier than lead. Just keep humming in your head .. stratify stratify stratify... and all the gold should be in your pan!

 

[XIV]

led is only half the weight of gold, try some small shavings of led
if your not losing any then there should be nothing wrong with your panning skills! more on the dirt you a panning out

 

[Kingsy]

That's given me a fair bit more confidence. Next time I'm going to try a different spot and move around a bit more. This is probably a stupid question due to the name but is black sand always black? I was using some gravel from Bullumwaal to practice with the lead and at the end of each pan with the lead was sand but it's more a tan colour.

 

[TenOunce Tone]

Kingsy, Black sand is black, when you see people refering to "heavies" they are generally referring to Black Sand, it will generally be magnetic and you can separate it using a Rare earth magnet, you can pick these up for a couple of dollars, as I said earlier, some areas may have lots, some none, you will know it when you see it, it is black and looks like sand, the gold will usually be mixed in with it when you get to the bottom of the pan. A few of the videos Wal n Liz have up show good examples of black sand.

Good luck, Tone

 

[Kingsy]

Thank's for that, I was pretty sure but thought I 'd check.

 

[elbowgrease]

If you've got a spare weekend and don't mind a night out under the stars I reckon without a doubt Beechworth\Eldorado has got to be one of the best places around for a beginner to find their legs. Lots of opportunities to experience many facets of wet prospecting, crevicing, digging from creek, identifying rock bars and old river course.

Not real familiar with East Gippsland, but going off what a few of the other blokes are saying sounds like you are in the right sort of area. Always makes it a bit harder if you haven't got water supply to work with but keep at it and the rewards will come. I've got some friends over Glenmaggie way so I'm hoping to get over that part of the world one of these days for a poke around.

Good luck
Adam

 

[Kingsy]

I've been considering a trip to Beechworth for gems and gold, I've got my 4by set up for camping I'm just waiting on the funds and a long weekend.

 

[Aussie Detecting]

Kingsy what's the ground like? Are there signs of quartz, iron stone, book leaf slate? Are there any shear zones or contact areas? Keep an eye out for these & combination of them. Gold won't be far off.

 

[Kingsy]

There's plenty of Quartz and Slate and a fair bit of Ironstone. I'm finding a bit of gold but not a lot, I went through about half a 25L bucket of gravel today from crevicing and found 5 small flakes of gold all up.