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Panning For Gold


severus

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Karin and I got up early yesterday and met with some folks up on the Yuba River on the California side of the Sierras for some gold panning, which we had never done before. We learned a few different techniques about panning and extracting the gold from the pan, then spent most of the day in the river trying our luck. Most of the gold was extracted from California's rivers during the gold rush of 1848 -49, but there's still a lot left. However, the nuggets are mostly gone. What is left are flakes, which are difficult to mine.

 

Basically how it is done is you scoop up some material from the riverbank or in the river, dump it in the pan, add water to make a slurry, then rotate the pan to get the gold flakes to drop to the bottom, while keeping it in the water and at perhaps a 15° angle. The lighter material is sloughed out of the pan in the course of rotating it, until only black sand and (hopefully) flakes af gold are left. This material, called "concentrate" because it contains tiny bits of gold called "flour gold" because of its diminutive size, is saved and sorted out later on at home.

 

We were told that during the gold rush it was common to fill a coffee cup with gold as the result of a morning's work on this river. Our take for an entire day's work was perhaps a gram of small flakes 1 mm. or less in size, or about $20 worth on today's market. I had better keep my day job.

 

Panning

 

panning.jpg

 

 

Examining for flakes. Next time I'm bringing a magnifying glass - even though gold glitters in the sun it's still hard to spot.

 

yubariverpanning.jpg

 

 

One of these slithered past my leg as I stood in the water looking in my pan. I wouldn't have known except my wife just had to let me know. I wish she hadn't done that.

 

snake.jpg

Be good and you will be lonely.
~ Mark Twain

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Nice one severus. Glad to see the move from the frozen northland to a warmer climate agrees with you.

 

Panning for gold isn't likely to make you rich but it is one of those things that everyone should do at least once.

" My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!" - Harry Truman, 33rd US President

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LOL - that one is harmless unless you are a small rodent or amphibiban.

" My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!" - Harry Truman, 33rd US President

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Guest Jan of the 2 Ghillies
LOL - that one is harmless unless you are a small rodent or amphibiban.

 

Seeing that snake would throw me into full cardiac arrest. How is that harmless??? :uhuh::crazy:

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LOL - that one is harmless unless you are a small rodent or amphibiban.

 

Maybe. But when you look down and see it slithering past you move a bit quick. At least, I did.

Be good and you will be lonely.
~ Mark Twain

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