After finding gold for the first time, few people are left untouched. The allure of the lustrous metal is real, and many are those who dream of finding some for themselves. With that said, few people really get to see real gold in their pans when prospecting mindlessly on randomly chosen locations. Finding gold is hard, and should be so, considering how much people are ready to pay for it.
But is it really the choice of location that’s holding you back, or is there gold to be found anywhere?
Gold can be found nearly anywhere, but the concentrations will vary immensely. Needless to say, in most places the concentrations will be microscopic and unrecoverable using normal methods. The places where gold concentrations are high enough to be recoverable are relatively few, and require patience and skill to be found.
Many people who get started in gold panning eagerly venture out to their nearest legally available creek or river and start looking for gold. However, they soon give up as their excitement fades with the absence of gold down to the tiniest speck.
Don’t be that person! Take your time and do your due diligence before heading out prospecting. There is a lot of information out there that will help you decide if a location is even worth going out looking at.
For instance, some online topographic maps together with some knowledge in basic geology will take you far! Then couple that with old minings record of where gold has been found in the past, and you have quite a lot of material to work with even before you hit the field!
Table of Contents
The Importance of Researching Before Prospecting
Many experienced gold miners will spend the colder part of the year looking for promising locations to explore during the next season. That way they not only get to keep their hobby active throughout the year, but also increase their chances of finding gold once it’s time to head out again.
So, in this article we are going to cover:
- Where to look for gold
- The signs you must know
- How to use maps and mining reports to your advantage
But before that, we need to understand what kind of gold we are looking for!
Two Types of Gold: Placer Vs Lode Gold
In short, there are two types of gold mining, and depending on which type of mining you are doing, you will be looking at different locations.
The two types are lode mining and placer mining.
So what’s the difference between the two?
Well, lode mining refers to the process of finding the gold-filled lodes or veins under the earth’s surface. This involves open pits or tunnels, in order to expose and retrieve the gold. Lode mining is also called “hard rock mining”.
Placer mining, on the other hand, refers to the mining of pieces of gold that have broken loose from the main lode, and been transported by wind and water.
Nearly all small scale miners and hobby prospectors today are focusing on placer mining, so that’s what the rest of this article will be dealing with!
Where To Look For Placer Gold: A short Guide
In order to stand a reasonable chance of finding some real gold, we need to understand how placer gold is eroded from the lode and then transported and concentrated in rivers.
Here is the process condensed into three steps:
- Residual Gold: The first step is when the lode or vein is eroded by wind and water. The gold that gets loose during this stage is referred to as residual gold.
- Eluvial Gold: As soon as the gold moves away from the original site, it’s called eluvial gold
- Alluvial Gold: Once the gold travels down a hill and makes it into a river, it’s called alluvial gold.
The most common way to find gold among prospectors is to look for alluvial gold that has been concentrated and worked by a river. As gold is much heavier than other elements in the river, it will inevitably fall to the bottom, and concentrate on certain places.
Some prospectors might choose to try to chase the gold in a river to the original source. This is simply done by sampling through the length of the river and finding your way upstreams. The coarser and less polished the gold, the less time the river has had to beat and pound the gold, and the closer you are to the source.
Places to look for Gold in Rivers and Creeks
To be precise, gold is around 19 times heavier than water, and 6 times heavier than most of the streambed material. This means that the currents will have a much harder time moving gold, than any other material.
In other words, the gold will get trapped at various places, whereas the lighter sands get washed away. With time, this has the potential to create substantial concentrations of gold in certain places in a river.
So, what are these places? Well, they all have in common that they represent low-pressure zones, meaning places where the current slows down enough for the gold to drop.
Let’s look at some of the most common ones!
1. Along inside bends
2. On Bedrock
Bedrock situated below a layer of gravel also tends to capture gold well. As gold is so heavy, it will work its way down the gravel deposits and rest against the solid bedrock. There it may lie for tens, hundreds, or thousands of years, provided that the layer of gravel remains intact.
3. Behind Large Boulders
Obstructions such as boulders will create a low-pressure zone in front of and behind the obstruction. If the boulder is residing inside a paystreak, there is a quite good chance that at least some of it is going to deposit inside the low-pressure zone.
If you want to learn more about prospecting in creeks and rivers, I have previously written an extensive guide to how to read a river. Check it out!
Finding Placer Gold On Dry Land (And Deserts)
Rivers are not the only places where you can find placer gold. If you are close to the lode, you may find gold that has been eroded and transported by wind and heavy rainfall around the original source.
However, some of the more popular areas outside rivers are desert placers. Since there usually is very little water available, prospectors scouring these areas either make use of dry-panning techniques, or more commonly, resort to metal detecting.
Desert placer areas have the benefit of not having a mulch layer on top, like in forests, where the gold-bearing material has been covered by leaves and vegetation. This mulch layer can be several feet deep and makes accessing the gold very hard.
Ancient rivers
It’s not only the rivers of today that contain gold. Many rivers have come and gone throughout the last millions of years, and throughout their lifespan, many have transported serious amounts of gold.
In fact, in many cases, the gold that’s deposited in current rivers comes from locations where the river cuts into an ancient riverbed.
Identifying ancient riverbeds is hard! They are often well hidden, but the geology of the place does provide some hints!
For example, rocks and pebbles that have been worked by a river will have round and soft edges. Large piles of round pebbles, rocks, and gravel, therefore, hint that you might be looking at an ancient river channel!
Maps And Old Mining Reports
When researching where to go for your prospecting trips, there is a lot of information you might want to explore. Even though it might seem time-consuming, performing thorough research before heading out into the field is a huge time-saver!
Let’s look at the most common sources of information!
Topographic Maps
Topographic maps are a great aid when it comes to reading the landscape. By getting a sense of the topography of the area, you can track the gold more easily, and get to know details about the landscape that aren’t perceivable by a human on the ground.
Geological Maps
Taking it one step further, geological maps will help you determine the geological composition of the host rock. This will help particularly when you are tracking where the gold is coming from, and want to extend your search area to places nearby with similar geology.
Government and state reports
Government reports from the USGS often contain a lot of useful information about the placer deposits in a state. They are perhaps not the most detailed documents you’ll find, but they indeed are great documents to get an idea of what areas have been productive in the past.
The amount of USGS documents at your disposal will depend on what state you are in, but if you’re lucky there will be plenty of material to work through. Some states also have some more detailed reports on more specific mining districts which can be of great interest!
State government reports
Many states carried out local geological surveys in the past to document mineral deposits and mining operations. These documents can be a great window into a particular area. Thus, they can be really valuable if you happen to prospect around the right location.
History Books and old newspapers
History books can sometimes contain information about when and where miners struck gold in the past. Tales about big finds often travel far by mouth and sometimes eventually make it into history books.
However, the exact location is seldom disclosed, and the name of the place might have changed since.
Another great source of information is old mining town newspapers. In case the news about a new big find became widespread, you can be sure to find it in a local newspaper published shortly thereafter.
MDRS Records
The MRDS is a database maintained by the USGS that contains records on many gold deposits in the US. Most of the information is accurate, but there may be some records that are quite off the mark with regards to the GPS Coordinates.
Still, it is a great resource that also lists places that might not be shared anywhere else.
Here is a link to the MDRS that can be viewed directly in a web browser.
Conclusion
You cannot find gold anywhere, even though small concentrations are likely to exist in most places. In order to find those gold-bearing places, it’s paramount to thoroughly research the area and pick promising places to prospect further. This involves looking at old government and state reports, geology surveys, and reading relevant maps of the area.
Happy Panning!
