If you have ever gone on a hike or walk among nature, you might have also wondered whether there is gold lying under your feet. Finding gold in soil includes many factors, from the choice of equipment to refining your prospecting skills. However, once you know a little more about a place’s geology, you will be able to retrieve nuggets from any type of soil!
To find gold in soil, start by understanding the geology of the location, including the rocks that can indicate the presence of gold. Then, you should buy the right prospecting tool, understand how the soil interacts with it, position yourself in the right location, and refine your skills.
Table of Contents
How to Find Gold in the Soil – An Introduction
Finding gold in the soil requires different prospecting methods and knowledge depending on the type of soil you are dealing with, many prospectors opt for an electronic prospecting tool. In contrast, others prefer to pan streambed material.
However, in some cases, prospectors will need to use a combination of several methods to pinpoint, clean, and extract the gold. Additionally, while it is exciting to identify a gold nugget, in most cases, prospectors will be dealing with gold in other forms, such as flour gold and fine gold.
These are even more challenging to identify and require you to have expert prospecting needs to avoid missing precious flour along the way.
Since soils and gold-bearing grounds can have different characteristics, you can find an introduction to placer geology below. This section will help you understand what kind of fields you are dealing with. Then, basing your decision on preferences and soil type, you can move on to pick the best prospecting tool for your needs.
Understanding Placer Geology
Understanding placer geology[1] is one of the first steps that prospectors wishing to retrieve gold from the soil should complete. Among the most common types of soils, you will encounter on your prospecting career, are:
- Sand
- Dryland
- Streambed material
In the article below, you can find out how to prospect for gold in wet soils and dry soils. However, keep in mind that the type of prospecting method to choose depends on the type of soil you are looking at examining.
Lastly, it is natural for different geographical locations to boast different geological formations and types of soil. However, the methods below can be adapted to any kind once you have mastered the skill.
Rocks That Indicate the Presence of Gold
To understand the geology of the area you are about to search for gold, you will need to search for the telltale signs that could indicate the presence of gold. The surrounding rocks can be an excellent indicator of the composition of the soil if you are on dry land or away from a river.
Firstly, you should have a look at what the rocks in your location look like. If they are smooth and polished, it will be hard for any particles of gold transported away from the lode to attach to them. In this case, they might have slipped off and fallen into a valley or river[2].
Smooth rocks include igneous formations like granite. These are so hard that the force of wind and water is likely to pound them down and create a smooth external surface.
Remember that gold is much denser than the surrounding materials (up to 6 times). So, if it meets a smooth rock and slips off it, it will reach the floor much quicker than other substances.
Alternatively, the rocks in your surroundings might be irregular, presenting crevices and cracks[3]. These are ideal rocks around which to look for gold. Indeed, the gold is transported from the lode by natural powers such as wind and rain. During this process, there is a chance that it will remain trapped in between crevices and cuts. Ultimately, cracks in rock formations are the best locations to locate fine gold particles.
Another thing that you, as a prospector, should consider is whether the soil you are dealing with is an alluvial deposit[4]. This term means that the gold has been transported away from the mountain. However, it has not yet reached a body of water, such as a stream. Alluvial deposits can contain high quantities of gold, but you might need several prospecting tools within the same operation.
Streambed Configurations
Instead, if you are operating on wet grounds, you might need different information to locate the portion of the river that boasts the most chances of providing gold. Undoubtedly, everything you have learned about the specific rock formations to look for will be handy even in this situation.
Indeed, if the rocks near a streambed are irregular, the gold particles transported at high speed along the river bed might become trapped. So, they work as natural and more prominent riffles – the baffles you can find on your gold pan or sluice box.
However, other information is specific to the course of rivers or creeks. To locate the right section to pan or sluice for gold:
- You should find out more about the course of the river. If you notice that the river has been flowing at a slight slope and mainly fast, follow it until it reaches a calmer pool of water. As we have seen, gold is heavier than other materials. Without the necessary velocity of water to push it along, it will rapidly fall towards the streambed[5].
- The second signal to identify happens when the course of a river or stream suddenly becomes much larger than it was. Indeed, as the bed of the river widens, the water will have more space to flow, and therefore, the water velocity will diminish. As it does, the gold particles will drop to the ground, unable to be carried along by the water[6].
Using Topographic Maps
Regardless of whether you are panning for gold along a stream or through dry land, using a topographic map[7] can offer you all the information related to the local geology you need. Indeed, it is unreasonable to know everything about the different soil formations.
However, topographic maps can be found online, from the closest prospecting equipment shop, or the local authorities. These will also have the latest and most up to date maps for you to use.
How to Find Gold in the Soil Through Electronic Prospecting
You have several choices to analyze the ground if you are in a location away from the water. However, the best and most straightforward of them is to use a metal prospector. Using a metal/mineral prospector to find gold is a type of electronic prospecting that can be highly efficient if you know how to handle this device.
Firstly, you should know that there are two types of metal detectors on the market today, BFOs (Beat Frequency Oscillators) and VLF (Very Low Frequency)[8]. The first ones boast a much simpler and less refined technology than the second ones. However, it is also not ideal for the identification and recovery of gold.
Instead, VLF detectors[9] include a mechanism that can cancel out the interference that highly-mineralized grounds can cause. While this might seem an excessive characteristic at first, it is essential to tune them in and allow them to discover gold.
Especially if you are examining soil, without this characteristic, you will notice your detector to emit a continuous sound that does not allow you to distinguish between gold targets and other metal deposits. These might also include rubbish, such as bottle tops and nails.
Specialized vs. Multi-Purpose Detectors
The choice of whether to choose one of the other entirely depends on your prospecting needs. Indeed, if you tend to use your detector several times a week to find additional deposits and materials such as jewelry and silver, you might have the multi-purpose model.
However, if you are planning to use your detector exclusively to find gold, you might need to invest a specialized detector. The main difference is that the last one will allow you to set the device entirely to identify gold and cut out other interferences.
Highly-Mineralized Grounds
Highly-mineralized grounds[10] represents one of the biggest threats for prospectors who have opted to use a gold detector to recover gold from the soil. Even worse, gold is often associated with these grounds, which means that it can be found in similar locations.
Highly mineralized grounds derive from minerals that have started to dissipate in it, creating a whole area that will sound loudly on your detector. Naturally, as we have seen, some detectors can be adequately adjusted to cut out these interferences.
However, independently on the quality of the detector itself, it comes down to the prospector to know how to set it up properly. Alongside this, for prospecting soil, you will need to adjust the ground balance and sensitivity settings of the metal detector.
Gold Targets
If you are prospecting for gold, you should know that gold is among the materials that sound the worst on your detector. Ideally, you should wear headphones[11] at all times to focus on the detector’s auditory signals.
Additionally, you should learn how to set up your metal detector’s various settings, including the volume. Adjust the volume settings, so it is just below the hearing threshold. This step is essential because gold will sound extremely weak on the detector, and you will need to capture even the slightest of sounds.
How to Find Gold in the Soil Through Panning or Sluicing
You might be dealing with a streambed if you are trying to recover gold from the soil near a stream or river. Naturally, some detectors are waterproof, so you could use them to pinpoint the areas that contain gold even nearby a river.
However, metal detectors will need to be as close as possible to the surface of the ground to read the sediments properly. That’s why many prospectors opt to use a gold pan or a sluice box. In some cases, but of these two pieces of equipment will be used within the same operation.
Selecting Your Equipment
If you are a novice in prospecting, you might consider buying an all-encompassing panning kit such as the Sluice Fox 10 Piece Gold Panning Kit. These types of packages will get you ready for your first gold panning experience, and contain:
- Two different-size pans for processing the streambed material
- Vials and scoops
- A sluice box
- Screens
- A suction bottle or magnet
- Bucket
When picking the right equipment for your prospecting needs, don’t forget to consider both pans and sluice boxes. Indeed, this last one if often preferred by more expert prospectors looking at upgrading from the pan they are currently using.
However, thanks to the set of riffles of baffles located along the sluice box’s bottom edge, these devices will help you process much more streambed material in much shorter time frames. You may need to transfer the material back to the pan once you have finished with the sluice box.
Pans, instead, are the most ancient method of processing streambed material and more. These tools are just as efficient as ever, but they require a lot of patience and practice to start seeing the first gold particles.
When picking the right gold pan to pan soil, opt for a plastic one that boasts “cheater rifles.”[12] These additions help you retain the vital gold particles within the pan, while the easy-to-maneuver shape will make it easier to get rid of the lighter, worthless materials found in a streambed.
Find Out the Path That Gold Follows
Once you are ready with the perfect pan for your prospecting needs, you will need to understand where to harvest the soil from. Usually, this would be along the banks of a river or stream, where the water is at least 6in (15cm) deep.
However, there is one more factor for you to keep into consideration: the path the gold follows. Indeed, as the particles travel along the river or stream, the particles of gold will follow a specific way. Identifying this path allows you to position yourself in the right location for panning.
Usually, as the gold travels down a stream, it will tend to avoid as much as possible the curvatures of the rivers. This fact means that particles of gold are more likely to be found on the short side of each curve, not the one that covers the longest distance[13].
Setting yourself up in one of these locations can genuinely help you catch particles of gold that have been trapped along the streambed while traveling through the water.
Panning and Sluicing
Once your planning operation is set up, you can start allowing water into the pan. While keeping it below the surface, move the material with your fingers to break it apart. This movement will enable the gold particles to separate from lighter materials and fall towards the bottom of the pan.
Then, with care, start shaking the pan side to side while still keeping it underwater. The lighter material should now begin to leave the pan. Continue with this process and tilt the pan forward to let some of the saturated water out. Continue doing so until only the black sand is left in the pan.
Once you have obtained the concentrate from your soil, you are now ready to move it onto a micro sluice box – a device that can help you identify fine gold within the black sand. Indeed, this sluice box can control the water velocity that enters the body of the device. The sluice box separates the gold from the black sand in all safety and a controlled environment.
Alternatives
The techniques we have seen above are two of the most common ones and preferred by prospectors worldwide. However, there are other options if the ones above don’t satisfy your needs.
Dredges, for example, are incredibly helpful devices that can help you extract soil from any streambed. However, these will require you to commit to a significant investment. Additionally, within most of the areas open from prospecting, dredging is not allowed or subjected to strict regulations.
Alternatively, using a vacuum machine, motorized sluice box, or a Gold Cube can maximize your chances of seeing results out of your soil prospecting activity. However, in each of these cases, a large initial investment is required to collect the soil you are interested in. Prospectors should understand that sometimes the cost might overpower the profits.
Conclusion
If you have decided to start prospecting soil, you can begin practicing directly in your backyard. However, once you are out in the wild, you can have two choices, Electronic prospecting or panning. The firs will yield excellent results but a higher price, while pans are highly affordable, but they require patience and practice.
Lastly, once you have decided on the piece of equipment that suits your needs best, you could opt to invest in bags of paydirt. While these are not a way to increase your profits, they do contain gold. Therefore you can practice in your backyard before booking a prospecting trip.