Finding real, natural gold is a dream come true for many people. Many people make an attempt to do some panning or metal detecting at some randomly chosen location, most often to no avail. However, once you’ve found your first piece of natural gold you might very well discover that gold fever is more real than you thought… So, how do you find natural gold?
To find natural placer gold you must first learn to use a gold pan properly. Secondly, you have to read mining reports from your area to understand where you stand the highest chance of striking gold. Thirdly, you need to learn some basic geology to be able to read rivers and landscapes for gold.
I know that getting started with gold mining and prospecting can be a daunting task. I remember my own first futile attempts at panning my local river.
So, to try and make things easier for you, I have created this guide to help untangle the most common questions newcomers to this hobby have.
I hope that you, after having read this guide, have the knowledge to get started mining and prospecting yourself!
This guide will teach you:
- What Equipment you need
- Metal Detecting VS Gold Panning
- How to pan for gold
- How to identify real, natural gold
- Basic Geology and Gold Indicators
- And much, much more!
But before all that, let’s briefly answer four of the most common questions beginning prospectors have.
Table of Contents
How Hard Is It To Find Natural Gold?
Finding natural gold is not an easy task, even for experienced prospectors. Gold is one of the least common elements in the earth’s crust, with a concentration of just around 0.004 grams per ton. While this might seem discouraging, gold concentrations will be substantially higher in some locations.
To be completely honest, you should not expect to make a living prospecting for gold. Few manage to find the amounts that are required to make a decent salary, and even fewer can do it with a consistency that allows them to have a somewhat steady paycheck coming in every month.
Most prospectors I know of see gold mining as a hobby, and regard any money they make a bonus. Gold prospecting indeed is a wonderful hobby and has let me enjoy many peaceful moments out in nature.
With that said, you definitely can find enough gold to make it all an enjoyable and even perhaps profitable venture.
For more information on this topic, see the following articles:
- How much money can you make gold panning?
- Can You Make a Living Panning for Gold?
- Is Finding Gold Really That Hard?
Where Does Natural Gold Come From
Even if all gold originates from gold veins in rock, we still make a distinction between two types of natural gold. The two types are:
- placer gold
- hard rock gold.
Hard Rock Gold
Hard rock gold, as the name suggests, is gold that’s contained in hard rock, typically below the surface.
The veins containing the gold were created when hot acidic solutions capable of dissolving gold ran through cracks and fissures towards the surface, where they cooled down and deposited the gold.
Due to the heavy machinery required for extraction, hard rock gold isn’t very popular with hobby prospectors. However, this doesn’t prevent it from being the most common type of gold mined by big mining companies.
Placer Gold
Placer gold is gold that has broken loose from the main lode. In other words, it’s hard rock gold that’s been exposed to erosion and weathering, which has freed up the gold previously contained in the rock.
Placer gold is the by far most common type of natural gold worked by hobby prospectors, regardless of whether they use a gold pan, metal detector, or more advanced and bigger equipment. It’s also what we are going to focus on in this article!
Placer gold tends to travel downhill as it’s subjected to heavy rains, and often enough it ends up in a river that can transport it for thousands of miles downstream. This is why so much gold has been found and is found in rivers. Essentially, they work as large natural concentrators, bringing in and gathering gold from countless locations along their course.
In other drier locations, the wind constantly blows off the light materials while the heavy gold stays put at roughly the same spot. With time, this creates desert placers that can be recovered with a metal detector.
For more in-depth information about placer gold, I recommend my longer article that describes the various types of placer gold in more detail.
Gold Nuggets Vs Fine Gold: What Can You Expect?
Many people dream of finding their own gold nuggets when heading out there looking for gold. And while gold nuggets are still found today, it should come as no surprise that they’re very rare.
Most of the natural gold found by prospectors today is the form of fine gold, such as gold dust and flakes of gold. Only 2% of gold found today is in the form of gold nuggets, which really demonstrates their rarity.
As a prospector, most of the gold you are going to find will be very fine gold. Most of the easily accessible nuggets were simply taken by the old-timer, who naturally didn’t care that much for the fine gold which was harder to retrieve. That was especially the case considering the methods used back then were much less sophisticated and less fine-tuned compared to those we have today.
If you want to learn more about gold nuggets, I have a couple of articles I think might interest you:
- How Rare Are Gold Nuggets? (Gold Nugget Rarity Explained)
- How Pure Are Gold Nuggets?
- Can You Find Gold Nuggets Anywhere?
- How to invest in gold nuggets
Where Are You Allowed To Prospect For Gold?
This is perhaps the most commonly asked question by new prospectors, and on a general level, the answer is quite straight forward.
You are allowed to prospect on most public lands unless they have been claimed by other prospectors. A claim can be filed by a prospector who finds gold, and simply gives him or her exclusive rights to the minerals on that spot. You are not allowed to pan for gold on private land unless you have permission from the landowner.
It’s important to remember that even though most public lands are open to prospectors, there are exceptions. Areas with special designations, like natural parks, are some common examples, and rules do vary quite a lot between parks.
Another thing to keep in mind is larger mining equipment like suction dredges often require a special permit, or are explicitly banned. Most hand tools, like gold pans and sluice boxes, however, tend to be allowed in most locations.
Gold Mining Equipment
The first step to getting out there finding your own natural gold is to get the right equipment. And while some vendors might want to make you buy some really fancy equipment, I will tell you right away that you don’t need to spend much to get started.
To be frank, you just need a good gold pan to get started. However, investing in some more tools will make your life as a prospector much easier.
Here are some things you might want to consider getting in addition to a gold pan.
- A shovel or spade
- Vials: Perfect for storing small gold
- Classifier: Basically, this is a big sieve that fits on top of your gold pan to remove large rocks and debris. In short, this makes the panning process much easier and more efficient
- Snuffer Bottle: Really nice for picking up gold quickly and effortlessly!
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Most new prospectors simply purchase a gold panning kit that gives them everything they’ll need at a cheap price. Be sure to check out my full list of the best gold panning kits in case you’re interested in getting one for yourself!
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Sluice Box: The Perfect Upgrade
A sluice box is a narrow box/channel equipped with gold traps, that’s placed in a flowing creek or stream. Once the material is poured into the sluice, the gold will get caught in the gold traps, while the sands and gravels exit the sluice with the escaping water.
Many prospectors start out with a gold pan but then choose to get a sluice, which in many ways is the perfect upgrade. In short, a sluice box lets process many times more material than a gold pan. Gold pans are seldom used as production tools but are used mostly for prospecting, which is an important distinction:
- Prospecting is the act of heading out with the purpose of discovering gold deposits, but not necessarily working them.
- Gold mining is the act of actively trying to retrieve the gold from those locations you discovered when prospecting.
With that said, virtually every gold miner and prospector uses a gold pan at some stage of the gold recovery process. When used together with a sluice box, the gold pan is mostly used to clean up the concentrates of sand and gold you get from running the sluice.
Here are two articles on sluice boxes that might interest you:
- Best portable sluice boxes
- How to use a sluice box
Metal Detecting Vs Gold Panning for Natural Gold
When electronic prospecting became an option back in the ’80s, the metal detectors available on the market were a far cry from the ones we have today, both in terms of price and usefulness. With time, metal detectors have improved substantially and become much cheaper and effective tools. Today, many newcomers are headed straight for metal detecting in the belief that it’s the by far best approach to find natural gold.
Now, I would argue that gold panning still is the better option for a beginner. When comparing metal detecting to gold panning, it quickly becomes evident that the former requires much more training than the latter. Gold panning has the benefit of being incredibly easy to get a hang of, and generally, gold is easier to find in rivers as well.
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Advantages of Gold Panning
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1. It’s Cheap
A gold pan doesn’t cost many dollars and will last for many years to come. Even a gold panning kit, which is a better purchase for somebody just starting out, won’t cost you that much!
2. Everyone Can Learn Gold Panning!
Gold panning isn’t hard to learn if you just spend some time with it. Some good instructions, like those I’ve published here at prospecting planet, will teach you the basics in minutes!
3. Finding Gold in Rivers Is Easier!
In normal cases, the concentration of gold in the earth’s crust is so small that it isn’t economically feasible to recover. In order to become so, it must first be concentrated, be it through internal or external geological processes.
Finding gold in rivers gets easier because the constant flow acts to concentrate materials by weight. Thus, gold, which is among the heaviest elements, will pile up on certain locations in the river, creating much more easily recoverable streaks and pockets of gold.
When also considering the fact that a river will pick up gold from the entire length of its course, you might start to realize how effective a gold concentrator a river can be!
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Disadvantages of Gold Panning
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1. Processing Limitations (Con)
Regardless of how much you love a gold pan for its high recovery rate and simplicity, you still cannot escape the fact that it is fairly limited with regards to the amount of streambed material it can process.
Due to its low processing capacity, a gold pan is seldom used as a production tool, Instead, panners usually upgrade to a sluice box when they want to work more material.
2. Water is needed (Con)
Obviously, you need water to be able to pan gold effectively. This can and does pose an issue in dry, desertous areas devoid of most kinds of sources of water.
People in such parts usually go for metal detecting or dry washing. For instance, Arizona is famous for its gold nuggets, of which many today are found with metal detectors. In case you’re interested to learn more, I have published an extensive resource listing over 20 gold locations in Arizona that perhaps could be of interest to you!
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Advantages of Metal Detecting
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1. More Land Open For Prospecting! (pro)
The old-timers didn’t have access to modern metal detectors, and consequently missed a lot of the gold hidden underground. With the help of a metal detector, you can go after these deposits that were never discovered.
In contrast, the small scale mining operations of the gold rushes of the 19th and 20th century were mostly focused on river gold.
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Disadvantages of Metal Detecting
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1.It’s Harder (Con)
Many newcomers have the mindset that gold suddenly becomes easy to find if you just get yourself a metal detector. As you might have started to suspect, this is not the case!
When looking for natural gold with a metal detector, you have access to MUCH bigger areas than a gold panner has, of which only a few places will contain gold. You could say that knowing where to look becomes even more critical when metal detecting, even though it’s important to note that it’s by no means an easy task in either case.
In addition, you’ve got a piece of technology that requires some proficiency to be used in a correct and useful manner.
2.It’s Expensive (Con)
Even budget metal detectors will set you back at a couple of hundred dollars. If you’re just starting out, that’s a quite hefty price to pay for something you’re not sure you will get to use that often!
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Metal Detecting Vs Gold Panning: Which Is Best for you?
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Unless they live in an area that’s totally devoid of rivers and running water, I always recommend beginners to start with gold panning. It’s so much easier, and besides, knowing how to handle a gold pan is a skill you will find useful regardless of your chosen prospecting style!
How to Find Natural Placer Gold With a Gold Pan
Having covered the main differences between gold prospecting with a gold pan and metal detecting, we are now going to take a closer look at the whole process of using a gold pan.
In case you’d like an even more detailed guide, I would recommend taking a closer look at the following article: complete guide to gold panning : A step by step guide.
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Phase 1: Learn How To Use a Gold Pan: It’s Easy!
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To be honest, a gold pan isn’t that hard to operate, and you will get the hang of it quite quickly if you just pay attention to the instructions.
The panning process works by leveraging the high weight of gold relative to other materials. Simply put, the gold will sink to the bottom when shaking the pan, which then lets us remove the surface layer consisting of the lightest gravels and sands. After a couple of runs, only the heaviest materials, including gold, will be left in the pan for us to retrieve.
So, here is the whole gold panning process condensed into 5 steps. You may also watch the instructional video below.
Step 1: Collect and sift the Streambed Material
First of all, you need to collect the streambed material. While this is quite straight forward, there are a few things you need to keep in mind:
- Use a classifier: You don’t want big rocks, pebbles, and debris when panning. It will make retrieving the gold harder, as bigger rocks require you to use much more force when panning to have them removed. Besides, it takes up a lot of space that could have been taken up by gold-bearing sands and gravels.
- Don’t fill up the pan entirely: The gold pan becomes much easier to handle if you don’t fill it up completely.
- Break up lumps of clay: If there is clay in the streambed, make sure to break up any eventual lumps with your fingers. Also, make sure that the pebbles and rocks are completely clean. Otherwise, you risk throwing out gold caught in the lumps.
Step 2: Submerge the pan underwater with its content
The next step involves submerging the pan underwater and shaking the pan back and forth in a rather hefty manner. This is to ensure that the gold falls to the bottom of the pan, where it hopefully will remain as we carry on with the panning process.
Shake the pan for around 10 seconds before heading on to the next step.
Step 3: Tilt the pan and submerge it underwater
As the surface layer of the material now should be completely devoid of gold, we want to flush it out of the pan. To do this, you:
- Tilt the pan slightly away from you
- Submerge the pan underwater so that all the sand and gravel is underwater.
- Lift up the pan while simultaneously moving it slightly away from you. This will cause the water inside the pan to rush out of the pan, taking the surface layer of light sands with it. Remember to keep the pan tilted at the same angle throughout the move. This step could take some practice to get right.
- Repeat the above steps a few times to remove more of the surface layer.
Step 4: Repeat!
Now you need to repeat steps 2-3 until there is around half a cup of material left.
You will often notice that the sand gets darker and darker the longer you continue to pan. The darker sand is generally referred to as black sand and is among the heavier elements in the streambed. Thus, gold is generally associated with black sand, and the latter is often considered an indicator of the former.
Step 5: Get the gold out of the black sand
This is the exciting part!
Now you should have very little material left in your pan, hopefully with some gold in it. To separate the gold from the black sand, you do the following:
- Gather all the sand in the far end of the pan.
- Make sure to have enough water to just cover the bottom of the pan.
- Shake the pan gently to once again make the gold fall to the bottom, holding the pan slightly tilted away from you.
- Then start to gently swirl the water around the pan. The gold, which is the heaviest material in the mix, will mostly stay in place, while the lighter black sands will get grabbed by the swirling water to a larger extent.
When You’re Done, make sure to save your black sand concentrates for further processing.
Spending the cold part of the year extracting gold from black sand concentrates you dug during the warmer part of the year indeed makes an enjoyable pastime.
To learn about the different methods of getting out the gold from black sand concentrates, check out my full guide on separating gold from black sand
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Phase 2: Learn to Look for Gold in the Right Locations
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There is an old adage that goes that ” gold is where you find it”. And while it sometimes can be hard to know why gold is found in certain locations, you can be sure that there is a reason.
Now, heading out to your nearest river or creek without performing any research might be fun, but it’s unlikely to yield good results.
To increase your odds of actually finding gold you’re better off looking for gold where it has been found before. In the past, the old-timers scoured the country and subsequently focused on the locations that proved to hold the greatest amounts of gold. And although much of the easier gold has been dug up, there is plenty to be found. Especially considering that the occurrence of gold in one location suggests that there might be deposits nearby that haven’t been discovered yet.
So how do you know where gold has been found, Well, here are some good sources of information to look into:
- Government reports: There are many state government reports carried out by the USGS that contain loads of useful information about known gold deposits in many states.
- State Reports: Geological surveys and mining reports were often carried out on the state level as well. When compared to government reports, these tend to more detailed.
- Old mining town newspapers and history books: It’s not uncommon that you can pick up some valuable tips from studying old mining town newspapers and history books. While they seldom disclose the exact location where gold was found, they are worth looking closer into to get a general idea about gold-bearing locations in the surrounding areas.
Tip: Become a GPAA Member
Being new to prospecting can be hard, especially when it comes to finding gold-bearing spots. Long stretches of the most gold dense rivers in the country have already been claimed up, and finding some for yourself often requires a lot of time and effort out in the field.
Becoming a member of Gold Prospectors Association of America is a really inexpensive shortcut. As a member, you not only get to know other like-minded people but also get to prospect on the gold-bearing claims held by the club.
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Phase 3: Learn to Read Rivers For Gold
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It should be noted that gold deposits are quite spotty even in locations with a lot of gold. Gold deposits tend to gather in the form of paystreaks or as small pockets of gold in cavities and cracks in bedrock. In short, this has to do with the fact that gold is so heavy, which causes it to take a path different from that of other lighter materials.
Now, as a prospector, there are many signs you can use to tell where gold is likely to be found. Usually, such places are where the water current slows down enough to give the gold a chance to fall to the bottom and deposit
Here are three of the most common spots that prospectors pay extra attention to:
- Inside Bends: The water along the inside bend has to cover a significantly shorter distance to cover the turn than the water running along the outside bend. Thus, it will slow down and give the gold a chance to deposit on the inside bend.
- Behind Boulders: As expected, a large boulder will create a zone behind it where water flows much slower, allowing the gold to settle
- In moss: Believe it or not, but moss works really well for finding gold. Just like the mattings people buy for their sluice boxes, moss will capture a lot of the gold that comes up its path. If you find moss in a gold-bearing river, you may want to sift it out to see what it holds!
My article on reading a river for gold is the perfect resource for those who wish to learn much more on the subject.
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How To Find Natural Placer Gold With a Metal Detector
Metal detecting is one of the hardest methods of finding gold, especially for a beginner with no prior experience. I would recommend that you first make an attempt at gold panning.
However, If you still want to use a metal detector, I will simply refer to my guide to metal detecting for gold.
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5 Important Gold Indicators
As a prospector, you will benefit greatly from learning some common gold indicators that help you understand where the gold actually lies hidden. And although there is no way to cover all the various gold indicators or combinations thereof in one article, these 5 gold indicators will definitely help you in your endeavors!
Iron Staining and Black Sands
Iron in the form of pyrite or other minerals is commonly found together with gold. Being so reactive, it tends to rust quickly in its pure form and stain nearby rocks and gravels.
Black sands are also made up of iron to a large extent. Gold is usually found together with black sand, even if far from all black sand contains gold.
Quartz
Quartz is formed by the same geological processes by which gold is deposited in the earth’s crust. The acidic waters that dissolve gold deep inside the earth also dissolve silica, which is the main constituent of quartz. As the acidic waters rise through the earth’s crust they finally cool off, release the gold and silica, and form gold deposits and quartz.
However, it should be noted that quartz is one of the most abundant elements on earth, while the opposite holds true for gold. In short, this means that many quartz veins contain no gold whatsoever.
Still, finding quartz in an area known to have a lot of gold is a good indication.
Similar Favorable Rock Types Nearby
If I could tell you that gold is found in one or a couple of different rock types, that would certainly make it all much easier. Unfortunately, the favorable rock type of one area may very well be different from that of another area.
The favorable rock type that’s typically associated with gold in a specific area is often mentioned in mining reports. Once again researching will help a great deal!
Once you know the favorable rock types in an area, you could look up areas known to produce good gold and explore the nearby surroundings. The chances are that the favorable rock will remain the same there as well.
Geological Contact Zones
The acidic waters that brought up the gold and quartz needed some room to advance through the host rock. As cracks and fissures often occurred in the contact zone between two rock types, this was often where the gold and quartz got deposited.
Color Changes
In some locations, the acidic waters that brought up gold and quartz to the surface layer have bleached the host rock, giving it a lighter color.
Desert Pavements
Desert pavement is formed when the wind removes the lighter sand and materials, exposing pebbles and bigger pieces of rock. Especially if there is quartz present in the mix, there is a chance that gold resides in the surface layer.
How To Identify Natural Gold (Real Gold Vs Fool’s Gold
Identifying real gold is not a hard task if you just know what to look for. Gold is a really special metal with special properties that distinguish it from other gold-like minerals.
So, what should you pay attention to when trying to determine what you’ve found is real gold or not? Here is a list!
- Weight: Gold is really heavy, and if you find something that’s big enough to pick up between your fingers, it should feel heavy as well.
- Color: Most gold nuggets or gold flakes are really bright, and nearly appear to shine even when not exposed to sunlight.
- Shape: Most gold has at least somewhat rounded edges unless it has broken off the lode just recently.
The best way of learning to identify natural gold is to see some real gold for yourself. For that purpose, buying a gold pay dirtbag is a really neat and convenient option!
Fools’ Gold Vs Real Gold
Pyrite, also called “Fool’s Gold”
There are a few minerals that often fool new prospectors into believing that they have struck gold when they haven’t. These are:
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- Pyrite: Often nicknamed “Fool’s Gold”, this is a mineral that has fooled many prospectors. Pyrite is much lighter than gold and will therefore move freely in the pan in a way much different to real gold. Its color tends to be brassy with a sometimes iridescent sheen, while gold usually has a warmer color. In contrast to gold, it will flash in the sunlight. Pyrite forms into cubic shapes, which together with striation are the two most common characteristics of the mineral. It will shatter easily when hit with a hammer.
- Chalcopyrite: Chalcopyrite is very similar to pyrite, and the same tests used to identify pyrite can be used here as well. However, it’s more brassy and yellow which makes it easier to confuse with real gold.
Check out the video below to learn more.
Final Words
In this guide, I have tried to cram in as much information as possible in a manageable format. Of course, there is a lot more to learn not only about gold prospecting, but also about different types of gold, how to sell it, and how much it’s worth, only to name a few examples.
Here are some articles I recommend to those who want to learn more:
- How to read a river for gold
- How to find pay streaks
- How rare are gold nuggets?
- Can you find gold nuggets anywhere?
- How to sell placer gold and gold nuggets!
Happy Prospecting!