Finding a pay streak that is rich enough to provide ounces upon ounces of gold is the dream of most gold prospectors and miners. However, most prospectors go about the wrong way when looking for one, and subsequently miss out on big opportunities. I’ve heard many stories of even experienced miners who didn’t pay proper attention, and where literally a couple of feet from uncovering really rich and well-paying sections of a river.
So, how do you find paystreaks? To find a paystreak you should first sample the river to ensure that it’s gold-bearing. Then, focusing on locations where the current slows down, you will take several sample pans and continue working in the direction of the highest gold density, until you find the paystreak.
Obviously, there is a lot more to finding paystreaks, and there are many small details to consider. Fortunately, this guide will lay out the whole process in several steps from the very beginning.
These are:
- Learning to prospect in the right locations: If a location has no gold, then there will be no pay streaks! There are quite some handy tools you can use to research where to go for your next trip.
- The Right Equipment: You don’t need much to start prospecting, but having the right equipment indeed will save you time, energy, and make the experience much more pleasurable.
- Understanding where Pay Streaks Form in Rivers: Once you’ve found a river you want to inspect further, knowing where you can expect pay streaks to form is critical!
- Sampling for gold the right way: By sampling a river in a methodical and organized way, you will save time and energy, as well as increase your chances of finding an actual pay streak.
- Recovering the gold: Although this hasn’t got to do with the actual process of finding the pay streak, we will share some tips on how to work as efficiently as possible.
If you just want to skip to the part about sampling a river and getting to the gold, just use the table of contents right below!
Table of Contents
How To Know In What Locations to Prospect for Pay Streaks
The first thing you must make sure before heading out into a river is that you stand a reasonable chance of finding gold. Obviously, you can’t find a pay streak if the river is void of gold. The old saying” gold is where you find it” is thrown around frequently, but to be frank, placer gold always has a an explanation, regardless of whether we understand it or not.
With that said it’s impossible to be 100% sure beforehand that your chosen location is going to contain gold. That is, if not gold has been found there before!
As a matter of fact, there are loads of old mining reports and reports carried out by the U.S Geological Survey that can be used to get a sense of where gold has been found before.
Focusing your efforts on areas that are proven to have produced gold in the past is a decision that will radically improve your chances of recovering some yourself. That doesn’t mean you have to be on the exact same spot where finds have been reported. Just knowing that a particular area indeed has contained gold will make everything a lot easier!
So, where can you get this information? Well, here are a couple of sources you could look into
Government and state reports
There are a lot of government reports from the USGS that contain loads of useful information about placer gold in states across the country. While they are perhaps not as detailed as the local and state government reports, they are excellent when it comes to getting a general idea about the gold production in a state.
The number of USGS reports at your disposal will vary depending on which state you’re in. If you’re lucky you will have quite some material to sift through, and may even find that some of the more detailed reports cover your state!
State government reports
On the state level, many geological surveys were carried out to document mineral and metal deposits, as well as mining operations. In contrast to the USGS reports, these are generally quite detailed and often provide the exact location of historical gold operations.
MDRS Records
The MDRS is a database that’s maintained by the USGS, and contains various records of gold findings throughout the US. Some locations shared might not be available anywhere else, and with the GPS coordinates being included, finding the site is really easy!
MDRS can be accessed here
Old Newspapers and History Books
While history books seldom disclose the exact location where gold was found, when they do, it’s not uncommon to discover that the name of the place has changed. Regardless, they provide hints about gold-bearing areas that are worth looking closer at.
Old mining town newspapers can provide useful information. In case the word of a new find spread during those days, you can be sure that it was followed up by the press!
As you see, there is a lot of information available. And with many of the geological surveys and mining reports being freely available online, you can get started at any time!
Equipment Needed: It’s Less Than You Think!
Many new to prospecting assume that you need a lot of equipment to find gold. Many are inspired by various reality shows that depict huge machinery, washing plants, and the like.
However, as prospectors who are out with the main purpose of discovering gold and not mining it (an important distinction!), we don’t need much at all. In fact, you could do well with just a regular gold pan and a shovel!
However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other pieces of equipment that could come handy! Here are the things I bring on my prospecting trips.
Snuffer Bottle
Many times you don’t want to do the final cleanup out in the field, but instead spend your time working through more material. That’s when the snuffer bottle comes in handy.
A snuffer bottle is made of soft plastic, and is used to remove and store fine gold concentrates from your gold pan. You simply squeeze the bottle with your hand to suck up the gold!
Map and Compass
Getting lost and not finding your way back is something you want to avoid at all costs! Bring a map and compass with you, and you will be a lot safer!
Some prospectors also bring with them a satellite phone if they know they’re going to be out of reach of normal cell-phone coverage.
Bug Spray and Mosquito Net
This is sel explanatory. Trust me, you don’t want to forget this one!
Hand Lotion
Working in water all day will dry out your hands quite badly, and keeping some hand lotion is a quick and easy solution.
How PayStreaks Form: Essential Placer Geology Basics
Paystreaks are made of up what we call placer gold. In short, this is gold that has formed through weathering and erosion of gold-bearing lodes. With help from wind and water, the loose gold moves downwards until it reaches the lowest point in the area. In some cases, this area is traversed by a river, which takes the gold with it.
For paystreaks to form, the current must be strong enough to lift the heavy gold particles. When the river slows down following an obstacle or changes in depth or width, the gold will settle and form paystreaks. Other lighter materials won’t concentrate in the same place due to the weight difference.
Put differently, gold is so heavy that it will drop off faster to the bottom than other materials, and react more slowly to changes in current directions. This is the reason why gold isn’t spread evenly in the riverbed.
Let’s now take a somewhat closer look at how pay streaks form from the very beginning. These are things that will help you a great deal in your prospecting ventures!
Phase 1: Residual to Eluvial to Alluvial Deposits
When the gold has eroded from the main lode it sits on, it’s called residual gold. Residual gold is simply defined as gold that hasn’t moved more than a couple of feet from the original source.
As soon as the gold starts to migrate from its original position it changes name to eluvial gold. The definition of eluvial gold is gold that hasn’t yet made it into a waterway.
If the gold finally makes it into a river, it’s called“alluvial gold”. Once the gold gets into an active waterway, it will slowly start to concentrate on various places and form pay streaks!
Phase 2: Paystreak formation
As we mentioned earlier, gold is really heavy. To give the exact numbers, gold is 18 times heavier than water and 6 times heavier than most other materials found in the streambed.
Due to this, gold will follow its own path and deposit in places where the current is too weak the keep the gold moving, but still strong enough to carry away the lighter sands and gravels.
Another result of its high weight is that it will take some time to react to new flow directions. If you imagine a straight river channel followed by an S-shaped turn, the gold is going to collide with the inner benches. This is also why most paystreaks are found closer to the inside bend than the outside bend.
One thing to keep in mind about paystreaks is that they could very well be lying above the current water level. Most gold moves and concentrates during the yearly floods, when the water flow is strong enough to move most of the gold particles. In other words, since the water level is much higher during floods, some of the pay streaks could actually be found on dry land.
Another thing to keep in mind is that there can be several paystreaks in the same location. The reason is that as the amount of water in the river changes, so will the path of gold, and the gold will be deposited at different locations.
With this said, we have now covered the basics of how paystreaks form.
Now it’s time to move on to the exciting part of this article, namely how to read a river for paystreaks!
Places to Look for Paystreaks In Rivers
When searching for paystreaks in rivers we can look at things like obstacles, water depth, channel width, and water depth to get an idea about where pay streaks are most likely to form.
In short, gold tends to concentrate and form paystreaks where the current becomes weaker and causes the gold to settle. Areas like these are often referred to as “low-pressure zones”.
There are many situations in which low-pressure zones can appear, and although every situation will be unique, there are some indicators that are good to know when looking for gold! Let’s look closer at a couple of the most common situations!
Inside Bends
If you have done any prospecting whatsoever together with an experienced prospector, you are likely to have got the advice to focus on the inside bends. Well, this is true!
As a river twists and turns, gold that travels down the river is likely to hit the inside bend and deposit there. This is due to two reasons:
- As the body of water travels down the river and enters a turn, the water that runs along the inside bend will have to cover a shorter distance to make the turn, than the water running along the inside bend. In other words, the current along the inside bend runs slower, which makes it much easier for the gold to settle and deposit.
- The sheer weigt of gold means that it will take much longer to change its path when the river channel changes direction. As a result, much of the gold will hit the inside bend in a turn.
Due to the above reasons, gold tends to deposit along the inside bend. More specifially, gold is often found on the far end side of the turn, as that’s where the water tends to be the calmest.
Behind Obstacles
Wherever there is an obstacle in the river channel, the current will lose some of its speed, which is a situation that lends itself well to pay streak formation.
Some of the most common and rather stationary obstacles are boulders.
A boulder that interferes with the current will cause zones behind and in front of the obstacle where water moves less rapidly. If the boulder happens to be situated in a streak where gold usually passes, some of it is likely to deposit around the low-pressure zone.
Sudden Drops
Sudden drops from shallow to deep water can also lead to the formation of pay streaks, as the volume of the river suddenly expands, hence causing the current to slow down and the gold to drop off.
As you might have guessed, pay streaks following sudden drops can be hard to dig up for the normal panner as they can lie quite deep. In these cases, motorized gold dredges are the way to go!
Protruding Outcroppings
Another type of gold trap that I’ve seen give rise to pay streaks, is bedrock outcroppings of various sizes and shapes that protrude into the river. Depending on the exact shape, gold can gather both in front of and behind the outcropping.
If the outcropping faces downstream the gold normally concentrates downstream.
If the outcropping faces upstream, the majority of the gold tends to concentrate in front of the outcropping.
Where the River Channel Widens
In case the river channel experiences a sudden change in width from narrow to wide, the sudden increase in volume is going to slow down the water flow and make the gold fall to the streambed,
In some cases, you will also note that boulders and other rocks have gathered where the river channel widens. Just like gold, they are heavy and require a lot of force to move, which means that they will behave somewhat similar to gold. In other words, groups of boulders and loose rocks could be an indication that gold is nearby.
Where the river levels off
Another place where the current usually slows down is where the river levels off, often in combination with a widening or deepening of the river channel. As you probably can guess by now, the reason why this works is that the current slows down enough.
If you want to see more examples of where gold tends to concentrate in river, be sure to check out our guide to reading a river for gold.
Sampling for Pay Streaks: The most important Part!
As we now have covered some locations in a river where gold is likely to concentrate and form paystreaks, it’s time to look closer at the next important step, which is sampling.
In short, sampling is the process of taking samples of streambed material from a river to ascertain if there are any significant pay streaks, and if so, where they are.
To be effective, sampling should be carried out in a systematic and thorough manner. Just taking samples haphazardly, which is how some go about it, won’t be nearly as effective.
So, here is the simple process that I follow, and that quickly gives me an idea about how gold is distributed in the riverbed:
2 As you work across your selected area, take a sample every couple of feet or so and pan it out. Approximate the number the gold particles in each pan, and make a note of it. Also mark the location of the sample on a hand-drawn map, as shown below. The map itself doesn’t need to be that exact, but it’s important that the distance between each sample location is the same.
The image above shows 6 samples and the number of gold specks in each pan.
Once you have sampled the river, you might see a pattern emerging. In a best case scenario you would want to see one sample location with a lot of gold specks, surrounding by declining numbers gold specks in the adjacent sample spots. This indicates that you might have found a paystreak!
Now focus your efforts on the area that yielded the best results. Continue to take samples to map out the entire length of the pay streak as it extends downstream or upstream. This is where you want to focus your mining efforts later on!
Quick Tip: Paystreaks can sometimes be really narrow. As a matter of fact, depending on the conditions, some may just be a couple of inches wide. Due to this, it’s important to be meticulous when sampling, if you find that there is gold in the first samples you took.
Paystreak Layers: False Bedrock and Flood Layers
As rivers experience recurring floods of carrying intensity, in some places, there will be several layers of streambed material deposited on top of each other, which could hold serious amounts of gold. These layers can be quite compact, and be mistaken for real bedrock. However, they often serve the same purpose as real bedrock, meaning that it acts as an impermeable barrier that stops gold from sinking deeper into the gravels. Due to this, significant concentrations of gold can be found
Flood Layers
In many places, you will find that the streambed seems to be divided into several layers if you dig into it. These layers were created either as the intensity of a flood changed and carried different materials with it, or during completely separate floods.
Depending on the composition of the flood layers and how much gold that came with them, there can be quite big variations in gold density between them. As these layers usually are visible to the human eye, it can be worth keeping track of them, to get an idea of which layer that’s actually containing most of the gold.
Recovering the Gold: Speeding Up the Process!
When prospecting for pay streaks most miners go with a gold pan, as it’s lightweight and portable. However, once they’ve found their gold deposits, they usually change gear to something capable of working through much bigger quantities of streambed material. With some relatively inexpensive equipment, they can multiply their production numbers by as much as 100 times!
So, here comes the one piece of equipment I would recommend when transitioning from prospecting to gold mining!
Sluice Boxes: Lightweight and Cheap
I usually recommend prospectors wanting to invest in something more capable to get a sluice box.
In essence, a sluice box is a small handmade river channel made of aluminum or plastic, equipped with riffles and mattings that capture the gold.
Compared to a gold pan, a sluice box can process many times the amount of streambed material. Still, it remains easy to carry, which makes it the ideal choice for prospectors who want to up their game without investing in heavy and expensive equipment.
Here are some articles I think you’ll find useful if you’re planning on getting a sluice box:
- How to set up a sluice box
- Best Sluice Boxes for Fine Gold
- Best Portable and Lightweight Sluice Boxes
Final Thoughts
Every prospector dreams about finding a rich and well-paying pay streak. Still, most don’t know how to go about to make it happen.
In this guide, I have laid out the basic methods I follow when prospecting for pay streaks. Although there are many ways of finding one, the one thing I can say for sure is that consistency and perseverance, together with an effective method are incredibly important. Hopefully, you’ve gained at least the latter from reading this article!
Happy prospecting!