Gold panning

[DAVENYK66]

Took my first step towards my new gold panning hobby.
Well first steps have already been taken, but bought a few supplies today.

[DAVENYK66]

scouted out a few places by the river , she's pretty high but apparently once it goes down that's good for gold panning.

[DAVENYK66]

Went down to Gold Bar Park also

[DAVENYK66]

so , according to the guy at Bedrock Supply, these rectangular pans are the easiest and most effective to use. Apparently you can shake the pan with one hand leaving your other hand free to hold a beer. Yes Apparently you may drink beer down by the river. Isn't that wonderful. Looks like I picked a good hobby this time. My last hobby in SK was fixing and riding old ski-doos, beer doesn't go too well with that. But I digress, I can also tell you that once I get into doing this I will be known as , 'a river person'.

We also got 'the only book we will ever need.

And picked up a permit form and some more printed information. I have lots to read while waiting for the river to go down. Don't need to worry about the permit until I actually get a sluice box with a pump. When I do it is 50 clams for 5 years, or so they say.

Starter kit, think maybe I overpaid for this but got lots of advice from the guy so whatever.
Everything I got today was around $100.00. Bedrock guy said I'll make that back but I just want to try something new and have fun.

The pellets are for pest control, unrelated to the gold panning endeavour.
I have shovels , boots, a truck, think there is some beer kicking around somewhere and maybe I'll see some of you on WWN (Wednesday Wing Night)

[Rockjockey]

You might want to pick up a classifier (sieve). Eliminates dealing with all but the fine material. The gold in The North Sask is really fine. Good Luck and hopefully we see you on Gold Rush Edmonton

[recce43]

The modern goldseekers manual doesn't look very modern lol

[TBark]

Enjoy your new hobby, we sure do, and its our first year too.
That is the best book for our area. They were sold out when I was there last.
You could be waiting til near Aug now for proper river levels for panning.
And as for "making your $100 back" ya ok, don't count on it in your first year.
But we do it for the fun anyways.
We sluiced an Island on NSR in early May when levels were good, in an few hrs we figure we got 300 specks of gold, about $10 worth, it was great to see. But at near 60,000 specks to the oz, you need a whack of specks, ha.

TBark

[DAVENYK66]

Ya the book looks like they got it made at vista print.
I'll see how things go here, use this summer to practice and maybe head up to the Yukon next spring. Make some big money when we find some fat nugs

Looked at a classifier there, we will be back so no big deal I'll grab one next time I pop in to the store.

[Lornce]

A lot nicer looking than my old steel pan.

[TBark]

I got a 5 Pk of classifiers off EBay for $79, from half inch to 1/20.
To my door it may have been $100. But still a good deal as they are near $30 ea locally.
I have been to the NSR 3 times already, in 3 different locations, and to BC NE caribou twice this year.
Average here and in BC was about 2-3 specks per pan, nothing to get too excited about.

TBark

[DAVENYK66]

According to what I have been reading this flood will rejuvenate the gold, sounds like it's not ever enough to get overly excited about but we will see.

[Red Bullets]

Originally Posted by DAVENYK66

According to what I have been reading this flood will rejuvenate the gold, sounds like it's not ever enough to get overly excited about but we will see.

A flood or high water will definitely move the gold around again.
Tom Clover who Cloverdale is named for in Edmonton, worked a sandbar in the middle of the river at low water. Every two years it produced in the top foot of material. The sandbar was originally called Clover's Bar.

The park on 50 st. called Gold Bar park was another area sandbar.

The gold dredges of the 1890's took out the bulk of the gold in the Edmonton area. Between 1895 and 1897 dredge production for the area was 7500 ounces.
The dredges were responsible for most of the mercury pollution as they lost lots of mercury in their operations.

Geologists know that the richest areas of the river are from south of Stony Plain to NE of Ft. Saskatchewan. A good mention of this is in a book called " A traveller's guide to Geological Wonders in Alberta.

[6tmile]

This is me and my sons panning in a total of 8- 12 hrs at our favorite spot.

[6tmile]

[6tmile]

The area we pan this year is showing very course gold with a lot of small nuggets. Now just waiting for this high water to go down so we can get back and hit the MOTHER LOAD!!!!

[Arbourjay]

Way cool! Always thought that would be right on! Panned for gold in Barkerville when i was just a wee lad. The pans were preloaded but a fond memory. Thanks Granny and Gramps! They are long gone, but the memory lives on.

[Rockjockey]

Pretty coarse gold for the NSask, the bigger nuggets do not look like they have been moved very far.

[6tmile]

Originally Posted by Rockjockey

Pretty coarse gold for the NSask, the bigger nuggets do not look like they have been moved very far.

Its not from the NSR, but a creek that runs into it out west.

[Rockjockey]

Still makes those big shiny nuggets interesting in Alberta.

[79ford]

I know a few spots in BC, used to be able to get some decent dust in the pan. I imagine with gold over 1000$ one might be able to make a couple bucks with some sort of production system.

[Rockjockey]

I worked a few properties that you could pan below the main deposit and get the colors. I expect though that with today's internet access to deposit location and the price of gold. It would be like trying to find a spot on the Fraser river to fish during the sockeye run.

[steve]

Originally Posted by 6tmile

Its not from the NSR, but a creek that runs into it out west.

Ive heard from quite a few people that AB doesn't hold any nuggets or pickers. Just flour gold. That proves alot of people wrong.

[Rockjockey]

Could not have said it better myself, Steve. I heard of one creek with nuggets and being a geologist did a road trip a few summers back. Lets put is this way, I had a very nice walk in the mountains along a creek, washing my hands in a gold pan every couple hundred meters.

[TBark]

Very nice gold there 6t,
You can find more than specks in the west hills for sure.

We will be at our first BC claim on the Island in about 2 weeks from now.
It's the most SW claim on the Island close to Port Renfrew with about 350 yds of creek.
Rules are a bit different there too.
More of a sniping & panning claim out there, parting shale and quartz crevass's,
not really enough loose material to bring the pump and sluice, but it will be a bit of a different experience than the rivers here.

TBark

[6tmile]

As the old saying goes "gold is where you find it". We were really surprised when we had a few colours in our pans, the bigger flakes almost made us ****e our pants. A friend of my dad told us he used to trap in this area and he used to pan it when he had time. My dad and I always wanted to go out to try it, but never made it. So my youngest son and myself did a lot of sledding and prospecting last winter and tried it earlier this spring. Cant wait to get back.


Tbark, good luck to you and your crew. Just remember "gold is where you find it". The stuff we picked up was not in the bed of the creek, but up on an old bench where the creek used to run.

[Red Bullets]

There are stories in local history books of the pioneers going to the NSR to get enough gold to buy their first cows. I have found mentions of gold being as big as 1/2 a pennyweight in some places. (20 pennyweights to an ounce)

Gold is where you find it for sure. Same as diamonds.


6Tmile- you are in the evansburg area. Be on the look out for diamonds in the gravels too.

The following is an excerpt:

In 1958, Entwistle resident Einar Opdahl found a diamond in the banks of the Pembina River. The diamond weighed 0.83 carats (170 mg), and was described as being “a perfect octahedron with eight faces; a clear, colorless stone.”[6] Opdahl sold the diamond to gem cutter Ed Arsenault for $500. It was later claimed that Arsenault discovered the diamond.

When De Beers staked a claim for diamond mining in Alberta’s Peace River country in 1990, people were reminded of the discovery of a diamond in the Pembina River near Entwistle. Several Alberta-based exploratory companies staked diamond claims near Entwistle and the Pembina River in 1992.[6]

Opdahl and Arsenault’s discovery and the mini-boom in diamond prospecting led Entwistle to claim the title Diamond Capital of Canada in 1994.

[DAVENYK66]

found a new place to buy panning supplies today.

It's in Sherwood Park near Hugh's
Bought a couple classifiers.



and found a spot to get some test material. Can't /won't tell you where it is.
Found a few specs but more importantly, I need to practice up on my panning skills, so I brought the material home with me to practice.

[leeaspell]

I got a pan last week. Tried in groat creek by my place. Nothing, lots of black sand, but no gold or anything. As soon as the rivers slow down a bit I'm going to hit the McLeod and Athabasca. Friend of mine has got almost an ounce over 2 years. Not enough to make a living, but as he puts it, enough to keep your interest.

[DAVENYK66]

an ounce is an ounce, save it , it's good as gold.

[Saltmania]

Originally Posted by Arbourjay

Way cool! Always thought that would be right on! Panned for gold in Barkerville when i was just a wee lad. The pans were preloaded but a fond memory. Thanks Granny and Gramps! They are long gone, but the memory lives on.

Same here. Been there many times. Bought myself a steel pan years ago there when I was a teen. I tried panning a bit around Prince George a few times but never came up with anything and gave it up.

Anyway just wanted to say cool thread.

Good luck with your panning!