Autumn and winter panning.

Since my trip to Scotland, I haven't been panning much. In autumn, I did however, get to pan my local river with a friend of mine just before winter came. On the left, there's a picture of our finds. Not much... tiny stuff, but her first gold ever. Unfortunately so tiny that when I had taken the photo from under the microscope and put them back in the vial, I lost all of them. Haha. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. That's how it goes.

Yesterday, I explored another river with my cousin. It was pretty cold, but we did find a little something: Again, tiny, but it was his first time panning, so I'm glad we got lucky. It's always fun to introduce people to panning: I'm happy to share it with someone, and they are fascinated by the unusual hobby, and of course the prospect of finding real gold. In the summer, we want to come back and try it again. On a sidenote: Funny how the gold from this river is much rounder than the flakes in the picture above... And yes, even if it's tiny: Gold is just so pretty. Thank God for my microscope, so that I can have a good look at it.

What about you? Have you been panning in these cold autumn- and winter months - or are you impatiently waiting for spring? I personally like panning in the winter: there are less people (hikers) around. And also and most importantly: you can often access places, which you couldn't pan otherwise, when the water is higher. I too, am waiting for spring and summer, though. Panning is much nicer when you don't freeze your butt off and when you can actually enjoy the creek-cooled beer that is waiting for you after a hard day's work, haha!

My equipment - What I use...

From left to right: classifier, rubber mat to sit on, two pans for collecting material, Keene pan for panning, little transparent boxes and a glass vial to collect gold, magnifying glass, tweezers, funnel, brush to get little flakes out of the pan, hiking maps, scraping tools for crevices, rubber gloves if the water is cold, tupperware box to take concentrate home, small shovel and large shovel. All stored in a large backpack.

I also have waterproof fishing pants with wellies attached, but haven't used them yet and I own an extra pair of wellies, which I usually just wear when I go out to pan - along with a jacket and outdoor pants. In addition to all that, I always to bring my wallet, my mobile phone, a knife, a rain-jacket or -poncho, water, snacks, toilet paper, dry socks and a small first aid kit. You never know...

My Scotland Adventure: What did I find?

So - Scottish gold: First, let me say that the owners of the campsite where I stayed had a glass vial with some flakes (left in the photo). The biggest one was about 8mm, and when I saw it, I was impressed, as you don't find flakes that big in Austria that easily. But Scotland is different. Camplady: "We had some gold earlier, but it changed its colour, so I told the guy 'this isn't gold', bring me real one - and he came back with this." The gold had been found in the area. So there WAS gold after all. Also, I had seen some really nice pieces of Scottish gold on the internet and heard talk that even a nugget wasn't entirely impossible. So I gave it a try. And look what I found! My vial is the right one - and on the coin I put my biggest finds:

I found the C-shaped one and the tree smaller ones all in one pan of material out of a crevice in the exposed bedrock. I couldn't believe my eyes, there they lay, at the back of my pan, not moving an inch when the water ran over them. This is actually, when I started talking to myself in amazement, while very carefully putting them in my glass-vial. Only once they were in there and I had screwed the lid on, I could breathe again. The big chunky on the left was then in my third pan of the same crevice material. Here are some bigger photos (magnified by 60x):

The big one on the left is about 5mm. Aren't they gorgeous? When I shake the vial, I hear a metallic clinging sound. Funnily enough, after I had found these chunks, the other pans with crevice material were empty. Not even a single speck of gold...

I did find more in the region, but nothing huge, just little specks. Saying that, I am aware that tiny specks in my Austrian river would have freaked me out a month ago . Gold spoils you quicly. It leaves you wanting more and always bigger stuff. Haha. Well, anyway, I am really happy with my finds and haven't got tired of looking at them yet.

Panning in Tyndrum, Scotland: Pictures

A few days ago, I returned from my gold-panning holidays near Tyndrum in Scotland. I had seen some youtube videos about Scottish gold, did some research and found out that Tyndrum is one of two areas in Scotland, which is famous for its gold (and bigger stuff than what I had found so far). So that decided it: I would spend 10 days there in search for some gold. Here are some pictures (click to make them bigger):

Tyndrum is a wee led- and gold-mining town. While I was there, they decided whether to re-open the old goldmine. It was decided against it, which many didn't understand.



I spent most days panning the rivers (there were two main ones), though at first without luck, which led to a bit of frustration. Even borrowing a gravel pump from the owner of the campsite didn't quite do the trick, which was, well, a little frustrating.



Unfortunately, none of the Scottish goldpanners had any time to meet up, but they did give me valuable tips and I kept on focussing on crevices, rather than digging gravel holes, because I'm lazy and I didn't wanna keep on borrowing the pump. Also, there was quite a bit of exposed bedrock, which was worth cleaning out. But... what did I finally find? I'm going to leave this question open until the next post.

The most beautiful thing - my 1st gold.

About a month ago, my many prayers have been answered and it finally happened: I did find my first tiny piece of gold! I had been restlessly panning at my local river all day in the scorching heat and without much success. Then, I decided to pan out some moss that grew on the big stones, as I had read that sometimes, small flakes get caught there. I went through about six pans and in the first pan, I saw it:

It was tiny, half a milimetre maybe - and it didn't look glittery-golden, but yellow. However, it just did not budge. It stayed right there at the side of the pan. I very, very carefully took it out with a brush and put it in a glass vial. As soon, as I looked at it at home under the microscope, I knew that it was gold. It looks so different that everything else I had found before - it looks just like a stereotype nugget, doesn't it? Mind you, though - this image is blown up to 200 times. I did find another piece, even tinier... but I don't mind that. Small or not, it's gold and it's mine. My first piece - after almost a year of no success, but thankfully never giving up. This feels damn good!

All that glitters - is sadly no gold. Rules...

Here's me regretfully admitting that the little flakes and bits I have found so fare are (with a 99% probability) no gold. I have been fooled. What brings me to this conclusion are several things, which you always hear, but which I as a rookie panner still never quite believed. But I am wiser now:

1. Real gold is heavy. That means, it stays at the back of the pan, when you wash the black sand away. It maybe moves just ever so slightly, but it is significantly heavier than all the sand - and it behaves like it, too. You find it at the back of the pan near the rim. If you have to pick it out between corns of sand from a pile of stuff in the middle of the pan, it isn't gold.
2. Gold ist a golden yellow colour. If you have a bigger piece, you can see a subtle, shimmer to all that yellowness... but if it glitters and sparkles and changes its colour in the light, then throw it away. It is just useless mica flocks.

I, too, have often thought: maybe the flocks are just too tiny and that's why they move around and don't behave as "heavy" as gold usually does. Or: maybe my gold is just a different colour. And maybe Austrian gold does glitter. Isn't every gold a bit different? Forget it. If it is Gold, it will look and behave like gold. Everything else is, sadly, none. How I came to all these conclusions? That, I will tell you in the next post.



Above, you can see a "fake" piece of gold. Note the different colours, the flimsy, thin appearance and the texture. Also, it did float around in my pan and not stay put. I did poke a hole into it to prove that it is soft enough and that it is gold, but fact is, that a thin piece of glimmery mica, will also take a pinch without breaking. If it was gold, it would be quite awesome, as it is 5mm and got me really excited, but alas, false alarm.

Looking up-close now - my microscope!

I haven't posted in a long time, sorry for that. There's indeed lots to tell you - so I best start at the very beginning, as first thing's first: I finally have a microscope! It's a Traveller USB microscope, which you can plug directly into the computer to take screenshots. It magnifies either 10x, 60x or 200x and you can change the light settings (light from above, below or both). Best thing is: It was only 30 Euros - and it really works like a charm! Here are some pictures of older finds that I could finally look at closely. Click on the picture to see it in a much better, bigger quality:

I am really happy with the results. Sure, it has some flaws, e.g. when you blow it up to 200x, the vision does get blurrier and the contrast is much less, but overall, I think, it's a great microscope for a fantastic price - and it serves my needs perfectly.

It was a chilly, windy day in the canyon...

... but I finally did find some gold... well, I think (and hope) I did. In total, I worked for about three hours, just with shovels, a sief and my pans - no sluice, as I don't have one yet. Let me tell you, my back was killing me . It was pretty rough to get to the spots, too - lots of climbing and almost-falling-in-the-icy-water. But it also was really beautiful:

I took the concentrate of about 5-6 pans home with me. There, I tried to separate any gold from the heavy minerals and black sand, but it didn't work. Either, I'm too clumsy or the gold was just too tiny and light. Probably both. However, I did manage to sort some suspicious little flakes out with tweezers. Today, I figured out how to take good makro-shots and - I see gold! What a confidence boost!

All pictures taken by N.N.

The cold and the mica slate...

So, last weekend, my dad and I went goldwashing together for the first time. We drove to a little river about 40 kilometres away. It was freezing and there was snow! The river itself flows into another river in the area, which is known to have gold, but we couldn't access this other river (only in the middle of a village or down in the valley next to the road), so we chose this one instead.

We worked for over two hours and took home a bucket of fine material to work through, but apart from tons of mica slate and mini garnets, we didn't find a thing. This was demotivating and it surpised me, because although the area lies in the middle of a huge limestone mountain-range, there are many eroded quartz lines - and alas, many, many slate pieces.

So, no success. Again. However, my dad seemed to quite enjoy gold-hunting. He didn't try panning, but he was wandering around with his shovel, digging and getting excited when he thought he found something. It would be nice if he stayed this enthousiastic and we could share this hobby together... He is planning to build a sluice over the winter to make looking for gold a bit easier. He is an excellent craftsman and I am sure it will be fun doing this together.

Two rivers, no gold, but silver specks...

Today, I got up really early because I wanted to pan for gold in another river near where I live. I therefore drove to a place where the river meets with the other river (where I had no luck apart from many garnets). This "new" river is said to have quite a bit of gold and people have panned it in former times. This is, what it looked like: on the right, you see the river where I have tried it before, on the left is today's river.

I put my gear down near some big stones, which stuck out of the water and dug behind them, where I had seen some big gravels under the rocks and in the crevices. Alas, there was no gold in my first pan, but it was literally full with garnets - my collection of these is growing fast. Also further panning brought no success gold-wise and after about 1,5 hours, (with icy hands and an achy back) I accidentally poured freezing cold water over my pants and had to pack up and take the next bus home to warm up again. I did, however, find silvery, shiny stones. No idea, what this is, but I hope, next time I find gold instead. I must admit, I was a little disappointed to find nothing again...