Ever actually tried finding gold outside, /biz? I've seen anons here claim gold isn't actually as rare as ((they)) say and that you can find it in many places, so I headed down to the local creek today to try my luck with a pan.
After roughly 8 hours all I've gotten so far is 6 tiny ass flakes less than a mm long. This probably isn't even worth more than a few cents, but gold is still gold right? At least this will hold its value better than bitcoin.
I ran a small placer claim for a while. Without a whole lot of money to throw at machinery, it's pretty hard to get a worthwhile amount. That said, if you really know what you're doing and you're willing to hike pretty far into some mountains, you can make $200 worth a day easily with just a sluice box. It's not bad if you feel like being self-employed for a summer and spending a lot of time outside but you really have to be in the right place for it.
where does the gold come from? its just randomly flowing through water? wheres the source?
also you'll be lucky to make more than $200 a day subtract cost of gas, supplies, chemicals and equipment
wew
From the mountains usually, I live only an hour away from the Sierra Nevada so I guess this is where these flakes came from.
How big an operation did you have, with big trommels like these? How much did you actually make total?
the literal most normie activity
Those are not "big" trommels. My setup was a little bit larger than that, with the trommel about the diameter of an oil drum (because that's what I made it out of). Don't have a measurement for LPM or anything but I ran a 4" honda trash pump for water intake - it was pretty substantial for a hobbyist. In my life I think I've made something like 40k off of placer gold, running the claim for the summer was the majority of that, about 36k.
On a real gold mine with full wash plants fed by a 30 ton loader, you can make $600,000 a season gross from the mines that I've personally seen. There are much larger operations out there, though.
If you're serious about prospecting and running a mineral claim though, DO NOT limit yourself to gold. I've been in areas where you could get pounds, POUNDS of silver in a single day or running.
Holy shit, were you in Alaska? The only places that can still make that much gold is where they film the "Gold Rush" show. Why did you stop?
Actually I'm up where they did film Gold Rush right now, in the Klondike. You can find gold mines everywhere up here.
The thing about the Klondike isn't that it's particularly bountiful in gold, its that its easy to mine. The regulations up here are very lax compared to the provinces. For example, in British Columbia you can't use a sluicebox in a stream legally (though that is often ignored), and in Alberta you can't even file a mineral claim. Being able to use a dredge or strip tundra to bedrock is a huge advantage compared to everywhere else.
My big season was not in the Klondike, it was in British Columbia. Gold is everywhere, and placer gold settles out in predictable areas. I spent a few weeks hiking around panning until I found a spot I thought was worth claiming and went for it. Thing is, it gets dull really fast, and even though I like being out in the bush and the money was okay, I was really just wasting my time compared to what I could be doing and I couldn't call it "stable work" (especially because you're dead in your tracks when ice is on the ground).
>After roughly 8 hours all I've gotten so far is 6 tiny ass flakes less than a mm long.
>At least this will hold its value better than bitcoin.
Any advice on how to start? I've seriously been thinking of investing into buying a trommel like this since I'm only an hour away from some old gold mining towns in Northern California where there's also lots of claims I could buy cheaply.
I don't really understand why you'd quit like that since you already live in literal paydirt, hell I'd just be happy getting 1 ounce of gold a month. Just living up in the mountains being a NEET just shoveling dirt into the machine and getting a bit of gold to pay for food...
>Any advice on how to start?
Do not invest in a washplant yet. Your priority starting out is finding where the gold is. All you need is a good metal detector (fisher gold bug 2 is the go-to) and a gold pan. You can find the amount of gold in the OP by panning the gravel in your driveway, don't go to a washplant until you're finding more than $20 worth of gold in an hour of panning.
Beyond that the only critical factor is dirt time, spend as much time as possible looking for the stuff.
This place never ceases to amaze me. who'da known there would be so many gold bros here on Jow Forums.
I spent a season in the Sierra Nevadas(I know, cliche). Ended up spending more on equipment than what I made though. But I also had no clue what I was doing. Oh well, it was still a unique experience. This guy in a bear costume kept coming out of the woods and raping me. I'll be telling those stories the rest of my life (can't avoid them when explaining the colostomy bag).
uhhh I think that might have been a real bear
I thought metal detectors can only find bigger nuggets? From what I've seen on Gold Rush, most of the gold they ever find are just tiny flakes like the one I got today, only in greater quantities.
that's why you shouldn't learn about anything from a television show. Detectors can even find flour gold if there's a worthwhile amount present.
its pretty rare
I live in the Blue Ridge mountains, any gold was taken long ago. Good luck Sierra Nevada anons.
Cryptocurrency is basically the 21st century version of the gold rushes of the 19th century. A few people got rich, most ended up even worst off than before, and like here on /biz you still got a few lingering dreamers still hoping to hit paydirt one day.
Almost heaven
The price of gold is not worth mining right now. When the price increases, miners will be back.
ever found a mammoth?would one be valuable?
I love it here but alas no gold.