Dredge Gold Tailings

We will first go over some of the places and locations that are know of places and locations for finding gold and where you might want to consider going to pan in placer deposits.

Dredge tailings are not the best place for gold panning, nevertheless this does not mean that you will not find nuggets in these areas; now and then you can. But keep in mind that what dredges do is rip up the bedrock with huge buckets that have been made to get rid of the first foot of material and the only thing that may be left are cracks and fissures that may have gold in them beneath the loose tailings.

Other kinds of places that will most likely not prove to be very favorable are areas that were very worked on by the old time miners. It is improbable they did not see the little pockets you are most likely looking for, particularly in the rich placer areas. This is not to say that you will not find gold in these areas, it is always probable that little areas have been missed, but for the most part most people do not have the adequate type of tools or time to find them. If you are able to find a little river or creek that has a lot of loose gravel and material, and if this area looks like it has been worked on in the past, it’s very likely this ground has been worked on and reworked on by a lot of diverse people and miners. Gold can be found in these worked out areas but it is frequently only light flour gold.

All right but where do you go if you are searching? We suggest going to the areas where you can find little secluded areas that have not been worked on a lot. It is not complicated to distinguish gravel that has not been worked on a lot since it will look hard packed and tight. You should look carefully and dig beneath the overburden so as to see if you can locate river gravel.

Different deposits have different layers of gravel on them and in some instances these were left there for hundreds and even thousands of years apart. You can dig into the deposit to see and test it at diverse depths for placer gold that may be trapped in thick layers in most cases. Gold can also from time to time be located far on top of the bedrock and the gravel is firmly packed in order to keep it from sinking in the water. Nonetheless, remember that in most cases, gold is very weighty and it has a propensity of plummeting down. When gold does fall, it generally implants itself in fine cracks and fissures and becomes trapped. There are a lot of gravel deposits that are rich in placer gold that have not been looked at or that have been discarded as an option because a lot of people incorrectly suppose that gold can only be found on bedrock.

If you have decided you are going to be dredging, remember that you will need to have water to work the suction dredge and that you do not necessarily have to have a gold pan in this case. The advantage that a dredge has over a gold pan is that it can get ahold of gold from areas that are difficult to and in places where it would be very difficult if not impossible to remove with your hands. We should remind you that the combination of a gold pan, a suction dredge and a good metal detector for those looking for nuggets and black sand deposits is a very good combination and will definitely help you get the job done.