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Gold Panning in California
Gold panning in California has both a rich and colorful history. There is hardly a person alive today in the entire world that hasn’t heard at some time about the famous California gold rush and all the gold panning that occurred there in California as a result. While some made it rich gold panning in gold panning California others lost all while others yet made it rich off of those that either made it rich or lost everything. So what is gold panning and why was it preformed? Gold panning otherwise known as placer mining supplied most of the gold for a large part of the primeval world. In North America, placer mining was famous in the context of several gold rushes, particularly the California Gold Rush. The placer refers to a sand bank containing ore and other minerals as well as dirt, mud and gravel. The simplest technique to extract gold from placer ore is panning. In panning, some mined ore is placed in a large metal pan, combined with a generous amount of water, and moved briskly around so that the gold particles, being of greater weight than the other materials present in the gold pan, settle to the bottom of the pan. The material of lighter density such as sand, dirt, sludge and gravel are then washed over the side of the pan, leaving the gold dust or nuggets behind. When a good and profitable placer deposit is found through gold panning, the recreational miner usually changes from his pan to equipment that can treat large amounts of sand, dirt and or gravel more quickly and efficiently. The same principle may be used on a bigger scale by building what is called a sluice box, with barriers along the bottom to trap the heavier gold particles as water washes them and the other material along the box. However in order to build a sluice box you will often need special permission which is not the case when gold panning in California as to go gold panning in California you simply need a gold pan and a strong back as well as the will power to endure many hours bent double ankle, knee or even waist deep standing in a riverbed searching through placer deposits. But when you find those beautiful little gold nuggets or that wonderfully colored gold dust you will know that all the time you spent gold panning was worth it even if you never cash in your gold for paper money.
