With the price of gold at an all time high it is little wonder why so many people are searching for "where the gold is found".

Gold is found throughout the earth and sea but there are natural spots where we can recover much higher concentrations of this yellow metal. Gold is typically found in quartz veins which are located in rock in our planet Earth.

Depending on the surrounding rock (age and type) an outcropping of gold bearing material would appear like a "stained rust mound". What you would see would be oxides around the gold. Also known as "Fools Gold", these oxides are iron pyrite. This is mainly what black sand is comprised of. When you pan for gold one of the most common things, besides gold, that you will find will be black sand.

But...most gold has eroded and is found in crevices and depressions in rock. The surrounding rock wears away and exposes the quartz vein. Quartz is very hard and will shear away because of its brittleness.

Through the natural progress of time and erosion most minerals, including gold, are concentrated into river and stream bottoms. Gold is usually located in a vein on a mountainside which is worn down through landslides and centuries of weather erosion.

This is where you come in. The up side is now we know where to find higher concentrations of placer gold but since concentrations vary from location to location our work is only partially done.

The best way to "sample" an area to see if you can find gold is to choose a likely spot in a stream or river, and shovel a few gold pans full of material and pan it. At this point we are looking for small amounts of fine gold and / or indicator minerals such as black sand. This will start to tell the story of that stream and surrounding area.

Something you should ALWAYS be on the lookout for is bedrock. Bedrock is a solid base of rock in which gold and other valuable minerals can not pass through. It is the best way to recover gold or know for sure if there is gold in the area. Taking samples off bedrock and testing for gold is the sure way to know how much gold is in the area. Sampling from the gravel in streams is a somewhat likely indicator as to whether gold can be found in the area.

You can't recover a lot of gold just by panning. You need to move more gold bearing material to create a greater profit. Panning is a relatively fast way to sample an area before using a more productive method to extract a lot more gold and to have a lot more fun.

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A Brief Background

Gold can be found free in nature, but, is usually associated with silver, quartz, calcite, lead, tellurium, zinc and copper. Sea water contains approximately one milligram of gold per ton of water.

Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all known metals. One ounce of gold can be worked into a sheet measuring five meters flat. Gold can be flattened as thin as .000127 millimeters or about 400 times thinner than a human hair.

Pure gold is soft and usually mixed with other metals like:

- silver

- copper

- platinum

- and palladium

to increase its strength.

The amount of gold in the mix is measured with a unit called a carat. A carat is equal to one part in 24, so a 14 carat gold ring contains 14 parts pure gold and 10 parts other metals.

Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity as well as being very corrosion resistant. Gold can be used for a multitude of uses such as:

- electroplating conductors

- reflective telescope mirrors

- reflective coating on skycraper windows

- along with many many more uses.

It has been said that gold is where you find it! Found gold is welcomed by all races and stands the test of time as rarified wealth by all who possess it.

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