... And the streets will be paved with gold. Actually if the person who wrote that had said "and the rivers will be lined with gold" they would have been very close to the truth. There is always one place I can go when I want "guaranteed gold" and that is a river. I am talking about gold bearing rivers of course. Previous miners can mine out a streambed down to practically nothing and that's close to impossible with a river.
 
Typically the size and force of the water flow prevents anyone from totally extracting all the gold bearing materials from this type of waterway. In addition, the eroding effects of this water highway continues to wash more gold free from the gold bearing veins and nuggets.
 
After every flash flood or after each winter a blast of new water flushes more gold from the depths of the river up onto sand and gravel bars or into shallower bedrock areas.
 
I have always called a natural river "Mother Nature's Sluice Box" because of the separation of gold particles that occur along a rivers length. You will find nuggets here... and good quantities of flake gold in these locations. I prefer to use the lazy mans method of gold mining so rather than dig up half the river for only a few flakes in the bottom of your pan I will choose select locations such as behind large rocks that have been in the river for at least 100 years or I will exploit a recent land slide that partly blocks the water flow.
 
There are lots of ways to maximize gold recovery from a river.
 
"Mining River Gold" consists of eight "chapters".
 
1) River Gold
 
The "Why's and Where's" of Mining River Gold. How river gold deposits occur and the history of river gold.
 
2) How Gold Behaves in a River
 
How to work smooth and broken bedrock methods / techniques. Each spot or area requires a different method of approach. Being able to read a river as to where the most likely places gold will be. In addition we cover how to effectively mine smooth and broken bedrock as this is where you can find large amounts of flake and nugget gold.
 
3) Quartz in Rivers
 
When quartz and gold are mixed. What to do when you find quartz and gold mixed together. Rivers can transport these gold bearing materials for miles and leave no clue as to where they started from.
 
4) River Gold in Rapids
 
Working around wide and narrow rapids. Where gold drops out of the flow in and around rapids. There isn't any sense spending time trying to pull gold out of baron areas when you can work some nice lucrative spots that the rapids create.
 
5) Gold in River Deltas
 
How to get maximum gold from river banks using simple techniques. As a rule, this is the finer material that gathers on select sand and gravel banks but the reason I cover river deltas is because of the quantities of gold that can be found there. Most miners ignore this golden source of wealth but don't know what they are missing which means more gold for the informed.
 
6) River Waterfalls
 
How's and Why's of gold mining river waterfalls. This is another "missed chance" by 99% of all gold miners. The waterfall will automatically concentrate gold nuggets and build up layers of heavy flake gold surrounding the main fall. I approach these "river showers" during low water flow and focus my attention on...
 
7) Gold Mining River Whirlpools
 
The depth of gold and how it collects in these under water tornados. Seldom talked about "gold mining river whirlpools". It is best to spot these water spinners at...
 
8) Gold Mining Main River Channels
 
This is where most of the gold is hiding. Techniques I have used to pull gold nuggets from the rivers main flow. The heart of where the bulk of gold lies. This extremely lucrative gold rich river path is where the lions share of all gold will sit.
 
I have used these gold mining methods with great success over the years, walking into different areas and quickly figuring out where select pockets of gold are.
 
Of course there are many factors that make up your success such as, how far the river is from the source of the gold, the water flow and the accessibility. As you mine select locations you will learn the nature of that river and "tune" in to the lay of gold bearing material.