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Dan McDonald, of Washington, dips his gold pan into the cold waters of the American River while vacationing with his wife, Linda. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)
Getting gold
There is gold in them thar hills but it's tough, demanding work to get it
It was about two months ago when a man walked into the downtwown Pioneer Mining Supplies store.
The price of gold had just hit $1,000 an ounce for the first time, and the man had taken three weeks off from his job in Sacramento to try his luck at gold panning. He walked into the mining store with a bucket in each hand and asked manager Dennis Robnett if he paid for gold.
Robnett took one look at the buckets full of gold-like material and broke the bad news: If they held real gold, the man wouldn't be able to lift them. In other words, he'd spent three weeks mining fool's gold.
"The thing is, he had tried to call his boss to quit his job. Luckily his boss wasn't there," Robnett said on a recent day in the mining shop.
That man was just one of many people who, after looking at the rising price of gold and a sinking economy, have decided to try their hand at a different way to make money.
After all, if you could get rich by simply panning for gold in a river on a pleasant spring afternoon, who could beat that?
But it doesn't quite work that way, as both novice and experienced gold panners said.
"It's scattered in such a manner that you have to work diligently, move a lot of material, to say you found gold," said Jim Hutchings, a long-time gold prospector with the Gold Prospectors Association of America of Sacramento.
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That's what first-time gold panners Dan and Linda McDonald learned when they took a road trip south from Washington. On their way home, they stopped at the Bear River Campground near Auburn, where they swirled American River water and dirt in their green plastic gold pans, peering closely at the sediment.
"I'm not having too good of luck here," Linda McDonald said with a slight smile. "It's a lot easier watching them swirl it around on TV."
That's the general consensus among gold prospectors, but it doesn't stop people from trying. Hutchings is getting multiple calls a week from people interested in gold mining, and business is brisk at the Auburn mining supply store.
It's not all a lost cause — Hutchings and Robnett both said the 1849 gold rush didn't come close to stripping California soil of its gold content. Life was harsh on the frontier, when miners had to carry their own provisions, shelter and medical aide. Winters were cold, and then spring rains washed away miners' tools.
"They were fighting to live every day just to get the gold dust," Hutchings said. "They really walked away after three years with about 90 percent of the gold left behind."
The gold is still there: Robnett wears a small pebble-sized gold nugget on a chain around his neck, a piece he found while out gold panning. A photo hangs behind the counter of a large gold nugget a customer found in the American River.
But it's almost like gambling, because a full day of hard work often nets some gold flakes and nothing more.
In a full day's work, sifting through about 30 buckets of dirt, a lucky gold panner could make $30 to $50 in gold, if he's lucky, Hutchings said.
To cash in the gold, the miner has to sell it to a refinery, which charges a fee. And they don't pay for the full weight, because typical California gold is only about 85 percent actual gold, Hutchings and Robnett said. Refineries don't pay for the remainder, comprised of copper and silver.
So for every ounce of gold found, the miner loses about 35 percent of it, Hutchings said. Friday's gold prices closed at about $925 an ounce, so an ounce of California gold would actually have a net worth of about $600.
It's not hard to get some panning gear and find a spot on a waterway, but there is a catch: Many sections have private claims. If you're mining someone else's claim and anyone sees you, the gold will be confiscated.
Finding an unclaimed area of water is not as easy as one might wish. Claims, usually on a paper stuck on a post and driven into the ground, are placed somewhere within the owner's section but are not always easy to see, said Jim Hutchings with the GPAA of Sacramento.
The fool-proof way to find out whether a section is claimed is to note the latitude and longitude, then contact the Bureau of Land Management. More information is available at the agency's Web site, www.blm.gov. Mining information for California is at www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/iac/faqmc.html.
Public gold panning, without worrying about mining claims, is available in the Auburn State Recreational area, about an hour from Lodi.
Hutchings directs newcomers to Pioneer Mining Supply, 943 Lincoln Way in Auburn, or pioneermining.com. The best way to learn the process and various options, he said, is to hang around the store and talk to employees and other miners.
Employees usually recommend Bear River Campground, about a 15-minute drive east of the store. Camping is $10 a day, and there is also day-use parking.
At Columbia State Park, about an hour east of Lodi in Tuolumne County, guided mining is available. The park holds events during the summer, and is open to the public. For more information, go to www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=552.
The price of gold
Gold prices were at about $925 an ounce Friday, down from about $935 an ounce Thursday. This week, gold was up from earlier in the month, when it was between $865 and $885 per ounce. For current prices, go to nymex.com, goldprice.org/live-gold-price.html or kitco.com/market.
Finding an unclaimed area of water is not as easy as one might wish. Claims, usually on a paper stuck on a post and driven into the ground, are placed somewhere within the owner's section but are not always easy to see, said Jim Hutchings with the GPAA of Sacramento.
The fool-proof way to find out whether a section is claimed is to note the latitude and longitude, then contact the Bureau of Land Management. More information is available at the agency's Web site, www.blm.gov. Mining information for California is at www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/iac/faqmc.html.
Public gold panning, without worrying about mining claims, is available in the Auburn State Recreational area, about an hour from Lodi.
Hutchings directs newcomers to Pioneer Mining Supply, 943 Lincoln Way in Auburn, or pioneermining.com. The best way to learn the process and various options, he said, is to hang around the store and talk to employees and other miners.
Employees usually recommend Bear River Campground, about a 15-minute drive east of the store. Camping is $10 a day, and there is also day-use parking.
At Columbia State Park, about an hour east of Lodi in Tuolumne County, guided mining is available. The park holds events during the summer, and is open to the public. For more information, go to www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=552.
The price of gold
Gold prices were at about $925 an ounce Friday, down from about $935 an ounce Thursday. This week, gold was up from earlier in the month, when it was between $865 and $885 per ounce. For current prices, go to nymex.com, goldprice.org/live-gold-price.html or kitco.com/market.
In fact, experienced gold prospectors who also use gold and metal detectors often have better luck finding non-gold items. Old coins, such as an 1819 Peruvian coin that Robnett saw, and antiques can sell for more than a bit of gold. One man found an old belt buckle that sold on the Internet for $500, Robnett said.
Compared with an eight-plus hour day of leaning over buckets of mud in the river to get perhaps $30 worth of gold, antiquing starts to sound better.
"People who are treasure hunters love it. People who are looking to make a quick buck don't like it," Robnett said.
Those who do make money at gold mining treat it like an actual job. One small operation not far from the Auburn store has about four people working full-time, with professional equipment that requires mechanical work and supplies. Each person grosses about $60,000 a year, Robnett said.
That figure doesn't include such things as health care, and time off for vacation. But the lure of gold still tops such down-to-earth facts.
"A lot of people look at it and don't think, 'I could go down to Lowe's and get a full-time job with benefits,'" said Hutchings, who treated gold panning as a hobby until he retired from the California Highway Patrol and had more time to focus on gold.
But some who venture out to the American River, like new gold panner Tom White, are still looking for that elusive gleaming gold nugget and don't think it's out of the question. After working in landscaping for years on Maui, White returned to his California roots and decided to try his hand at gold panning.
"I'm looking for that big gold nugget," he said with a grin as he knelt by the river with his aptly named dog, Fox, looking on.
Whether he'll find gold remains to be seen, but he wasn't the only one dreaming, and forest rangers told him plenty more people will fill the water this summer.
William, who declined to give his last name but said he's been interested in geology since the 1970s, struck up a conversation with White and gave him some pointers
Wearing rubber boots, they spent an afternoon panning and talking along the banks of the river at Bear River Campground.
Both only found gold flakes about half the size of a sesame seed at most — White used a small suction bottle to collect them. But, as birds chirped and waters swirled gently, the men agreed that it wasn't a bad way to get away from the busy world.
Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.
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coolgeo56 wrote on May 30, 2008 12:44 PM:
California has some of the strictest mining laws in the world - and rightly so. Past mining operations have devastated large tracks of land with hydraulic mining techniques and abandoned open pit and underground mines. Surface and groundwaters were polluted and local and regional environments destroyed. The environmental safeguards to stop these practices were expensive and prohibitive for profitable mining to occur, and they essentially killed mining in California for a long time.
But now with the high price of gold (and other minerals), miners can once again go for the gold and make a profit. Permits and plans of operations are backed by reclamation plans and bonds. Groundwater and surface waters are protected through quality oversight and law.
It is a whole different world of mining than what your grandfather knew. Miners of today are responsible citizens who contribute to local, regional and state economies. With the difficult economic times ahead, responsible mining may be able to take up some of that slack.
So the next time there is a proposed mine in your county, don't think of it as a bad thing, but actually a good thing. After all, it it doesn't grow, you have to mine it. "
Dean Plassaras wrote on May 25, 2008 4:38 PM:
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