hello i live in south wales and looking to go out gold panning

is there many areas in south wales where i can go and try my luck aka brecon ?

info would be great thanks jay :thumbsup:

Either Mid Wales:

Dolaucothi Gold Mine

or

The Forest of Dean:

Bailey Level near Drybrook - Ross Road 1100 yds N 13oE of Euroclydon, Drybrook. NGR SO 6480 1980 A 550 feet. Opened in 1906 as a gold mine! Only 6 grains of gold per ton were found, but this was enough to float a company of £49,000 [about £2.3M today] in £1 shares. Although it sounds like a scam the theory is impeccable. Gold is a ubiquitous element and had long been known in the area in small amounts. The pebbly conglomerates near Micheldean are said to resemble the Banket or gold bearing conglomerates of the Transvaal, Rhodesia and West Africa. There the similarity ends. In the Bailey Level the amount was a lot, lot smaller! In 1921 the level was extended to a total of 580 yards to the Wigpool Mines qv. Two headings, at a distance of 530 yards and 574 yards from the entrance of the adit were abandoned at 19 yards and 44 yards respectively. Work was suspended in 1924, in all only 3000 tons of iron were found. In 1996 speculation was rife that the mine was due to be re-worked for gold! However, this was not to be as gold belongs to the crown and Free Miners rights do not apply. Owned by Ray Wright of Clearwell Caves. It is gated and slowly being cleared and is to be opened to the public sometime in the future.

Access: as for Old Ham Pit qv.

References: Baily, Roger 2002 Gold Mining in the Forest and Tayton. RFoDCC N/L (127) 4-6
Hart, C E 19xx Gold in the Dean Forest. Trans Bristol & Glos Arch Soc 65 (44)
Phelps 1994 p 61 Sibley p 30 - 31;
The Guardian March 11, 1996 p 6; Trotter p 65;
Waters p 163; WMS N/L (26) 1 item 3;

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thank you for your info

but where abouts in the Forest of Dean would you say to go gold panning

thanks again

thank you for your info

but where abouts in the Forest of Dean would you say to go gold panning

thanks again

Any where down stream of the Bailey Level. I still think the Dolaucothi area is the best bet for gold panning.

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thanks again for the info

your a star

hello i live in south wales and looking to go out gold panning

is there many areas in south wales where i can go and try my luck aka brecon ?

info would be great thanks jay :thumbsup:

Hi did you go panning for gold after?
Im from south wales and im interested in panning as it sounds very interesting and diferent to metal detecting..

So, what would be a typical haul from a half decent day's work in the right area? Are we talking a couple of crumbs, or are we talking over minimum wage?

A bit further out than Wales but British Columbia used to be a good place to stake yer claim when I was out there.

Lozz.

So, what would be a typical haul from a half decent day's work in the right area? Are we talking a couple of crumbs, or are we talking over minimum wage?

A lot of variability is the reality. I have spent days stood up to my bollocks in freezing water digging away for a few poxy bits, then on the other end of the scale I once walked a river after a massive flash flood and found a 6.5 gram nugget jammed in a crack which was prised free with my landrover ignition key. After that, I kinda thought I'd wait for the next flash-flood!! But might have to wait a lot longer than that as it was in the area of N Wales where they banned panning and prospecting!

In South Worcestershire where I live, there is sadly a dearth of mines, but we do have a gold mine on the Malvern Hills. It is documented as far back as Elizabeth 1st, and was visited by Daniel Defoe. It was thought that the "gold" was actually flakes of mica, but a lot of recent research has given new life to the theory of there being proper gold there. It's an area I'm presently working on.
There is supposedly a shaft and level under the present marker, which is now a waypost, but still called the gold mine. BGS reports suggest a higher alluvial deposit of gold on the hills. Thought these few "nuggets" might be of interest. Perhaps that's why the present Queen always insists on Malvern water.
If you want to know more, please pm me.

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That's interesting. In the veritable gold 'bible' Geochemistry of gold and its deposits by R.W. Boyle, or so I thought, there was a passing reference to gold enrichment in one of the pegmatites of the Malverns, but I can't find it right now unless I read the thing cover to cover which means not working for several days!

I suspect occurrences of gold may have a wide distribution in the mostly concealed late Neoproterozoic basement of central England - it's all volcanic arc related stuff, fertile terrain indeed, and specimens have certainly been found in other areas - Bardon Hill Quarry in the Charnwood area of Leicestershire being just one example that comes to mind.

There is a very interesting book on the matter for Cornwall and Devon which goes into techniques and geology a bit. Some of this may transpose across elsewhere.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gold-Counties-Cornwall-Devon-Occurrences/dp/0951941976/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357646293&sr=8-1 

I am still waiting on a sensibly priced copy.

Surface gold has been reported in various locations in Cornwall over the centuries, I wonder if any of it was meteorite gold.

Lozz.

Some of it may well be supergene gold formed in the widespread and deep oxidation zones that are associated with many Cornish lodes.

Back in the early 70's when I worked down South Crofty I found a mineral specimen (as you do) which contained what looked remarkably like VG (visible gold, only a tiny piece) on quartz crystals, we weren't supposed to collect specimens but everyone did, I had quite an interesting collection, I gave it all away many years ago.

Lozz.

Had a nice find myself when working at Calliachar Burn near Aberfeldy. One of the lodes crossed the stream and I broke out a large channel sample for assay when the powers-that-be were on-site. The first sample went to the CEO who was right beside me when this happened - his eyes nearly popped out of his head! Specimens (we dug a bit more as can be imagined) were coarse gold to 1cm - mostly less - overgrowing oxidised galena. The coarse gold gave out with depth and we were back to the more usual pyrite and galena with microscopic gold inclusions that is typical of the vein mineralisation there. We thought that secondary remobilisation and deposition of gold was the likely mechanism, helped possibly by the acidic and very peaty river water. We had trenched and channel-sampled a number of other lodes in the area for the previous 12 months and had not seen anything similar anywhere.

Hi John
Brammall A and Dowie D L. 1936. 1936 The distribution of gold and silver in the crystalline rocks of the Malvern Hills. Mineralogical Magazine, 24, 260-264.
might be what you were thinking of. Don't know if anyone has followed it up. Brammell published a few things on gold in britain but I don't know what analyses were like then - other than visible!
Cheers
Tim

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I have in front of me my copy of The Gold Rocks of Gt Britain and Ireland, by John Calvert - fairly famous book... 1854... He mentions Hochsetters grant from Elizabeth 1st, of the Mines Royal company, and 'gold in Worcestershire' - but nothing specific... Lots of other quite specific locations ARE mentioned though - interesting book... hard to get, quite rare these days, probably expensive I'd say....

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I remember doing some supply teaching in Torquay. I took my hammer for a walk around the local geological attractions including the famous Hope's Nose locality and saw the SSSI and RIGS signs and was aware that if I collected samples, I would probably be punished.

I saw the drill holes and the blast fractures.

I gather one mineral dealer bought a house pretty much on the proceeds.

Such is the nature of "mining".

The excuse was that the Natural History museum shared in the venture - its all about how to look official when you are raping the place! It was a big house too.... :-)

What the hell - you'd do it if the opportunity offered itself..

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