Hi all,

I have been looking through this forum but can not find anything that is recent for info on this subject (please point me in the right direction if I have missed something!)

I am heading to Wales this summer and would like to try my luck at gold panning/metal detecting on or around a river or two. I understand that my attempts may not bring me anything but it is something that I really want to give a go!

I have all my own equipment and do not want to go somewhere that is a organised tour.

I have found a lot of info on gold panning being banned, also a lot of information saying that certain places are okay and then conflicting information saying that they are not okay!

If anyone out there could tell me of a place(s) located anywhere in Wales where there is a mine that detecting may be good at or a river that I can walk the banks of while detecting and or pan it would be fantastic! I am also happy to get permission from the land owner if this needs to be done.

I just need to know which direction to head in!

Many thanks.

A search of the forum will find a few discussions which may be of use.

In general, NRW (nee CCW, nee NCCW) have kittens whenever anyone considers panning in a river as the disturbed sediment will damage some mythical little weevil. Merely asking them for advice is probably going to result in river bailiffs following you around for months.

I wouldn't like to quote the phrase 'ah, but it's the getting caught that counts', but I'd tend to be more concerned about landowners if I were you...

(If I were of the argumentative type, I might wonder how it is that someone gold panning can cause measurable environmental damage, particularly when compared to a river being in spate after winter rainfall - but I won't...)

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I'd say the geological memoirs are probably a good start, plus using a bit of common sense.

Just get in there and do it. You only live once.

As I understand it (certainly in most of England this applies) the landowner owns the banks and probably the river bed. So I suppose technically they would own any gold you might find. Dunno about mineral rights though, isn't that Crown property?

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All gold and silver in the UK is Crown Property and any exploration / production requires a Crown Mineral Licence. These licences over-ride land owners but additional permissions are then needed from the land-owners.

Having put together such arrangements over the years I can tell you the Crown Licence is the easy bit !

Thanks for the advice, I will have a look at the information on here.

I thought that it may be problematic, I think that I will mainly be trying my luck with a metal detector near to a river hoping to find something stuck in rock crevasses etc! Although I know that my efforts may be pointless it will still be fun!

Hopefully I will find the perfect place!

With regard to damage to "some mythical little weevil" I understand the point made and maybe agree but with some reservations. We are talking small scale (I assume) and certainly not suction dredging as practiced in New Zealand for example. But the "mythical little weevils" are adapted to coping with spates and not being shovelled out of their river bed habitat, along with that habitat.
Some real care needs to be taken - it is illegal to disturb fish spawning beds and it seems very likely that those gravels which look so attractive to gold panners also look attractive to Welsh Salmon and Sea Trout.
In my own area one species, rather more significant than "weevils" has been wiped out in one river simply by the transfer of disease, most probably on wet clothes, or fishing tackle.
Finding Gold appeals to me too, with a few things to think about as in the thread above and I suggest in this post.

Having done this at an apparently hot site in France; location of the French national panning championship - yep, people do it competitively, who knew - I doubt the landowner will get too exercised about your finds. I have a little phial, the product of three to four hours of quite heavy labour, which has a few barely perceptible glinting flecks in it.

I wish you better luck.

John 🙂

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Hi
Very interested in your post as I a detectorist too and of late have been giving considerable thought to trying my hand at panning, I live in the Lake District and was hoping to find some areas worth trying around here, but getting any info seems to be difficult. Good Luck and any info would be gratefully received.
Rod

Hi Rod, there are reports of gold being found in the lake District in tiny amounts in some places at mine sites, though I've never heard of it being panned. I would think the area around Wanlockhead/Leadhills is your best bet, being not too far away. I'm fairly sure I've heard there are annual 'gold-panning championships' held there.

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