This might be best answered by a California doper. I was wondering what the value is of the average haul from panning for gold at Knott’s Berry Farm?
For those of you that have never been there/seen it, I’d say that a paper-thin sample would cover less surface area than a dress shirt button.
Clearly this amount varies, obviously gold prices fluctuate, and this won’t be an exact figure. I’m just wondering if it’s closer to $ 0.25 worth, or $3.00 worth. On average that is.
Say paper thickness is about 0.006 inches, and a shirt button is about a third of an inch in diamter. The area of the button is 0.0872 in2, so the volume is 0.000524 in3.
Gold has a density of 10.168 troy oz. per cubic inch (according to my HP48), so we have 0.00532 troy oz. of gold. At $450 per troy oz., that gives us $2.39
I doubt even close to that much. I have in my desk a little tube of gold flakes that I bought for $1. And then there’s Goldschlager.
So probably on the order of a couple of cents.
I’m a city boy and therefore have never panned for gold. However, I would imagine that the “gold” found after panning would not be 100% pure (or .995 grade or whatever they call it). This would reduce the value of the gold even further.
The difference is in the thickness. Do your own math and show your assumptions and let’s compare.
Wolf_meister - panned gold is sometimes surprisingly pure. I won’t make any assumptions for this hypothetical, but it has been known to be more than 99% pure in flake form.
Una Persson
Panned gold can be over 99% pure? I am amazed.
Well, I guess this “city boy” learned a little more about life in the great outdoors.
Not all, and in fact I don’t know if it’s most. A lot of it is contaminated with silver and copper and other metals. But my mining engineer friend/client tells me that some panned gold is nearly .999 fine.
I thought the reason that alluvial flakes and dust tend to be so pure is that some common impurities (like silver) are considerably more soluble in water than gold is.
I should note that I originally heard that explanation from a tour guide–so I won’t be at all surprised if it turns out to be totally bogus.
Unless we’re talking Aqua Regia, I’d say no. The reason for “gold panning” or any other water-based sluicing methodology is due to the density of gold relative to other materials of the same size. The gold will sink, the other “fines” will wash away. And it takes some experience to be able to pan effectively, and not throw the gold “baby” out with the wash water.
Please note that I’m not claiming that panning has anything to do with it. Just that some impurities will dissolve out of gold that’s being constantly washed with water.
After some googling, I did find this page which says