I never even thought of this one...Now...you know California, Iowa, and Arizona do have raw gold, all over the place, right? The "Gold Rush" never did end, people just ran out of places to do it as the land speculators came in, and towns like LA, Phoenix and others boomed, and busted others out. In fact, Cali and AZ had hellacious silver booms and busts. You might mention to Royal Metals that if they setup a fairly good "system" with fair pricing, they probably could pull in a bit of the "raw gold". Now, mind you, you would end up with pickers, fines, nuggets, and chunks of gold locked up in quartz, most of which people hoard up, and try to hawk WAY over what it is worth (generally called "specimen value"...same as "rare numismatic value", just another made-up game on another higher level). But yes indeed, Georgia had the countries FIRST gold rush, followed by others, Arkansa had a DIAMOND rush (yep...true, almost as big as your fist), along with all manners of "rushes". You CANNOT treat it as "scrap" though, at least...I wouldn't think so, not without some backlash from the "specialists" in the raw gold fields. Less and less people do that all the time, and it is a dying art anyway (panning, dredging, highbanking, sluicing, rocker-boxing, dry-washing, hard-rock...take your pick). Hell...PANNING is as old as time itself, in Africa...they don't even do PANS (they don't have the money!). What they do, is dig a vertical shaft about 10' deep, and pan with their T-SHIRTS! HA! They only keep the pickers and nuggets! Problem is, a vertical shaft that deep with no supports, near a river bank? Instant death when they collapse, and they do all the time. You might try it one day yourself (no, not T-Shirt Panning!), for the hell of it. It can be fun, and somewhat frustrating, finding a good spot. But creeks are known producers, washing gold down EVERY DAY (yes...every day). In Cali, the nuggets were as big as 'taters, you could just walk down the creek beds and pick them up. I have seen one from AZ that was as big as my fist, gold veins shot all through a chunk of quarts, a little over FORTY (40) OUNCES. A sight to see, and the lady tripped over it going INTO the claim, near a fence post, and just happened to look at it really close. Probably 300 people had passed it by for upteen years....think on THAT one. I have dredged in North Caroline, and high-banked in Georgia (September 11th...I was out in a creek high-banking...dude comes by and says, "Hey man, I heard your pump, did you hear!? Planes just hit some buildings in New York!"). That was out at the Loud Mine in Georgia. I have seen (at least on video), and heard, that Alaska is THE place. I won't ever go, to hell with Alaska, but they "beach box" (special box), right there next to the ocean. I have HEARD that you can pull upwards to THREE (3) ounces a day out of FINES (gold "dust" is what you would call it). But that is some work, and the climate SUCKS. What with the boom in "industrial" gold removal and mining...the little guy quit when everything became "civilized", and they ran out of spaces to go. Plus, they started shutting down the "stamp mills" to the public, who would bring in material to be run, for LARGE assays (of private mines, etc.). You ain't NEVER seen anything until you seen a GIGANTIC stamp mill pounding away on rock, smashing it up, to be worked out. Even here, in Oklahoma, I have found gold. Just a few specks, but it IS everywhere underneath you, right now. The trick is, how DEEP you have to go to get to it (just like our old coal mines, that quit in the late 20's). I have seen people whoop and holler like they were having spastic FITS when they hit a small strike, you wouldn't imagine the like! Trust me, pulling a 1/4 ounce is $375 spot, or close to it. Royal Metals might consider looking into it, and the day I make over $75 is pretty damned good as it is, I don't know ANYONE that would bitch about making $375 a day! (Well...unless they make $400 behind a desk...) So...the money may be in "Gold Bullion", or "Gold Coins", but trust me when I say, it ain't nowhere near as fun as finding it so it can BECOME gold coins, or gold bullion. Just think, they used to trade gold dust straight across to a gold company, or an assayer, or even shopkeeps that kept scales. That day might be coming back pretty damned soon, G4T. One more thing (Ron90 would know "where" to try this)- In LA, I have seen one dude, and heard of others, working the BIG highway culverts, and storm drain runoff's, where the water will bring fines into the pipes, and it will drop into the culvert "ripples" (just like the chinese riffles in a gold pan). They swear and be damned you CAN indeed find gold out there still to this day doing that. Not a lot mind you, but then again, not everyone is looking, and most everyone has forgotten it ever existed "raw" as it is. They think you drive a D8 or a Track-Hoe around, and it magically appears in gold coin or bullion. Ha! Good luck, G4T, and try some gold panning for the hell of it one day, you will even enjoy it. You might be the next man to find a private strike of a few ounces, and never tell anyone! (That's how it is SUPPOSED to be!) |
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