The Riddle of the Missing Gold

[Mal47C]

I've got an interesting problem that I can't work out.

There are two creeks within 2 hours of Canberra that I'm lucky enough to have access to.

When panning, I get an average of maybe 4-6 pieces per pan from creek 1, sometimes up to 15 or so.

Creek 2 gives an average of 2-4.

The problem is that when I take home a bucket to run through my sluice, creek 2 (with the lower average) gives me a healthy amount of gold return. Creek 1 (better pan average) gives me next to none.

I can't work out why & this has happened more than once.

Any ideas?

My 1st post!

 

[Hawkear]

Whilst panning you will have done maybe many tens or even hundreds of pans. Among those surely there would be some duds even for creek 1. Unless the bucket wash is proven by panning the chances of dud buckets is probably just as high. It maybe just a matter of chance and just perseverance is required.
The number of colours in a pan is often correlated to size, smaller lighter colours much more abundant than larger heavier colours. That you are getting relatively higher number of colours per pan at creek 1 suggests they are towards the lighter end.
That introduces the possibility that your sluice is not set up to retain these lighter colours. One way to tell would be to retain and pan off the sluiced material to see if colours are escaping the sluice.

 

[Mal47C]

Thanks for the response & advice!

I did check the sluice by panning tailings, & also panned some direct from the bucket. Same result.

Perhaps I'm getting good pan results from the top layer & nothing below. Or perhaps it's just the luck of the draw!