I have been watching gold mining shows lately and was wondering if the gold that you pan or mine for has the same value as gold that you would purchase as an investment. Seems like you could make some money if you knew where to find gold and how to process it. I guess if you had a lot of time on your hands that it would be a way to save some money.
In the area in which I live, gold panning is still very much done. How much they actually make on said activity, I don't know. Personally, I am too busy with my career and family responsibilities to go out.
I have been watching those shows too! It's painful obvious a lot of the "drama" is scripted. But one thing I have learned is, that there is a minor character in those shows who always makes the most money with the least work. That my friend is the gold broker in town, the guy/gal who buys the prospectors gold from them at like 75% market rate. THAT is the real money maker here.
According to a documentary that I saw on tv, the gold that was panned is real gold and it has value although not as high as the mined gold which undergoes the process of smelting (to purify the gold). Let's say a gold nugget, it has impurities of other metals that smelting is required. But small bits of gold can be sold for souvenir and that's the purpose of some gold panners. We have a place here called Mountain province where gold panners have a heyday after a storm because the mountains, according to their words, vomit gold which they pan in the rivers and creeks.
Yes, gold dust is sold at weight. Depending on where you go, you will get a different price, usually close to melt value. This is the same with gold coins, etc. They will run a test with a chemical to see whether or not it's real...also, panning is not very good unless you are good at it. You're better off with a metal detector and a fun location like a beach on the 5th of july
I do have relatives who have earned their fortune from gold mining and panning in the mountainous regions of the country. One has just been so unlucky to have been taken by the gushing water from the mountains on a stormy day though. But yeah, there is big money in physical gold especially if one knows how to deal with the market.
Not a horrible idea but like with most things nowadays, it's going to be pretty hard to compete against the big companies doing this with hundreds of workers and expensive equipment. While there are certain who might make a living off this I think it's more on a hobby level for most people.
Opportunity cost, travel overheads, and other peripheral outlays will mitigate against panning for gold as a viable business venture. That said, some people own land on which gold mining is a possibility, but I would guess these cases are rare. But here's one such guy, if you're interested: [video=youtube;5tiDzYcSThE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tiDzYcSThE[/video]
I have this American friend who calls himself a treasure hunter. He has even shown me documents with stories and details on a certain gold treasure that a Japanese general has apparently hidden somewhere here in the Philippines before the end of the Japanese regime here. This treasure has been a popular myth here for so many years now and up to this day, a lot of interested people who believe in the story are still looking for that treasure because it is believed to be a big pile of gold. The search goes on until now and if it is indeed true, the lucky one will get his pot of gold.
Gold panning is a simple method of extracting gold by putting the the gold dust in a pan and then filling with water. Materials sink to the bottom based on their specific gravity. From this brief intro, one can see that it is not a lucrative method of gold mining since only small amounts can be extracted as compared to other modern methods. I know of areas where gold deposits are scarce and people have to expend alot of effort in mining using this method. It can be used to locate gold deposits in veins as a prelude to larger operations.
