The most common gold-bearing matrix in the world is quartz veins. I am not a geologist, but a miner, and I know and understand that the geological characteristics of gold-bearing quartz veins are very important. These include:

Sulfides and chemical oxidation

Most gold-bearing quartz veins or veinlets contain at least small amounts of sulfide minerals. One of the most common sulfide materials is iron pyrite (FeS 2) - pyrite. Pyrite is a form of iron sulfide that results from the chemical oxidation of some of the inherent iron in the rock.

Quartz veins containing iron sulfides or oxides are quite easy to recognize, since they have a recognizable color - yellow, orange, red. Their "rusty" appearance is very similar to the appearance of rusty oxidized iron.

Host or local rock

Typically (but not always) quartz sulfide veins of this type can be found near major geological faults or in areas where tectonic processes have occurred in the recent past. Quartz veins themselves often "break" in many directions, and quite a lot of gold can be found at their junctions or cracks.

Host rock is the most common type of rock surrounding a vein (including raft) in any location where gold is contained. In areas where quartz veins can be found, the most common host rocks are:

  • slate (especially greenstone slate)
  • serpentine
  • gabbro
  • diorite
  • siliceous shale
  • feldspar
  • granite
  • greenstone
  • various forms of metamorphic (altered) volcanic rocks

The last type deserves special mention. Many people new to gold mining, or those who have little understanding of gold mineralization processes, automatically assume that gold is found in all areas where there is evidence of volcanic activity.

This point of view is wrong! Areas and areas where some volcanic activity has recently (from a geological point of view, of course) rarely boast gold in any concentrations. The term "metamorphic" means that some type of significant chemical and/or geological change occurred over many millions of years, changing the original volcanic host rock into something completely different. By the way, the most gold-rich areas in the American West and Southwest were formed in places characterized by metamorphism.

Shale, limestone and coal

Geologists would say that places where there are host rocks characterized by shale, limestone, or coal content may also contain gold-bearing quartz veins. Yes, there are experts in geology, I respect them, but I will tell you something right here and right now. In 30 years of small-scale gold mining, I have not found an ounce of gold in areas where the above host rock types were found. However, I have been prospecting in New Mexico, where you can find rich metamorphic rock within a few miles of rock with limestone, shale and coal. Therefore, geologists would need to resolve this issue.

Related Minerals

Many types of minerals accompany gold-bearing quartz veins and are contained in the surrounding host rock. For this reason, I often talk about the importance of understanding (or simply having the appropriate knowledge) of gold geology and associated mineralization. The key point here is that the more knowledge and experience we have, the more gold you will eventually discover and extract.

This is quite old wisdom, so let's take a look at the associated minerals that are characteristic of gold-bearing quartz ores:

  1. Natural gold (that's what it's all about, right?)
  2. Pyrite (our good old iron pyrite)
  3. Arsenopyrite (arsenic pyrite)
  4. Galena (lead sulfide - the most common form of lead ore)
  5. Sphalerite (a type of zinc ore)
  6. Chalcopyrite (copper pyrite)
  7. Pyrrhotite (an unusual and rare iron mineral)
  8. Telluride (a type of ore, often refractory; meaning that the precious metal it contains is usually in a chemical form and cannot be easily crushed)
  9. Scheelite (main type of tungsten ore)
  10. Bismuth (has characteristics similar to antimony and arsenic)
  11. Cosalite (lead and bismuth sulfide, found with gold, but more often with silver)
  12. Tetrahedrite (copper and antimony sulfide)
  13. Stibnite (antimony sulfide)
  14. Molybdenite (molybdenum sulfide, similar in appearance to graphite)
  15. Gersdorfit (mineral containing nickel and arsenic sulfide)

Those attentive may have noticed that I did not include in this list the designations adopted in the Periodic Table of Elements and mineral formulas. If you are a geologist or a chemist, then this would be mandatory for you, but for a simple gold miner or prospector intending to find gold, from a practical point of view, this is not necessary.

Now I want you to stop and think. If you can identify all of these minerals right now, will this ability increase your chances of success? Especially in discovering potential gold deposits or establishing the fact of high mineralization of a particular area? I think you get some of the big picture.

Gold is found in minute amounts in almost all rocks that make up the earth's crust. It would seem that humanity should literally go crazy and try to extract this metal by any means. But, as it turned out, this is very expensive, and the costs of searching for it and extracting it from the rock will not be compensated by the amount of yellow substance obtained. To be convincing, we present the following fact: in one ton of rock you can find only 5-6 grams of the precious substance. The only good news is that in different types of ore its concentration may not be the same.

Often the precious metal is found precisely in quartz veins, where industrial deposits have been located for a long time. But even there, the amount of gold mined is much less than other useful metals located in the same place. Therefore, gold mining is considered a very labor-intensive process, which in complexity is second only to the extraction of expensive and rare platinum from ore.

Today there is a theory according to which there is several hundred times more gold in the earth's core. This is explained by the fact that iron-containing meteorites falling to the ground contain this metal in an amount equal to 5-6 grams per ton. Since the Earth’s core is also iron-containing, it is quite reasonable to assume that there are gold reserves there too.

Precious seas

An interesting fact is that this metal can be found not only in rock, but also in sea and ocean water. Moreover, in different seas and oceans its content is completely different, and the highest concentration is observed in coastal zones and areas with a hot climate. The yellow substance is most abundant in the World Ocean, followed by the Dead Sea. For reference, one ton of water in this sea contains 50 mg of this precious metal. By the way, man has already attempted to organize gold mining in the Dead Sea, but failed.

At the level of development of modern technologies, it is quite possible to extract gold from sea water, but doing so is not at all profitable. The fact is that a substance found in nature can be considered a mineral only if its concentration in one place is higher than the clarke value. But how much higher is a question of technology and the properties of the substance itself. At the moment, the level of gold content in sea water does not allow us to hope for obtaining millions of tons of the precious metal. But this is all a matter of time, since technology does not stand in one place.

Nature is designed in such a way that gold is found not only in water, but also in bottom silt. This fact was established by studying the bottom silt of the Red Sea. It turned out that it contains not only the precious metal itself, but also other useful and valuable minerals. Again, their concentration is negligibly small in order to organize large-scale gold mining. Therefore, scientists are looking for a way to process bottom silt, since it is much easier to get to than the earth’s core, for example.

Metal is brought to the sea by rivers, which wash away the rock along their route. Incredibly, the Amur alone brings more than 8 tons of precious metal per year to the Gulf of Tatar! Meteorites should not be overlooked, since they are dispersed into the earth's atmosphere annually in the amount of 3.5 tons, carrying with them 18 kg. gold, a large share of which comes from the World Ocean. But the active volcano Etna, which is located in Sicily, saturates the atmosphere with 2.5 kilograms of gold with each daily ash emission.

It's everywhere!

In fact, this substance is found not only in stone, sea or sand, but also in groundwater, animal bodies and even plants.

The French chemist Bertholet was the first to discover gold particles in the ashes of plants, after which he began to closely study this natural feature. It turns out that trees and bushes accumulate the precious substance in different ways. So, for example, from a ton of birch you can extract 0.5 mg. gold, while from a similar volume of spruce it was already 1.27 mg. The best “batteries” are considered to be corn and horsetail. And if gold is found in the ashes of plants, this can be considered a sign of its deposit.

If we explain the appearance of metal in plants quite simply, then the question of how it appears in the body of an animal remains open. For example, researchers at one of the British nature reserves discovered gold in the fur of deer. It is noteworthy that there is no trace of gold in the land and water located in the protected area.

Physical parameters and types of deposits

Gold is a very heavy metal, with a specific gravity of 19.3. It is unusually malleable and soft, although it looks very presentable, and therefore cannot be used in its original form. In nature there is only one type of gold isotope, the mass number of which is 197. The native metal that you see in the photo undergoes complex processing - refining, after which a chemically pure precious substance is obtained.

There is a distinction between placer and ore gold. The first option is found in quartz rocks or sulfide ores. But placers are a product of the destruction of primary deposits that accumulated in river valleys.

Finding gold is hard work. Sometimes months of fruitless efforts and research pass in search. Russia is far from being the last among the countries that have deposits of this precious metal. Moreover, in recent years it has ranked 5th among gold-mining countries.

Geologists advise looking for precious metal only where it can be found, and for this there are a large number of ways to find metal in the form of flakes, nuggets, gold sand and placer gold. Precious metal may be found in areas where mining companies have operated.

It can be on the surface layer, in the middle of mountain streams or on a raft, in bedrock, or rock cracks. But you should not look where searches have never been carried out; the likelihood of finding precious metal there is almost zero. When a person finds even a small pebble of gold, he understands that his labors were not in vain, so he should not be discouraged. Great luck, geological knowledge and a good tool will increase the likelihood of a find many times over.

Basic signs of gold

It is very easy to confuse gold with another mineral if you do not know some of its features. Everyone knows that it is yellow and shiny. But, besides gold, pyrite and chalcopyrite have such characteristics. Nuggets can be yellow with red and greenish hues.

The natural material is malleable and can be forged. It does not oxidize, but dissolves in hydrochloric or nitric acids. If you look for gold in ores, you first need to focus on the fact that the metal grows together with other minerals. It will not clearly crystallize like pyrite and chalcopyrite. The noble metal is often found fused with quartz, appearing like a grain or plate.

Alluvial gold is characterized by grains in the form of hooks or wires. In this form, natural material is found in the form of small grains and various kinds of nuggets. If we consider its dimensions, we can distinguish the following categories:

  • finely dispersed (up to 10 microns);
  • visible (0.01-4 mm);
  • nuggets (from 5 g to 10 kg).

To distinguish it from pyrite and chalcopyrite, you need to pay attention to the color. The pebble is viewed from different angles. From any angle, gold will not change its original shade. Pyrite will give itself away by changing its color. Its bright yellow color will fade to gray upon inspection. Gold can be checked with a knife; it will not crumble like pyrite and chalcopyrite, but it will leave grooves or lines on it.

If doubts have not been dispelled after the procedures performed, you can test the metal using sulfuric acid. Gold's color will not change, but pyrite and chalcopyrite will change it. Pyrite in areas of impact will turn black, and chalcopyrite will turn red.

Precious metal deposits

There are many places where you can find gold. But to a greater extent, gold ores are formed in mountainous and watery places. Near the mountains, in depressions, young gold deposits are found. Gold veins accumulate in places of faults and cracks in mountains, rocks, and are located along the line of mountain rivers. They come from the bowels of the earth through special channels (fault zones and igneous rock dikes). The total length of such veins can reach several hundred meters, and sometimes reach up to 2 km.

In search of gold, prospectors find pure deposits of gold veins and complex places of formation of non-ferrous metals. In the second case, alluvial gold deposits are formed due to the properties of the precious metal to dissolve and oxidize under natural conditions. Gold can come into contact with other minerals and form where sulfides and granitoids come into contact with limestone. Vein deposits are located at different depths, so they are divided into 3 categories:

  • low temperature;
  • medium temperature;
  • high temperature.

If there is a placer gold deposit nearby, then there are also vein channels in the area. The precious metal is sometimes an integral part of the gold-polymetallic zone, then silver, zinc and lead are combined with it. In Cretaceous sedimentary formations, in depressions and conglomerates, gold-bearing veins are found in places of faults and large cracks.

In these zones, the metal is found in generations with different types of quartz, sulfides and other minerals. But the largest areas for extracting priceless metal are stockwork areas. Gold, along with sulfides and quartz, is scattered in areas of large cracks in the form of inclusions or veins in the rock. Such deposits can be very long and large. Therefore, in such zones, metal mining is organized industrially, where ordinary miners can search for gold quite effectively after completing all the work.

Types of metal deposits

The most common gold deposits are quartz veins, created by nature over many years. Over time, these veins were destroyed by external factors, and both quartz and gold were washed away by sediments into rivers. At the bottom there was a constant movement of stones, which crushed and rolled around the metal. Due to the fact that the noble metal is heavier than other minerals, it was deposited in certain areas of the ducts. With just one glance at the size and degree of rounding of a sample, specialists can determine its travel history and the location of the main vein.

You can successfully search for gold near a river only if the map has marks on the main places of deposits, which can be both at the bottom of the river and near it. Near the river there are residual deposits formed due to the weathering of the vein. Some pieces of vein and nuggets moved a certain distance from the main location, but did not fall into the pond. These formations are called eluvial. When looking for terraced metal deposits, you can find formations above the water level (old bottom) and at a great distance from the current riverbed, sometimes they are found even high in the mountains. The last place where gold is formed is the bottom of the river, where the metal was washed away by water from the main vein.

Gold is several times heavier than other minerals, so its movement along the bottom occurs only under the strong influence of water masses over short distances. The movement occurs in the area of ​​the river that is between the bends. Large stones become an obstacle to gold, so it is better to look for gold under them at the bottom of the river. As the river widens, the flow speed decreases, so gold can settle in such areas.

Gold content of quartz

Quartz is the most common mineral and forms in veins with many metals and minerals. In the search for the noble yellow metal, it plays a major role because the appearance of quartz can reveal the location of the gold. To correctly read quartz, knowledge of the properties of the gold-bearing sample is necessary. This mineral comes in a variety of colors and shades; it can be transparent, black, white, or gray. You can search for gold in quartz in several types:

  • corn;
  • nest;
  • veins;
  • germination;
  • invisible dispersive.

If ore minerals were in quartz, but were leached, then the quartz has signs of sponginess. When the process of sulfide decomposition occurs in a gold-bearing vein, quartz crystals acquire yellow, cherry-red, or shades similar to them, which indicate that the mineral is fermented. If a prospector in search of yellow metal sees banded quartz with powdery layers or with the inclusion of tourmaline and sulfides, it means that representatives of low-temperature or high-temperature layers are somewhere nearby. Such zones may contain gold.

Yellow metal satellites

Some prospectors, in search of wealth, focus on the companions of gold, and there are many of them. Quartz, adularia, silver, pyrite, galena, platinum - all these minerals are found with gold. The only problem is that the presence of one of the gold satellites in the ore does not always indicate the presence of a noble metal in it. Sometimes gold ores consist of fused quartz, lead and gold, sometimes gold, quartz and antimony, and sometimes a combination of gold, silver, quartz and feldspars.

Even about silver, the most common neighbor of gold, it cannot be said that it always indicates the presence of the yellow metal in ores. But when a nugget is found while searching, it is almost always mixed with silver. In some cases, the share of silver reaches significant figures, but sometimes this part is negligible. The ideal ratio of gold and silver in ores occurs mainly in volcanic zones. They can be in Kamchatka or any other Far Eastern region.

Rich places in Russia

Russia is rich in different types of deposits, so you can search for gold in almost all its regions. Skarn, hydrothermal deposits and gold-quartz formations are scattered in different regions of the Russian Federation. An approximate list of areas and types of gold deposits:

  • Siberia (Olkhovskoe) - skarn type;
  • Ural (Berezovskoye), Transbaikalia (Darasunskoye) - gold-quartz-sulfide formation;
  • Pacific ore belt - volcanogenic hydrothermal deposits;
  • Transbaikalia (Baleyskoe, Taseevskoe) - gold-quartz-chalcedony-sulfide formation;
  • Northeast Russia (Karamkenskoye) - gold-silver-quartz-adularia formation;
  • Yakutia, Magadan, Transbaikalia, eastern Siberia - alluvial placers;
  • Chukotka, Ural, Magadan, Bodaibo, Amur and Taximo are golden nuggets.

Many geologists are constantly in search of minerals; they skillfully use geological knowledge and can find gold even in places where an industrial base has been operating for many years, and then also miners. Where, it would seem, everything has already been dug up and dug up, people have almost reached the magma, but still 50 g or 100 g of gold can be found.

How to choose a place?

Before starting to look for gold, experienced trackers study a map of the area. It is necessary to examine the geological composition of the area: what fossils were found, their location and search method. Gold in Russia is found in different forms, but if there are gold placers in the surveyed area, then the place is suitable for survey. This can be either an industrial area or a non-industrial area.

It should be noted those areas where industrial bases have worked or where quartz is present in this area. It is necessary to consider the valleys that form the tributary of the river. The valley is divided into 3 parts: upper, middle and lower. It can be noted with greater confidence that gold will have to be looked for in the upper part of the valley, but there have been cases when gold-bearing places were located both in its middle and lower parts.

It is easier to search for gold based on the characteristics of the deposit when the bedrock is not under sediments and sediments. For example, quartz gold-bearing veins appear as ridges and ridges on the surface of the surveyed area. Quartz can also be in the form of placers, blocks and fragments of a characteristic white or brown-red color. If you look for gold in elongated depressions or clearly defined troughs, you can find stockwork ore deposits. When conducting a survey of a steppe area, the search for gold should be carried out in a place where there are the most thickets, or in a place where there are the least amount of them.

Necessary tool

Attentiveness, geological knowledge and a metal detector can help in the search. This equipment is quite expensive and will quickly pay for itself, but not all models will cope with the task. Moreover, you need to know how to use and set up a metal detector, since it is very sensitive to the soil, which itself will create interference. The metal detector detects large nuggets at shallow depths (up to 1 m), and the smallest ones at a depth of up to 15 cm.

A special feature of working with such products is its excessive sensitivity, which is caused by a large amount of minerals and iron in the soil. The device should not be configured for a specific type of metal; it must be operated in the mode of detecting all metals without exception. Iron, like gold, produces the same sound, so it is better to stop and test the ground rather than continue searching for gold to no avail. It is necessary to listen to the soil using headphones, so you should be extremely attentive to changes in noise.

The number of false signals coming from the ground depends on the sensitivity level setting. When the sensitivity of the metal detector is low, a person hears deeper sounds of ground testing. The result of the work also depends on the ground balance setting. Ideally, the headphones will display background noise as the metal detector probes the soil, the sound may decrease or increase.

To adjust, you need to turn the knob responsible for ground balance. Every 5-7 m you will have to adjust this function, since the mineralization of the soil may be different. To search for large-sized gold on fairly strong mineralized soil, it is necessary to use a negative setting, which will reduce the sensitivity of the metal detector to small nuggets. And, conversely, when searching for small nuggets, the adjustment is made in a positive direction. The best tuning method is a small sample of gold or lead.

When listening to the soil, the metal detector coil should be kept as close to the surface as possible. When a signal occurs, listening is carried out in all directions from the possible location of the nugget. If gold is present, the signal will be heard in all directions, and if the signal is only triggered in a certain direction, then it is not gold. The last step of the test will be to raise the coil above the intended location. If the sound suddenly fades away, it means the signal is false, and this place does not even contain metal.

Tray - equipment for beginners

Washing trays are used for taking samples, but those miners who have not yet mastered all the intricacies of searching use the tray as a means of extracting gold. Professionals work with a metal detector because up to 100 g of gold can be collected in a week of panning. But they are still used today. The efficiency and speed of work depend on the choice of tray.

It is inconvenient to look for gold with a metal tray. There are greasy hand marks on it; they can only be removed by annealing the tray. The metal is corrosive and cannot be tested with a metal detector or separated from magnetite and gold. All the negative aspects of a metal tray are completely absent from a plastic product, and a green tray is an ideal product in which gold flecks are very clearly visible.

In searches, trays with a diameter of 15-40 cm are used, but a tray with a diameter of 40 cm in operation will weigh approximately 10 kg. Therefore, the best option would be a tray with a diameter of 35 cm. In addition to the trays, you need to purchase a plastic sieve (mesh size 12 mm). Rinse should be 300-500 m higher from the river mouth. A good sign would be that at least one piece of gold gets into the tray, but if nothing is found during washing, this is not a sign that the stream is hopeless. If there are large nuggets in it, then there will be very few small gold pieces.

It is not uncommon for a person to pick up a stone and seem to see gold in it. How can you tell if it is gold or not? If the stone has yellow grains visible to the eye, then this is easy to check. Use a needle to scratch the yellow grains. If it's gold, it will scratch like metal. Lead can be scratched for clarity, and gold will be scratched in the same way. The pyrite will crumble. But mica crumbles into flakes. If you press such a scale with your fingernail on something hard, it will simply crush into dust. Pyrite will crumble when struck. A grain of gold will behave like metal and will simply flatten. But this is visible gold. If it is not visible, but your sixth sense tells you - There is gold in this stone.

Then we start scouring the Internet and reading a lot about aqua regia and all sorts of other complex chemical processes. However, everything is much simpler and less dangerous for your health and the health of others. Before you pick up acid and mercury, remember what you will do after the acid eats your lungs and the mercury accumulates in your limb and you will never be able to lift it again. In order to check whether there is gold in a stone or not, it is enough to have a regular tincture of iodine on hand. Unpleasant smell. It's tolerable. A kitchen hood can help you. Where to begin? You need to crush the stone in a mortar. Just crush it into powder. Pour the powder into a jar with a lid. Test jars are very convenient for these purposes. Fill the powder with tincture of iodine from the first aid kit. Not with acid and mercury, but with ordinary iodine tincture. Stir thoroughly. We close the lid, otherwise the smell in the rooms is like in a hospital. After the precipitate has settled, lower a strip of filter paper (just cut a strip from a paper towel) into the solution without touching the precipitate. Took it out and dried it. Then they dipped it again and dried it. Do this several times. Dry the strip and set it on fire. Naturally, in compliance with fire safety rules. If gold is present in the stone, the ash remaining after burning the strip of paper turns purple. You can see what the color purple looks like in Yandex where there is a good color scale.
So I recommend this particular method for determining the presence of gold in stones. Absolutely safe except for burning the strip.
Naturally, the method of washing crushed ore is more interesting, but this is only provided that it contains visible gold. The ore is crushed in a mortar made from an ordinary gas cylinder. The cylinder, with certain safety measures, is cut to half and the ore is crushed in it using a round steel bar. Then the resulting powder is washed.
If there is fine gold in the ore, we use the same iodine to collect it, but only in the solid state. Solid (crystalline) iodine is easier to obtain than acids. It is much easier to work with and does not pollute the environment. And this is a matter of extraction, i.e. production Not the topic of today's article.


For many travelers this topic may be of interest. Not so much for enrichment, but for sporting interest. Indeed, some extreme travelers climb into such distances and primeval wilds where no human has ever set foot. Not exploring such places to the maximum is a great sin for a pioneer. Gold is the most common element in earth rocks and is found almost everywhere.
If desired, it can be washed near Moscow and in other places not very far from civilization. Of course, in some places there is more, in others there is less. There are also places on Earth where small nuggets of gold (cockroaches) are found right on the surface. For example, on shallows in mountain rivers or on steep banks of rivers and ravines. In the bright sun, these cockroaches sparkle and attract with their light. But more often the decoys shine: pyrite, mica, crystal and much more.
At night, in the moonlight, diamonds sparkle. In the nineteenth century in South Africa, it was on moonlit nights that the largest diamonds were found, naturally without washing or other labor-intensive operations. Entire villages lived and fed on this method of searching. During the Great Patriotic War, in Russia we developed a quarry (open pit) for the extraction of some metal needed as an additive for the production of tank armor. On a sunny day, the walls of the quarry sparkled and glowed here and there, with emerald crystals peeking out. But no one had the idea to go and collect these pebbles, because this is just an addition to the armor.”
And this was at a time when the road from Vatikha (in the Urals) was covered with amethysts, and near Orsk - with jasper. To search for tourmaline at a deposit in Transbaikalia on the Shilka River, permission from the 1st department was needed, and tourmalines, along with lepidolite, went into bunkers for crushing. And the famous Murzinka, Mecca of mineralogists before the revolution, and after the revolution the famous pegmatite vein Mokrusha with its beryls, topazes, tourmalines, morions - all this exploded and all together went to porcelain insulators and toilets. The legendary “thousand” is a quarry for raw materials for insulators..." - an excerpt from an article about the chaos in the Russian outback. So to speak: “Our morals.”
Finding such a brilliant treasure is possible, but difficult. It is much easier to detect the presence of gold, native silver, platinum, iron meteorites and precious stones by washing. For reference, industrial development of gold-bearing rocks is carried out when the amount of gold per cubic meter of rock is equal to or greater than five grams. That’s what they say: “Five grams per cube.” Large nuggets of precious metals and cockroaches are not common. More often there are very small pieces of metal, the so-called sand, and rocks containing such sand are called placers. It’s the same story with precious stones; it’s easier to find accompanying minerals in the form of specially colored sand and use them to determine the specific search area for what you’re looking for.
To wash the placer and take samples for metal, the following technology is used:
- Take a tank with a capacity of fifty liters and fill it with metal-containing rock, fill the rock with water and mix thoroughly with a shovel. All heavy minerals, including metal, sink to the bottom of the tank. The water is slowly drained and large waste rock stones are selected. The main thing here is not to accidentally throw away a large nugget. Nuggets are usually covered with a so-called rust-like coating, and a nugget can only be distinguished from nearby pebbles by its particularly heavy weight. Next, throw out all the small stones and a mixture of sand and water from the tank. The heaviest rock remaining at the bottom of the tank is washed in trays.
There are many types of trays. If you are seriously interested in gold mining, then explore the options yourself. For an amateur, a large bowl (or basin) is enough. We pour a little enriched rock into this bowl and rinse it in the same way as in a large tank, throw out the light and uninteresting rock, and the heaviest and most interesting remains at the bottom of the tray. There are plenty of deceptions here too. If the sample contains gold or other metal, check it (metal) for malleability. Pyrite and mica platelets exfoliate and split. Real metal looks more durable.
Now we need to explain where to look for gold and other heavy metal particles. Well, if you are looking only for hotbeds, but not industrial placers, then look for waterfalls on drying up streams. Under them, heavy fractions accumulate at a certain depth and less heavy rocks are constantly washed away. Sometimes it is enough to select large pebbles and wash the enriched rock directly in the tray. If it is possible to check the place under the waterfall with a metal detector, then naturally there will be fewer breaks and empty washes.
It’s the same with precious stones, but the rock is washed immediately in the tray, without prior enrichment in the tank. The rinsing tray for precious stones looks more like a large frying pan with a sieve instead of a bottom. By the way, the dead weight of the washing trays should be minimal, so that the handles do not get tired. It's an exciting, albeit unprofitable business.
I would like to remind you that according to the laws of the Russian Federation, the extraction of precious stones and metals without special permission is prohibited. Searching is not prohibited, but samples, even just as a souvenir, cannot be taken out, taken out and hidden, otherwise there will be big problems with the law.
On the other hand, how nice it is sometimes to remember how lazy you were to bend down and pick up a fairly large nugget, or how you sowed golden sand in a deserted taiga... This is not even accessible to all oligarchs.
A small addition. Other sources say that gold (sand or small nuggets) can be found in the crops of local (chicken and pheasant) birds: hazel grouse, black grouse. capercaillie, pheasants, partridges... Allegedly, the birds, along with the pebbles, swallow native gold. That's right, but you need to look for these nuggets not in the goiter, but in the stomachs. Pebbles and nuggets do not linger in the crop of birds. All chickens (and pheasants too) usually live their entire lives in limited and permanent territories. Therefore, if you find nuggets or precious crystals in the stomach of birds, you can find the same thing somewhere nearby.
Photo from the Internet. The most catchy trays are wooden. The tiniest flecks of gold stick to the tree and are easily washed off on metal trays.

Reviews

Good educational material, Anatoly. I would even say instructive. I don’t envy the “chickens” in the Donetsk steppes if amateur travelers read your story. They would also like to learn about the geological features of the golden provinces. But in Bilibino, during exploration of the Karalveem gold deposit, a rock crystal deposit was destroyed by blasting. Nobody said which is more expensive. Thank you, Anatoly.

Thank you for appreciating my story. I didn’t want to delve too deeply into geology, and I especially don’t want to infect someone with gold fever. Quartz (and crystal) are obligatory companions of gold. I myself was surprised at the finds of large crystal druses, even at sites with placers, where, in theory, everything should have been crushed and broken long ago by the flow of rivers. Unfortunately, it is not for us to decide what the state needs more: crystal or gold. By the way, time has shown that the gold of the Northeast is too expensive for Russia and Kolyma immediately fell into decay and collapsed. This should have been foreseen back in the thirties of the 20th century, but in times of stagnation it was already obvious. Back then, all gold production should have been handed over to private miners and today’s chaos would have been avoided.
Nice to meet you, Anatoly.

Rock crystal, as a mineral, as a piezoelectric raw material, is not a ubiquitous companion of gold. Example - Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt. But this is a substantive conversation. I want to object to you on something else. Yes. The Northeast is not Sochi, and it was difficult for the state. The history of gold in Kolyma is known and terrible. But imagine that the market and economic chaos of our days would have begun in the 30s of the last century. Together with the current morality and fertility of the upper and middle classes, the nouveau riche, thieves in law and Christ-sellers. Can you imagine this state? Me not. There's a lot to think about here. Best regards, Leonid.