[bogwalrus]

I know Absolutely Nothing about geography or anything about where would be an ideal spot to start a gold panning holiday in west cork with my mates. I just want to do this for fun and a bit of a bonding session/hiking/camping trip with the lads before some of them move off and get married.

I always find there needs to be a good reason to go wandering up mountains and hills and gold panning seems a great idea and were all up for it.

I have done a bit of research namely here

http://www.mineralsireland.ie/NR/rdo...0/golda4pd.pdf

It seems devonian areas near deep stream and rivers where there is paleoplacers would be ideal.

If anyone would like to pick a few spots they might think would be worth a check I can take loads of pics for them of that area (post them here) to show what all the geography is like for them. Also if i find a load of gold i can cut yee in

Cheers,
boggy

[slowburner]

Originally Posted by bogwalrus

I know Absolutely Nothing about geography or anything about where would be an ideal spot to start a gold panning holiday in west cork with my mates. I just want to do this for fun and a bit of a bonding session/hiking/camping trip with the lads before some of them move off and get married.

I always find there needs to be a good reason to go wandering up mountains and hills and gold panning seems a great idea and were all up for it.

I have done a bit of research namely here

http://www.mineralsireland.ie/NR/rdo...0/golda4pd.pdf

It seems devonian areas near deep stream and rivers where there is paleoplacers would be ideal.

If anyone would like to pick a few spots they might think would be worth a check I can take loads of pics for them of that area (post them here) to show what all the geography is like for them. Also if i find a load of gold i can cut yee in

Cheers,
boggy

So you're not one of those ''I climbed it, because it was there'' types?

That PDF mentions the association of gold with the gossans of the copper lodes.
Allihies and Mount Gabriel both had ancient copper mines, so they might be worth a trial, although I've not heard of gold found in either.
Mind you, the great G.H.Kinahan firmly believed that the gold resource was generally underexploited.
Croghan mountain in south Wicklow would be a safer bet if you wanted to find a few grains.

I'd love to see any pics of the Mount Gabriel workings

[bogwalrus]

Originally Posted by slowburner

So you're not one of those ''I climbed it, because it was there'' types?

That PDF mentions the association of gold with the gossans of the copper lodes.
Allihies and Mount Gabriel both had ancient copper mines, so they might be worth a trial, although I've not heard of gold found in either.
Mind you, the great G.H.Kinahan firmly believed that the gold resource was generally underexploited.
Croghan mountain in south Wicklow would be a safer bet if you wanted to find a few grains.

I'd love to see any pics of the Mount Gabriel workings

I've climbed the peaks in Kerry a few Times but always need to do something else on the climb like hit a few golf balls off carrontuhil

I'm in cork so don't want to go anywhere out of Munster although I'd love to head back around the Wicklow mountains again.

I would like to find a spot near streams and the right kind of rock that has had no previous mining done before. Sure why not go on a discovery mission.

If I get to the mines I will take some snaps.

[slowburner]

AFAIK, you have to find the biggest mofo boulder in the stream - one that's been there since the ice age and has caused a deposit to sit undisturbed for millennia.
Then you have to find black sand underneath it, and that's the stuff you have to pan.
There are lots of good youtubes on gold panning.
Best of luck with your adventure.

[bogwalrus]

So I am eyeing up Knockoura in Allihies. I just want some opinion of its formation as a mountain as it looks interesting.

Here are a few google earth images:

It is the ridges on the right that i am looking at


This image is facing the ridge from the sea


This is same as above but closer up to get a look at the type of rock. A lake there also so would be curious about streams entering exiting etc


This last image is coming from opposite direction and close up of very top. It has some very interesting rock on the very top and wondering if the top of the mountain could actually have soil that would normally be very deep. Such as was this formed by a mass forcing the soil up.

[slowburner]

I doubt there'll be much soil.
Erosion will have taken most of that away, and that's the course you need to follow.
If there's any gold there, it'll be lower down the ridge.
It'll be in areas where heavy soil deposits were protected from thousands of years of erosion, like under the mofo.
Other than that, it might be worth targeting areas where gold carried out of the quartz veins might have been deposited.
Them's my (bullshítting) uneducated guesses anyway.
Hopefully there's a more educated lurker about who might share their wisdom with us.

How potentially auriferous/cupriferous areas were located in times past, is a subject of great personal interest.

Of course, a lot of the guesswork could be eliminated by doing a little historical research...
G.H.Kinahan was an eminent C.19th geologist (amongst other things) with a great belief in the underexploitation of gold in Ireland - well worth a persistent Google

[Step23]

Hopefully this advice will be of some use to you.

From what I have heard there has not been any visible gold found in West Cork. From the link you posted it states that the gold in Cork is found along with copper mineralisation. Generally the gold in copper mineralisation is disseminated throughout the ore load and is microscopic in size. You generally get visible gold in high temperature formed quartz veins. Although most gold is found in quartz, not all quartz has gold.

If you do find a place to pan, make sure you can see bedrock or know it is there under the sediments. If you can't it might be worth moving on as you won't find anything substantial. (The gold moves through the sediments and settles on the bedrock).

Good luck, post back and let us know if you find anything!

[bogwalrus]

I just found out today that a friend of mine has just moved to Australia to work as a surveyor for one of the worlds biggest gold mines. As far as i know he is surveying the lands for new spots. Just sent him an email to see if he can help me find a few nice spots based on geography that i can just go check out on spare time=) Happy days

[slowburner]

Originally Posted by bogwalrus

I just found out today that a friend of mine has just moved to Australia to work as a surveyor for one of the worlds biggest gold mines. As far as i know he is surveying the lands for new spots. Just sent him an email to see if he can help me find a few nice spots based on geography that i can just go check out on spare time=) Happy days

That should be interesting - keep us posted.

[bogwalrus]

Another friend of mine had a friend that found a 2k nugget. I told him to ask his friend more about it and today he sent me this link.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/co...lts-30333.html

[El Siglo]

Anywhere there's a sulfide deposit you should have a look into. Keep an eye on plants and how healthy they look (i.e. certain metals will affect plant metabolism through discolouration of leaves). So when you're looking for gold, the pathfinder element you want to bear in mind is arsenic. So, if you see plants check out their roots they'll have stunted growth and appear in a sort of brownish colour. Overall the growth of the plants will be reduced with arsenic concentrations in the soil of >2 ppm.

[bogwalrus]

Originally Posted by El Siglo

Anywhere there's a sulfide deposit you should have a look into. Keep an eye on plants and how healthy they look (i.e. certain metals will affect plant metabolism through discolouration of leaves). So when you're looking for gold, the pathfinder element you want to bear in mind is arsenic. So, if you see plants check out their roots they'll have stunted growth and appear in a sort of brownish colour. Overall the growth of the plants will be reduced with arsenic concentrations in the soil of >2 ppm.

Reminds me of Dantes peak with the crap james bond. The sulphur underground near the lake made a section of trees look brown compared to the lovely green ones.


Great tip,

[El Siglo]

Originally Posted by bogwalrus

Reminds me of Dantes peak with the crap james bond. The sulphur underground near the lake made a section of trees look brown compared to the lovely green ones.


Great tip,

Don't even get me started on Dante's Peak... Here's a great explanation of the inaccuracies of that pile of balls film.

[Step23]

Did this 2k nugget come from the mine in Omagh? If so I wouldn't believe it, I have seen the mine and the ore they are working, it is quite low grade.

[bogwalrus]

Originally Posted by Step23

Did this 2k nugget come from the mine in Omagh? If so I wouldn't believe it, I have seen the mine and the ore they are working, it is quite low grade.

oops i made a mistake

This is exactly what my mate said and it might clear things up:

A friend of mine in Tyrone was saying that some company were coming in to mine for gold..... One of the lads over here has recently gotten into gold mining and found a nugget worth $2000... but that has gone back into the equipment that he had to buy. Very interesting stuff tho.


And the Nugget was found in New Zealand not Ireland as that is where "over here" is