Thinking about getting into gold panning. Anyone here do it or know about it? I've done it a few times at a really introductory level and am looking for opinions on making it a (somewhat) full-time thing.
Pros:
- Equipment to get started costs very little (~$20?)
- Equipment for more serious panning is still cheap (~$60?)
- Gold prices are extremely high
- Get to be outdoors all day
- It's fairly easy
- I'm an absurdly patient person so this kind of thing suits me
- Might get lucky and find that big nugget
Cons:
- Have to go through a moderate amount of red tape (prospecting rights, etc)
- Has the majority of the gold already been found at this point?
- Realistically, probably going to end up averaging $0.01 hourly wage
What's /diy/'s opinion?
>>986354
1) Tragedy of the Commons. If it's possible to make money doing something, and that something has a very low barrier to entry, then more and more people will do it, until it's no-longer possible to make money doing it. See also Mechanical Turk.
2) The gold you're planning on panning for doesn't belong to you: it belongs to whoever owns the land, whether they're a private individual or the government. You can't just up-and-take it, any more than you can go panning for apples or panning for CCTV cameras.
>>986381
>You can't just up-and-take it
You can if you get the prospecting rights. It varies by state but you usually just have to make a trip to the BLM and pay a fee.
>>986354
>making it a (somewhat) full-time thing
So standing in a creek shaking a plate for 8-12 hours a day is your idea of a good job?
If you really want to mine for loose gold, at least look into a sluice setup or something. Simply panning won't pan out in a financial sense. It's labor intensive and has very poor returns on your time.
>>986397
>Simply panning won't pan out
I see what you did there
>>986397
>standing in a creek shaking a plate for 8-12 hours a day is your idea of a good job
I mean, yeah, kind of... It doesn't get much more chill than that and it beats a cubicle.
The plan is actually something more like: pan a little, find some flakes, move to a new spot, pan a little, repeat... until you find a spot that has an relatively high concentration. Then come back to that spot and dig around, try to find something big. Maybe even bring a metal detector.
Does that sound more viable?
>>986400
No. Not at all
>>986470
You know what. I take it back.
If you got no one to look after, kids, elderly family, pets. Go for it. If you do man up and get a real job
>>986394
Well then that's not up-and-taking it, is it.
Working at MacDonalds would get you far more money
Visit the Marshall state park, try panning for 'gold'. It sucks ass dude.
