# Indiana placer gold... refine or sell as natural??



## Midas75 (Nov 21, 2011)

So here is my question, I have started prospecting again instead of just doing AR refining, and have had decent luck!

Should I try selling my placer finds as natural gold, or do I go ahead and refine/ sell as pure?

Any input is greatly apprecited!

Thanks,
Nick


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## philddreamer (Nov 21, 2011)

Hi Nick!

I also prospect; any gold I recover, I refine & sell. If I find any specimen that I would like to keep, I put away with the rest of my "little precious". :mrgreen: 

Phil


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## jimmydolittle (Nov 21, 2011)

The only Indiana gold I have found is flour gold, but I've only panned in Gatesville. Are you finding pickers? People are selling them on Ebay for about 125% - 135% spot price.


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## nickvc (Nov 22, 2011)

With the high gold and metal prices generally the premium over spot has been eroded unless you have exceptional specimens which like so much else in the same category will defy the norm of market forces. Perhaps if you batch refine your placer gold and alloy it and have it made into jewellery you could sell it at a premium as local gold jewellery.


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## Midas75 (Nov 22, 2011)

Thanks for the input guys!

If I lived somewhere that placer gold was a "feature" of the area, I'm sure I could easily sell to a gift shop, but let's admit it... this IS Indiana :roll: 

Jimmy-
I'm in North-west Indiana, and have had decent luck pulling both flour and 1/8" flake. I have refined for years, and when I moved to a new property a few years back, I left my refining and prospecting equipment in boxes. With the winter being a slow time for my business I deceided to dig out the old screens, sluice and pans and to what all was in the stream flowing through my property.
Much to my suprise... There are a couple spots in the stream that have produced good concentrates! (not to mention some good copper nuggets) Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to quit my day job to do it, but is is a rewarding hobby! I am now considering building a small dredge to work the bedrock in the "hot spots", but I'm sure that wont be ready to go til spring.

-Nick


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## jimmydolittle (Nov 22, 2011)

Hi Nick, welcome to the forum. Good to see anothe Hoosier on here. I'm in northeastern corner of Greene County. I babyset my granddaughter 5 days a week, so I haven't had too much opportunity to get out. Richland creek runs through my father-in-laws property,just across the road, but I haven't even found any black sand in it. It's bedrock limestone, and looks really good.The GPAA books say gold was found in Greene county in 1850, but knowing where is another story. None of the history books I've looked at have even mention it. I don't really know how to research it any further.


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## Midas75 (Nov 23, 2011)

Alot of Indiana has glacial gold, it's just a matter of finding areas that have a higher concentration!

I live not too far from Attica, where falls creek flows that is known to produce good flake! I plan on making a trip there early next year.
I have also been planning a trip to Mill creek near Putnamville, but the campground on the stream is closed until next april 

I didn't even think about prospecting my stream unti we had a flood cause a landslide on the creek which exposed a LARGE hillside of blue clay 
Just beneath this slide is a nice area of exposed current bedrock! After taking a 5gal bucket of material back up the hill and finding around .1 gram of gold, I was very hopeful! I will probably make a trek down there later today to grab some more captured sand and gravel from the bedrock to see what's there. I'm currently looking into a way to dredge or pump the sediment from the cracks in the bedrock to see what I can find. I just sent out a batch of the blue clay for an assay to see if it is the source of the gold, or if I just found a lucky spot in the bedrock that has been collecting gold for decades??

-Nick


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## Oz (Nov 24, 2011)

Have that blue clay checked for silver.


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