cbcnews said:
Hello,
My name is Anita Li; I'm a researcher with CBC News in Toronto.
We are currently working on a story about gold panning in Ontario, Canada, specifically in the Madoc area.
If you are a gold panner/prospector based in Ontario, I would love to chat with you.
Please contact me at
[email protected].
Thanks,
Anita Li
Anita wrong time of the year to be hunting prospectors online, now that the weather has broke most will be going back to their claims or looking for new ground to stake.
You could possibly research your story right here on the forum, plenty of people here who have wandered the woods or followed the stream and rivers searching for gold and other precious metals.
Besides most prospectors are rather closed mouth about what their doing, some think they have methods of working the dirt that are better than what the other guy is doing, he may want the location of his claim kept secret to avoid week end prospectors encroaching onto his claim.
Staking a claim is no guarantee that others will oblige you by adhering to the letter of the law. There are those of have no regard for the law when gold is involved as found in nature.
A snipper wearing a wet suit can cover a lot of ground vacuuming your claim free of gold over a weekend. Snippers wear wet suit with an air supply from the surface or use a snorkel then towing a floating dredge vacuum the values from cracks and crevices on the rivers bottom. Since the cost of security for the small time miner is prohibitive a closed mouth and his dog are a mans best friend. A well seasoned prospector will bring his dog the mining camp to warn him of bears, when a man is busy panning he forgets most everything else.
Gold fever is difficult to understand for those who have never experienced the disease.
In my youth I scoured miles of river bank along the mighty Fraser River in B.C during low water in the fall of the year collecting the moss from rocks that were covered during high water. The moss on the rocks acts as a natural collector of fine gold carried downstream with high water during the spring run off. You burn the moss then pan out the gold from the black sand.
Rain or shine a boot full of water will not deter a man from collecting his moss or bring out the pan.
Best Regards
Gill
