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Placer mining (almost always for gold) is the simplest and most basic form of gold mining. It has been carried on for hundreds if not thousands of years all over the world. Placer mining was first done by Anglos on the east coast in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The discovery of a gold nugget in the foothills of California in 1848 set off a stampede that forever changed the United States. Before that discovery, gold mining was being performed on a very limited basis but afterwards every creek, river, and later desert washes were checked for the golden metal. Gold is still a highly sought after prize. Both the large commercial operations and the weekend hobby miner searches for the smallest grains that can be sold.
| Where did the gold found in creeks come from in the first place. Looking at the illustration of a vein that cuts through a hill, you can see how weathering at the surface (by wind, rain, snow, and earth movement) allows the trapped gold to "weather" out and move down the hillside into the nearest channel. | 
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Watching the animation shows how gold will follow the water flow until it reaches a point where the velocity slows such as around a bend or in a "whirlpool" created by "suction eddies". Here is where the much heavier gold settles to the bottom and through the constant water action above, will work its way down towards the bedrock of the stream. |
Obviously, when panning for gold, the closer to the bedrock of the stream the greater the quantity of gold that should be present. This is not to say that no gold will be found near the top of the gravels but if gold is located near the top, the farther down you go, the richer the concentration should become. Minerals that are heavy and resistant to abrasion in the stream will also be noted when panning. These almost always will include "black sand" which is mostly magnetite and yes it is magnetic. Other minerals that can be found in the pan are garnet (common in metamorphic rocks), diamonds, platinum, hematite (an ore of iron), cinnabar (ore of mercury), tungsten, pyrite (fools gold), and many man-made items such as BB's, bullets, nails, and coins amongst others.
Where To Find Gold in the Desert, by Klein.
Lots of books on prospecting at our new Mercantile Bookstore.
