pennsylvania gold

anyone know if the gold mined in potter county is found in hardrock or is it glacial/alluvial anyone had luck panning gold in that area of PA. a general geology map of pa shows mostly shale and sandstone in that county

must be a tough one

Sorry Donald, but I know nothing of any Gold find in Potter County. So far there has been no discovery of Gold "in situ" anywhere in the state, only placier.

MRH

Further note, The great Terminal Moraine does lie across the upper part of the county, from Pike Mills along Pike creek in the East, west/north-west to just above East Sharon, near the northern most border of the county. If there ever was Gold discovered in the county, perhaps this could be the source.

While I do research Pennsylvania Mineralogy/geology on the whole, gold is not a particular interested mine. The only Native Gold discoverd in the state, to my knowledge, was in the very southern most counties of the state. Potter County is one of the northern most counties.

MRH

there is a gold mine in the county, the Kress gold mine near sweden valley commercial must be a rich glacial deposit.

I really would take any such claim for this with a grain of salt. There's never been what one could properly characterize as a rich discovery of gold in Pennsylvania, and the only commercial recovery of gold was as a byproduct of proccessing other metals (trace). This Gold recovery was only enough to help pay the cost of operations, never enough to turn a profit (I.E. Were it not for the recovery of the primary mined ores of iron, lead, etc., gold recovery would not have been commercially viable at any of these mines).

If it were an actual "commercial" operation, they'd need permits and impact studies done, none of which I can find on the DCNR website or elsewhere. Fact is, the ONLY refference to this site I found is on one "Blogger-type" prospecting website, which should give one pause.

If your planning to take the trip anyway, I'd love to hear back from you what you ACTUALLY found going on up there. Good Luck!

MRH

The term "Mine" used here is very misleading, I'll bet Kress and the other two "commercial Mines" noted on this bloggers webpage are just "pay-to-pan" operations (so beware of salting). Sorry if I misunderstood this.

NOTE: I see a number of innacuracies and mischaracterizations on this fellows webpage.


MRH

actually I have travelled through potter county many times and have not seen any pay to pan sites

There is a Pennsylvania gold panners association/club. They often organize fieldtrips for panning and often participate in local mineral shows doing gold panning for the kids. I'm sure they could give you gold-panning locals. They might even know of non-placer type gold in PA (though I've never heard of any).

Their website is:
http:www.pa-gold.com

Best of luck hunting,
Jen

Geri Jones & Donald Schmerling wrote a book on panning for Gold in Southeastern Pennsylvania. I am not familiar with any commercial Gold mine in Pa at this time. As far as I'm concerned all the Gold in Pa has been placer Gold from weathering out of diabase or left behind as nuggets from past glaciers. Gold has been recovered from other commercial mining ventures like the old Cornwall mine and a few others. Generally speaking if there is a good Copper or Zink prospect ther will be a bit of Gold associated with the mineral.

The Copper mines out west gleaned loads of Gold and other associated metals from there processing of the raw material. This requires the treatment of many tons of raw material though.

There is Gold in many places in Pennsylvania but not enough to get rich or too excited about. Of course every flake found still brings a smile to my face. Us field rock collectors get excited about some pretty ugly looking pieces of rock sometimes, so a ray of sunshine from a tiny flake of Gold can sometimes make our day.

Joe D.

Hmmm, yea, I really don't know what it's all about, just a reasonable assumption. It's really hard to imagine what else could possibly be characterized as a "commercial" gold operation up there.

Certainly there could be possibilities of finding some placier gold in the northern region due to the morain, but I suspect if it has, it is quite uncommon. Gold is rare in the state, even the most noted localities in York and Lancaster, which everyone interested in panning and/or PA mineralogy are VERY well aware of, have never been more than a lot of time/effort for the occasional finds.

Guess it depends on what kind of experience your looking for. In the south at least you'd know your far more likely to have something to show for your efforts, but I'd also agree if you found some in Potter co., It'd be more of a feather in your cap! (Jay Lininger had a series of about 20 or more micromount Gold specimens recovered in the state in his collection (collected with concern for mineralogy/confirmation of locality, not just relying on second or third party "he said/she said" info. I wish now I'd have taken closer note to the various localities listed for these tiny specimens!)

There have been many supposed one-time finds in many Pennsylvania counties since the mid 19th centuries, but almost all were never proven, or confirmed by any additional findings (highly suspect). It's hard to go by what one guy will tell you,

MRH

thanks it was mostly curiosity and a little confusion

i live in coudersport potter county pa. i have never heard of a kress mine in sweden valley.

Hi Ron,
If anything at all, I suspect it's just a "venture" of sorts, set up for summer activities to snag a few gold-hound and panners. Not really my thing, so I can't speak with any authority.

BTW, since your from coudersport, is the old "ice mine" still closed to the general public? Used to be a tourist atraction for many years, but closed some time ago. I haven't been able to confirm who owns the property currently.

Thanks for chiming in!
MRH

Re: pennsylvania gold I live in somerset co. is there anywhere in this co. to pan gold or the surrounding countys I am located on the maryland border south west part of state thank you

Mark Heintzelman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Further note, The great Terminal Moraine does lie
> across the upper part of the county, from Pike
> Mills along Pike creek in the East,
> west/north-west to just above East Sharon, near
> the northern most border of the county. If there
> ever was Gold discovered in the county, perhaps
> this could be the source.
>
> While I do research Pennsylvania
> Mineralogy/geology on the whole, gold is not a
> particular interested mine. The only Native Gold
> discoverd in the state, to my knowledge, was in
> the very southern most counties of the state.
> Potter County is one of the northern most
> counties.
>
> MRH
There is a volcanic chimney in Borie [a few miles south of Seden Valley] that has a low gold bearing ore.

Yes there was a gold mine in Sweden Valley PA. The thing is I could never find out if it was a placer mine or load I suspect it was placer. Due to the glacial deposits. I am the Pennsylvania State Director of the Eastern Gold Prospector Association (EGPA). In most of the streams in Pennsylvania you will find gold mostly fine but in southern PA you can find some larger size pickers. I myself have found pickers about the size of pencil erasers in southern York county. I have also found flakes the size of a dry grain of rice in Adams county. In Northern PA you will find Gold in and around gravel banks due to the glacial deposits. If anyone would like more info check out www.pa-egpa.org

Pennsylvania State Director of the EGPA
Bryan Bennett

i have heard of panning in southenr most PA too. Nothing in the north part of ohio. cleveland to be exact. There are very few places to pan in ohio. Usually all you find is dust. Over ten years my friend has one vial of dust. Not nothing to wet your pants about.

How is the mineral WOLFRAMITE mined?

I was interested if there would be small gold deposit in schuylkill co, pa. Here we have mostly anthercite coal, but I was wondering if, because of the density on the coal rocks, if it would show any idea towards gold. I kinda doubt it, but I guess anything is worth a chance right. Any geologists out there would could help out with idea would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Look at the website posted by Jeri L Jones about gold in Pennsylvania: mininggold.com/states/pa.hrml-10k

The origin of most gold deposits are primarily though hydrothermic deposits, hot solutions entering fissures in the earths crust which recrystalizing/deposit in these cooler environs, or as placiers, loose materials which have weathered out of the host rock containing these hydrothermic deposits.

There are exceptions, for the Gold deposits in the the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa it has been suggested that they came directly from the mantle, originating from volcanic pebbly rocks known as komatiites.

More to your interests, pertaining to coal deposits, There has been an anomalous gold content found in the Jurassic and Paleogene brown coals and from the south-eastern region of the Western-Siberian platform. After burning this material, concentrations of gold as high as 4.4 ppm were found in coal ash and 0.48 ppm in the peat ash from the region. The author suggests there to be a biogenic–sorption mechanism for the Au accumulation, however, the same high content can't be said for or found in the Anthracite in our region, and even if it were, it is merely a trace content, not a visible presence of gold as in a placier deposit.

I Hope this helps.

MRH

borie huh is this volcanic chimney on public land

no, it is on ridge on farm land.

Actually it's 2nd hand info, I am waiting for weather to warm up so I can go check it out for myself.

has anyone ever looked around "bake oven knob"? tamaqua area? there are a few small streams that run around the base of the mountains there that look good.

does anyone know anything about gold in myerstown pa
i read an article about a phila company mining in myerstown in 1880 something
i wonder if this is the quarry that is filled with water no where they scuba dive or is it the same as cornwall