Whilst in San Diego and vicinity, on our way to Anza Borrego Desert State Park, my cousin and I went to visit a nice mountain town of Julian. The town was founded in the mid-1860s during the gold rush. We therefore took a tour of a now-defunct gold mine there. Quite an interesting insight into the lives of those miners.
Now, defunct does not mean completely empty, just not commercially viable. A mine is considered viable if it produces an ounce of gold per ton of ore. It doesn't any more, but there are still traces or gold in the rocks. We had an opportunity to do some classic gold water-panning in the crushed rocks from the mine below, and alas,
( I water-panned me a gold flake! )I have to say the locals, people very knowledgeable in the mining arts, pan very professionally and always get three-four flakes. I, being a newbie, on a third try got one. You have to know how to flush the garbage out of a pan, then separate by weight the quartz crystals, black iron-based minerals and, finally, the "fool's gold" of mica from the real thing. Tip -- "fool's gold" reflects sunlight and therefore goes dark if you put it in the shade. Gold glows yellow in any light.
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