New Guy With California-specific Legality Questions; Jim_alaska Please?

[Cord]

Hi All, I'm a new potential prospector in Northern California. I'd like to do some prospecting in streams in the El Dorado National Forest. The El Dorado County folks seem fairly reasonable in terms of encouraging recreational gold panning in the National Forest and in the County in general, but I'd rather sluice than pan. So, I'd appreciate an evaluation of my intended methods, and their legality under current California laws and regulations:

1) Recover sand and small gravel from creekbeds using a hand auger like the ones AMS makes (see below);

2) Run the sand and small gravel through a sluice placed in the creek, like the sluice below;

3) After sluicing in the creek, rinse the sluice mat contents into a bucket and take the bucket home.

So, in your opinion, is there anything illegal about my process? Would my methods require a permit?

Thank you for your time! I appreciate any and all answers. Jim_Alaska, I hope you will respond.

-Cord

[Gold Seeker]

2 hours ago, Cord said:

Hi All, I'm a new potential prospector in Northern California. I'd like to do some prospecting in streams in the El Dorado National Forest. The El Dorado County folks seem fairly reasonable in terms of encouraging recreational gold panning in the National Forest and in the County in general, but I'd rather sluice than pan. So, I'd appreciate an evaluation of my intended methods, and their legality under current California laws and regulations:

1) Recover sand and small gravel from creekbeds using a hand auger like the ones AMS makes (see below);

2) Run the sand and small gravel through a sluice placed in the creek, like the sluice below;

3) After sluicing in the creek, rinse the sluice mat contents into a bucket and take the bucket home.

So, in your opinion, is there anything illegal about my process? Would my methods require a permit?

Thank you for your time! I appreciate any and all answers. Jim_Alaska, I hope you will respond.

-Cord

Welcome to the forum.

If you "mention" a member it's more likely they will see your question, type the @ symbol, then start typing their username,, a list of members will popup keep typing until you find the member and click on their name and they will be sent a notification and should see your post when they visit the forum, the notification will look like this if you did it correctly..... @Jim_Alaska

Jim should now see this topic when he visits the forum since I mentioned him in this reply.

[deathray]

Not a problem bud.  Auburn rec area is only hands n pans area . 

[deathray]

Make sure your not on someones claim.

[GhostMiner]

No use of any mechanized equipment within 300 ft of stream. You are fine.

[Clay Diggins]

1 hour ago, GhostMiner said:

No use of any mechanized equipment within 300 ft of stream. You are fine.

There is no such law GhostMiner. I believe you are confusing the suction dredge moratorium with other forms of mining. A common confusion in California but not a law.

How about this - a little more nuanced and accurate assessment of the law.

In California you may not extract water from a stream by mechanized means for the purposes of mining bank or streambed material. In California if you wish to use water from a stream to mine non bank or non streambed material your mechanized pump must be at least 300 feet from the stream.

This only applies to mining. Many other forms of mechanized in stream activity and you are good to go. There are a lot of pumps on California waterways and most of them are perfectly legal as long as they aren't used in mining.

[GotAU?]

Using an auger to do sampling is a good idea, but that one in the photo looks like a standard one for regular moist soil that clumps together. You may need a sand and gravel one if you are going to be sampling near streams, but good luck with rocks!  A small diameter one will also make digging around rocks easier, but we ended up having to use shovels most of the time to get any depth when I used one for installing a lot of soil moisture probes 3’ deep along perennial stream beds. A trenching shovel will help also.  I would also just use a pan for testing samples from the auger.

[GhostMiner]

1 hour ago, Clay Diggins said:

There is no such law GhostMiner. I believe you are confusing the suction dredge moratorium with other forms of mining. A common confusion in California but not a law.

How about this - a little more nuanced and accurate assessment of the law.

In California you may not extract water from a stream by mechanized means for the purposes of mining bank or streambed material. In California if you wish to use water from a stream to mine non bank or non streambed material your mechanized pump must be at least 300 feet from the stream.

This only applies to mining. Many other forms of mechanized in stream activity and you are good to go. There are a lot of pumps on California waterways and most of them are perfectly legal as long as they aren't used in mining.

Not sure about the pump being 300 ft from the stream for non bank or non streambed material because we got a water license to use a pump at the creeks as long as the water was being pumped to an area more than 300 ft from the stream. Seems to all be case specific now which makes no sense. 

[GhostMiner]

Just now, GhostMiner said:

Not sure about the pump being 300 ft from the stream for non bank or non streambed material because we got a water license to use a pump at the creeks as long as the water was being pumped to an area more than 300 ft from the stream. Seems to all be case specific now which makes no sense. 

California is using the suction dredege law to limit regular mining within 300 ft of a creek. It is not correct but they are doing it anyway.

[Cord]

Thank you all for the welcome, and for the great responses! Sounds like I am legally in the clear.

As for the response about the type of auger, I absolutely agree. Fortunately we have many different types of hand auger at work, and I am accustomed to having to use more than one type of auger to dig a given hole.

Regarding existing claims, is there a source for up to date claim maps? Something that I could buy or download? Does California require that claims be posted?

Thanks, everyone!