Do all creeks have gold?

Gold in a creek comes from rock somewhere upstream. If the drainage has no gold-bearing veins or old gold-bearing gravels, panning it will only turn up black sand and maybe pyrite.

To check a creek, look for historic mines or placer workings in its drainage, the type of rock it cuts through, and geochemical stream-sediment samples. In the United States the USGS National Geochemical Survey has lab analyses for gold in tens of thousands of stream samples; other countries' geological surveys publish similar data.

Sources: USGS National Geochemical Survey; USGS Mineral Resources Data System.

Where is gold most likely to be found? Gold is most likely to be found where it has been found before: in and downstream of historic gold mining districts. In streams it collects where water slows, such as inside bends, behind boulders and in bedrock cracks (placer gold). In rock it sits mostly in quartz veins along faults (lode gold).

How can you tell if a rock has gold or fool's gold? Real gold is soft and bends or flattens when pressed with a pin; fool's gold (pyrite) is hard and brittle and shatters. Gold leaves a golden-yellow streak on unglazed porcelain, while pyrite leaves a greenish-black streak. Gold stays the same colour in shade, while pyrite and mica glitter only in sunlight.

Where can I pan for gold for free? In the United States you can pan free in designated recreational areas such as the American River at Auburn State Recreation Area (California), Cache Creek (Colorado), the Chugach National Forest creeks (Alaska) and Lynx Creek (Arizona), and on much BLM and national forest land outside active mining claims. Other countries have similar public areas, such as New Zealand's gold fossicking areas and the public claim on Bonanza Creek in Canada's Yukon.