Motherlode!

Steve, I hadn't heard of the "Coke test" until now, sounds interesting, I'll have to look into that.

How pathetic am I? Here in Edmonton, we have fairly generous deposits of "flour gold" in the river that runs through this city, as well as for 60 miles upstream and downstream. This stuff has been panned off and on for a century, particularly early on in the city's history, plus during the Great Depression, plus during the 1980 spike in gold prices. Expert panners have extracted 1/2 ounce or more of gold per day during low-water on the river. That's enough to earn a good wage during the open-water season.

As for me, I've been curious about panning for the 15 or so years that I've lived here. I see that there are courses taught in spring and fall on panning or sluicing for gold in the river, and I've always looked at them but never got around to signing up. A couple of years ago I did buy a gold pan, and despite my complete ignorance about how to pan, I did take it down to river once, and easily found "colour" in my pan. I really should follow this up further, as I think I am blessed with a rather unique gold-panning opporunity, so should really take advantage of that.