I have often wondered if the river running through the site contained Gold. Many of the rivers and streams in Cornwall contain trace gold but not enough to mine commercially. Tin steamers would find tiny flecks of Gold and collect them keeping them in a quill. There are several famous sites where even today you can find Gold. The mines that contained Antinomy along the north coast also contained Gold, Bournonite and Tetrahedrite are both Antimony minerals so there could be a chance of Gold!
The first site we chose was the exit of the tunnel removing a large Killas slab that was acting as a riffle, trapping the heavier stones. After digging several bucket loads of sediment and discarding the larger rocks we panned the rest .First thing evident was lead shot, this is always a good indicator you are in the right place. Gold and lead have a similar specific gravity and will be found together in this type of situation. That is where the excitement ended no gold. We tried several more trials with similar results.
Next was the riffle we positioned it higher up the river we got a decent flow of water over it and began operations. We got down a couple of metres which resulted in around 20kg of fines to pan.
The result, disappointing more lead shot and some Pyrite. Its not definitive if there is any gold its not giving itself up easily.
