This page provides reviews of many on-line sources of gold paydirt.
Panning for gold at home by purchasing gold paydirt or concentrates on-line is an interesting and satisfying hobby. Anyone wanting to pursue it will want to buy the best paydirt available for the lowest price, which is why I put this list together. The standard for paydirt comparisons is the Return On Investment or ROI. That is the value of the gold found divided by the cost of the paydirt including shipping and handling. Note that while the ROI is a useful metric for comparing paydirts, in reality gold buyers don't pay full spot value for raw gold. They deduct some because the gold isn't pure and little more for handling so they can make some money on the transaction. The amount of the deductions vary greatly depending on the dealer.
This page is dedicated to testing as many samples from as many venders as possible to locate the best sources. It consists of two lists. The first simply ranks the paydirt by name and associated ROI in descending order. The second list includes detailed information about each gold paydirt tested such as: what it consisted of, if it has natural or added gold, how clean it was and what type of gold it contained.
The samples are processed using a Miller table one mesh size at a time with the table set with a shallow angle and low water flow rate to catch every possible speck of gold. I regularly capture -100 gold with no difficulty. The gold is dried and weighed on a scale accurate to 0.001 gram. I never inform the sellers that I am purchasing their product for on-line reviews. In those cases where a second or third bag is ordered I use a different name and email address.
This is an on-going page. I will be adding new reviews on a monthly basis or better. So, without further delay let's get to the lists.
Quick
Gold Paydirt Rankings:
Lynch
Mining Black Label Reserve
Paydirt:.............................................ROI
= 124.2%
Lynch
Mining Black Label Reserve
Paydirt
- Second Review:....................ROI
= 114.5%
Gizmo's 1 Pound Paydirt Supremo:....ROI = 97.1%
Lynch Mining 2 Lb Reserve Paydirt: ...ROI = 95.4%
Lynch Mining Reserve Paydirt: ..........ROI = 95.0%
Klondike Klinkers 1 Lb Liberty Bag: ....ROI = 88.1%
Find The Line 8 oz. Paydirt Bag: ........ROI = 87.4%
Jimbo's 2 Pound Arizona Paydirt:......ROI = 82.9%
Find The Line One Pound Paydirt: .....ROI = 82.8%
ipan4gold.com 1 Lb Paydirt:..............ROI = 81.6%
Klondike Klinkers 4-ounce Bag: ........ROI = 80.4%
Dorado Gold One-Pound Bag: ..........ROI = 79.29%
Jimbo's 1 Lb Idaho Dredge Cons: .....ROI = 76.8%
Gold Bay 3 Pound Nice Picker Bag: ...ROI = 76.3%
Jimbo's 1 Lb Arizona Dredge Cons: ..ROI = 75.3%
ipan4gold 2 Lb Paydirt: ...................ROI = 74.7%
Wolfjeff's Super-Rich Panning Cons: ROI = 69.1%
Jimbo's 1 Lb Arizona Paydirt: ..........ROI = 68.3%
Gold Adventures Colorado Cons: .......ROI = 60.3%
Jimbo's 1 Lb California Dredge Cons: .ROI = 60.0%
Dirt Hogg 1 Pound Special Offer Bag: ROI = 58.9%
Klondike
Klinkers 1 Lb Liberty Bag
Second
Review: ...............................ROI
= 58.3%
Natural Gold Trader 2.5 pound bag: . ROI = 58.1%
Eureka Joe's 2 Lb Taste of Alaska:.....ROI = 56.1%
Gold Fever Prospecting: ....................ROI = 52.3%
Jimbo's Gold 4 Lb Drywash Tailings:...ROI = 51.9%
Miner Mike's 3 Lb Gold Paydirt: .........ROI = 51.7%
Eureka Gold Sands Sample Sack:.......ROI = 51.3%
Crisson Mine 30/1 Paydirt:................ROI = 50.3%
Gizmo's 1 Lb Paydirt:........................ROI = 49.3%
GoldN Paydirt 2 LB bag:....................ROI = 48.6%
Eureka Gold Sands 1 Lb Regular Mix: ROI = 48.3%
Yuba
River Gold Panning Paydirt
1/4
Pound Bag:.................................ROI
= 48.1%
Dirt Hogg 1 Pound Special, Test 2: ....ROI = 43.2%
M&M 2 Lb Yukon Gold Paydirt:...........ROI = 43.2% NEW!!!
EBAY
Seller US-Karuk 2 Pound
Vancouver
Gold Bearing Paydirt: ......ROI
= 42.3%
Vagoldseeker's 1 Lb CA Sluice Cons: .ROI = 42.0%
Carolina Paydirt 1# Concentrates: ....ROI = 41.9%
Vagoldseeker's 8oz Arizona Paydirt: .ROI = 39.8%
Lyra's Alaskan Gold Panning Paydirt: ROI = 39.7%
Carolina Paydirt 2 Pound Picker Bag: ROI = 37.7%
Gold Hog Pay Streak Cons (3 tests):. ROI = 31.5%
San Andreas Fault Paydirt:............... ROI = 29.8%
Gold Rush 2 Pound Premium Paydirt: ROI = 28.9%
Sluiceboy Prospecting 1/2 Lb Bag:.....ROI = 25.0%
S&S Prospecting 2 Lb Idaho Paydirt: .ROI = 25.0% NEW!!!
Carolina Paydirt 3# Unsearched Bag: ROI = 24.9%
"The Beard" 4 Lb Gold Paydirt Cons: .ROI = 20.1%
Pan More Gold 2 Pound Gold Paydirt: ROI = 19.8% NEW!!!
Gold Hog Mystery Cons (2 tests):...... ROI = 18.7%
Bering
Sea Gold Pans Nome Alaska
Beach
Concentrates:
................. .......ROI
= 17.3%
Yuba River Gold Panning Paydirt: ......ROI = 14.5%
2
Pounds Gold Rich Genuine
Colorado
Paydirt:..........................
.....ROI = . 9.0%
Beverly Oaks North Carolina Paydirt: .ROI = ..7.0%
Gold Country Paydirt 5 pound bag: ....ROI = 5.6%
Detailed Gold Paydirt Reviews:
Lynch Mining Black Label Reserve Paydirt:
This is the same company that sells the Gizmo line of paydirt. This particular one pound bag cost $65 plus $3 shipping and yielded 2.166 grams of gold. At a spot of $39, that gives a return on investment of $84.47 or 124.2%. Deducting for purity and handling, the actual return on investment would be closer to $64.62 or 95.0%
The material was clean with just a little fine dust. It was 80-percent blacksand. There was no paydirt larger than 20 mesh and all the gold was 30 mesh or larger. This is common for Lynch Mining.
Lynch Mining Black Label Reserve Paydirt - Second Review:
A month after the first review of this paydirt, I got a second bag to see how consistent it is. This time it yielded 1.997 grams of gold. At a spot of $39, that gives a return on investment of $77.88 or 114.5%. Deducting for purity and handling, the actual return on investment would be closer to $59.58 or 97.6%
The material was clean with just a little fine dust. It was a whopping 95-percent blacksand. There was no paydirt larger than 20 mesh and all the gold was 30 mesh or larger. This is common for Lynch Mining.
Gizmo's 1 LB Paydirt Supremo:
This bag cost $58 plus $3 shipping in September of 2016. It yielded 1.519 grams of gold for a value of $59.24 at a spot of $39 per gram for a return on investment of 97.1%. Deducting for purity and handling, the actual return on investment would be closer to $45.32 or 74.3%.. The paydirt was fairly clean, 25% magnetite and all of the gold was +30 or larger. There was nothing +50 mesh or smaller. One +8 mesh nugget weighed 0.269 grams. The rest was +20 and +30 mesh sizes but chunky, not flaky.
One interesting feature of this paydirt is that instead of garnet sand, it had a lot of green peridot crystals.
Lynch Mining 2 Lb Reserve Paydirt:
At $127.70 after shipping, this was a significant investment. I'm happy to report that it paid off. I recovered 3.124 grams of top quality gold for a return on investment of 95.4%. This appears to have been a very lucky bag because the advertised amounts are closer to 2 grams. The paydirt was clean with very little dust and ranged in size from 12-mesh all the way down to -100-mesh. There were no large mesh pieces. The gold averaged large, with essentially nothing smaller than 30-mesh.
Lynch Mining Reserve Paydirt:
This is the same company that sells the Gizmo line of paydirt. This particular one pound bag cost $60 plus $3 shipping and yielded 1.401 grams of gold. At a spot of $39, that gives a return on investment of $54.64 or 95.0%. Deducting for purity and handling, the actual return on investment would be closer to $41.80 or 66.3%
The material was clean with just a little fine dust. There was no paydirt larger than 20 mesh and all the gold was 30 mesh or larger. This is common for Lynch Mining.
NEW!!!
Klondike
Klinkers 1 Lb Liberty Bag:
This paydirt had quite a bit of silt and clay in it, which could make processing messy. HOW TO REMOVE SILT AND CLAY FROM GOLD PAYDIRT shows how to clean it up. It also had enough black sand in the finer grades to warrant magnetic removal. Besides that, I found this paydirt to be a great buy. There was 2.146 grams of gold in it. At a spot of 41.08 per gram and a purchase price of $99.99, which included shipping, the ROI came out a an excellent 88.2%. The gold was worth $88.16, though sellers never pay full spot for placer gold. The gold was nice and chunky, not hammered flat like some retailers do to make it look like more gold than it really is. There was everything from 1/3-gram nuggets all the way down to 100-mesh specks.
I don't know if it's standard or if I got lucky, but my bag arrived with a bonus 4-ounce sample bag, which yielded $13.64 of gold. When combined with the gold from the main bag it raises the ROI to an outstanding 101.8%.
This is a gold paydirt I will be trying again real soon.
NEW!!! Find The Line Prospecting 8 oz. Bag of Gold Paydirt:
Find the Line is an EBAY seller offering New England Paydirt. In December of 2017 I purchased an 8 oz sample bag for $10. Shipping was free. The material was dusty so silt and clay removal is recommended. Black sands were minimal. The bag contained 0.216 grams of gold sized from 10 to 60-mesh. There was nothing under 60-mesh. The ROI was 87.4-percent, which is very good.
Jimbo's Gold 1+ Gram Added Gold, 2 Pound Bag Of Arizona Paydirt, Fall 2016 Review: NEW FORMULATION!!!
This bag was identical in every way to the first two bags reviewed in Spring of 2016. It cost $57.49. This paydirt is clean, has practically no blacksand but because it is paydirt instead of dredge cons, it has a lot of fine material. The gold wieght recovered was 0.899 grams for a return on investment of 61.0%. The actual return on investment would be closer to $26.82 or 46.7%. I found gold all the way from 12-mesh pickers to over 1000 pieces of -100 mesh flour gold.
In Spring of the same year I reviewed two bags of this same product and found 1.25 grams of gold in each for an average ROI of 84%. While it's not unexpected that Jimbo's Gold reduced the amount of gold to increase profits, I was extremely disappointed with this reformulated bag that I did not get the promised 1 gram of gold. The fact that I recovered over a thousand -100 mesh pieces proves I was careful and thorough in my processing. Mesh sizes 30 and above were actually searched twice: once visually and a second time over a Miller table.
In December, 2016, I purchased another bag of this product and recovered 1.221 grams of gold for an excellect ROI of 82.9%. It would seem the low gold of the first bag was an anomaly.
NEW!!! Find The Line Prospecting 1 Lb. Bag of Gold Paydirt:
Find the Line is an EBAY seller offering New England Paydirt. In December of 2017 I purchased a one pound bag for $55. Shipping was $7. The material looks like sluiced concentrates and was the cleanest I have ever worked. Even the first wash water came out perfectly clear. Washing was completely un-necessary. There was enough black sand to recommend magnetic removal prior to panning. The bag contained 1.268 grams of gold for a ROI of 82.8-percent. The gold ranged from a nice beefy 0.4-gram nugget in the +4-mesh meterial all the way down to -100-mesh gold. This paydirt was a lot of fun to process, with the exception of the -60-mesh material. There was enough super-fine gold to make me want to collect it, but not enough to really make it worth the time.
ipan4gold.com 1 Lb. Paydirt:
This was extremely clean paydirt with almost no clay or silt, even in the -100 mesh material. There is practically no blacksand so it was very easy to process. It was $79.99 in December of 2016 with free shipping and no tax. Shipping from Georgia to California was so quick I received it five days after placing the order in the middle of the Christmas shopping season so I rate customer service very high. It yielded a total of 1.673 grams of gold: everything from a 0.4 gram +8-mesh nugget to down to hundreds if not thousands of +70, +100 and -100 mesh gold. Much of the small stuff was chunky so if you're using a Miller table you may want to reduce the angle and flow rate to avoid washing it away. At a spot of $39 the return on invest was 81.6%. The actual return would be closer to 62.4% if you went to sell it.
Although the ROI was less than several of the Lynch Mining offerings, I rate ipan4gold.com as better because the material is easier to pan and there is a complete range of gold sizes, which makes it seem more like real gold paydirt. Lynch Mining's paydirt has all large pieces, which creates an artificial feel. ipan4gold.com is a company I'll buy from again.
Klondike
Klinkers 4-ounce Sample Bag:
Preclassified to 1/4-inch, this small bag is ready to be dumped into a pan and panned out straight from the bag. There is a lot of silt and clay so a little prewashing will help keep the water clear. There was enough blacksand to make magnetic separation a good idea. I recovered 0.515 grams. Based on a spot of $39 and its $25 price, that yields a respectable ROI of 80.4%.
The description states that the gold varies from 0.3 to 0.5 grams, so it seems I got a very high-end bag.
A month later I got a second sample bag. This one only had 0.332 grams of gold for a ROI of 54.6%. The average of the two bags is a respectable 67.5%.
Dorado
Gold One-Pound
Bag:
This paydirt was odd in that it was 95% smaller than 100-mesh, was clean, dust free, had practically no black sand, was mostly iron pyrite and yielded 1.469 grams of gold for a value of $57.29 and an ROI of 79.3%. Processing that much fine material was extremely tedious.
Jimbo's Gold 1 Pound Idaho Dredge Cons: NEW FORMULATION!!!
In late summer of 2016 Jimbo's Gold changed the formulation and price of the 1 pound bag of Idaho Dredge Cons. The original offering was $23.99 and had 1/2 gram of added gold. The new bags are $59.99 (a 250-percent price increase) and have one full gram of added gold (a 200-percent increase.) Like the earlier samples, these Idaho dredge cons were from the same location and were some of the cleanest paydirt I've ever handled. Although I carefully wash each mesh before running it over the Miller table, I needn't have bothered. Even the -100 mesh material was so clean I couldn't see any clay in the wash water.
My bag, purchased through a third party to make sure I wasn't receiving an enhanced bag, yielded 1.183 grams of gold for a ROI of 76.8-percent. The 250-percent price increase for an only 28-percent increase in gold makes this product much less attractive than the original formulation.
The dredge cons in the new formulation weren't dredged by Jim himself, but from a second party from whom he purchased them. It may be that this new dredger removed more gold from the cons before passing them on than Jim did when he was running the dredge. Consequently there wasn't as much natural gold in the cons to add to the total.
Gold Bay 3 Pound Nice Picker Bag with 1.5 Grams Gold:
This bag cost $73.95 plus $2.95 shipping for a total of $76.90 in late March of 2016. It weighed two pounds, 15.3 ounces. Gold is added to the bag to ensure there is a minimum of 1.5 grams in every sample. There was one large +12 picker and dozens of +20 to +30 smaller flakes. There was practically nothing below -30 mesh. The total weight of gold was 1.505 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $58.70 yielding a ROI of 76.3-percent.
The material was very clean and had almost no black sand in it. The extremely high ROI and large size of most of the gold makes it an easy pan.
Yet, even though the ROI was the highest I've recorded to date, I will not be ordering any more of this paydirt. The uniform size of the gold and the fact that there was effectively no gold in the 50, 70, 100 and -100 meshes gave processing it an artificial feel. Spending hours running the +50 and smaller meshes over the Miller table for less than 0.001 of a gram of gold was an annoying waste of time. The paydirt from goldadventures.biz was much more entertaining and satisfying.
Jimbo's 1 Pound Arizona Dredge Cons: NEW FORMULATION!!!
Over the summer of 2016, Jim Hamilton seems to have increased the cost of his paydirt and reduced the relative value of the gold in it. Of the three products I tested in Spring of 2016 and again in October of 2016, all three had reduced returns on investment. Compared to the rest of the paydirts on this page, his paydirts are still some of the best, but no where near as good as they used to be.
This bag, purchased in October of 2016 for $30.99, yielded 0.598 grams of gold worth $23.32 at a spot of $39 per gram. That gives a return on investment of 75.3%. Deducting for purity and handling cost, the actual return on investment would be closer to $17.84 or 57.6%. The material was very clean and contained up to 50% black sand in the finest mesh sizes.
ipan4gold.com 2 LB Jar of Paydirt:
Although it was advertised as being paydirt, this material was so clean it looked like the best quality concentrates from a sluice. I found 2.547 grams of gold, which at a spot of $39 yields an ROI of 74.7-percent. The material had effectively no blacksand and was easy to process. There was gold in all sizes from a 0.680 nugget down to -100-mesh. Although the ROI may not be the highest, ipan4gold's paydirt is still one of the most enjoyable to work.
Ebay Seller Wolfjeff's 12-Ounce Super-Rich Panning Concentrates with Added Gold:
This cost $39.75 in May of 2016 and that included shipping. The material was mostly fine sand with an enormous amount of both magnetite and hematite. Even after magnetic separation panning was extremely difficult. It took me over two hours because I had to pan it twice to make sure I got all the gold. All together I recovered 0.704 grams of gold. At a spot of $39 per gram, the value was $27.46 for a ROI of 69.1%. The actual ROI would be closer to $21.01 or 52.8%.
Jimbo's 1 Pound Arizona Paydirt: NEW FORMULATION!!!
Over the summer of 2016, Jim Hamilton seems to have increased the cost of his paydirt and reduced the relative value of the gold in it. Of the three products I tested in Spring of 2016 and again in October of 2016, all three had reduced returns on investment. Compared to the rest of the paydirts on this page, his paydirts are still some of the best, but no where near as good as they used to be.
This bag, purchased in October of 2016 for $28.99, yielded 0.7.62 grams of gold. However, Jim emailed me and explained that when he filled the bag he accidentaly put in 1.5 pounds, which I verified. Therefore the 0.762 grams needs to me reduced by 1/3 to estimate what an actual 1 pound bag would tield. This gives 0.507 grams, worth $19.79 at a spot of $39, or a return on investment of 68.2%. Deducting for purity and handling means the actual return on investment would be closer to $15.14 or 52.2%.
The material was heavy in the finer meshes and required considerable washing to get rid of the clay, but had practically no black sand.
Gold Adventures 1+ gram, 3 Pound Colorado Cons:
I purchased this bag directly from the goldadventures.biz website in Mar. of 2016 for $76.44 including shipping. It weighed three pounds, 0.7 ounces. Gold is added to the bag to ensure there is a minimum of 1 gram in every sample. There was gold from +12 pickers all the way down to -100 flour gold. The total weight was 1.181 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $46.06 yielding a ROI of 60.3-percent. The actual ROI would be closer to $35.24 or 46.1%.
The base material was extremely clean and while there was enough black sand to make you feel like you were earning your gold, there wasn't so much that it got annoying. Almost all the black sand was magnetite, so magnetic separation would be a useful time saver. It had good quantities of gold in all mesh sizes and yielded a respectable 0.388 grams of gold per pound.
Jimbo's
1 Lb Illegal California Dredge Cons
With 1/2 Gram Added Gold
These dredge cons cost $41.13 in August of 2017, were very clean and yielded 0.633 grams of gold for a ROI of 60-percent. The gold was all sizes from 8-mesh pickers to -100-mesh flour gold.
Dirt Hogg 1 Pound Special Offer Bag:
I purchased this bag directly from the dirthogg.com website in Feb. of 2016 for $29 plus $11 shipping and handling for a total of $40. It weighed exactly one pound. Gold is added to the bag to ensure there is a minimum amount in every sample. There were three +4-mesh size pieces of gold easily spotted and picked out during the classification process, two +8 pieces, nine +12s, two +20s, twenty-eight +30s, twenty-two +50s, forty-six +70s, twenty-six +100s and thirty-seven -100 pieces of gold. The total weight was 0.604 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $23.56 yielding a ROI of 58.9-percent.
This was an excellent paydirt. It had gold of all sizes with very little silt, practically no black sands or garnet sands and processed very easily. Because most of the gold was added rather than natural, processing it felt slightly artificial, like netting fish in a barrel, particularly with the large pieces spotted during classification. But unlike many gold-added paydirts that typically have all one size of gold, this one had a wide enough range of gold sizes that it was still satisfying in the end. It yielded 0.604 grams of gold per pound, which is extremely high. This would be great material for teaching someone how to pan. One oddity is that contains a lot of dark gray chunky mica.
I enjoyed Dirt Hogg's 1 pound special offer bag so much I will be getting more both to determine how consistent the gold amounts are and just for the amount of fun it was to work with. The only thing puzzling about this paydirt is why the company spells hogg with 2 "g"s.
Klondike Klinkers 1 Pound Liberty Bag - Second Review:
The first bag reviewed came with a bonus bag of paydirt which, when added to what was recovered from the main bag, drove the ROI up to 102%. I decided to check to make sure this was an honest representation of this product so I had a friend purchase a second bag. Since he has a different name and address, there was no way Klondike Klinkers could know it was for one of my reviews.
This second bag did not come with a bonus sample bag and contained only 1.389 grams of gold, the minimum guaranteed. The gave it a ROI of only 58.1%, much lower than the first bag. The average ROI for the two bags, not including the bonus bag, was 73%.
Natural Gold Trader 2.5 Pound Bag:
This paydirt from eastern Oregon cost $64.50 in October of 2017 and yielded 0.961 grams of gold, which was slightly below the promised 1 gram. The material was very silty and required multiple washings to get clean. The ROI was 58.1% with and actual ROI closer to 43.6%.
Eureka Joe's 2 Pound Taste Of Alaska Bag:
This cost $55 including shipping in March of 2016. It's described as a "gold heavy concentrate." The net weight was 2 pounds, 0.8 ounces. The material is loaded with an unattractive fine gray powder that coats everything. Like Lyra's Gold Panning Paydirt, it looks like concrete mix. It only had a medium amount of magnetite, so considering how unpleasant it would be to work with this material I don't recommend magnetic separation. The fine powder and the fact that there was a lot of twigs, bits of leaves and even seeds makes it hard to believe that this was every run through a sluice or any type of concentrator. Even dry washed material should be cleaner.
However, this bag produced 0.791 grams of gold of all sizes so I'm not complaining. At a gold value of $39 per gram, that yields $30.85 and a ROI of 56.1%.
Gold Fever Prospecting - 1 Pound Gourmet Practice Gold Panning Concentrates:
This bag cost $29.95 plus $8.49 shipping in October of 2016 for a total of $38.44. The material was 12-mesh or smaller and coated with a fine, gray, unattractive and annoying dust. The product is advertised as having 0.5 grams of gold dded. I recovered 0.511 grams. The fact that it was all in the 20-mesh size gave the bag an artificial feel. The return on investment was $20.09 or 52.3%. The actual return on investment if I tried selling it would be closer to $15.37 or 40.0%. The gold appeared to be poor quality: dull and poorly colored.
Jimbo's Gold 4 Lb Drywash Tailings:
Drywash tailings are what is left over after a drywasher has been used to remove all the gold from paydirt without using water. The amount of gold left in the tailings depends on how much gold was in the unprocessed paydirt and how efficient the drywasher is. In this case, I got 0.174 grams of gold out of a $13 bag. Shipping was free. At $39 per gram, that's $6.75 and a ROI of 51.9%. The material had a lot more clay and silt in it than most sluiced paydirts, but presented no problems with excessive dust production. Unexpectedly, the gold was chunkier than anticipated and included one 12-mesh piece and two 20-mesh pieces.
Miner Mike's 3 Lb California Motherlode Gold Paydirt:
This cost $39.95 from Amazon.com in January of 2017. Prices are slightly lower if purchased directly from his website. I found 0.530 grams of gold worth $20.67 for a ROI or 51.7%. Deducting for purity and handling, gold buyers will pay something closer to $15.81 for an actual ROI of 39.6%.
Although the material had a lot of silt and clay in it, no fine dust went into the air during classification. Most of the material was in the -30 to +50 mesh range. I found four +8 pickers, four +12 pieces, nine -20 pieces, three +30 pieces, one +50 piece, one +70 piece and nine -100 mesh pieces of gold.
Eureka Gold Sands 1/4 Pound Sample Sack:
This may be a small bag, but they say good things come in small packages. This particular package cost $24.99 in April of 2016 and that included shipping. It's described as a combo mix of pay dirt from the company's claim and other claims in the local area and is guaranteed to contain 1/3 gram of gold, so it's a gold-added pay dirt. My sample was damp when I opened it.
The bag gave up 0.329 grams of gold for a very high 1.316 grams of gold per pound of pay dirt. At a spot of $39 per gram of gold, that equates to $12.83 or a ROI of 51.3%.
Crisson
Mine 30/1 Paydirt
This cost $98.45 after shipping in January or 2017. Although the description stated it contained one gallon of crushed ore, I measured only 12.5 cups instead of the promised 16 cups. The company explained that they start with 30 gallons of crushed ore, sluice it down to 1/2 cup, then add about a gallon of sand so buyers have enough material to pan. Although the amount of sand may vary, the amount of concentrate added to it is always the same. The site states that gold is never added or removed from the concentrate. The product is shipped wet. I dried mine and found that it gave off an enormous amount of dust and fine mica so I recommend processing this paydirt without drying.
Most of the material was in the +20 and +30 mesh size and had practically no blacksand.
I only recovered 1.269 grams of gold for a return on investment of 50.3%. The actual ROI would be closer to 38.5% if I went to sell it. One oddity is that there was no gold below 50 mesh and only one +50 speck.
Gizmo's 1 Lb Paydirt:
This bag was $32.50 plus $3.00 shipping in September, 2016. It yielded 0.449 grams of gold worth $17.51 at a spot of $39 per gram giving a return on investment of 49.3% The actual return on investment would be closer to 37.8%. The material was clean, 25% magnetite and all of the gold was +30 mesh or larger. I found nothing below 30 mesh.
One interesting feature of this paydirt is that instead of garnet sand, it had a lot of green peridot crystals.
GoldN Paydirt 2 Lb Bag:
This paydirt was slightly dusty and had enough black sand to make magnetic separation a good idea. It cost $29.45 in June of 2017 from Amazon.com. The gold recovered weighed 0.365 grams for a return on investment of only 48.6%. The actual return would much less than this depending on where you sell your gold.
Eureka Gold Sands 1 Pound Regular Mix Bag of Pay Dirt:
This pay dirt was shipped damp. It cost $39.00 including shipping in April of 2016. It weighed 15.9 ounces and had almost no magnetite. I recovered all sizes of gold for a total of 0.495 grams, which is at the high end of the guaranteed 1/3 to 1/2 grams of gold. At $39 per gram, the yield was $19.31 for a ROI of 48.3%.
There were eight nice +12 pickers in this bag that had a combined weight of 0.131 grams. The pay dirt is advertised as also containing a little platinum, and it did. I found four small pieces with a total weight of 0.007 grams. At this date platinum was actually less than gold and had a spot of $31 per gram, making these four pieces worth $0.22.
Placer platinum is a lustrous silver-white metal that behaves like gold on a Miller table. It's easy to test for because it's almost always alloyed with enough iron to be attracted to a magnet.
Yuba River Gold Panning Paydirt 1/4 Pound Bag:
This very small bag might be a valuable option for someone wanting to try panning but not wanting the spend a lot of money. At $10.95 with free shipping either from Amazon.com or goldnuggetminer.com, it yielded 0.135 grams of gold valued at $5.26 at a spot of $39 per gram. That's a return on investment of 48.1%.
The material was clean and consisted of 1/3 quarter inch diameter pebbles, 1/3 -20 mesh sand and 1/3 fine blacksand. I highly recommend magnetic separation before panning.
The bulk of the gold was in one 12-mesh piece and two 20-mesh pieces. However, there were at least 200 30-mesh or smaller flakes. Half of these were -100 mesh. The gold density was 0.54 grams per pound.
Dirt Hogg 1 Pound Special Offer Bag - Test 2:
This bag was identical in all ways to the one in the first review except that it was purchased two months later and produced slightly less gold. The total recovery was 0.443 grams worth $17.28 at a spot of $39 per gram, yielding a ROI of 43.2%. The actual resale value would be closer to $13.22 and the actual ROI closer to 33.1%.
Averaging the two tests suggests the amount of gold to expect from one of these bags is about 0.5 grams.
Ebay Seller US-Karuk 2 Pound Bag of Vancouver Gold Bearing Paydirt
This bag cost $19.07 in early June, 2016 and that included shipping. The dirt was shipped damp. After drying, the actual paydirt weighed 1 pound, 14.8 ounces. Half of this weight was taken up by a lot of 8-mesh gravel, leaving less than one pound of actual panning dirt. There was enough fine powder to suggest this material was never run through a sluice. The description states that it is, "classified river sands and gravels" and came with a 100% guarantee that there will be gold, which suggests this is a gold added product. The material processed quickly, thanks in part to throwing away half of it in the form of the coarse gravel.
My bag yielded 0.207 grams of gold for a return on investment of $8.07 or 42.3%. Deducting for purity and handling, the actual return on investment would be closer to $6.17 or 32.4%. The gold density was 0.102 grams per pound.
NEW!!! M&M 2 Lb Yukon Gold Paydirt
The material contained a lot of silt and clay so I recommend washing it before processing. This $47 bag yielded 0.480 grams of gold for and ROI of 43.2%.
Vagoldseeker's 1 Pound California Gold Sluice Box Cons:
This bag cost $15.99 including shipping in March of 2016. While contained some fine dust, for the most part is was clean and easy to process. Making things even easier was the fact that this pay dirt had almost no black sand. I recovered 0.172 grams of gold of all sizes from from +30 down to -100 mesh. At a spot of $39 per gram, the gold would be worth $6.71 for a ROI of 42.0%.
One interesting feature of the pay dirt is that the blonde wasn't blonde. Most of it was transparent, almost like glass.
Carolina Paydirt 1 Pound Bag of Concentrates:
Carolinapaydirt.com sold me this bag in late Feb., 2016 for $55.80 directly from their site. It weighed 15.9 ounces and produced eleven +20 pickers, two hundred and eight +30-mesh pieces of gold, twenty-eight +50s, and only eight smaller specks. The total weight was 0.599 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $23.36 yielding a ROI of 41.9-percent.
Like the other two Carolina Paydirt bags I've tested, this one was filled with a red, clay-like powder that goes everywhere. Classification was a mess. This is supposed to be concentrates from a sluice box. I find that hard to believe because all the fine dust would have been washed away by the water. I also suspect that this is a gold-added sample because of the sudden drop off in the number of gold pieces below 50 mesh. Natural gold from a sluice box would tapper off more gradually. It also had a lot of magnetite in it. But, it yielded an outstanding 0.602 grams of gold per pound of paydirt so I'm not complaining. The 30-mesh material was particularly fun to run over a Miller table because almost every teaspoon had not one but as many as six nice pickers in it.
Vagoldseeker's 8 oz Arizona Gold Rich Pay Dirt:
Vagoldseeker is an Ebay seller who stated this is a no-gold-added sluiced concentrate. In March, 2016 it cost $9.99 including shipping. The material is clean and contained almost no magnetite. I recovered two dozen +30 mesh tweezer pickers for a total of 0.102 grams of gold. At a spot of $39 per gram, that gives a ROI of 39.8%.
This is a nice little bag of easily panned gold. It's low price makes it ideal for someone wanting to give panning a try without investing a lot for paydirt. The gold density is 0.2 grams per pound.
Lyra's Alaskan Gold Panning Paydirt:
This came from elkie13 through Amazon.com in Jan., 2016 for $17.50. It weighed 1 pound, 4.6 ounces. The sample produced 34 pieces of gold all at the 20-mesh size. These are flakes about 1/16th-inch square. The uniformity of the gold and the complete absence of any larger or smaller pieces implies that this is a gold-added material. The total weight was 0.178 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $6.94 yielding a ROI of 39.7-percent.
This was terrible material to process. It had an enormous amount of fine gray powder that flew into the air with each classification. It looked like concrete mix without the large rocks. The only good thing I can say about it is that it was very cheap. It might be useful to someone who wanted to try panning at home without paying out a lot of money. It yielded 0.138 grams of gold per pound.
Carolina Paydirt 2 Pound Picker Bag:
Carolinapaydirt.com sold me this bag in Feb., 2016 for $44.99 through Amazon.com. It is also available for $37.99 directly from carolinapaydirt.com. It weighed 2 pounds, 0.8 ounces and produced four large +20 pickers, fifty-eight +30-mesh pieces of gold and nothing smaller. These are flakes about 1/16th-inch square. This is a gold-added material. The total weight was 0.435 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $16.97 yielding a ROI of 37.7-percent.
This was almost as bad as Lyra's to process. This time it was a red powder that made it messy. It looked like what someone would use to mold red bricks. This is a gold-added material, which many prospectors feel makes it an artificial product. Still, it yielded a respectable 0.218 grams of gold per pound of paydirt.
San Andreas Gold Panning Paydirt:
This small, 11.5-ounce bag in March, 2016 cost $16.95 through Amazon.com or $14.95 directly from the goldnuggetminer.com site. It produced five +20 pickers, 12 +30-mesh pieces of gold and around 150 +70 and smaller bits. The total gold weight was 0.115 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $4.45 yielding a ROI of 29.8-percent based on the $14.95 price. The gold density was 0.159 grams of gold per pound of dirt.
The material was fine sand with nothing larger than -12 mesh. Almost half of it was black sand and the vast majority of that was magnetite. There was over 50, -100 flecks of flour gold finer than anything I've ever seen, so this, when combined with all the black sand, would make this material a challenge to pan. Still, the ROI wasn't bad and the cost was low so someone wanting to try panning might want to consider this paydirt.
Gold Rush 2 Pound Premium Paydirt:
My bag contained practically no black sand and a lot of fine dust that was difficult to wash out of the paydirt. It cost $48.55 after shipping and tax yet only yielded 0.360 grams of gold worth $14.04. At a spot of $39 that's an ROI of 28.9%. The actual ROI if I were to sell it would be closer to $10.74 or 22.1%. Two other YouTube reviews stated that they only got 0.230 grams from the same product.
Sluiceboy
Prospecting 1/2-pound
bag of dedge cons:
This bag cost $10 plus $3 shipping in January of 2017 and yielded 0.075 grams of gold for an ROI of 25%. While this is low, the low cost, small amount of material and its extremely clean nature increased the fun factor enough for me to recommend this to anyone looking to try panning but not wanting to pay a lot for paydirt.
NEW!!! S & S Prospecting 2 LB Bag of Idaho Gold Panning Paydirt:
This was an extremely silty paydirt that benifits from a washing before processing. The bag cost $31.49 in early 2018 after shipping and yielded only 0.186 grams of gold for an ROI of 25%.
Carolina Paydirt 3 Pound Unsearched North Valley Dig Paydirt:
The price was $23.50 through Amazon.com in Feb., 2016. It weighed 3 pounds, 2.0 ounces and produced thirty-eight +30-mesh pieces of gold and nothing else. This is a gold-added material. The total weight was 0.150 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $5.85 yielding a ROI of 24.9-percent.
Although the company claims this paydirt is from a completely different dig site, the paydirt in this bag was identical to the 2-pound picker bag reviewed earlier: lots of messy fine red powder. It yielded a very low 0.050 grams of gold per pound of paydirt.
"The Beard" Ebay Seller ryan8246 4 Pounds Gold Paydirt Concentrates:
This cost $32.99 in late April, 2016. It was shipped wet in two thin plastic bags whose seams had given out leaking water into the shipping bag. It was a real mess. The bag contained 4 pounds, 3.1 ounces of wet soil. After drying, the actual weight of the paydirt was 3 pounds 8.2 ounces, so I paid $5.40 for 11 ounces of water. The paydirt itself appeared to be beach sand. It was very clean with no black sand. Over three pounds of it was in the +50 mesh sifted material. The remaining 8 ounces was distrubuted mostly in the +70 mesh pile with very little in the other meshes. There was nothing larger than +12 and very little of that.
I recovered only 0.170 grams of gold, yielding a ROI of 20.1%. Collecting such a small amount of gold from such a large amount of concentrates was boring. The gold density was 0.04 grams per pound.
NEW!!! Pan More Gold 2 Lb Paydirt:
This $27.00 bag of dirt had a lot of silt and clay in it so prewashing is a good idea. It only gave up 0.125 grams of gold for a poor ROI of 19.8%.
Bering Sea Gold Pans Nome Alaska Beach Concentrates:
This bag was $17.50 through Amazon.com in Feb., 2016 and weighed 1 pound, 1.2 ounces. It gave four nice +20-mesh pickers, four +30s, sixty-one +50 pieces and nothing smaller. The total weight was 0.084 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $3.28 yielding a ROI of 18.7-percent.
The material was very clean beach sand with lots of garnet and black sand. The story is that after a storm, Nome Alaskan beaches will have drifts of black sands. This company uses a flat shovel to scoop these black sands up along with any gold and bag them for sale. The constituents for this paydirt suggests this may be true. The gold density was 0.078 grams per pound of dirt.
Yuba River Gold Panning Paydirt:
This came from Amazon.com in Jan., 2016 for $16.95. It weighed 10.5 ounces. This gold-added paydirt gave me a nice +12-mesh picker and over 100 pieces ranging from +20 down to -100-mesh. The total gold weight was 0.063 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $2.46 yielding a ROI of 14.5-percent.
This material was clean and easy to process sand, yielding 0.096 grams of gold per pound. This isn't much gold, but it's an inexpensive way to see if you like gold panning.
2 Pounds Gold Rich Genuine Colorado Paydirt:
It was $27.00 through Amazon.com in Feb., 2016 and weighed 2 pound, 3.2 ounces. It's sold by Donald Layton, who states it comes from rivers around gold producing towns in Colorado. It produced sixteen +20-mesh pieces of gold and twelve +30s, nothing smaller. The total weight was 0.062 grams. At a gold value of $39 a gram, this was worth $2.42 yielding a ROI of 9.0-percent.
The material was dusty, but easily washed. The gold density was 0.028 grams per pound of dirt.
Beverly Oaks North Carolina Paydirt:
This was a Christmas gift so I can only guess at a cost of $20.00 through Amazon.com. Beverly Oaks has an extensive market place on Amazon, but when I went to look this paydirt up she no longer seems to carry it. That's just as well because its extremely low gold density of 0.017 grams per pound of paydirt is the lowest of this list. It's a gold-added paydirt that produced only seven +20 pickers, two +30 pieces and three +50 bits of gold. There was nothing smaller. The total gold weight was only 0.036 grams, for a $39 per gram spot value that's worth $1.40 and a ROI of 7.0-percent.
The sample had a lot of clay that took over a dozen washings per mesh size to wash out. The gold had an odd polished look, as if it had been shined to make it look bigger and more impressive.
NEW!!! Gold Country Paydirt 5 Pound Bag:
This paydirt from central California cost $49.99 in October of 2017 and only yielded 0.072 grams of gold. The material was very silty and required multiple washings to get clean. The ROI was 5.6% with and actual ROI closer to 4%.
Previous Reviews of Products That Are No Longer Available:
Jimbo's Gold Premium 1 Pound Idaho Gold Dredge Cons Pay Dirt: NO LONGER AVAILABLE BECAUSE IT'S BEEN REFORMULATED!!!
This cost only $21.99 in April, 2016 because it was part of a larger order eliminating the $6 shipping fee and also because of a $2 rebate by having everything fit in a single flat rate box. The website's description states that gold has been added to this product, which is one of the cleanest I've ever handled. It's very fine pay dirt, with practically nothing over 20 mesh, yet there is also very little fine material below 100 mesh. A high concentration of magnetite makes magnetic separation a good idea.
I recovered a whopping 0.963 grams of gold from this bag, worth $37.56 at a spot gold value of $39 per gram. That comes out to an unbelievable ROI of 170.8%.
One interesting fact about this pay dirt is that I contains more garnet sand than any pay dirt I've seen. There's so much of it the sand has an overall red hue. Some of the pieces were so large and clear I almost thought about looking for something that might be facetable, but garnet's low value and the difficulty of faceting such a small stone makes this impractical. Still, it makes precessing the pay dirt more entertaining than most. The gold density was 0.856 grams per pound of pay dirt.
Jimbo's Gold 1 Pound Bag Of Premium Idaho Gold Gold Dredge Concentrates - Second Review: NO LONGER AVAILABLE BECAUSE IT'S BEEN REFORMULATED!!!
Some people reading the preceding review of this product may think that's it's too good to be true. Either this was a rare bonus bag or I just got ridiculously lucky. To address these issues, I ordered a second bag using a different name, telephone number, email address, mailing address and method of payment. This order was placed two weeks after the first order so the two bags should not have been physically associated in any way. The material in this second bag was in all ways identical to the first.
This time I got 0.937 grams of gold, almost the same as the 0.963 grams in the first bag. The ROI depends on how it's ordered. One bag costs $23.99 plus $6 shipping for $29.99, yielding a ROI of 121.9%. If part of a larger order over $35, shipping is free, reducing the cost to $23.99 and a ROI of 152.3%. If you get lucky like I did and receive a flat rate rebate, the cost is only $21.99 for a ROI of 166.2%.
I believe this second review establishes that the high ROIs for the pay dirt really are exceptional. However, another reviewer (Dylan Miller at goldpaydirtreviews.com) tested the same product and only (only?!) got an 80% ROI. But, that's still one of the highest recorded.
Jimbo's Gold Premium 1 Pound Arizona Gold Dredge Cons Pay Dirt: NO LONGER AVAILABLE BECAUSE IT'S BEEN REFORMULATED.
In April of 2016 this bag cost 25.99. But since I had purchased another bag the total cost for the purchase was over $35 so I didn't have to pay the $6 shipping. Even better, because everything fit into a single flat rate box I got a further $2 rebate so my out-the-door cost for this bag was $23.99. Jimbo's website suggests that no gold has been added to this bag. The material is extremely clean and dust free. The packaging is great with no little corners that can trap gold. There is lots of magnetite so I highly recommend magnetic separation. There was very little fine material, which makes processing easy. The gold density was 0.847 grams per pound of pay dirt.
I found 0.951 grams of gold in all sizes from +12 down to a little in -100 mesh. Most of the weight was in the +30 to +70 range. At gold spot of $39 per gram gives a total value of $39.09 and an outstanding ROI of 154.6%.
Jimbo's
Gold Premium 2
Pound Arizona Paydirt
Plus 1 Gram Added Gold: NO
LONGER AVAILABLE BECAUSE IT'S BEEN REFORMULATED.
In Spring of 2016 I reviewed two of these bags, which yielded an average ROI of 84%. Since then, this bag has been reformulated and the amount of gold significantly reduced.
Gold Hog Pay Streak Cons: NO LONGER BEING OFFERED IN OCTOBER OF 2016.
I've tested three of these 3 pound bags of gold paydirt: one in Jan., one in Feb. and one in Jume of 2016, each for $49 plus $6 shipping directly from the goldhog.com website. Two weighed 2 pounds, 13 ounces and one weighed 3 pounds, 1.5 ounces. One produced 0.514 grams of gold, one 0.536 grams and one 0.284 grams of gold, all over a range of sizes from +20 mesh to -100 mesh. The following values are an average of all three bags: At a gold value of $39 a gram, they averaged $17.31 yielding a ROI of 31.5-percent.
So far, this is the only paydirt company offering true "concentrate" I've found that hasn't had gold added to it. By that I mean that Gold Hog runs raw paydirt through a sluice box or trammel and sells the resulting concentrates as they are. It's claimed that it is unsearched, implying that no one looked through the concentrates and picked out any nuggets. They do conduct test pannings to ensure that there is a minimum amount of gold but make it clear that because these are true concentrates, there is no way they can guarantee that there is gold in every bag. Having said that, Gold Hog also states that the average yield is half a gram of gold per bag and some bags may have as much as 0.75 grams of gold.
I found all sizes and types of gold in both bags: everything from +20 pickers to flour gold down to 200-mesh. There were small chunky pieces, rose gold, oddly shaped flakes and even wire gold. Although there are other gold paydirts with higher ROIs, I got the most satisfaction from processing Gold Hog Pay Streak Cons because it felt the most like true prospecting. The material itself is extremely clean and although it has some garnet and black sand, was easy to process on a Miller table. The only frustrating thing about it is that it contains a lot of gold-colored mica that can fool the unwary panner. The company states that the material in these bags is from a claim that is no longer being worked. As such, once their last bag has sold this produce will be discontinued. The gold density of the two bags averaged 0.148 grams of gold per pound of paydirt.
Gold Hog Mystery Cons: NO LONGER BEING OFFERED IN OCTOBER OF 2016.
As with Gold Hog's Pay Streak Cons, I got two bags of these 2 pound bags of gold paydirt in Feb. of 2016. They cost $29 each plus $11 shipping for both directly from the goldhog.com website. They both weighed 2 pounds, 11 ounces. One produced 0.142 grams of gold while the other gave 0.130 grams, both over a range of sizes from +20 mesh to +50 mesh, but only a few specks of flour gold. At a gold value of $39 a gram, they averaged $5.30 yielding a ROI of 21.6-percent.
Like the Pay Streak Cons, this is true "concentrate" without gold added to it.
The material is extremely clean and easily processed either on a Miller table or by panning. Like the Pay Streak Cons it contains a lot of gold-colored mica. The gold density of the two bags averaged 0.051 grams of gold per pound of paydirt.
Important Notice:
Each bag of gold paydirt is unique regardless of the seller or whether it's natural paydirt or has had gold added to it. As such, my tests of a single bag should not be taken as indicating what you will get if you purchase the same thing. At best the results on this page should be considered suggestive. Those reviews with more than one bag are more statistically valid, but may still vary from what someone else will get. The more reviews you can find for a specific company and product, the better you will be able to determine what to expect when purchasing that gold paydirt. To this end, I recommend you visit Mr. Dylan Miller's excellent gold paydirt review page at: goldpaydirtreviews.com. He's tested many gold paydirts and between the two of us you should get a pretty good idea of what to expect.
MORE REVIEWS COMING SOON SO PLEASE CHECK BACK OFTEN!
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