It depends on where they are, but usually iron sand. When they’re panning for gold the heavier bits are the last to go, and iron is pretty heavy compared to most of the particles in the river. Because it’s so heavy it tends to settle out in the same places that gold does. If the water was faster it would erode away and if the water was slower it would have already dropped out. So bands of black sand are a good place to start looking for gold flakes.
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