Gold miners are finding unusually large amounts of gold in California’s river waters, thanks to recent winter storms that have eroded hillsides and washed sediment downstream for patient panners to discover.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on one family that has seen production rise “four to five times” normal:

The storms did “months of work” for the family, ripping open channels of dirt along the creek that the three would’ve otherwise had to dig, Nick Prebalick said. Nate Prebalick pointed to a crevice that he was excavating. The rust and layers of clay atop the bedrock meant that humans hadn’t touched this bit of earth in a long time, if ever – all the better for his chances of finding gold, Nate said.

…

Gold is the heaviest material in the river, Nate Prebalick said, about 19 times heavier than water. The Prebalicks use this and gravity to their advantage, gradually sifting lighter material out of the pan until only gold and other heavy sediments are left. The team also shovels dirt into a sluice box to speed up the process: using the natural rush of the creek to sift the lighter material off the top, as gold sinks to the ridges along the bottom.

The winter rains, which defied predictions of another dry winter, brought relief to a state that has suffered three years of drought. It also brought erosion — which, while a boon for gold mines, has caused landslides elsewhere:

The snowpack depth in the Sierra Nevada mountain range hit the highest level in nearly 30 years at the end of January. There are still several more weeks of winter, in which more “atmospheric rivers” could hit the state.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Photo: stock