GeologyRocks

First, don't bother with the Tawe, if you panned there all your life you probably wouldn't find much.  Potentially any river could contain gold but the vast majority wouldn't have more than a few molecules in their entire course.

 The gold-bearing rivers in the UK are well-known, areas with the best potential include North Wales (around Dolgellau), the Leadhills area of Scotland and a few other places.  Gold tends to be found where the river flow slows down such as on bends or in alluvial deposits.  Some has been found in Cornwall where I live, associated with alluvial tin deposits.  The tin streamers working the tin used to carry quills with little wooden stoppers in which to put the little flakes of gold.

 An ancient technique for removing tin (and gold) from stream deposits was to run the gravels through a series of wooden launders and collect the minerals in a frame of sheeps wool, hence the legend of the golden fleece.

Very very interesting read there thankyou! 
Today i went to the river ilston(Gower) and searched for gold. Just to get a little taster of panning(even if i didnt find an haha). I did however find a lot of quartz however and i've read that this is a good indicator of gold? Lots of alluvial deposits.... Any more information would be very greatly appreciated as im starting college and doing geology ovecourse, and hoping to go on to do it in university. Oh and i forgot to mention i got gold fever. By the way i got a trip planned to anywhere in Wales next Monday please please please any good sites to try panning? Many thanks

Any gold you find on the Gower has probably been dropped by someone else, like a wedding ring.  Quartz does occur with gold but it also occurs with just about everything else as well - it's not really an indicator of gold and in some gold mines (such as Dolaucothi) most of the gold didn't occur in quartz but in the shales adjacent to it.  There was an account written quite a long time ago about this mine in which the author expresses his amusement at the number of "prospectors" who spent all their time bashing away at barren quartz without finding anything.

I suggest you are careful about panning in Wales.   I did hear that it had been stopped and offenders were liable to prosecution.  It was alleged that someone had ripped out the base of a river which was also an SSSI.  (how would they do that without a digger!)

However, apparently this was just a spurious 'reason' for stopping panners.  I was told (by the Champiom Gold Panner of UK - yes there is an anual competition!) that the real reason was that panners upstream had upset someones fishing!   Probably one of those MPs with nothing better to do.

May still be liable to prosecution if there are notices though.

 John

“Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.” -  Will Durant

That is piss ridiculous. There is no freedom nowadays. Ridiculous the society we live in.

Thanks for informing me though. 

Is there anyway/website i can find the legislation on gold panning in wales ?  

Also is the river ilston(gower,three cliffs) worth a go ? 

There's no gold on the Gower and little evidence of any mineralisation on the peninsula.  As John states (and in the PM I sent you), don't try anything without first getting permission from the landowner and the rivers authority as you could be liable for prosecution.  Any mineral extraction from watercourses is tied up in so much legislation that it probably isn't worth the effort and the disturbance can be potentially catastrophic to microenvironments.  Try booking a holiday in Wanlockhead or Leadhills and surreptitiously panning a mountain stream...even then you might not get away with it.