Prospecting & Detecting
ICMJ Visits Downieville, California
January 2023
Libby, Montana Prospectors Keep Tradition Alive
Located 23 miles south of Libby, the land surrounding the Libby Creek area has been of interest to prospectors since the early 1860s, when it was home to up to 600 miners working at a camp known as Libbysville.
Indicators and Hillsides
The placer gold shows up in ground sluice areas, hydraulic pits, secondary channels and hillside diggings. It is coming down the hillsides from an ancient channel left high and dry millions of years ago.
Uphill Battle Continues for California Dredgers
There are currently three controlling agencies or entities over suction dredging in California—and you can make that four if the state legislature decides to further muddy the waters with additional legislation to block suction gold dredging in the state.
California State and US National Gold Panning Championships
This was two days of gold panning, with just over 250 gold panners trying to win a medal to show they were one of the best of the best.
More on Detecting Pocket Gold
What I hope to do here is to give you some information that will help you, the reader, pick out locations that will be better for you to detect and give you a possibility of finding gold.
Gold Basin & Mass Wasting
Some of these events can cause half of an entire mountain to plummet down into a gorge or canyon, damming up a stream system and causing a flood when the earthen dam finally breaks from the water backing up behind it.
All About Garnets
I get a lot of questions from prospectors about garnets, their value and what they tell us about the geology of some types of mineral deposits. So I thought it would be a good idea to take a closer look at the lowly garnet and learn a bit more about it.
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Blast From the Past
• Lazy Day Gold
• Getting Skunked, but Having Fun!
• Strike and Dip for the Prospector
• I Said it Once & I'll Say it twice, Record Those Indicators!
• Better Worse: I'd Rather Be On Top! No More Boo-Boo's - Part 2
• Resource Maven Independent Analysis of the Resource Markets
• Over the Divide
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The Bawl Mill
• The Struggle is Real
• PLP Update