Prospecting & Detecting
Strategies for Detecting Heavily Pounded Areas—Pt II
May 2022 by Reese Townes
Look around for areas where you don’t see detector holes or drywasher piles and try your test hole at these spots to determine depth to bedrock.
Exploring The Historic Rand Mining District, Southern California
My largest nugget from this area is almost one-half ounce. I’ve found several smaller chunks and many pickers in addition to the fines and flakes that I put in my poke.
Commercial Placer Mining: Alaska Style
There are currently about 170 commercial-scale placer operations in Alaska. Most of these are small operations with just a few people working; they are often family affairs that operate seasonally only during favorable weather.
I Was Looking for Gold But I Found Jade
Excited for this first notable evidence, I returned to that riverbed, looking for another paystreak and obviously more jade.
The Smell of Gold—Part I
Some claim they can smell gold. This may be, but when I take a whiff of gold, I smell dirt, rotten eggs, garlic or just nothing: my nose is everything but sensitive.
Finding Gold in Tailing Piles
Old mine workings and tailing piles can represent opportunities on many levels, from the chance to simply find a nugget on up to the commercial reworking of the old tailings for profit.
Miners Fight Back When BLM Says 'Your Claim Is Too Long'
BLM stated we had 30 days to amend our claim so that it fit within one 40-acre square or we would forfeit the claim.
Proper Assaying of Placer Samples
The whole purpose of sampling mineralized ground is to measure the values in a small volume of material that would be representative of a much larger volume of similar material. The key word is representative. Chemical and fire assaying will not accurately represent placer deposits by themselves.
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The Bawl Mill
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• Mineralization, Ground Balance and Metal Detecting
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Warning Signs
• What To Do With All That Gold?
• Proposed 100-Mile Road in the Yentna Mining District
• All About Trommels and Screens for Placer Gold Recovery
• Judge Orders FBI to Produce Records on Civil War Gold Hunt
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• The Mystery of the Grand Summit Mine
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