All About Native Silver

February 2020 by Chris Ralph

Some of the wire forms are strange and fantastic, with wires sticking out in twisted, seemingly random directions. Others have deformed crystals and all of them have significant value to collectors.

Detecting Old Pocket Diggings

February 2013
Looking around, I could tell that this was an old hand-digging. As I walked around the perimeter of the digging I could see shovel and pick marks scratched on the clean, hard clay and bedrock.

Refractory Gold Processing

February 2013
After your excitement peaks when you first receive the high gold assay from the vein you just exposed, you ponder how you will extract and sell your gold. You will need to develop a flow sheet for your process to optimize your recovery and minimize your costs and permit requirements.

Hard Rock 101: Advanced Micro Blasting

October 2020

They… create negligible fumes and much less fly rock than blasting. Below are some tips on maximizing your effectiveness with these tools.

All About Garnets

February 2013
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.

Another Prospecting Adventure: Coulterville

November 2021

What also helped keep Coulterville alive was the fact that the town itself happened to be sitting on top of one of the richest veins in the Mother Lode. The ledge itself was three hundred feet wide.

Finding Gold - Fact vs Fiction

October 2023

Truths and myths about finding Gold

Pros and Cons of Big Detector Coils

December 2016
Years later I returned with a new detector with a smaller coil and detector technology more sensitive to smaller nuggets. I found my first nugget within five minutes. I had a second five minutes after that.

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