Ask the Experts

May 2014 by Chris Ralph

The Heavy Minerals in Your Concentrates

June 2016
The fact that mineral deposits can contribute specific types of heavy minerals is why the analysis of the heavy mineral concentrates in the streams of an area can be an important prospecting technique for finding undiscovered mineral deposits.

Breaking Rock the Old School Way

June 2013
Prospectors have many reasons why they might want to break rocks. These include dividing up a specimen too large to carry.

My Introduction To Gold Prospecting

March 2019

At the end of the day, Jerry showed me how to clean out the sluice box and then how to pan out the concentrates. As we finished panning, there it was—a little tiny smile of gold...

Heavy Glacial Rocks and Gold in the Midwest

December 2013
Over the years, I've noticed a pattern in the type of rocks associated with the best gold deposits in Midwestern glacial gravel.

Small-Scale Miners Rock the Mining World

August 2012
With the high price of gold, there are many new prospectors out in the hills all over the United States, and while we would all prefer to be finding those larger nuggets, it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes all that is available is nothing more than a few small flakes. The truth is, new prospectors are sprouting up all across the planet—especially in the developing nations.

Ask the Experts

February 2015
• Drones for the independent prospector

Cold Water Gold

December 2011
It was June 2011, and my wife Fran and I with Grandson Lucas and good friend Ernie Cruz were attempting to get to our gold mining claim on the Middle Fork of the Feather River about ten miles from Quincy, California. Rain had poured down in the previous few days and the road in a large number of low places was under water. Following two hours of slugging through the mud...

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