Ask the Experts

September 2014 by Chris Ralph

California Gold Adventure

January 2014
All locations gave up some gold, but one particular section of exposed bedrock with steep, packed crevices kept giving us good, consistent results. We had found our spot.

Green Valley Reconnaissance

January 2013
During this trip we found enough gold to make us want to come back, even with the punishment of a very long, tough hike.

A Long Dry Spell

October 2015
Just three weeks ago one of our prospecting team members decided to go back to this location on his own. He had a new detector and wanted to try it out some.

Proper Assaying of Placer Samples

November 2012
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.

The Pothole Patch

January 2015
"Suh-wheet!" I exclaimed as I sprang to my feet and quickly pumped my detector coil high overhead to alert Smokey that I had just found a nugget.

The Smell of Gold—Part I

June 2015
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.

The Highs and Lows of Drywashing

August 2016
We were met with a plethora of mechanical problems with the dry washer and even a few with the excavator that were at times frustrating, but we were in this for the long haul, so we needed to solve these problems and move forward.

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