Prospecting & Detecting
Carr Fire Gold
April 2019 by David Obester
After burning more than 350 square miles, the Carr Fire near Redding, California, was finally out. Luckily our home was spared, and I had the opportunity to go metal detecting in burned areas previously too overgrown to access.
How to Evaluate Mineral Claims—What to Know Before You Buy
Even though they have put down thousands of dollars, the buyers often stop paying on their claims part way through the process after they realize they’ve been duped, but the company just sells it again to another buyer.
Trying Out the New Highbanker
The 2011 gold season had finally got underway on the Middle Fork of the Feather River near Quincy, California. Cold weather and high water had pushed gold mining into mid-summer, but things were looking up.
Large Gold Deposit Types
It is not necessary to have a PhD in geology, but you need to know the basics, so that’s what I am going to try to dig into here—the understandable basics of these gigantic gold deposits.
Gold Prospecting: For Better or Worse
We all love to see that first glimmer of gold when it peeks out from under the black sand in our pan, or feel the weight of a nugget in our scoop when we dig a good target. But sometimes things don’t go quite so smoothly.
Extracting & Smelting Your Gold
Unfortunately, not all the gold that we prospectors find is pretty, or appealing to the eyes. They are not all nice, bright, shiny nuggets with lots of character that carry high collector value.
From Vietnam to Wedding Bands
It’s a common symptom of gold fever for miners to be very hesitant to let go of gold they’ve found or even have it made into jewelry. I confess, I suffer from the same incurable disease!
PLP Update: Back to The 'Swamp' on Behalf of Small Miners
We spent the morning in a meeting with one of the higher-ups at the US Forest Service. I presented him with 412 complaints received from our readers, along with a summary of the complaints to make his job easier.
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• Our Readers Say
• Ask The Experts - Is there a Forest Service camping limit for mining claims?
• Ask The Experts - Should I be focusing on uranium and thorium?
• Ask The Experts - What is this sample worth?
• Ask The Experts - Need help finding production records
• How To File A Mining Claim
• Back to Basics--Finding Gold With a Pan and a Sluice
• Persistence Leads to Over a Pound of Gold
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: The Superbowl Nugget
• Revisiting The Old Mini Patch
• Preserving the True History of the Ivanhoe
• Secrets of Successful Prospecting
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices







