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.
Critical Minerals: Titanium
The metal is expensive, not because it is rare but because of the expense to produce and work it. The minerals mined for titanium are all oxides, unlike many base metals that are mostly mined as sulfide minerals.
My Introduction To Gold Prospecting
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...
That First Nugget
After getting all the gear together we headed up the old road that led us to an old ground sluice site. George and Kaleb were using lightweight VLF (very low frequency) detectors. I carried a newer technology unit that is just a tad coil-heavy in the front.
Old Mine Sites and New Technology
We’ve had two trips to the deserts of Nevada and explored mines and mill sites, hiked miles of ravines in California, and swung our detector coils over thousands of square yards of bedrock.
Buyer Beware! Counterfeit Metal Detectors
When I was recently in West Africa, I got to see and play with my first, phony, Chinese knock-off metal detector.
The Birthday Nugget Patch
Down around 10 or 12 inches I hit a large cobble that appeared to be one type of hot rock for this area. I thought bad things about the new technology until I checked the rock.
Follow Up to "Just One More Time"
…the “One More Time” has turned into three more trips and each of the three has yielded more gold each time down.
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• Our Readers Say
• Ask The Experts - Is there a Forest Service camping limit for mining claims?
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• 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
