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.
Using Vegetation and Soil Conditions as Prospecting Aids
Wouldn’t it be great if you could know if there is gold in the ground without setting foot on the ground? Well you can, to a certain extent, if you can recognize mined ground from unmined.
Geobotany: Plants Associated With Mineral Deposits
Science has shown, over the past few centuries, that there is a direct correlation between certain plants and their geophysical surroundings.
Hunting Down Paystreaks
When I teach people about finding gold, I often explain that it is helpful to think of any river or stream that carries gold as being something like a sluice box.
Gold Indicators—What to Look for in the Goldfields
Some of the items that I’m going to go over are outcroppings, ditches, exploratory trenches and contacts/surface materials. I am going to speak about each of the above items in as much detail as I can, and then towards the end of this article I will tie them together.
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.
Twenty-Five Gold Indicators You Should Know
I frequently get asked, "What should I look for when I am out prospecting that will tell me there are good amounts of gold present in the ground?"
Are There Any Good Prospects Left?
This type of thinking will get you discouraged pretty fast, and soon all of your mining equipment will be found gathering dust in your garage.
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