Prospecting & Detecting
Chasing Float Gold—The Starry Night Wash
June 2018 by Rod Fitzhugh
The sun was beginning to set, which put the light at just the right angle against the hillsides to where I believed that I spotted a very small dig and tailings pile up the hill near the top of the second wash.
Moving The Big Rocks
The anticipation of finding out if the system of snatch blocks, shackles, chokers, anchor points, and the strap binding the massive slab of rock in the bottom of the river would even budge an inch was weighing on me.
California Sniping
I opted for the underwater portion of the river. All I have to do is float down the river and pick large flakes and small nuggets out of cracks and crevices while staying cool in the summer heat.
Silverton's Gold
Within this area, about two million ounces of gold and fifty million ounces of silver have been mined. Faults, dikes, veins and fissures that carry the ore form a concentric radial pattern—like spokes on a wagon wheel—around the caldera core.
Getting Started
He excitedly told me he was going mining and wanted to know where he should go, how to do it, and so on. After he calmed down, I got excited. “I need to go!” was my response.
The Challenge of Winter Dredging
Dredges actually do pretty well in freezing conditions. There are a few tips you should know, however.
4 Keys to Successful Nugget Hunting
Lots of prospectors are trying out nugget detecting for the first time and finding out that it isn’t all that easy. In fact, in my opinion, metal detecting for nuggets is perhaps the most difficult form of prospecting that one can take on.
Take a Kid Detecting
I thought things started off okay until I realized I had forgotten some of my gear and had to return to the house. My troubled start was not helped when my boy came up to me a few minutes after my return to show me his first nugget of the day.
Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Ask The Experts - Are there different “ferro” products processed out of the ore?
• Ask The Experts - How hot does a furnace need to be to get rid of sulphides?
• Ask The Experts - Will this paystreak be downriver off the trailing edge of bedrock?
• Putting Together A Small Free Gold Mill—Part II
• 2018 National Mining Hall of Fame Inductees
• A Test Grid Dredged for Gold Values
• Michigan House Votes to Give Mining Operations More Flexibility
• Mineral Exploration On The Rise
• 18 Acquitted in Massive Brussels Diamond Heist
• Captain Obvious Strikes Again
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
Free:
PLP Update
• California to Allow Suction Dredging in 2019?
