Prospecting & Detecting
Desert Prospecting Yields More Than Just Gold
June 2020 by Joe Chmiel
This wash was not far from where I once dug a half-ounce nugget, so I knew there was gold in the area.
Heavy Glacial Rocks and Gold in the Midwest
Over the years, I've noticed a pattern in the type of rocks associated with the best gold deposits in Midwestern glacial gravel.
Bedrock
I am going to break bedrock down a bit and explain my view of the varying scenarios I come across in the field.
The Pothole Patch
"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.
Drywashing Moist Dirt
Over the years, I’ve proved to myself over and over again that I don’t have to wait many weeks after rains before I head out to the goldfields to do some gold digging.
Mother Lode Leaf Gold
After removing about six inches of dirt and cobbles, the sound was a bit more recognizable. I was now confident that there was a definite target and not just a ground noise.
Placer Gold Deposits in the Western States
…to see the huge differences between the gold production amounts of the Western States, let’s look at the gold production—both hard rock and placer—of these 13 states up to the present.
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