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.
A Few Tips and Tricks for Beach Mining
When you think about the extremes to which a miner will go to get a little gold, it occurred to me beach gold could be "easy pickings."
Take it to Bedrock
Picking the right spot to placer has to do with years of experience, and a little luck. The textbooks can tell you where it should be, but sometimes the rules just don’t seem to apply.
Step-by-Step Crevicing
Gold trapped in the cracks can be encrusted close to the walls or mixed with sand and pebbles, making the gold difficult to see and then extract. Crevicing requires a lot of patience to achieve positive results.
Detectors: Past, Present and Future
Detectors were invented long before I was born, but it was in the 1960s when they started to become an item popular enough to power a fledgling industry. The key development was miniature transistor technology replacing the old fashioned tube technology of the 1950s, making lightweight, affordable detectors possible.
The Bucking Room
Since this position was the least desirable due to the hard physical labor, the bucking room was used as punishment. Do you have a mediocre worker? Bad attitude? Off to the bucking room!
Hunches, Choices and Guesses
When you approach a location, even if you've been there before, you should consider all the factors and conditions present at the site. This includes both natural and man-made factors.
Prospecting for Surface Flood Gold Placers on Low and Intermediate Gradient Streams
Sample panning is a very important method used to find the richest parts of a flood gold deposit before setting up equipment and running material.
Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill
• Our Readers Say Re: It's Time to Get the Heck Out of China
• Ask The Experts - What’s the status of suction gold dredge permitting in California?
• Ask The Experts - How do I properly and safely dispose of blasting caps?
• Ask The Experts - How much silver per ton does it take to make a mine profitable?
• Ask The Experts - How clean do my gold concentrates need to be to pour a gold button or bar?
• Ask The Experts - What is the name and model of the old jaw crusher pictured in last month’s issue?
• Dredging Tips and Tricks: T-80 Air Compressor Maintenance
• Hard Rock 101: Mechanical Techniques
• Clearing the Nugget Trap with a Detector
• Resurrecting an Old Hard Rock Mine—Setting Up the Millsite
• Memories of Shirttail Creek, Northern California
• Indictments Pile Up for Gold Traders
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
Free:
Seeking The Truth—A Letter From the Editor
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• PLP Update: The Path for Legally Re-Starting Suction Gold Dredge Mining in 2021
