Prospecting & Detecting
Extracting & Smelting Your Gold
February 2013 by Gus Peppley
Unfortunately, not all the gold that we prospectors find is pretty, or appealing to the eyes. They are not all nice, bright, shiny nuggets with lots of character that carry high collector value.
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Setting up a gravity dredge
A Golden Summer
His take of gold was pretty close to what mine was—about a quarter of an ounce. We had just gleaned about half an ounce of gold in just twenty minutes.
Recent Prospecting in Plumas County
Plumas has been historically rich in gold because of its favorable geology. The Melones Fault trends north-south through the county and many rich gold-bearing districts lie along its course.
Persistence Leads to Over a Pound of Gold
I have figured out over the years that the winning combination is hard work, persistence, knowledge, and a little luck. This leads me to describe one of my best finds ever, a “honey hole” of placer gold, if you will.
A Great Day On The Feather River
Mike and Machael dug in just downriver of that boulder pile and right away found good color and a few small pickers.
Detecting Old Pocket Diggings
Looking around, I could tell that this was an old hand-digging. As I walked around the perimeter of the digging I could see shovel and pick marks scratched on the clean, hard clay and bedrock.
The Mole
My wife Dorothy has always enjoyed tent camping. She thought she was really roughing it at established campgrounds until I convinced her to take a trip with me to drywash for gold in a remote corner of an arid desert wilderness...
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The Bawl Mill
• Ask the Experts
• Ask the Experts
• Ask the Experts
• Detecting Old Pocket Diggings
• Refractory Gold Processing
• Detecting in the Outback
• What is a Valid Mineral Discovery?
• Over the Fiscal Cliff for Tax Savings
• Online Mining Classes Now Available at Mackay
• Heavy Sands Mining
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
• Feds Challenge North Idaho Mining Claims
