Prospecting & Detecting
Following Clues to a Hidden Gold Deposit
March 2012 by Don Robinson
Many years ago I was in the American Canyon. I remembered a few details about a placer deposit there, so we decided to make a trip down and re-check some of these old workings.
Gold in Unlikely Places
Detectors have been around for decades now. And with thousands of them swinging, many of the best or at least most likely nugget places have seen a swinging coil. The part that amazes me is that so many nuggets still get pulled out of these seemingly pounded places.
A Good Start
We split up in order to cover a larger area and found good color almost everywhere. The bedrock was shallow on both sides of the river, but the inside bend was where we concentrated our prospecting.
What, Where and How for the New Prospector
How to go about the entire process of prospecting is a big question. The answer comes down to research and preparation.
Prospecting Hard Rock
We panned out maybe three gold pans of the material and we were shocked at the gold that was there. This rock appeared to be rich.
Nevada Miners: Check Your Claim Markers
The Nevada Senate introduced SB108 in 2009 to prohibit PVC piping utilized by miners to stake mining claims.
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.
Large Gold Deposit Types
It is not necessary to have a PhD in geology, but you need to know the basics, so that’s what I am going to try to dig into here—the understandable basics of these gigantic gold deposits.
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