Prospecting & Detecting
Highbanking for Gold
August 2018 by Chris Ralph
Pumps can be set up quite a distance away horizontally from the sluice, even hundreds of feet. It will work so long as there is sufficient water at the source where the pump is located. Vertical distance is more of a problem than horizontal distance; 30 to 40 feet is the maximum vertical climb for most pumps.
Alaskan Gold Adventure
In Chicken I had my first experience with the famous Alaska blue clay, sometimes called the blue layer. The blue layer is where the best fine gold was to be found.
Piles of Gold
These gritty clay lines were only a quarter of an inch up to three inches wide. Once the line had been laid out, they would look at the wall of gritty clay material and seek more indicators.
Detecting Wet Ground Yields More Fun Than Gold
We all continued over to another location at the top of a massive placer operation. Arriving at the draw, I showed everyone where gold had been found before and we all began detecting.
Fall Drywashing—Just the Right Time of Year
I could see lots of quartz, both loose on the hillsides and in the numerous small prospect diggings. There was a small gold rush here more than a century ago.
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.
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.
The Essence of Gold Prospecting
When doing your initial armchair research and selecting potential areas to explore, consider all the indicators, both natural and man-made.
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