Prospecting & Detecting
How Should I Work This Prospect?
September 2020 by Chris Ralph
How big is the deposit? Are there boulders you will need to move? Do you just want to recover the nuggets or do you think there is good fine gold that you will also want to capture?
My Lucky Month of March
My wife Maureen and I spend part of our winter season in the Quartzsite, Arizona area. One fine March morning, we left our RV camping area at approximately 10am in search of that elusive yellow metal with our metal detectors.
Detecting: Getting Away From The Heat And Into The Gold
Within a very few minutes, I had my first nice sounding target. It turned out to be a nice earring-size gold piece that was about a half a gram.
Give That Club Claim A Chance
My first trip to the claim was the tip-off that there might be larger gold to be found. I brought my puffer drywasher and my dad to a local prospecting club outing that was held at the claim.Feather River Gold
I didn’t think too much of our dredge hole and we were both considering a move when we hit bedrock. There was a good quantity of flakes and fines, but no nuggets.
Find of a Lifetime
My metal detecting hobby began about ten years ago when I bought a used metal detector for about $300. I got it specifically to look for meteorites. It was pretty much worthless, not user friendly, and I did not find anything with it.
Resurrecting An Old Hard Rock Mine
There were nice sections of vein material at the end of several drifts, like they just stopped work one day and walked away.
Advantages of Modern Prospectors
Modern-day placer miners have many advantages over the prospectors of the gold rush days. Our prospectors can reap many benefits from accumulated knowledge of the last 100 to 150 years, which is a long and impressive list.
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The Bawl Mill
• Ask The Experts - What is the difference between heavy and light rare earth elements?
• Ask The Experts - What are the tax implications for partners on a claim?
• Ask The Experts - What should my plan be for testing quartz for gold in North Carolina?
• Ask The Experts - Did gold deposits come from space or were they created underground?
• Ask The Experts - Is a shaker table going to work on my flour material?
• Subtle and Not So Subtle Dangers of Hard Rock Mining
• Tips and Tricks: Preparing Your Dredge Engine for Storage
• Fluorescent Mineral Prospecting
• More Tips on How to Find Gold with A Detector
• What Do You Need For A Successful Micro-Scale Mine?
• Using Favorable Rock Types to Find More Gold
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Of Mice and Men
• Discovering New Territory
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
Free:
Happy Birthday, ICMJ!
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• PLP Update
