How to Stake Your Own Claim—Researching Mining Claims

June 2017 by Chris Ralph

Once you have determined that the land is locatable, the next step in the claim research process is to determine if the land has already been claimed by a previous locator.

It's Hard to Find Gold!

October 2013
...even the best prospectors have times when they do not find gold. It is all about taking chances against tough odds and succeeding.

Mining for Gemstones and Mineral Specimens

August 2013
It is better in a gem and mineral mining operation that the driller, blaster and mucker be the same person in order to be able to predict placement of the desired mineral enriched pockets.

Research and Fieldwork Yield Some Promising Gold

October 2013
A week later, a small team of us hit it again, and this time the gold really showed up.

Gold Deposits of Montana

March 2013
Historically, Montana has been an important gold producer, in terms of both lodes and placers, and it still produces gold for the prospector today.

Northwestern Alaska Mineral Resources

February 2016
Gold and jade are actually only minor mineral resources for the Northwestern Alaska region as a whole. Modern prospecting has focused more on base metal than precious metal resources.

The Value of Old Patches

June 2019

Nuggets make for the best memories and this patch was just adding to mine. In the hours of daylight I had left, I worked from that nugget to the bottom of the patch, collecting eight more nuggets.

Rediscovering Placerville, California Part II

March 2011
To get to the gold, the miners had to remove the shale pieces and stack them on the sides while sluicing the remaining material through their boxes.

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