Prospecting & Detecting
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.
The Coolgardie Gold Mining Camp of Southern California
The area was mined intermittently from around 1900 to 1915, but was also mined in the late 1800s, with a total output valued at about $100,000, which is around $9.5 million at the current gold price.
The Value of Evidence
That prospecting effort you are about to spend your time on...is it worth your effort? If you are going to devote your time to it, you will need all the facts you can get.
Carr Fire Gold
After burning more than 350 square miles, the Carr Fire near Redding, California, was finally out. Luckily our home was spared, and I had the opportunity to go metal detecting in burned areas previously too overgrown to access.
Picking Our Way Through Bedrock
Once again the coil was put over the spot but the target was in the pile now. I pinpointed, grabbed a handful of dirt and began sprinkling it over the coil until I heard that mild thud.
Drywashing in Black Canyon, Arizona
May 2016After the hike and a quick snack break we gathered a few buckets of material to really dial in the drywasher for the most efficient recovery. This involves leveling the unit, setting the riffle box drop angle and regulating the speed in which the material is processed.
Lost Sally's Gold
She said a few thoughts did cross her mind at the time; she thought maybe she should have looked more thoroughly for that hand-drawn map to the claim that we had given her the previous year.
Prospecting for Gold at Green Valley
In October, five of us decided to take an exploration trip into an area called Green Valley. This was perhaps ten miles upstream from where we had gone in September and the difficulty was access. One would think that based on the name it was an easily accessible area not far from a nearby town. This couldn’t be more wrong.
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The Bawl Mill
• Ask The Experts: What indicator rocks should I be looking for in northern Nevada?
• Ask The Experts: What to do with scheelite
• Ask The Experts: Small-scale drilling
• Quartzsite Gives Up Some Big Gold
• Prospecting After Winter Storms
• The Birthday Nugget Patch
• MMAC Update
• The Goldfield Mining District, Nevada—Part I
• Volume is the Key to Success
• Getting Started
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
