Prospecting & Detecting
Huge California Nugget A Hoax
August 2011 by Scott Harn
“We did a one-day mapping of the bedrock in this area with the expressed intent of finding concentrations of heavy gold based on the mining science of what river features cause gold to settle in certain areas,” Jim Sanders told us at the time. “...it was found in a deep crevice covered by ancient cemented rock. We literally had to chisel it out to get to the nugget,” he added.
Sanders, who also goes by the name of James Grill, sent photos to the Journal which purportedly showed historic tailing piles in the area where the nugget was located, along with a picture of the 98.6 troy ounce nugget laying in a hole on top of compacted gravels.
Sanders claimed he used ground-penetrating radar to survey his private property in Nevada County, California, and uncovered the chunk of gold with a backhoe when he was following up on one of the anomalies found by the radar.
Sanders had turned the nugget over to Holabird-Kagin Americana auction house in Reno. The specimen was marketed as the “Washington Nugget” after the small town of Washington in California’s Mother Lode where it was supposedly found. It was believed to be the largest surviving California nugget in existence, and it sold for $460,000 in March 2011.
Sanders was also having his property assessed for sale by the auction company when his story began to unravel. It seems a copy of our June 2010 issue made its way into the hands of Murray Cox over in Australia. He is the prospector who originally found the nugget near Ballarat in 1987.
Cox said he sold the nugget, named “The Orange Roughie” after the Australian fish, for $50,000 to a man in Arizona in 1989. He didn’t know how the nugget ended up in Sanders’ possession.
Cox contacted the auction company and provided them with photos and newspaper articles documenting the original find.
“The parties have mutually concluded that the nugget was from Australia,” said auction house owner Fred Holabird, who is also a mining geologist.
Holabird said the buyer received a refund and the nugget was subsequently sold to another bidder for a lower price.
Holabird added that the involved parties agreed that fraud charges against Sanders were not necessary.
We attempted to contact Sanders by phone, but the woman who answered stated they would not comment on the story. We also tried to reach him by email, but his account is no longer in service.
The price paid by the new buyer was not disclosed.
Gold Mining Boom in the Carolinas
Not too far from the pine-filled mountains, a young boy was exploring along Meadow Creek in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, one fine day in 1799. He discovered a beautiful rock that he took home and put to good use as a doorstop. Shortly thereafter, a jeweler stopped by to visit his folks, and as it turned out, the new doorstop was actually a 17-pound gold nugget. That nugget truly did open a door as it marked the beginning of the first gold rush in America.
A Break in the Weather
Back at the entry point of the mine, we took turns slowly crawling down the slope leading into the mine portal with our metal detectors, hard hats and flashlights. The mine was hand dug and is about 75 yards long.
The Batteries Metal Rush
There is a major change coming in the economy of the world and now is the time for prospectors and miners to grab a ticket and get on board.
The Life of an Independent Prospector
“JP, is it possible to make a living looking for gold with a metal detector?” I get asked this question a lot...
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.
The Hunch
The mysteries of this spot were only just starting to develop. There is nothing but very bland granite-type rocks here, meaning no bold, favorable indicators.
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.
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