Prospecting & Detecting
Hunting Down Paystreaks
April 2018 by Chris Ralph
When I teach people about finding gold, I often explain that it is helpful to think of any river or stream that carries gold as being something like a sluice box.
Summertime Gold Panning
I have smaller pans for cleaning black sand concentrates, big pans for taking large samples, pans with corners for pouring out materials, and pans with lots of special riffles. This variation is why I have so many pans—they each have their specialty.
Fountain of Youth Gold
Across and downstream of our operation was a large pile of huge boulders. It was logical to think that water forces may have deposited gold in and around these boulders. We moved our dredge over and started pulling the rock pile apart.
Placer Sampling for the Small-Scale Miner
I have seen many samples taken originally with an eye toward getting the highest grades possible, but later someone claims that those results represent an average grade of the whole gravel deposit.
Proper Placer Sample Processing
...your sampling procedures should not be designed to catch gold your mining technique will never recover.
Detector Prospecting Accessories
One of the first things to consider but that many people ignore is ergonomics. Prospecting for gold can involve long hours, often for days or weeks on end.Large Gold Deposit Types
It is not necessary to have a PhD in geology, but you need to know the basics, so that’s what I am going to try to dig into here—the understandable basics of these gigantic gold deposits.
Hard Rock 101: Advanced Micro Blasting
They… create negligible fumes and much less fly rock than blasting. Below are some tips on maximizing your effectiveness with these tools.
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The Bawl Mill
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Ask The Experts - What Do I Look For and How Do I Sample?
• Ask The Experts - Prospecting Around Graeagle
• Deep Nuggets From The Strange Little Patch
• We’re Still Thinking About It
• Springtime Sampling In The High Desert
• How to Evaluate Mineral Claims—What to Know Before You Buy
• Dredging Safety: Don't Ignore The Warning Signs
• Russian Plane Spills 3 Tons of Gold on Runway
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
