Prospecting & Detecting
Indicators and Hillsides
September 2021 by Ray Mills
The placer gold shows up in ground sluice areas, hydraulic pits, secondary channels and hillside diggings. It is coming down the hillsides from an ancient channel left high and dry millions of years ago.
The Art of Underwater Nugget Shooting
There is a surprising amount of detectable gold under the water’s surface. The right tools make it much easier to find, and with a little patience and practice you can take advantage of this underappreciated bonanza.
Determining the Amount of Gold in Rich Ores
This is just the type of specimen that could have been easily ignored by the old-time miners. It felt a little heavier in my hand than a chunk of quartz of that size ought to have been.
Golden Indicators
February 2023The Ups and Downs of Nugget Hunting
I returned to the WSPA claim. Still smug from my previous success, I was thinking I could not fail. However, the gold gods had other plans.
Hit the Slopes to Find More Gold
Watching for these areas is one of my primary targets during the winter. It doesn’t take but a few inches of the surface moving away to give a fantastic target response that you didn’t hear prior to the washing of the surface.
Uphill Battle Continues for California Dredgers
There are currently three controlling agencies or entities over suction dredging in California—and you can make that four if the state legislature decides to further muddy the waters with additional legislation to block suction gold dredging in the state.
Critical Minerals: Titanium—Part II
There are both hard rock and beach sand types of titanium deposits, but the hard rock deposits need to be at least 10 percent titanium while the beach sands often are economic with only two or three percent titanium.
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The Bawl Mill
• Ask The Experts - Would a platinum nugget contain all the PGMs?
• Ask The Experts - Can you clarify how many minerals I need to identify to be successful?
• Ask The Experts - Were there any productive mines where there were no contacts?
• Commercial Placer Mining: Alaska Style
• Surviving the Unexpected
• Gold Placers of Southern California
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Throwing Away Thousand-Dollar Hot Rocks
• 3D-Printed Tools for Prospecting
• Libby, Montana Prospectors Keep Tradition Alive
• Colorado Miner Sues EPA Over 2015 Spill
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
