Prospecting & Detecting
Iowa Hill District
June 2012 by Chris Ralph
For the last two years we’ve held a hands-on prospectors training session in the Iowa Hill district of California’s Mother Lode country as a part of our Gold Prospecting and Mining Summit event. Because of this, I thought it might be good to take a look at the history, geology and opportunities that the Iowa Hill district still offers to the individual prospector.I Finally Made It to Northern Nevada
After a while I got a very nice signal and out came a sweet kidney-shaped bit of gold weighing about three grams.
Pros and Cons of Big Detector Coils
Years later I returned with a new detector with a smaller coil and detector technology more sensitive to smaller nuggets. I found my first nugget within five minutes. I had a second five minutes after that.
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.
Take a Kid Detecting
I thought things started off okay until I realized I had forgotten some of my gear and had to return to the house. My troubled start was not helped when my boy came up to me a few minutes after my return to show me his first nugget of the day.
My Lucky Month of March
My wife Maureen and I spend part of our winter season in the Quartzsite, Arizona area. One fine March morning, we left our RV camping area at approximately 10am in search of that elusive yellow metal with our metal detectors.
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...
Mass Wasting & Gold Deposits
Not all of these slides and debris flows will produce results, but if you search for these while prospecting in your gold producing areas, then you can increase your odds of finding new gold.
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