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.Get The Lead Out!
If you do the math, it equates to about $1,500 of heavy metal value per three-hour dive. This is good wages, and you are doing a service to the environment by removing this toxic metal.
Prospecting for Pegmatites

A Good Start
We split up in order to cover a larger area and found good color almost everywhere. The bedrock was shallow on both sides of the river, but the inside bend was where we concentrated our prospecting.
Back to Basics--Finding Gold With a Pan and a Sluice
Don’t hunker down and just keep digging in one spot where there is very little or no gold—if you don’t find it, you’ve got to get up and move on!
Some Tips and Tricks for Dredgers: Determining Pulley Size and Belt Length
If Epd is larger, then the compressor will be spinning faster than the manufacturer’s maximum specified RPM and might destroy itself. If this happens, then the compressor again might not produce enough air to support a diver. Neither is a desired outcome.
Placer Gold Deposits of Utah
The placer deposits of Utah occur in two distinct types of environments. These are 1) placers found adjacent to, and derived from, gold, silver and base-metal deposits; and 2) placers found in major rivers and derived from unknown, distant sources.
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The Bawl Mill
• Our Readers Say
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• Pursuing Rare Earths in Wyoming
• The Mole
• Prospecting for Copper Ores—Part I
• Repair / Replace Tax Rule Changes
• The Wisdom of Mark Twain—And Tales of Cheating the Unwary Prospector
• Colorado Mining Association Appeals Roadless Ruling
• Ganes Creek Hits 10 Years—Part II
• Fifteen and Counting
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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