Prospecting & Detecting
Iron Minerals, Your Detector and Gold
January 2013 by Chris Ralph
It’s worthwhile for the prospector using a metal detector to know a little bit more about the association of iron and gold as well as how iron minerals affect your metal detector.
Quartzsite Gives Up Some Big Gold
There is always an overwhelming feeling when finding gold of any size, but one like this doesn’t come along very often.
A Long Dry Spell
Just three weeks ago one of our prospecting team members decided to go back to this location on his own. He had a new detector and wanted to try it out some.
VLF Detector Operating Modes
It is important to note that discrimination is a type of electronic filtering. The signal is analyzed, and depending on the discrimination setting, identified as either a target to be dug or a target to be ignored.
Time for a New Approach: Detecting Float Gold
The first pieces found were in a spot that most gold hunters would not even detect, right in the middle of a downslope meadow.
Prospecting Knowledge -- Pass It On!
I had two of the guys go down into the creek and each one picked out a small island of bedrock. I had them detect their piece of bedrock and then gave a critique to all on how they did.
Persistence Leads to Over a Pound of Gold
I have figured out over the years that the winning combination is hard work, persistence, knowledge, and a little luck. This leads me to describe one of my best finds ever, a “honey hole” of placer gold, if you will.
The Madonna Nugget
It was down deeper than I expected for surface trash. It wasn't until I was down six inches that the target screamed from my scoop.
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• Forty-Six Nuggets
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• Small Miner Beats Forest Service in Court
• Using Vegetation and Soil Conditions as Prospecting Aids
• Prospecting for Diamonds
• Green Valley Reconnaissance
• Gold Pour Signals Revival in the Mother Lode
• Melman on Gold & Silver
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