Prospecting & Detecting
It Pays to Know Your Bedrock
November 2017 by Michael Matus
On our last trip, we brought ropes and went down the first waterfall forty vertical feet, only to be confronted by a second, sixty-foot-high, overhanging waterfall that emptied into a slot canyon.
What Equipment Do I Need?
Getting started in prospecting often requires the purchase of some equipment, but one can spend as little as $10 and be finding gold or spend thousands and also be finding gold—yet you will probably have many more opportunities and possibilities with more and better equipment.
How to Upgrade Your Pocket Plunger
These three simple upgrades, when taken together, will considerably increase a pocket plunger’s magnetic pull and make it less susceptible to breakage.
Prospecting Underground: Use Caution
In underground placer work, the contact point of the bedrock tunnel and the gravel is a very weak point and always has to be timbered. The bedrock here is thin, fractured, and the gravels loose from many years of oxidizing.
Refractory Gold Processing
After your excitement peaks when you first receive the high gold assay from the vein you just exposed, you ponder how you will extract and sell your gold. You will need to develop a flow sheet for your process to optimize your recovery and minimize your costs and permit requirements.
Tips for Cleaning Gold Nuggets
I pulled out the nuggets I had worked on previously and looked at the size of the wire basket that the items to be cleaned are placed into. It looks much like a miniature french fry deep fryer.
California: The Land of Big Nuggets—Part I
The nugget sat there in plain sight, though it was covered in dirt, while hundreds of people had passed that way every day.
Potential Gold at Old Hydraulic Sites
So why would a modern-day prospector want to learn about a method of mining that was banned by the courts more than a century ago?
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The Bawl Mill
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Ask The Experts - How do I work this glacial deposit?
• Ask The Experts - How do I best recover gold in pyrite?
• BLM Cancels 10-Million-Acre Sage Grouse Mineral Withdrawal
• Take it to Bedrock
• The Beatty Mining District of Nevada
• Flood Plain Gold Deposits—What Are They Really?
• Exploring Iron Oxide Copper Gold Deposits
• Conrey Dredge No. 4
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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Over the Divide: Nancy Glenn; Sondra (Adelson) Bernzweig
