Prospecting & Detecting
Memories of Shirttail Creek, Northern California
June 2020 by Dan Stanton
…for a few hours, we fervently dug for gold. After we did a cleanup, I couldn’t believe the amount we got.
Libby, Montana Prospectors Keep Tradition Alive
Located 23 miles south of Libby, the land surrounding the Libby Creek area has been of interest to prospectors since the early 1860s, when it was home to up to 600 miners working at a camp known as Libbysville.
Following Man-Made Ditches to Recover More Gold
Because of multiple take-out points along a ditch line, the ditches themselves become a wealth of knowledge to us present-day miners.
Detecting Strategies for Heavily Forested Areas
Looking for nugget laden bedrock in forested mountain regions, you first need to explore the banks of the gold-bearing streams and look for the bedrock that is exposed as this is your starting point.
Speed Prospecting for Hard Rock Gold
An online video gave me some ideas, and with a lot of trial and error I developed a reliable method of panning free gold particles down below 35 microns quickly and easily.
Our Readers Say
• Prospecting for Diamonds in Kimberlite by W. Dan Hausel
• Miners referring to their activity as “recreational”
My New Passion--Crystal Hunting
I decided to dig near it to see if there were any more and immediately uncovered others. In total I found a pocket with over 100 crystals in it. I was hooked.
Rediscovering Placerville, California Part II
To get to the gold, the miners had to remove the shale pieces and stack them on the sides while sluicing the remaining material through their boxes.
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• Our Readers Say Re: It's Time to Get the Heck Out of China
• Ask The Experts - What’s the status of suction gold dredge permitting in California?
• Ask The Experts - How do I properly and safely dispose of blasting caps?
• Ask The Experts - How much silver per ton does it take to make a mine profitable?
• Ask The Experts - How clean do my gold concentrates need to be to pour a gold button or bar?
• Ask The Experts - What is the name and model of the old jaw crusher pictured in last month’s issue?
• Dredging Tips and Tricks: T-80 Air Compressor Maintenance
• Hard Rock 101: Mechanical Techniques
• Clearing the Nugget Trap with a Detector
• Resurrecting an Old Hard Rock Mine—Setting Up the Millsite
• Desert Prospecting Yields More Than Just Gold
• Indictments Pile Up for Gold Traders
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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Seeking The Truth—A Letter From the Editor
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• PLP Update: The Path for Legally Re-Starting Suction Gold Dredge Mining in 2021
