Metal Detecting Old Hard Rock Mine Dumps

May 2018 by Chris Ralph

The type of mine dump that is best for metal detecting are the ones that consist of mixed sizes of rock and are located near some sort of excavation, commonly a shaft or adit. Sometimes the piles located along a trench dug by the miners can be productive as well.

Detecting My Way Across Australia—Pt II

November 2010
It was round and I thought it was a dirty piece of lead shot, but after feeling the weight and giving it a spit-cleaning I knew I had one! Small as the nugget was, I felt happy and gratified for my little success

Blackberries and Gold

August 2018

There were iron stains all over and even a few places where I could see iron trash sticking out of the bedrock. These would be ideal spots to start with as the gold travels with the iron and lead.

Prospecting Hard Rock

March 2014
We panned out maybe three gold pans of the material and we were shocked at the gold that was there. This rock appeared to be rich.

Feather River Gold

February 2017
I didn’t think too much of our dredge hole and we were both considering a move when we hit bedrock. There was a good quantity of flakes and fines, but no nuggets.

Mother Lode Leaf Gold

July 2011
After removing about six inches of dirt and cobbles, the sound was a bit more recognizable. I was now confident that there was a definite target and not just a ground noise.

Drywashing Arizona Gold

January 2016
His findings were not exaggerated—after running 82 buckets of gravels in two days we had a remarkable 27.8 grams of gold!

Detecting Alluvial Bench Deposits -- Pt II

March 2017
Walking around the gulch and exploring the upper drainage, picking up different rocks and inspecting them with a good loop, and looking them up in a field guide of rocks and minerals of your region will help you understand how the gold got there.

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