Prospecting & Detecting
Mining In The El Paso Range of Southern California
December 2020 by Alan J. Chenworth
While none of the historical mining camps are active, the area is still a hub of activity for the modern prospector, and claims still blanket the hills and gulches.
Ask The Experts
Designing my own dredge...
Uncovering the Find of a Lifetime
• The 75-ounce Butte County nugget is the largest found in California since the 156-ounce Mojave nugget in the 1970s...
My Introduction To Gold Prospecting
At the end of the day, Jerry showed me how to clean out the sluice box and then how to pan out the concentrates. As we finished panning, there it was—a little tiny smile of gold...
Tips and Tricks: A Dredging Tip for Clearing the Tailings Pile
After a short time, the tailings pile can get very large, and can actually block the downstream end of the sluice box.
Step-by-Step Crevicing
Gold trapped in the cracks can be encrusted close to the walls or mixed with sand and pebbles, making the gold difficult to see and then extract. Crevicing requires a lot of patience to achieve positive results.
Hard Rock 101: Advanced Micro Blasting
They… create negligible fumes and much less fly rock than blasting. Below are some tips on maximizing your effectiveness with these tools.
Buying a Mining Claim: Questions to Ask

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• Reading A River: Understanding Erosion and Gold
• The Basics of Permitting and Bonding Your Mining Operation
• Plotting and Persistence Lead to Big Gold
• Using Countercurrent Material Flow to Improve Gold Recovery Efficiency
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: The First Year Is The Hardest
• Tips and Tricks: A Dredging Tip for Clearing the Tailings Pile
• The Kern River
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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