Prospecting & Detecting
Old Mine Sites and New Technology
September 2018 by Jack Geck
We’ve had two trips to the deserts of Nevada and explored mines and mill sites, hiked miles of ravines in California, and swung our detector coils over thousands of square yards of bedrock.
Resurrecting An Old Hard Rock Mine
There were nice sections of vein material at the end of several drifts, like they just stopped work one day and walked away.
Fluorescent Mineral Prospecting
Ultraviolet light is divided into three levels, labeled A, B and C depending on the wavelength, with C having the shortest wavelength and the most energy.
Our Readers Say
- Conversion charts and tables
- Solutions to anti-mining efforts
Gold: Is It Everywhere?
Gold, on the other hand, is super rare, and is one of the rarest elements in the earth’s crust. It averages only 0.000004 percent of the earth’s surface. That is four parts in a billion.
Gold Mining Boom in the Carolinas
Not too far from the pine-filled mountains, a young boy was exploring along Meadow Creek in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, one fine day in 1799. He discovered a beautiful rock that he took home and put to good use as a doorstop. Shortly thereafter, a jeweler stopped by to visit his folks, and as it turned out, the new doorstop was actually a 17-pound gold nugget. That nugget truly did open a door as it marked the beginning of the first gold rush in America.
Twenty Minutes on a Five-inch Dredge
The first thing I realized was this was not a toy—this thing had power and I needed to really pay attention. I got into position, took a deep breath, and pushed that monster into the hard pack.
Modern-Day Claim Jumping
We soon found that our discovery post and other claim markers were gone and replaced with new posts and a notice of location with an earlier date than had been on our notice of location.
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• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Understanding Skim Bar Placers
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• Mining Journal Receives Honor
• Gold Prospecting: For Better or Worse
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• PLP Update
• Have We Hit 'Peak Gold'?
• What Happened to The Gold Prospecting and Mining Summit?
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
