Prospecting & Detecting
Old Water Channels Provide Important Clues
May 2022 by Ray Mills
After washing the top sixty to ninety feet of gravel, the old- timers hit the bedrock. The bedrock paid one-eighth to one-half of an ounce to the square foot…
Trying Out the New Highbanker
The 2011 gold season had finally got underway on the Middle Fork of the Feather River near Quincy, California. Cold weather and high water had pushed gold mining into mid-summer, but things were looking up.
Commercial Placer Mining: Alaska Style
There are currently about 170 commercial-scale placer operations in Alaska. Most of these are small operations with just a few people working; they are often family affairs that operate seasonally only during favorable weather.
Australian Gold Adventure
I had my heart set on finding a large nugget on this trip, and it seemed to me that pounding known patches was not likely to turn up a monster. Inevitably I would spend at least half my day wandering off...
A Lesson In Underwater Sniping
Of course, I know a bit about crevicing, but Steve seems to really have a knack for it, and I’m all about continual learning. I can always learn a few tricks from the pros.
A Few Thoughts About Successful Nugget Hunting
...I got the faintest of rises in the threshold. It was hardly a signal at all, and I thought it was one of the many, deep, hot rocks in the area.
Prospecting for Liberated Gold
Some will doubt its value given the ultra-fine particle size… Some will become encouraged about not having to incur significant time and expense to break rock.
Panning for Gold on Canyon Creek
I was able to remove the gravels with the assistance of a crowbar and I scooped them up with a garden trowel. This gravel contained over a pennyweight of gold and there were several 2-grain and 3-grain pieces…
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The Bawl Mill
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Ask The Experts - How are gold veins formed?
• Ask The Experts - Is there gold in Monterey County, California?
• Ask The Experts - Can you explain NMR and satellite imagery?
• Ask The Experts - What other indicators are there besides red soils?
• Mineralization, Ground Balance and Metal Detecting
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Warning Signs
• What To Do With All That Gold?
• Proposed 100-Mile Road in the Yentna Mining District
• All About Trommels and Screens for Placer Gold Recovery
• Judge Orders FBI to Produce Records on Civil War Gold Hunt
• Strategies for Detecting Heavily Pounded Areas—Pt II
• Auburn, California
• The Mystery of the Grand Summit Mine
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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