Gold is a fairly widespread mineral in the Italian Alps and in the Northern Apennines. It is found both in primary mineralization and in past and recent floods.

We all love to see that first glimmer of gold when it peeks out from under the black sand in our pan, or feel the weight of a nugget in our scoop when we dig a good target. But sometimes things don’t go quite so smoothly.

Every time we prospected here we found gold, sometimes some really coarse flakes, but no large nuggets (yet).

Ray followed up by detecting the same area and I was happy to see that he did not find any good targets in the same line. So far so good.

So let’s dive in and see what I can do to convince you that this is the year you should be out staking your own claims.

He began hiking my way and was as astonished as I was when he saw it. Another high five moment! It makes you wonder how long this gold had just been sitting there on the ground.