Prospecting & Detecting
Prospecting Australia—Part III Anatomy of a Nugget Patch in Western Australia
December 2011 by Chris Ralph
One of the most memorable nuggets I found in Australia was detected on the very last day that I was out prospecting. I was going along swinging my coil and I came across a blaring loud signal that almost blew my ears off.Just Feel The Heft of It
“Just feel the heft of it!” Those were the words that lit the fire that created a prospector. Before I tell you what took place, I have a desire to tell you when and where it took place.
Detecting Wet Ground Yields More Fun Than Gold
We all continued over to another location at the top of a massive placer operation. Arriving at the draw, I showed everyone where gold had been found before and we all began detecting.
Old Mine Sites and New Technology
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.
Mining for Gemstones and Mineral Specimens
![](http://www.icmj.com/userfiles/images/201308/TOC-gem-and-minerals.jpg)
What's Left Behind
![](http://icmj.com/userfiles/images/201212/TOC-what's-left-behind.jpg)
Proper Spacing of Placer Sample Sites
The zone of influence of each sample must be carefully considered when deciding how far sample sites should be spaced from each other.
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