Prospecting in the Age of Covid-19

May 2020 by Chris Ralph

I have a bunch of ideas about what to do in the near term and then other thoughts about what things might look like a few months from now when I hope the situation will look a lot better.

Creating Your Own Luck

April 2014
Now that you are actually going to be out there doing some prospecting, I may be able to help.

Finding Gold With A Simple Sluice Box

March 2022

…the sluice is a normal first step up from a gold pan for many prospectors. They are simple to use, easily portable, can capture a lot of gold, and can process gravel 10 to 20 times faster than a person can pan…

Mining for Gemstones and Mineral Specimens

August 2013
It is better in a gem and mineral mining operation that the driller, blaster and mucker be the same person in order to be able to predict placement of the desired mineral enriched pockets.

Old Patch, New Detector

March 2017
I have been detecting the area on and off since I discovered it. Every time I bought a new detector it was the first place I went to.

It's Hard to Find Gold!

October 2013
...even the best prospectors have times when they do not find gold. It is all about taking chances against tough odds and succeeding.

Sluicing and Detecting Downstream

July 2020

…early last fall, I found my first gold-rich patch along a few crevices in the same river and found five grams of gold nuggets in one outing.

Small-Scale Miners Rock the Mining World

August 2012
With the high price of gold, there are many new prospectors out in the hills all over the United States, and while we would all prefer to be finding those larger nuggets, it doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes all that is available is nothing more than a few small flakes. The truth is, new prospectors are sprouting up all across the planet—especially in the developing nations.

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