Prospecting & Detecting
Prospecting Knowledge -- Pass It On!
May 2017 by Ray Mills
I had two of the guys go down into the creek and each one picked out a small island of bedrock. I had them detect their piece of bedrock and then gave a critique to all on how they did.
Residual Placers: An Often Overlooked Gold Source
Because the forces of erosion and gravity tend to carry lighter materials like quartz away more easily, the heavy minerals like gold or silver will tend to be concentrated in the general area around the vein outcrop. These concentrations are what make residual placers so attractive.
A Return to Silver City, Idaho
...we were able to pull out close to another 3+ ounces of small, angular Silver City gold. This also included several more small nuggets, pieces of wire gold and some quartz-gold pieces—not bad for 4 days with a small sluice.
Chasing Float Gold—The Starry Night Wash
The sun was beginning to set, which put the light at just the right angle against the hillsides to where I believed that I spotted a very small dig and tailings pile up the hill near the top of the second wash.
The Smell of Gold—Part I
Some claim they can smell gold. This may be, but when I take a whiff of gold, I smell dirt, rotten eggs, garlic or just nothing: my nose is everything but sensitive.
Recovering Fine Gold with Oleophilic Adhesion
Oleophilic means "affinity to or attracted to oils," and this includes gold an diamonds.
Breaking Rock the Old School Way
Prospectors have many reasons why they might want to break rocks. These include dividing up a specimen too large to carry.
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• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Ask The Experts: How many claims can I file in Arizona?
• Ask The Experts: What should I do with a large amount of old placer concentrates?
• Shaker Tables for Processing Hard Rock Ores
• Becoming a Successful Detectorist
• Hand Panning Micro-Fine Gold
• Sampling, Hydro-Shocking & Cleaning Quartz-Gold Specimens
• My Lucky Thirteen Nuggets
• Crushing, Grinding and Pulverizing
• A Break in the Weather
• From the Editor
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
• Over The Divide: Miles John Mitchell
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