Prospecting & Detecting
Prospector's Guide to Rock Breaking and Blasting
December 2016 by Chris Ralph
The holes were overloaded with explosives, but I didn’t know it. I was just a green mining engineer fresh out of school and told to watch as the experienced miners set the charge.
Your Guide to Prospecting in Alaska
Alaska is getting a lot of interest these days, not least because of all the gold prospecting shows on television. Hardly a month seems to pass without some new prospecting show being announced, and a couple of the most popular feature Alaska.
Gold in the Slate Creek Basin
In some areas these channels were thousands of feet wide, and just figuring out where you are in some of these diggings is a challenge.
Early Winter Detecting in the Sierras
The mine site consists of river gravels from an ancient channel covering over 20 acres, and the place is covered with very large river rock and small tree overgrowth.
Green Valley Reconnaissance
During this trip we found enough gold to make us want to come back, even with the punishment of a very long, tough hike.
Nice Specimen Gold Recovered in Northern California
Each specimen is carefully examined to determine if it would be beneficial or not to use an acid treatment to reveal more of the gold.
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.
Research and Fieldwork Yield Some Promising Gold
A week later, a small team of us hit it again, and this time the gold really showed up.
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• Alaskan Gold Adventure
• Learning the Game and the Power to Change It
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