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.
Prospecting Research
These are just some of the ways I have been able to find new spots to metal detect for gold.
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.
Drywashing Arizona Gold
His findings were not exaggerated—after running 82 buckets of gravels in two days we had a remarkable 27.8 grams of gold!
Jim Madden's Gold
Maybe we could find a few pieces of ore from that tunnel? It was worth a try. The old timers didn’t have that stamp mill for looks, so we set off to get some samples.
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.
Detecting Alone -- What to Look For
I figure there are a lot of new people out there who have the same question. I will try to give some answers that hopefully will give you more confidence in finding your own spots.
Resurrecting An Old Hard Rock Mine
There were nice sections of vein material at the end of several drifts, like they just stopped work one day and walked away.
Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill
• Our Readers Say
• Ask the Experts: What type of wetsuit do I need?
• MMAC Update
• Pros and Cons of Big Detector Coils
• Prospecting and Mining Old Mine Sites
• Detecting Strategies for Heavily Forested Areas
• Mining Districts and Community Outreach
• Alaskan Gold Adventure
• Learning the Game and the Power to Change It
• Central Idaho Federal Employees Back to Work With Local Help
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
• Melman on Gold & Silver
