Prospecting & Detecting
Recent Prospecting in Plumas County
November 2010 by Chris Ralph
Plumas has been historically rich in gold because of its favorable geology. The Melones Fault trends north-south through the county and many rich gold-bearing districts lie along its course.
Pumping Water With Solar Power
Solar energy can be used for any size placer or hard rock mining operation. It is most practical for small and longer-term operations provided your mine is not located in a dense forest.
A Gold Mine on a Washington Beach?
Bela and Barbara Kovacs began prospecting for gold about seven years ago as a family orientated outdoors activity. A welder by trade and lured by the simple fact that beach sands can contain small bits of precious metals, Bela decided a few years ago to build a sand sucking contraption that can sift the shoreline for anything worth keeping.
What Have You Got to Lose?
It’s accepted knowledge that wet methods will recover more fine gold than dry methods and processing the gravel as a whole will get more gold than only using a metal detector. The question is how much more?
A Father and Son Prospecting Adventure
As I write this, I am still on a rush from taking my 9-year-old son, Jeffrey, prospecting for the first time this past weekend. It’s not that he hasn’t been along on numerous outings before: this is the first time that just the two of us went out for a day of drywashing and detecting under the desert sun.
California Sniping
I opted for the underwater portion of the river. All I have to do is float down the river and pick large flakes and small nuggets out of cracks and crevices while staying cool in the summer heat.
Highbanking at the 144
My third sample location proved to be my last and most interesting. I needed to look no further.
Swing and a Miss
A very good baseball hitter might get a hit roughly one time out of every three at-bats, but for prospectors often the results are much sparser and it may take many trips before the prospector hits a home run.
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The Bawl Mill
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• The Jenkins Mine Project, Conclusion—Recovery Operations & Summary
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• Prospecting for Nickel Deposits
• Detecting My Way Across Australia—Pt II
• Detectors Versus Pans
• Check The Box For Tax Savings
• Mining Stock Quotes & Mineral and Metal Prices
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Undiscovered Placer Deposits in Alaska
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