Residual Placers: An Often Overlooked Gold Source

December 2021 by Chris Ralph

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.

An Alaskan in the Lower 48

July 2013
Our destination was some old hydraulic workings where the old miners had washed literally mountains of material away to expose gold in ancient river channels.

Which Nugget Detector Should I Get?

June 2013
The most commonly asked question in metal detecting is, “Which metal detector should I get?” People worry a lot about not getting the right machine. They do not want to waste their money and their time with the wrong metal detector.

Prospecting for Pegmatites

July 2015

…in some cases pegmatites have produced individual mineral crystals that are enormous, attaining lengths of over 40 feet long, and many of the world’s largest mineral crystals are examples that were found within pegmatite deposits.

Silverton's Gold

October 2017

Within this area, about two million ounces of gold and fifty million ounces of silver have been mined. Faults, dikes, veins and fissures that carry the ore form a concentric radial pattern—like spokes on a wagon wheel—around the caldera core.

Early Winter Detecting in the Sierras

January 2017
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.

Detecting Alluvial Bench Deposits

February 2017
The same questions you ask yourself about gold trapping features in the present stream can be applied to the benches above the stream. Just imagine the stream at a much earlier time, before it cut its way down to the present level…

A Family Quest for Gold

February 2016
Back at our campsite, while the rest of us grabbed a late four o’clock lunch, Fallyn volunteered to do the clean-up panning.

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