Prospecting & Detecting
Salted Mining Properties—How to Properly Evaluate a Claim
March 2012 by Chris Ralph
Sometimes there are good mining claims on the market available to purchase, but there are also folks out there who are willing to take your money under false pretenses. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that these wolves in sheep’s clothing are few and far between.Persistence Leads to Over a Pound of Gold
I have figured out over the years that the winning combination is hard work, persistence, knowledge, and a little luck. This leads me to describe one of my best finds ever, a “honey hole” of placer gold, if you will.
Indicators and Hillsides
The placer gold shows up in ground sluice areas, hydraulic pits, secondary channels and hillside diggings. It is coming down the hillsides from an ancient channel left high and dry millions of years ago.
The Alaska Highway and Beyond
My first clean-up showed that my efforts were not in vain. There was considerable color with some good-sized nuggets in the riffle trap.
Route Planning Using GPS
My intention was to end this discussion with waypoints and routes, then I found USGS maps of the Plainfield Quadrangle.
The Potholes—California’s Oldest Known Mining District
Every time we prospected here we found gold, sometimes some really coarse flakes, but no large nuggets (yet).
Detecting at the Sixteen to One Mine
A while back I was given a very special opportunity to take my metal detector to one of the most famous gold mines in all of California, the Original Sixteen to One mine in Alleghany.
The World of the Simple Gold Pan
There are so many, many different types of gold pans on the market that I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at the world of the simple gold pan.
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The Bawl Mill
• Ask the Experts: Set up a small portable operation or send the ore to a custom mill?
• Ask the Experts: Who manufactures the diagonal vibrating table?
• Ask the Experts: Do "corners" need to be in place on the ground for a claim to be valid?
• Ask the Experts: Tantalite in an African nation -- is it worth pursuing?
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Following Clues to a Hidden Gold Deposit
• How to Melt Your Own Gold
• Judge Tosses Lawsuit Against Tucson-Area Mine
• Fine Gold Panning Without Using Mercury
• Australia Produces World's Largest Gold Coin
• Fells Flat Gold
• Colorado Considers Gold & Silver Currency
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
Free:
Revised Dredge Regulations Published for California—Pure Garbage
• Xmet Aims for One Million Ounces
