Prospecting & Detecting
Sierra County Gold—Part I
December 2013 by Chris Ralph
...this county contained some of the richest placer ground found in all of California and still produces some pretty impressive finds to this day.
Buyer Beware! Counterfeit Metal Detectors
When I was recently in West Africa, I got to see and play with my first, phony, Chinese knock-off metal detector.
All About Garnets
I get a lot of questions from prospectors about garnets, their value and what they tell us about the geology of some types of mineral deposits. So I thought it would be a good idea to take a closer look at the lowly garnet and learn a bit more about it.
Finding Gold with a VLF Detector—Part II
It is this ability to hear and respond to the faintest of audio signals that I believe separates the best nugget hunters from everyone else.
Iowa Hill District
For the last two years we’ve held a hands-on prospectors training session in the Iowa Hill district of California’s Mother Lode country as a part of our Gold Prospecting and Mining Summit event. Because of this, I thought it might be good to take a look at the history, geology and opportunities that the Iowa Hill district still offers to the individual prospector.
How to Stake Your Own Mining Claims—Part I
Many new prospectors start out prospecting in public areas and club claims, and this is perfectly fine, but the next step in the progression of becoming an experienced prospector is to locate and stake your own mining claims. Highbanking for Gold
Pumps can be set up quite a distance away horizontally from the sluice, even hundreds of feet. It will work so long as there is sufficient water at the source where the pump is located. Vertical distance is more of a problem than horizontal distance; 30 to 40 feet is the maximum vertical climb for most pumps.
Humble Beginnings
Right away I got a target, and it ended up being gold from a nice little bench. With only an hour left of daylight, I continued heading upstream and found five more tiny pieces of gold with my VLF…
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