Prospecting & Detecting
Sniping for Gold
August 2012 by Ray Mills
Sniping for gold… what does it mean to you? To me, sniping is taking a mask and snorkel along with a screwdriver and squeeze bottle to search for gold lying on or in bedrock.
Excavator Testing Wet Placer Ground
The excavator or backhoe has become the tool of choice for testing placer ground. These machines are the best way to explore and sample a placer deposit if the ground is not too wet or frozen and bedrock is not beyond the reach of the machine.
Detecting Old Pocket Diggings
Looking around, I could tell that this was an old hand-digging. As I walked around the perimeter of the digging I could see shovel and pick marks scratched on the clean, hard clay and bedrock.
This is Why You Check Your Tailings
The nugget was cast aside with larger rocks during the screening process, but it was found later by an employee...
Mutiny on The Mason
We decided to check some spots that were pretty good to us on previous trips. The detector was deceptively simple with few buttons and auto-ground balance.
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.
Creating Your Own Luck
Now that you are actually going to be out there doing some prospecting, I may be able to help.
Paperwork Guy—A Cautionary Tale
I recently grew complacent, and it caused me to make a mistake that resulted in the loss of a mining claim. It brought my mining plans for the summer to a complete halt.
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