Prospecting & Detecting
So Where's The Gold?
August 2011 by Don Robinson
...we finally got back to this exploration effort. The old works there were up above the old camp, which was very significant in size.The Gold of Plumas de Oro
Their rewards were far better than they had anticipated, resulting in one of the best clean-ups they had ever seen.
Dry Washer, Wet System or Metal Detector?
I love to dry wash old nugget patches found by detector operators, and I have found my fair share of gold dry washing those areas. I have also found a few nuggets using a detector on the bedrock exposed by dry washing the patches.
Gold in the Slate Creek Basin
In some areas these channels were thousands of feet wide, and just figuring out where you are in some of these diggings is a challenge.
Detecting Alluvial Bench Deposits -- Pt II
Walking around the gulch and exploring the upper drainage, picking up different rocks and inspecting them with a good loop, and looking them up in a field guide of rocks and minerals of your region will help you understand how the gold got there.
Revisiting The Old Mini Patch
Today, the greatest gold rushes occur due to technological advances capable of discovering gold where it once was extremely unlikely or difficult.
Placers Directly Associated with Lode Deposits
Placers that are directly associated with lode deposits are sometimes overlooked and may have good potential for those who are willing to search for them.
Attention to Detail - Part II
Ditches almost always started in the high country and contoured the mountainsides, making a long drop, usually many miles away, to the goldfields. There are ditches in Trinity County that originate at seven and eight thousand feet in the Trinity Alps that carried water almost thirty miles.
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