Step-by-Step Crevicing

September 2019 by Matteo Oberto

Gold trapped in the cracks can be encrusted close to the walls or mixed with sand and pebbles, making the gold difficult to see and then extract. Crevicing requires a lot of patience to achieve positive results.

Tips for Cleaning Gold Nuggets

June 2019

I pulled out the nuggets I had worked on previously and looked at the size of the wire basket that the items to be cleaned are placed into. It looks much like a miniature french fry deep fryer.

Think You Got It All? Guess Again!

May 2016

Is your gold recovery actually 95%, 90%, or even a really poor 50%? If you are not testing to know what it really is, you just don’t know. Some do regular testing, but most do not.

Hunches, Choices and Guesses

September 2013
When you approach a location, even if you've been there before, you should consider all the factors and conditions present at the site. This includes both natural and man-made factors.

Prospecting for Gold at Green Valley

December 2012
In October, five of us decided to take an exploration trip into an area called Green Valley. This was perhaps ten miles upstream from where we had gone in September and the difficulty was access. One would think that based on the name it was an easily accessible area not far from a nearby town. This couldn’t be more wrong.

Wild and Scenic River Prospecting—North Fork of the American River

September 2012
Today it is getting tougher and tougher to find a place to prospect. There is one significant haven left for the small miner...

Using Structural Clues to Locate Buried Placer Channels

April 2014
They must have assumed the paystreak was spotty and had been mined out, so they never mined as close to the side of the valley as they should have.

Using Google Earth and Other Maps

November 2012
Last month, one of our readers requested an article regarding the possible use of Google Earth for prospecting research. It was a good idea, so here it is.

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