Prospecting & Detecting
Take a Kid Detecting
January 2014 by Jonathan Porter
I thought things started off okay until I realized I had forgotten some of my gear and had to return to the house. My troubled start was not helped when my boy came up to me a few minutes after my return to show me his first nugget of the day.
A Model Mining Operation
After he excavates the ore down to bedrock, he goes over the bedrock with a metal detector to ensure he didn't leave any gold behind before he backfills the area.
Prospecting Tales: Forest Service, Fires and Bears—Oh My!
I woke up on Sunday morning, August 10, to heavy smoke. I saw where it was coming from, but it seemed like it was a long way off so I thought I was okay for the time being.
How to Stake Your Own Mining Claims—Part II
I’d like to offer some practical comments about staking and maintaining mining claims. Owning your own claim is the dream of many prospectors. I’ve made good money off my mining claims, both from the minerals I have found on them as well as from leasing out some of my claims to larger mining and exploration companies.
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.
The Reason We Fight
Joy was written on his face, holding up the nugget—his first ever nugget—that he and his grandpa dug up together.
How to Upgrade Your Pocket Plunger
These three simple upgrades, when taken together, will considerably increase a pocket plunger’s magnetic pull and make it less susceptible to breakage.
Uncovering the Find of a Lifetime
• The 75-ounce Butte County nugget is the largest found in California since the 156-ounce Mojave nugget in the 1970s...
Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill
• Ask the Experts: Big rocks or small cobbles?
• Ask the Experts: Quartz rock and the chance of gold in my area of New Hampshire?
• Ask the Experts: Equipment and gold locations in Colorado
• Ask the Experts: Silent partners and mining—is it worth the risk?
• Sierra County Gold—Part II
• The Silver Islet Mountains of Utah
• Gold Placers of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
• Alternative Gold Leaching Methods
• Over the Divide
• Prospecting for Diamonds in Kimberlite
• Additional Note Regarding "Strategic Metals—Part II"
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
Free:
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• California Gold Adventure







