This year was a test. We had never done anything like this before, yet we grossed $30,000 in the short time we had to mine.

There are times when being able to recognize a type of rock can make you a much more successful prospector.

Fast forward to present day and the XRF has come of age. Pull the trigger on the hand-held device and you get a nearly instant assay of the surface of a rock.

…it was immediately evident the previous owner had not been using a detector. During just a few months of working the dumps part-time, he recovered gold in quartz specimens valued in excess of $40,000.

This new map-based tool is far superior to the old version with lots of potential layers and information that a prospector can use in research.