Prospecting & Detecting
The Basics of Permitting and Bonding Your Mining Operation
December 2020 by John Norman
With the recent surge of interest in gold projects, it’s about time to revisit a subject that strikes fear into the hearts of small-scale miners: Permits.
Moore Creek, Alaska—Then and Now
The gold was very chunky and much of it had quartz attached. Even back then I knew that the gold was very close to its source.
Sunset Sunbaker
He began hiking my way and was as astonished as I was when he saw it. Another high five moment! It makes you wonder how long this gold had just been sitting there on the ground.
Time for a New Approach: Detecting Float Gold
The first pieces found were in a spot that most gold hunters would not even detect, right in the middle of a downslope meadow.
Diamond Prospecting in Indiana
My first personal experience with placer diamonds was on a gold prospecting trip in Indiana about 8 years ago, when a fellow prospector was cleaning his gold concentrates.
Sampling for Success—Part II
The first and most important thing of the sampling process is to try to be as unbiased as possible. There is a natural tendency to select rock that looks the best—even unconsciously.
Gold Indicators—What to Look for in the Goldfields
Some of the items that I’m going to go over are outcroppings, ditches, exploratory trenches and contacts/surface materials. I am going to speak about each of the above items in as much detail as I can, and then towards the end of this article I will tie them together.
Twenty Minutes on a Five-inch Dredge
The first thing I realized was this was not a toy—this thing had power and I needed to really pay attention. I got into position, took a deep breath, and pushed that monster into the hard pack.
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The Bawl Mill
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Ask The Experts - Is this prospect worth sampling?
• Ask The Experts - Can you recommend resources for southeast Alaska?
• Ask The Experts - Can I pay someone to research a claim for me?
• Ask The Experts - Do larger detector coils see deeper nuggets?
• Reading A River: Understanding Erosion and Gold
• Plotting and Persistence Lead to Big Gold
• Using Countercurrent Material Flow to Improve Gold Recovery Efficiency
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: The First Year Is The Hardest
• Mining In The El Paso Range of Southern California
• Tips and Tricks: A Dredging Tip for Clearing the Tailings Pile
• The Kern River
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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