Prospecting & Detecting
The Coolgardie Gold Mining Camp of Southern California
August 2020 by Dan Stanton
The area was mined intermittently from around 1900 to 1915, but was also mined in the late 1800s, with a total output valued at about $100,000, which is around $9.5 million at the current gold price.
Modern-Day Claim Jumping
We soon found that our discovery post and other claim markers were gone and replaced with new posts and a notice of location with an earlier date than had been on our notice of location.
Falcon Fanatic: Journey of a Novice Detectorist
My first day using my pinpointer I detected an area where the fellas’ big guns had swooped in and cleaned up all the “big gold” and I got over sixty tiny pieces of gold.
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.
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.
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.
The Importance of Prepping you Gold Detecting Spots
If you want to get better gold you will need to put your detector down for a while .
Prospecting for Diamonds
Let’s take a look at diamonds and diamond mining and see how they form, how they are used beyond just jewelry, and what leads geologists to find diamond deposits.
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• Hard Work Pays Off On Hard Rock
• The Mysterious Telluride Minerals
• Detecting: Getting Away From The Heat And Into The Gold
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: How Curiosity Burst My Platinum Bubble
• Prospecting for Copper—What to Look for on the Outcrop
• Dredging Tips and Tricks: A Measure of Water Pump Efficiency
• Hard Rock 101: Small-Scale Blasting
• Melman on Gold & Silver
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