Trash! A Hindrance Or Hot Spot For Hidden Gold?

March 2018 by Ray Mills

I love it when I am in the middle of a high trash area and all the ferrous bars go away, the screen number goes to a three or an eight, and the meter is forty to a hundred. I don’t know for sure that I have found gold, but it narrows the odds down.

Swing and a Miss

July 2014
A very good baseball hitter might get a hit roughly one time out of every three at-bats, but for prospectors often the results are much sparser and it may take many trips before the prospector hits a home run.

Hunting for Gold in the Quartzsite Area of Western Arizona

October 2013
Winters are a great time to explore the hills in the area of the Middle Camp, Oro Fino and La Cholla placers on the southern flank of the Dome Rock Mountains.

The Value of Old Patches

June 2019

Nuggets make for the best memories and this patch was just adding to mine. In the hours of daylight I had left, I worked from that nugget to the bottom of the patch, collecting eight more nuggets.

Cold Water Gold

December 2011
It was June 2011, and my wife Fran and I with Grandson Lucas and good friend Ernie Cruz were attempting to get to our gold mining claim on the Middle Fork of the Feather River about ten miles from Quincy, California. Rain had poured down in the previous few days and the road in a large number of low places was under water. Following two hours of slugging through the mud...

Excavator Testing Wet Placer Ground

April 2013
The excavator or backhoe has become the tool of choice for testing placer ground. These machines are the best way to explore and sample a placer deposit if the ground is not too wet or frozen and bedrock is not beyond the reach of the machine.

Maitland Bar Nugget to Go On Display

January 2016
The box sat in a hallway and employees began using it for impromptu cricket games, no knowing what it contained.

PLP Update: Back to The 'Swamp' on Behalf of Small Miners

July 2018

We spent the morning in a meeting with one of the higher-ups at the US Forest Service. I presented him with 412 complaints received from our readers, along with a summary of the complaints to make his job easier.

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The Bawl Mill   • The Wild Rush To Find More Cobalt—Part II   • Rare Silver Nuggets And Their Origins   • Legislative and Regulatory Update   • Re-Opening Nevada’s Relief Canyon Mine   • PLP and MMAC Update   • New Rules For Taxing Pass-Through Income   • Sulfides and Intergrain Gold Wire Nuggets   • Man Who Died In Yellowstone In 2017 Was Looking For Hidden Treasure   • $50 Million in Gold From 1857 Shipwreck Approved for Sale   • Melman on Gold & Silver   • Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices

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PLP To Address Needs Of Small Miners With Proposed Amendment