There are currently three controlling agencies or entities over suction dredging in California—and you can make that four if the state legislature decides to further muddy the waters with additional legislation to block suction gold dredging in the state.

Historically, Montana has been an important gold producer, in terms of both lodes and placers, and it still produces gold for the prospector today.

George was considering filling his dredge floats with closed-cell foam, ensuring that there would be no area available within each float for flooding.

I have been finding nuggets all my life, beginning in Sierra County 50 years ago, and believe me they don’t pop up out of the ground like mushrooms when they see me coming and say, “Here I am and take me home.”

Trommels come in two basic sections. The first section is called the scrubber unit. The second is the punch plate, where the gravels and ore of a specified size drop out into a variety of sluice box recovery units.

With successively lower temperatures as the water mixture cools, new sets of minerals are formed and many of those stable at a higher degree of heat became subject to alteration as the temperature progressively moved lower.

There are a few questions you will need to ask yourself before you apply for a suction dredge permit from the State Water Resources Control Board.