Prospecting & Detecting
Where Should I Start?
October 2015 by Chris Ralph
Digging in the right spots will produce excellent results, like this group of nuggets taken by the author while metal detecting during the last few months. The biggest nugget is over an ounce.
So, Where's The Gold?—Finding Gold Detectors Miss
We decided to run a detector over each piece. If we got a decent signal we placed the piece into a high-grade pile and the rest went into another pile to be worked on later. This high-grade pile wasn’t that large—maybe 25 pounds...
The Highs and Hazards of Desert Prospecting
We hit on a good spot the last time we were at this location and we made up our minds that we weren’t going to let hurricane-like winds stop us.
The Value of Old Patches
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.
Sierra County Gold—Part I
...this county contained some of the richest placer ground found in all of California and still produces some pretty impressive finds to this day.
Hard Rock 101: Micro Blasting
Micro blasting can be used to take down hanging rock, separate minerals from overburden, and collect gemstones and other high-value product with minimal damage.
Old Dog(Fighter), New Trick
Then it occurred to me that the drywasher was designed by an engineer. Gotta love engineers! Those slide-rule geeks always tinker with gravity, angles, curves and flow.
Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: The Disappearing Nuggets
Gold probably is one of the easiest things in the world to cheat an absentee owner out of. He would generally have no way of really knowing if a guy had found 3 nuggets or 30 nuggets on his claim.
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• From Curiosity to Mine Owner - Pt II
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