Prospecting & Detecting
Wild and Scenic River Prospecting—North Fork of the American River
September 2012 by Don Robinson
Today it is getting tougher and tougher to find a place to prospect. There is one significant haven left for the small miner...
Prospecting on the North Yuba
The research I did for “Gold in the Slate Creek Basin” (September 2011 issue) found me chasing a channel out of the LaPorte territory headed towards the old mining town of Brandy City, California.
Ganes Creek Hits 10 Years—Part II
You keep all you find at Ganes, with weekly tallies kept for a loose competition that I find helps motivate me. I seriously try to find more nuggets than anyone else in a given week, and usually make it or close to it.
Arizona's Youngest...and Oldest Prospector
I started with, "Hey, Rusty, tell me about the time..." and that was all it took.
Detecting: Small Creek Yields Good Gold
Most of our gold recoveries have been in the cracks of the bedrock. Hot rocks in the form of dikes cross the creek at various locations, causing us to skip those areas.
Prospecting Underground: Use Caution
In underground placer work, the contact point of the bedrock tunnel and the gravel is a very weak point and always has to be timbered. The bedrock here is thin, fractured, and the gravels loose from many years of oxidizing.
A New Prospecting Spot
Once indicators start showing up along or below a contact I start to get excited. When I have shale, and outcroppings of diorite with iron-red, gritty soil and some clay thrown in, I really get lightheaded. I may be a mile away from the nearest diggings but that’s okay. I just found a spot that could provide some nice nugget hunting.
Exploring Snakehead
On our fourth trip, we finally reached the top edge of the old hydraulic pit, and it was monstrous.
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The Bawl Mill
• Cold Alaskan Gold—Part I
• Detecting for Gold—Finding Nuggets Where You Least Expect Them
• Potholes and Other Bedrock Traps
• Financing by the Crowd
• Wealth Beyond Your Wildest Imagination
• Gold Too Big to Carry
• The World of the Simple Gold Pan
• New Silver and Zinc Mine Slated for Montana
• Eastern Oregon Mine Seeks Permits
• Mining Returns to Historic Comstock
• BLM Issues Environmental Review of Wyoming Uranium Mine
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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