Photos from our Gold Prospecting and Mining Summit in Placerville
May 17, 2012
We're are back in the office and working feverishly to get the next issue to our press on time, but we wanted to get a few photos of our recent event posted.Over 2,300 miners and prospectors attended our Gold Prospecting and Mining Summit on Saturday and Sunday. Another 300+ attended our hands-on training classes held on Friday and Monday at a placer mining site to learn how to use a gold pan, operate a power sluice and use a metal detector to find gold. A full placer operation was operated several times throughout the day so interested prospectors and miners could see how to set up this type of operation. And, several vendors brought out their equipment so students could see it in action.
In addition, another 65 students attended our Introduction to Underground Mining classes on Monday and Tuesday at an active underground mine.
| Gold Prospecting & Mining Summit at the Placerville Fairgrounds: | |
 Alan Trees of Gold Dredge Builders Warehouse answers questions at his booth. |
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| Clay Rogers of Vac-Pac/Roger's Detectors. (Photo by Marian Reid) | Charles Watson of Advanced Geologic gave his presentation on current regulations. (Photo by Marian Reid) |
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| Associate Editor Chris Ralph's talk on Staking and Holding Mining Claims. (Photo by Marian Reid) | |
 Dennis Katz of Fossickers.com (Photo by Marian Reid) |
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| Gary of MGM Enterprises shows customers how to use the blue bowl. (Photo by Marian Reid) | |
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| Randy of Goldfield International demonstrating the Goldtron. (Photo by Marian Reid) | |
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| Heather of Pioneer Mining Supplies with Camel Mining Products and AAA Precious Metals in the background. (Photo by Marian Reid) | |
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| Customers lined up at our booth -- ICMJ's Prospecting and Mining Journal. (Photo by Marian Reid) | |
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| Jack from Roaring Camp Mining Company. (Photo by Marian Reid) | |
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| Chip Hess of The Miner's Cache. (Photo by Marian Reid) | |
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| Albert of Placerville Hardware. (Photo by Marian Reid) | |
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| Riley (our daughter) explains how the kid's scavenger hunt works. (Photo by Sally Harn) | |
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| Daniel of Summit Mining & Equipment of Idaho along with one of their trommels. (Photo by Marian Reid) | |
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| Hands-on Training Classes: | |
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| Power sluicing stations and instructors were available for students at several locations throughout the property for those who did not bring their own equipment, and yes, they got to keep any gold they recovered. (Photo by Dan Fergot) | |
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This trommel operation was fired up several times during the training sessions to provide instruction. (Photo by Dan Fergot) |
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| Cleaning out the sluices. Several pennyweight nuggets were recovered in the cleanup, along with some fine gold and flakes. (Photo by Steve Harn) | |
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| The old hydraulic mining site provided plenty of room for students to try panning, sniping and power sluicing. We provided instruction to 130 students at the Friday training class, and another 200 in the Monday class. (Photo by Dan Fergot) | |
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| We had quite a few students who wanted quality instruction in metal detecting for gold. They were split up into groups depending on the type of detector they owned for some group instruction, then individualized instruction was provided for those who needed it by our team of eight instructors. Here, author and long-time detectorist Jim McCullough goes over the workings of a VLF (very low frequency) detector while Mike Bowen instructs another group with PI (pulse induction) detectors in the background. Most of the gold at this location is small, but a couple of detectorists managed to recover nuggets over a pennyweight. (Photo by Dan Fergot) | |
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| Sniping for gold in exposed bedrock. (Photo by Dan Fergot) | |
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This gold was recovered from a bucket of material taken from the compacted gravels on top of the bedrock. (Photo by Dan Fergot) |
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| Introduction to Underground Mining Class: | |
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| Don Robinson (cowboy hat) talks about the recovery process. (Photo by Ron Gribble) | |
First, I want to thank Don Robinson and the Mother Lode Goldhounds (Ron, Steve, Bill, Gary, J.P., Mike, Jerry, Jim and the rest of the crew), and Ed & Tom and the Gold Country Treasure Seekers for their help in putting this entire event together. I couldn't have done it without all of you.
Brian Bartholomew, owner of the property where our placer classes were held, did an outstanding job of preparing the property for our students and bent over backwards to accommodate students during the classes. Thanks Brian and crew!
I also want to thank Dan and Sandi for their help throughout our events, along with Chris Ralph and members of his family, the thirteen members of my extended family who came out to help, and all of the instructors who gave presentations at the Placerville Fairgrounds and at the hands-on classes.
There is no way to pull off an event like this without some dedicated volunteers who enjoy teaching and seeing others succeed. I have learned over the years that surrounding yourself with good people makes you look good -- that's exactly what took place.
We have more photos that we will post after we complete our latest issue.
If you were at the event and have an online account, please feel free to submit comments below. Or, you can send them to me at this link: www.icmj.com/contact-us.php
May 23, 2012
We had a blast at the hands on class on Friday and learned so much. Every one I mean everyone was nice and shared all they knew. Got hubby so excited he broke the bank with the venders the next day at the show. Best of all where the lectures, felt like I was back in school but this time got every word! We can't wait for the next outing.
Lori Christian (via Facebook)
