Prospecting & Detecting
What is a Valid Mineral Discovery?
February 2013 by Chris Ralph
One of the greatest opportunities afforded to the citizens of our country is the right to stake and hold mining claims on federal lands. One doesn’t need to be a lawyer to stake mining claims, but a little bit of knowledge about mining claim laws can be helpful.Gully Prospecting and Mining
This article is about our recent gold prospecting adventure, which has yielded over 20 ounces of specimen gold—with more to come.
The Life of an Independent Prospector
“JP, is it possible to make a living looking for gold with a metal detector?” I get asked this question a lot...
More On Gold Indicators—What to Look For
I am learning more about gold deposition in this area than I knew previously. I am passing this information on with the hope that many of you will be able to locate patches and lines a little easier in the future because of this article.
Detecting Alone -- What to Look For
I figure there are a lot of new people out there who have the same question. I will try to give some answers that hopefully will give you more confidence in finding your own spots.
The PIGMI—a DIY Crevice Tool
I’ve had great success using it to gather gold from crevices. I’d like to share the design with all of you gold miners reading this article and hope that you get as much satisfaction building and using it as I did.
Volume is the Key to Success
While recovery rates are important, they must necessarily be secondary to the volume of material processed. Running more material at lower recovery rates is generally preferable to increasing the efficiency of the system.
California State Panning Championships—Foresthill, CA Heritage Celebration
Here's the kicker—for every lost flake there was a five minute penalty added to the time. Lost gold generally meant you didn't make it past the preliminaries.
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