The Weekend Gold Prospector

Yearly flood waters dislodge thousands of ounces of placer gold, crystalline gold, nugget gold and free gold from your local canyons and hillsides.

With a few simple tools costing less than $100.00, you can have a wonderful time enjoying the natural beauty of the outdoors, while at the same time pulling gold right out of the ground! The United States and many worldwide locations are rich with a constantly replenished source of gold wealth, just waiting for the person with the right tools to find and "harvest" it.

Metal Detecting

There are as many different types of metal detectors as there are styles of metal detecting, but if your search is for gold nuggets, I suggest White's, Garrett, Fisher and Minelab brands to name a few. My personal experience is with older models such as the White's Goldmaster and Spectrum metal detectors, but there are many newer models with improvements and enhancements to make finding gold coins, nuggets and many other treasures a lot easier. Metal detecting is field-proven to find gold and other precious metal nuggets in a wide range of terrain conditions and ground mineralization worldwide. If you are interested in comparing these and many other fine metal detecting units, check out the links to see what's available. You can even find "treasures" in your own back yard. Just remember that some metal detectors can be costly: About $600.00, for a good quality detector.

The basic operation of most gold and metal detectors is the same, although they employ many different sophisticated electronics to achieve the same end results. When the metal detector's search coil is passed over a buried metal target (at a speed similar to a grandfather clock's pendulum), its circuitry converts the reflected signal into an audible rise and fall in pitch or volume as heard usually through headphones. When the search head (coil) is positioned directly over the center of the target, such as a coin or nugget, its signal will sound at loudest volume or at an apex of pitch on the detector's headphone or speaker.

Gold Prospecting Tools

A gold pan can be purchased for as little as $10.00. Most modern plastic and nylon pans have built-in ridges which help to trap gold and other heavier metals such as platinum and silver, with less effort, and with little experience. Plastic gold pans and digging tools make it easier to isolate gold, platinum and silver because they don't react to the metal detector. A good gold pan is tool number one.

Here's a list of other tools that may help you to get started as a "Weekend Prospector":

• Two clean 5 gallon paint buckets.

• A garden trowel. (Plastic is better cause its "invisible" to your metal detector)

• Fine pointed, sturdy tweezers.

• A fine point camel hair paintbrush, with a tip about 1/16 inch in diameter and 3/16 inch in length.

• An "eyedropper" or small suction tube.

• An inexpensive magnifying glass or "loupe".

• An airtight medicine bottle, small enough for a shirt pocket, clear if possible.

• A 35mm plastic film can, with lid.

• An old pair of tennis shoes or water shoes.

• The last item in the "inexpensive" list is the most expensive, but isn't absolutely necessary to find gold. A quality lightweight and "packable" sluice box can be purchased for as little as $95.00. Remember, having the "right tools" will make your efforts more rewarding.

Panning For Gold

Are you ready to try stream panning? Most U.S. Forest land is still open for the careful use of the people, but check with your local prospecting shop first for any possible regulations or limitations. Gold "sniping" or hunting is allowed in most National Forest land without permits or fees, but it's always best to play it safe, especially within the National Parks where sniping is NOT ALLOWED AT ALL. Get a map and ask the owner of the land, whether it be the U.S. Forestry Service or privately owned land, for permission, regulations and limitations (if any).

Put on your old pair of sneakers or waterproof shoes, because you're going to get wet! It's mighty slippery walking on those algae covered river and streambed rocks, so please be very careful!

As you scan the terrain looking for likely spots to prospect, consider your impact on the land by always leaving your site the way you found it or cleaner! Along with my "treasure bag", I always carry a "trash bag" for packing out pop tops, tinfoil, cans and other souvenirs of modern man's "progress".

Look for a bend in the stream where the current isn't too strong, search along the inside curve of the bend, paying close attention to areas of black sand. This iron ore indicates where heavier metals tend to accumulate. An old 5 gallon paint bucket, and a garden trowel are perfect for collecting gravel from under the downstream side of rocks and boulders (a well-known hiding place for nuggets).

When your bucket is full of gravel dug from the deepest crevices and pockets, carry it over to the side of the stream to practice your panning skills with one trowel full at a time. Before you toss that big rock out of your pan, take a second short but close look at it. Even pro's have thrown away large nuggets in their haste to work a pan down to fine ore, and once it's back in the stream you have to find it all over again! Besides, if you are a rockhound like me, you will see the beauty and uniqueness of every stone as part of the enjoyment that comes with the search for gold. Near the side of the stream, slowly circulate the pan just under the surface of the water. This action will cause the less turbulent current at the side of the stream to gently wash away the lighter dirt, plant material and sand, leaving the heavier deposits to fall to the deepest portions of your pan. As you break up clods of dirt with one hand, keep circulating the pan and you will soon see that the stream's current does most of the work in separating the lighter minerals from the potential "paydirt", which is the last material left in your pan.
Back home, put a tub of water in the yard (at least twice the diameter of your gold pan), to practice moving lighter material out of your pan. In the stream, the current makes your pan's contents more visible by washing the "clouds" of dirt from your view. This is not the case in your backyard tub, but it really doesn't matter that you can't see the pan through the murky water. Remember: Gold is very heavy, and will always be the last material left in the gold pan.
To practice panning skills, use a piece of lead (fishing weight or bullet) to simulate a nugget in your pan of gravel/dirt. If it makes you feel better, you can paint the piece of lead with gold paint or gold leaf. When you progress in skill, use an ever smaller piece of lead and see how quickly you can "work the gravel down", leaving only your lead "nugget" and some heavier ores (like black iron) in the pan. Remember that gold is heavier than lead, so if you are successful at keeping the lead in your pan, the real gold will be even easier to retain.

Sometimes the gold that you find looks so microscopic that it hardly seems worth the effort. As the old saying goes, "a long journey begins with a single step", so too does a vile full of gold "dust" begin with a single grain. To pick up those little pieces of gold, I have found that a small camel hair paintbrush works well. When your gold and iron ore are worked down in the pan, drain off any water left and use the wet tip of the brush to snag the gold flake (don't worry, it will stick). Then, holding your plastic vile full of water over the pan, immerse the tip of the brush into the vile, using a little agitation if necessary, and watch as the tiny flakes or nuggets drop to the bottom of the vile. An alternative to the paintbrush is an eyedropper or turkey baster to suck the gold up for transfer to your vile.

Here's a link to a very good video about prospecting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PciHNVVKI4

Next Time Try a Sluice Box

A sluice box may be any size, but the construction of all sluices is basically the same; A rectangular box of wood or aluminum with the upstream end flared outward to allow the stream's current to flow into the box and across its riffles. The upstream end of the sluice box should be elevated about 1" to 3" above the downstream end, depending on its length.

A "classifier",is a boxlike frame with about a 1/4" screen mesh at the bottom. It can be made to fit exactly on top of the upstream flared end of your sluice box.

The classifier "filters" larger stones from the sluice input, and must be occasionally emptied out as you shovel in more gravel. You can place the classifier on top of your 5 gal. collection bucket to directly filter finer gravels.

Place the sluice box near the side of the stream, in a spot almost equal to the depth of the sluice. Place the sluice parallel to the current, and adjust it's angle by placing stones under the upstream end. Make sure that the current is not too strong, or your sluice will wash away!

A good current will wash the heavier stones across the riffles and out the downstream end, but you should see finer gravel circulating in "eddies" downstream of each riffle. When you have washed about 5 to 10 buckets of gravel across the sluice box, it is time to carefully lift the box out of the stream and put the downstream end carefully into an empty and clean 5 gallon bucket . Carefully wash the sluice with your other bucket full of clear water, concentrating on the sides and keeping the box tilted slightly off vertical so as not to lose any ore. Loosen the riffle screen (carefully), and wash the screen thoroughly before removing it from the sluice box in the bucket. When you have inspected the screen and riffles for any obvious ore, set it aside. Now, carefully roll the "rug" material from top (upstream end) to bottom so that any ore remains inside the rug. Wash the sluice frame thoroughly before removing it from the bucket. You should now have plenty of water in the bucket to wash the rug out. It may seem that you don't have much ore in the bucket for all your efforts, but when you pan out the heavy ore in the bottom of the bucket you will find much more gold than you would with just random shovelsfull out of the stream. When you find any gold, stick to digging in that spot, as gold does accumulate in pockets. When you are rich enough from your finds to afford one, a dredge will speed up the processing of river gravel by acting as a "vacuum cleaner" for the streambed. Commonly, dredges run from about $500.00 and upward, although you might pick a used one up in classified ads for much less. With the proper equipment you can explore mid-stream crevices and under submerged boulders for the heavier and more elusive nuggets that like to hide in midstream.

Know the regulations about the type of gold prospecting allowed before you go to your search site. Public lands belong to all taxpaying citizens for their pleasure and enjoyment, but please try to conserve and keep our natural resources clean and unpolluted, and "PLEASE" be careful with fires.