There are literally tens of thousands of small mines and prospects scattered around the country. Not big mines; these are small diggings – often done by one miner – that are have been abandoned for a decade. It is a common belief among some people that you need to search around a big mine to […]
Gold Prospecting
Most small-scale gold prospectors search for placer gold that is deposited in streams and rivers, but it can also be found in arid climates far away from existing water sources. Gold can be found using a variety of different methods. The most common way to recover gold in the water is by gold panning, but larger equipment can also be used to help prospectors recover more gold by processing more material. This page includes information on different gold mining methods.
6 Types of Micro-Gold Recovery Equipment in Action
Beach Mining Tips – How to Recover Fine Gold in Sand
Using Ball Mills to Extract Raw Gold from Ores
Placer mining and lode mining are very different. Whereas placer gold has been released from within the rock and is generally free from any significant matrix, lode gold presents different challenges. While gold may be present in ore, it must somehow be released for proper extraction. As a result, a number of machines have been […]
Public Lands Gold Mining – Millions of Acres are Wide Open to Prospectors
Sometimes miners can be a pessimistic bunch. I will acknowledge that some of it is warranted… you won’t get any argument from me that its harder to be a miner today than it was in decades past. More restrictions and regulations are frustrating, no doubt about it. And more generally, it seems like the general […]
The Platinum Mining Dredges of Good News Bay, Alaska
The mining activities have over the years influenced many regions when it comes to economic developments. Alaska is certainly no exception where mining is concerned. In fact, mining was the main driving force that helped started growth to the state. Alaska houses one of the remote areas where some mining activities take place on Earth. […]
Midwest Gold Mining – On the Hunt for Glacial Gold
What is Glacial Gold? During the five major Ice Ages which occurred over millions of years, glaciers expanded far away from the north pole to cover a significant part of the earth. In North America the glaciers moved far enough south to cover most of the northern states in the US. During their travels, glaciers […]
How the Early Miner’s Found Gold with a Tool that is Rarely Used Today
Throughout the history of gold exploration, which really includes most of recorded history, many different techniques were created for separating placer gold from the surrounding gravel. One of the most famous old school methods, the rocker box, can still be used today, although it has mostly fallen out of favor… Like so many other famous […]
Spring Flooding in California Will Add More Gold to the Rivers
But Don’t Expect another Gold Rush… Everyone knows that the weather in northern California can be highly variable. Some years are continuous droughts with dry conditions and little moisture, while other years are record snowpacks in the Sierras and heavy spring flooding. Whenever the water level rises in those rivers, is seems that the various […]
Finding Gold Essentials – Plant & Soil Indicators
Throughout much of human history, many people have been fascinated with gold. Almost every civilization has prized this special metal. The first question everyone has is “How do I find gold?” After much effort over the millenia, people have developed lots of ways to find that precious metal. Sometimes, mother nature herself provides hints about […]
You’ll Probably Fail as a Gold Miner – An Honest Look at a Hard Livin’
Prospecting for Gold Ore – Techniques to find Rocks with Gold
Most prospectors spend their time looking for placer gold. These are the solid pieces of gold that have eroded from a vein and have formed in a concentration. Most prospectors look for placer gold in creeks and rivers (although this isn’t the only place they are found). There’s a good reason for this. Placer gold […]
Putting Together a Crevicing Kit for Summertime Gold Prospecting
Crevicing is one of the best ways for the small-scale gold miner to recover gold. This simple tried-and-true method can produce rather impressive results. And the best part is that anyone can do it with just the simplest of tools. The practice of crevicing for gold is simply to slowly and methodically explore the bedrock […]
7 Gold Detecting Tips for Finding Nuggets in Northern California
It’s no secret that California is one of the best states to prospect for gold. In fact, some would consider it the best place in the country to look for gold. In recent years there have been some frustrating restrictions on some mining methods, most notably suction dredging. This has hampered many prospectors ability to […]