How to propect for gold in Southern California

 

From The Desk of Michael Mick Webster

 

This is an excerpt from my book

Research of Southern California Gold 

Where to Prospect For Gold In Southern California.

How to find gold in Southern California

by Michael (Mick) Webster

The General Mining Act of 1872 is a United States federal law that authorizes and governs prospecting and mining for economic minerals, such as Gold and Silver, on publicly owned lands. This law, approved on May 10th, 1872, codified the informal system of acquiring and protecting mining claims on public land, formed by prospectors in California and Nevada from the late 1840's through the 1860's, such as during the California Gold Rush.

Welcome to the Exciting World of Gold Prospecting, Panning, Sluicing, Crevicing, Dry Washing & Metal Detecting Research Paper

Warning: Reading this Gold research may infect you with Gold Fever and you may never be the same again.

 

With the almost daily increase in Gold’s value ( today's spot price is $2,000 per Oz.) nuggets and coins are more. It’s only natural to want to acquire Gold on your own terms while enjoying the great outdoors. Prospecting for Gold, whether panning, sluicing, crevicing, dry washing or metal detecting is HARD work and Gold is HARD to locate. This research paper is designed to help you find Gold.

In their quest for Gold, humans have pulled more than 188,000 tons (171,000 metric tons) of the metal from the ground according to the World Gold Council. 

When it comes to Gold mining, most of us will get our yellow metal by sifting through sands and gravels along rivers, streams and dry washes. This is called wet placer mining. It is due to the geological age of the earth that this is even possible. All Gold deposits started as hardrock formations and stayed that way until there were earthquakes, rivers, glaciers, tidal waves and a lot of earth movement which eroded mountains and ground down the rock into its smallest form; dust. 

Trapped in all this rock were veins of Gold, typically in quartz. But remember Gold is always found in quartz but quartz do not always have Gold. These veins were also pulverized down into small pieces in nugget, coarse, flake and flour size. Because Gold is so heavy, it settles to the bottom of our rivers, streams and any deep depression or crevice. This is where placer mining comes in. When we sift through all this sand and gravel to separate the Gold, we are actually looking back at the earth's history.

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​Gold can be found free in nature, but is usually associated with silver, quartz, calcite, lead, tellurium, zinc and copper. Sea water contains approximately one milligram of Gold per ton of water.

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Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all known metals. One ounce of Gold can be worked into a sheet measuring five meters flat. Gold can be flattened as thin as .000127 millimeters or about 400 times thinner than a human hair.

Pure gold is soft and usually mixed with other metals like:

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- silver

- copper

- platinum

- and palladium

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to increase its strength.

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The amount of Gold in the mix is measured with a unit called a carat. A carat is equal to one part in 24, so a 14 carat Gold ring contains 14 parts pure Gold and 10 parts other metals.

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Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricity as well as being very corrosion resistant.

Gold can be used for a multitude of uses such as:

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- Gold electroplating conductors

- Gold reflective telescope mirrors

- Gold reflective coating on skyscraper windows

- Gold Catalytic converters

- Gold Old pay phones.

- Gold has a low melting point

​- Gold has been drawn without breaking into a 35 mile wire

. Gold is heavy: 19.3 in specific gravity 

• Gold is soft: 2.5 on the hardness scale
• Gold is prized for use in jewelry, coins, and dentistry
• Gold earth satellites is coated with it
• Gold can be obtained in its native formwith primitive tools
• Gold can be traced back as far as 2900 B.C.

BEWARE! YOU can catch GOLD FEVER IN the deserts, in the mountains, and the beaches. 

It has been said that Gold is where you find it! 

Found Gold is welcomed by all races and stands the test of time as rarified wealth by all who possess it.

It is lovely and still obtainable by anyone who is willing.

Gold occurs in significant amounts in three main types of deposits: hydrothermal quartz veins and related deposits in metamorphic and igneous rocks; in volcanic-exhalative sulfide deposits; and in consolidated to unconsolidated placer deposits. It may also occur in contact metamorphic or hydrothermal deposits (eg. Skarns), or epithermal deposits such as volcanic fumaroles. It is most commonly found as disseminated grains in quartz veins with pyrite and other sulfides, or as rounded grains, flakes or nuggets in placer deposits in recent to ancient stream and river deposits. Gold is often panned from such deposits by taking advantage of its high density to wash away the lighter sediments from a pan or sluice.

The vast majority of federal lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service (USFS) are open to mineral exploration. This means that you can go out and collect Gold, gems and minerals. This includes panning, sluicing,crevassing, digging with basic hand tools and metal detectors.

The Gold pan is one the oldest tools used to find Gold. Dirt and gravel is dumped into the pan. The pan is then lowered into the water and gently moved in circles. Large stones in the pan can be thrown out and any dirt clumps can be broken up with your fingers. Muddy water and sand will float out, leaving the much heavier Gold at the bottom of the pan. 

First, let’s talk about the proper equipment, and of course the first thing you need is a good Gold pan. The Ultimate Gold Panning & Prospecting tool.

Gold panning is a really fun hobby that is enjoyed by people all around the world. 

And it isn’t just hobbyists that use a Gold pan to search for Gold. Even experienced miners with a lifetime of experience with placer mining use them to quickly sample new areas and seek out concentrations of placer Gold in creeks, rivers and dry washes (carry to water).

There is abundant information about Gold panning on the internet. In fact, a while back we wrote this simple Step-by-Step Gold Panning Guide to help teach people the proper steps to use your pan.

However, we felt that more extensive research was needed to go beyond these simple steps in the Gold panning process. There is a whole lot more involved in successfully finding Gold than just using your pan properly.

Most of the people that go Gold panning never find any Gold. This is a fact. And their panning technique isn’t necessarily the problem instead it likely has to do with the material that you are panning.

So let’s take a more in-depth look at successful Gold panning so you can be sure to successfully find Gold next time you go to your favorite river, creek or dry wash.

Gold panning 

Choosing the Proper Gold Pan.

First, let’s talk about the proper equipment, and of course the first thing you need is a good Gold pan. There are lots of different pans out there, and all of them will work to varying degrees. After all, the panning process relies on gravity more to capture the Gold, so theoretically ANY type of pan shaped object that has a low point would work to retain Gold. In fact, miners during the early Gold rushes in the 1800s used all sorts of homemade metal pans to get the Gold.

Of course, today there are commercially produced Gold pans that do a really good job, and are a huge improvement when compared to what the “old timers” used back during the Gold rush days. And the first mass-produced pans were made of steel, which needed to be “cured” to remove factory oils before they could be used. Additionally, they would easily rust if not properly cared for.

A modern plastic pan has many advantages over the old metal pans that were popular years ago. The plastic Gold pans that are made today are very durable, come in colors that contrast well with Gold so that you can easily see the tiniest speck in the bottom of your pan, and they have built in riffles that aid in retention of the finest little bits of Gold.

There are lots of good pans out there today, and one really good one is the Garrett Gravity Trap. It is my personal go-to pan for most situations. It is inexpensive and durable, and does a fantastic job of retaining fines.

Other equipment to Have when you start to successfully pan for Gold, you’ll need to carry more gear than just a pan. In fact, a good quality Gold panning kit can really increase your odds of being successful when you start panning.

You should still add a few more tools to your arsenal though if you want to be well equipped for a day you're looking for Gold. Of course a good old #  a 2 shovel is a must-have item, and a smaller trowel sized shovel is also a pretty good idea.

Other good stuff to carry would be tweezers, magnifying glass, and a variety of crevicing tools that you can use to dig material out of cracks in the bedrock.

Crevicing tools don’t need to be store bought items specifically designed for prospecting; to the contrary, some of the handiest tools for this can be things like screwdrivers, thick pieces of wire, spoons, and pocket knives. The more variety you have, the better job you can do to get down to where Gold hides.

Where to Get Your Gravel

Well, I think most people know that Gold is heavy, in fact it is generally the heaviest element that you will find in water or ground. What that means is that Gold settles down, way down. And it settles in places where gravity allows it to.

Most of the gravel in that bar is barren and devoid of Gold. Even if you are prospecting at a well-known Gold-bearing river, or ground, the Gold isn’t scattered around randomly, so if you simply dig a few shovelfuls of gravel from the top of a gravel bar and pan it out, you probably aren’t going to have much success.

Inside Bends and Behind Boulders

There are many places where Gold can hide, but one universally understood truth is that Gold will concentrate in “pay streaks” on the inside bends of rivers, streams and washes. These are the areas where gravity allows the Gold to settle.

Behind large boulders is another great place to get gravel to pan out. In the same way as inside bends, the slack water that is created behind large rocks and boulders can create conditions that placer Gold can drop down and settle into the stream bed.

Boulders are great, but really any structure can have the same effect. For example, a seasonal logjam could easily create a similar environment where Gold would settle.

Dig Deep and Clean out That Bedrock

Most placer Gold prospectors need to understand that inside bends and behind boulders are good places to dig. However, this is the point where LOTS of first time Gold panners mess up.

They need to DIG DEEPER!

You know how Gold settles to the bottom of your Gold pan when you agitate it, right? Well the sands and gravel in a river or creek is doing this CONSTANTLY. The result is that as soon as Gold finds a place where it settles, it starts to move downward in the strata of the gravel. It goes down, down, down, until it hits something hard enough to stop it. And this is generally bedrock or kelechi.

Clean out those bedrock cracks. This is where those crevicing tools I mentioned earlier really come into play. Do your best to get down as deep as you can, because the highest concentrations of placer Gold are going to accumulate at the very bottom of these cracks.

Oftentimes, it will be a thimbleful of material at the bottom of a bedrock crack that is richer than a hundred shovelfuls of gravel just a few feet above it.

You Should Spend Way Longer Getting Your Gravel than You Do Panning.

Ultimately, I think this is the main reason that many prospectors will have a lack of success with Gold panning. First-timers generally get excited to start finding Gold, so they start digging indiscriminately all over the place, filling up their pan and going through the motions without actually seeking out the places where Gold is most likely to be found.

Most of the time, getting down to bedrock is no easy task. Depending on the area you are panning, there can be considerable overburden that covers the bedrock, and it can take a lot of time and effort to get down to the good Gold-bearing  gravels.

But if you don’t go to the extra effort to access these richest areas, then what is the point? You do want to find Gold, right?

Classify Your Material Before Gold Panning

A good Gold Panning Kit should include a classifier. This is some sort of screen that is used to filter out the larger material.

Remember, most Gold that you find is tiny. But it adds up. The vast majority of Gold is dust and small “pickers” that are less than ¼” in diameter. Finding a Gold nugget by panning is a rare occurrence, so classifying out the larger rocks and gravel that is highly unlikely to be Gold is a good idea. There’s no sense wasting space in your Gold pan with large, heavy rocks that almost certainly don’t contain any Gold.

Classifying does a couple things. First, it removes those larger rocks that aren’t Gold. Before you toss them aside, it’s always a good idea to give them a quick look-over to make sure that you’re not pitching a big Gold nugget or specimen out, but most of the time it will just be gravel.

Rather than worry about inspecting all of the larger gravel that you toss aside, you could just leave it in a pile and scan it with a high-frequency Gold metal detector after you are done to make sure that nothing good was tossed out.

The second benefit of removing the larger material is that the gravels in your pan will stratify more evenly if it is all of uniform size. This will help ensure that fine Gold will easily settle down to the bottom of your Gold pan, and it will stay there throughout the panning process.

Put a Moderate Amount of Gravel in Your Pan

Loading way too much gravel into a Gold pan is another mistake that lots of prospectors make. For one thing, it makes your Gold pan really heavy, which can get really uncomfortable during a long day prospecting on the river. When you are uncomfortable, you are more likely to get sloppy with your panning technique, so only put a moderate amount of classified gravel into your pan at any given time.

This would also be a good time to mention that you use a Gold pan that is of proper size for you. For most men, a 14-inch pan is a good universal size. For women and kids, smaller 12” and even 10” pans might be the best size. By the way, they come in Green, Black, Orange, and blue.

Sure, a bigger pan can hold more material, but they sure get heavy after you fill them up. Personally, my back and shoulders are a lot happier if I use a reasonably sized pan and work at a reasonable pace.

Get Everything Wet and Break it Up with your Hand

Panning for Gold Alright, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of Gold panning! You’ve now got some gravel in your pan and you want to start working it. The first thing you need to do is dip your pan in the creek and get some water in there to completely saturate the gravel in your pan.

Now, BEFORE you do any panning, get your hands in there and bust up any clumps that you feel.

Clay is the enemy of the Gold prospector!

It can capture and hold small Gold particles, pulling it out of the pan. You want to bust up any clumps of clay that you feel, and in general just make sure that everything is loose and separated. This will allow any free Gold particles to settle into the bottom of the pan the way that they are supposed to.

Agitate Vigorously Before Tipping the Gold Pan!

Now that you have everything loosened up in the pan, it’s time to start shaking it up, but don’t tip the pan yet. You want to give the Gold a chance to get down to the bottom of the pan where you want it.

Continue to agitate the contents of the pan, and you will see that the larger, lighter weight pebbles (with a lower specific gravity) will rise to the top. This is a good sign. This shows us that the contents within the pan are starting to stratify, which is exactly what you want to happen.

Tip the pan, and slowly work it, allowing lighter gravel to leave the pan!

At this point, any Gold that is in your pan should be settled to the bottom, and as you slightly tip the pan and continue agitating the contents the Gold will end up in the bottom crease of the Gold pan.

Now you can start letting some of the gravel slowly leave your pan!

Do this process SLOWLY!

You’ve gone to a lot of effort at this point to make sure that you have good material in your pan, and you don’t want to get sloppy now.

Make Sure you are Panning over the Rifles!

A Gold pan has several rifles that help to retain Gold from falling out of the pan. In theory, you really shouldn’t need these at all, since a careful panning process should ensure that the Gold never leaves the bottom crease of your pan. Still, you want to make sure that your pan is oriented correctly so that the sand and gravel that is leaving your pan is going to overtake these rifles. This is a little added “insurance” that you aren’t losing any Gold out of your pan.

Tip Upright and Repeat Upright Agitation Several Times Throughout the Process!

As you continue to add water to your pan and slowly pan out the contents of your pan, it is very important that you tip your pan fully upright and repeat the initial step of agitating the contents so that the Gold will re-settle down to the bottom. It can even be a good idea to put your hands in there again and continue to break apart anything that feels like it’s sticking together. This is especially true if your material has a high percentage of clays.

Continue Until you have just a bit of the Heaviest Materials in the Pan!

Continue this process until almost all of the lighter material has been washed out of the pan. This process will take several minutes, so don’t get too hasty and try to get it done quickly. Once you have gotten down to just a few pinches of material at the bottom of your pan, stop what you are doing and take a look at the contents.

Almost all areas (especially places that are known to have Gold) will have some amount of what is generically called “black sands.” Black sand can actually be a variety of different minerals, but are most commonly made up of hematite and magnetite. These both have a heavy specific gravity and will show up at the bottom of your pan in most areas.

Sometimes there will be other small minerals of various colors that you will see. Garnets are another gem that will often be there. They are usually a deep red/purple color. Once you’ve reduced the contents of your Gold pan to just these minerals, stop and take a closer look.

Visually Inspect the Contents and Look for “Pickers”

Gold and black sand!

The first thing you want to do is take a quick look amongst the black sands and see if you can spot any visible nuggets or “pickers” of Gold (THESE DAYS PICKERS CAN BE WORTH A FEW HUNDRED DOLLARS). Remember, these aren’t likely to be big chunks, but rather little flakes that stand out within the black sands. Casually shake the pan while you look at the contents, looking for any bits or flakes of Gold that may be exposed.

This is when having a colored Gold pan is really nice, rather than an old metal pan. The newer plastic pans that are green or black create a nice contrast with the Gold that is in your pan, and often the little bits of Gold can really stand out.

If you are fortunate enough to spot a nice picker, it is now a simple task of using tweezers to pick it up and drop it into your vial (hence the term “picker”).

It’s always a nice surprise to recover a good sized piece of Gold that you can grab with your tweezers. Most of the time it’s too small to grab, so there are a few tricks to help you separate the fine Gold from the remaining black sands so that you can capture it and add it to your vial.

Use A Magnet

Some (but not all) black sands are magnetic, so using a very strong magnet can really help to separate it out. There are special magnets that are designed for this task that are reasonably priced that do a great job.

Just be aware that sometimes Gold can cling to black sands that you pick up with your magnet, so it’s a good idea to take your rejects of black sands and keep them in a bucket to look over a second time before you toss it out. It is very easy to lose some Gold in this process, so take your time and be sure to look over everything carefully to make sure you are getting all the Gold.

Tilt your Gold Pan and Shake it Very Slightly to Create a Line of Stratified Minerals. Doing this final step in the panning process can be a little tricky and frustrating to beginners, but it is really the step where you can expose the tiniest of the fine Gold particles that may still remain hidden at the bottom of your pan. You can separate the G Gold from the black sands by carefully agitating the contents that are left. Tilt the pan just slightly and shake the pan in a very gentle motion. If done correctly, you can get a nice stratification of light to heavy materials, and the Gold will show up at the trail end.

Another tip that you can do at this final step is to do a quick flick-of-the-wrist, enough motion that all of the garnets and black sand will move, but the Gold will remain in place. This can be challenging at first, but a little practice will improve your skills. And it can be a really fun surprise, because it will immediately expose any Gold that was hidden beneath the sands.

Use Snuffer Bottle

Fine Gold dust the very last step to pick up the finest of the fine Gold is to use your trusty snuffer bottle. A good Gold Panning Kit will include one. With a snuffer, you can carefully shoot water over top of your concentrates, which blows the black sands aside while leaving the Gold.

When you’ve got the fine Gold completely separated, you simply suck it up with your snuffer bottle, which can later be transferred to your vial.

 Sluicing For Gold

How To Use A Sluice Box

Gather material in a bucket from an area you believe gold might be found. Pour it in at the top of the sluice to be washed down its length by a constant stream of water. Gold is caught either by "riffles" in the sluice box or by a false bottom with holes in it. Mud and the larger chunks of rock wash out the end leaving the much heavier gold behindow you have found some Gold flakes in the bottom of your pan. 5 to 10 flakes is enough that means you have a prospect. A sluice box is a simple and inexpensive piece of equipment that is used to recover placer Gold from a stream or river. The basic design has been used for hundreds of years, with much of the Gold discovered during the early Gold rushes being found in sluice boxes.

The benefit of modern designs is that they are both lightweight and portable, great for the weekend prospector.

There are many different sluice boxes on the market, and they will all find Gold. You can even make your own sluice box using some fairly basic tools and material. If you are going to purchase a sluice box, you should select a model that will be able to handle years of abuse. You are going to be shoveling rocks and gravel on top of it, so being too cheap and getting an inferior product will only end in frustration.

To start, find a location that you think has good potential for having Gold. If you don’t know how to “read” a stream for Gold, then you might want to read our article about how gold is deposited in a river. Once you find an area that you want to work in, you need to locate a good spot to place your sluice box.

Getting a sluice box set up properly can be a tricky thing to explain, and might take a little bit of trial and error to get it just right. What you are looking for is a fairly shallow area with a decent volume of water.

Set up your sluice box parallel to the stream flow and anchor it with several large rocks so that it is securely in place. Then adjust your pitch and yaw of your sluice box.

You want a slight decline in the riffles, a good rule of thumb is to have about 1” of drop for every foot of rifle, so a three foot long sluice box would have its downstream end about 3” lower than its upstream end. Next you want to regulate the flow of water entering the sluice box. Again, this can be a bit tricky to explain, but basically your goal is to have enough flow that when you shovel gravel into the top of the sluice, the lighter materials will work their way overtop the rifles, while the heavier materials will drop out of suspension and settle into the rifles.

You can use rocks at the entrance of the sluice to funnel more water over the riffles and make slight adjustments to the angle. Take a few shovels of gravel and watch closely how it is working its way through the sluice.

Once you are set up correctly, it’s time to move some dirt! Before you get too carried away digging, it would be smart to do some test panning to try to locate a good concentration of Gold. Even when you are using a sluice box, you still want to have a good gold pan to use for sampling and locating good areas to start digging.

Since placer Gold does not distribute itself evenly throughout a stream, you want to locate those pay streaks that will yield you the most Gold for your efforts. Don’t just skim some gravel off the surface. The Gold is heavy and you need to get down near bedrock to get the highest recovery.

Some people choose to shovel the gravel directly into the sluice box, but it is generally a good idea to classify that material before adding it. This removes the larger rocks and gravel. This provides two benefits, first being that the larger material probably doesn’t contain any Gold, so there is no reason to process it. The second and main benefit is that it keeps the larger pieces of material from altering the effectiveness of the rifles in the sluice box.

You want to try and maintain a nice constant flow of water with limited disturbances; large rocks in your sluice will cause added turbulence that might dislodge Gold from your riffles and out of your box.

Now that you have some classified materials, slowly add it to the head end of your sluice box. I emphasize slowly, as too much material will clog the riffles and can easily allow Gold to shoot through without getting caught.

Add a small scoop of gravel and watch it work its way through the box. Once you have gotten a feel for how it is processing, you may be able to increase your volume of material. Rather than using a shovel, consider using a simple garden trowel for this step. That will help ensure that you don’t overload the sluice box.

Once you are ready to process your concentrates, carefully move the rocks that you are using to anchor the sluice box and remove it from the stream. Be careful to keep it level and to not slosh too much as you are lifting it out of the water. Place the bottom end into your cleanup bucket and carefully inspect the first few rifles for visible nuggets and pickers. If you were lucky enough to recover any large pieces, they will most likely be at the very head of the box.

Next you want to clean out your concentrates into your cleanup bucket. Slide out the carpeting, miners moss, or whatever matting you are using to capture the Gold and rinse it thoroughly in the bucket. Rinse the riffles and all the nooks and crannies of your sluice box until your bucket contains all of the fine concentrates.

At this point it is up to you whether you want to process the concentrates now, or reset your sluice box and continue shoveling gravel. Many weekend prospectors prefer to save their concentrates rather than pan it at the same time. 

This allows them to use those precious hours to continue mining, and save the concentrates for later processing at home. You can use a simple Gold pan to do the final processing or you can use an automatic panner to recover the Gold.

And that is it! Using a sluice box is really one of the simplest ways to recover Gold and it is a great way to prospect without investing a lot of money.

How to Crevice and Vacking for Gold 

Crevice and Vacking is an efficient way to recover lost Gold. It's amazing how deep Gold can settle inside cracks in bedrock. Vacking sometimes involves breaking the crack open wide enough to vac out all the material within. 

The method of crevicing for Gold has been around for as long as men have been digging for the yellow metal. The process is simple and effective. 

Digging around obstacles is a great way to find lots of Gold nuggets. Dig where Gold might have been trapped along its way. Gather the material in a bucket or in your Gold pan, and pan, sluice or highbank that material down. Crevicing and panning is a fun and simple way for folks of all ages to find an amazing amount of Gold.

The careful crevicing in exposed bedrock may be more important than ever. Gold is harder to find than it ever has been before. Every year there’s a little bit less Gold than before. You’ve got to think smarter if you want to be a successful prospector these days.

 What is Gold Crevicing?

 Crevicing is a simple process. Basically all you are doing is digging and cleaning out bedrock cracks. Assuming that you are located in a good area of course, there is a high likelihood that you will recover some Gold from this exercise.

Of course, the reason that gold is found deep down in the cracks of bedrock is no secret. The heavy specific gravity of Gold means that it will find itself down into those deep cracks and crevices. In some situations we are talking about millions and millions of years that have passed, allowing the Gold to get WAY down in there. Using a variety of different tools you can get the gold out of there and often get a nice payday.

 

What’s so Special About This Mining Method?

 Certainly all miners have done some crevicing from time to time. However, I should point out the importance of being thorough in the process! Taking the time to methodically clean out a gold bearing crevice is the difference between success and failure.

Often you will find that miners get so focused on moving lots of material that they don’t do a good job of working the bedrock. The problem is that they do all the work of shoveling gravel, say into a sluice box, yet they dig mostly lighter material that has considerably less Gold.

The good stuff is down deep in those cracks! You will find more Gold contained in just a small amount of materials from down in the bedrock than you will from the lighter material that is well above the bedrock.

 The Old-Timers Didn’t Always Do It

 Surprisingly, the early miners during the Gold rush sometimes used the sloppiest methods. There was so much Gold readily available to them that it simply wasn’t worth their time or effort to slow down and clean out a crack. They surely knew that there was good Gold down there, but at that time there was good Gold everywhere!

I have seen some areas where the old timers were extremely thorough. Often the areas that were worked the hardest were places with Chinese miners. The Chinese were willing to work harder for less return than most white men during those days. As a result they would usually clean the bedrock quite thoroughly. They didn’t leave much behind!

 How to Crevice Properly

 Crevicing for Gold is about as simple as it gets, but there are a few tools that will make things easier. Actually, having a nice variety of different tools including a Dentist Kit will help immensely and definitely speed things up. So

Some craving tools you can find in a Gold mining supply store.

The best cracks to clean out usually aren’t the big ones… it's the small ones. Find those narrow cracks, less than an inch wide that seem to go down forever. You would be amazed at just how much Gold can be hidden in some of these cracks. If you find one that hasn’t been dug out by another miner, the potential can be quite amazing.

Cleaning out narrow cracks isn’t easy though, and this is why a good tool kit is critical. For starters, you want some basics like a rock hammer, chisel, metal spoon, screwdriver, and a pry bar. These will be beneficial for opening up cracks and help you get down deep.

The final stretch is the most frustrating – when you get down to the bottom of the crack and you are trying to get the last little bits of material out. This is when it’s easy to quit and move on, but you really should take your time here because the last material is the best stuff! This is where the highest concentrations of Gold will be so don’t move on too fast.

This is where a good tool kit comes in. All kinds of things will work for this; wire, tweezers, little suckers and snuffer bottles, and pretty much any sort of thin wiry tool can help here. They even make special crevice tools that are really handy. The real trick is to just have a lot of different tools so you can be efficient.

Panning it All Out!

The best way to recover the Gold is to simply pan it all out! If you are crevicing properly then you won’t really have a lot of material. If you do have buckets and buckets of gravel then perhaps you will want to set up a sluice box to run you concentrates through, but most of the time you will have less than that and a simple Gold pan will be more than enough.

I really like a green gold pan because the Gold contrasts well and it works for my eyesight. As I said before there are also black or blue Gold pans that people use. I recommend that you use whatever helps you spot the Gold. Everyone has different preferences.

 Makin’ Wages Digging Out Crevice Gold

 It have had really good success using this prospecting method because I think it takes more patience than the average person has. People like to move lots of dirt, and some folks just want to spend the day digging in the dirt and running it through a sluice or highbanker.

Crevicing is very different. It takes a lot of time and hard work. You’ve got to spend the day down on your hands and knees slowly cleaning out those deep cracks in the bedrock. You aren’t going to move much material, but you might be surprised when your final amount of Gold is considerably higher.

When comparing the amount of time invested I probably find more Gold when I spend a day crevicing for Gold in a productive spot than by any other method.

Dry washing for Gold?

Dry washers are devices that are used to separate Gold from lighter material without the use of water. They do this by using a regulated air flow, which blows off lighter material and allows the Gold to settle.

Deserts consist of huge deposits of sedimentary material which have been affected by ancient ocean tides, ancient rivers, glaciers, floods, gully washers and windstorms. They are literally a Gold mine of placer deposits. Since conventional wet methods cannot be used to recover Gold in these areas, various dry methods using air have been devised

There is also an enormous amount of Gold-bearing mountainous and deserts dry placer ground which has remained relatively untouched by large-scale Gold mining activity because of the scarcity of water required in those locations to support wet recovery methods. In some areas, where there is a seasonal choice to process wet or dry it is far better to process gravel materials with water because a much higher percentage of the Gold will be captured.

Generally speaking, dry methods of Gold recovery are not as effective or as fast as wet recovery methods. Yet, dry methods do work well enough that they can produce Gold well if the ground is rich enough. Recent developments in dry washing equipment have made it possible for a one or two-man operation to work larger volumes of dry placer ground without water, and obtain good results in gold recovery.

Dry processing recovery systems generally use air flows to do the same job that water does in wet recovery systems. Under controlled conditions, air flows and mechanical motion and vibration can be made to effectively get rid of lighter, worthless materials. This causes a concentration of heavier materials similar to what occurs in wet processing.

How does a Gold Dry Washer work?

The dry washer is basically a short, waterless sluice. It separates Gold from sand by pulsations of air through a porous medium. The Gold gravitates down to the canvas and is held by the riffles, while the waste passes over the riffles and out of the machine.

Where can I find Gold in dry cleaning?

“The usual practice is to seek Gold by panning along the water courses—stream beds, sand bars, gulches and arroyos. Also true in Dry Washing the only difference is there is often no water present so you have to imagine where the water went through when there was water like during rain and flooding. All areas that look as though a slowing down or slackening of water current occurred are worthy of closer examination since Gold, being heavier than most materials, tends to settle and sink to bedrock.

What is dry Gold?

Dry placers represent a major portion of all alluvial Gold deposits around the globe. Extreme aridity in southern hemispheric regions of the planet causes a slower rate of erosion on placer deposits than if rainfall were plentiful and regional watersheds were hydrologically active.

Can you find Gold in washes?

Gold will generally concentrate in dry washes. The same principles of Gold deposition still apply, so you simply need to dig down and get to the better potentially Gold-bearing gravels. Once you do this, add some water to the pan and sample as you normally would.

Is there Gold in caliche?

Caliche layers in terraced sediments can strongly influence topography. Caliche layers in aquifers can result in the stratified flow of groundwater. Caliche development can incorporate Gold, gemstones, and other valuable minerals.

Can you find Gold in dry river beds?

Around the world, there are dried up river beds that may be teeming with Gold just waiting to be found. Plus, given the wind erosion and other forces, it’s possible that some of this Gold may be at or near the surface and relatively easy to find.

Can you find Gold in a wash?

Looking for Gold in a dry wash is a lot like looking for Gold in a river except you have better access to all areas of the dry wash. Look for bedrock and crevices in the bedrock. Remember Gold only moves during flood stages and tumbles along the bottom because of its weight. A dry wash may have 10′-20′ high sidewalls.

How do you dry out Gold?

Do any heating of materials outside, a well ventilated area. I just pour my vials into a finishing pan and let the water evaporate, a couple of days dump um in. Maybe run some vinegar over just to knock off some of the sulfides and brighten things up a bit.

How do you mine Gold without water?

A drywasher is a common desert mining tool for Gold mining. A drywasher is like a highbanker, since it uses a motor or by hand and has a form of a sluice, but it has no need for water. Its drywasher operates by the use of air and gravity.

Can You Dry Wash Placer Ground for Gold?

Recent developments in dry washing equipment have made it possible for a one or two-man operation to work larger volumes of dry placer ground without water, and obtain good results in Gold recovery. Dry processing recovery systems generally use air flows to do the same job that water does in wet recovery systems.

How does a micro wash plant process Gold?

A micro wash plant designed to process desert Gold placers with a water filtration recycling system. Effectively, increasing Gold recovery to 98%, compared to traditional dry washing methods, utilizing a minimal amount of water. 

Which is better to recover Gold wet or dry?

Generally speaking, dry methods of Gold recovery are not as effective or as fast as wet recovery methods. Yet, dry methods do work well enough that they can produce Gold well if the ground is rich enough.

Do you shovel pay dirt into a dry washer?

It is a good idea to shovel lower-grade material into your dry-washer while adjusting for the proper air flows and pitch. Once set, you can shovel in the pay-dirt. One thing about dry-washing is that because it is generally slower than wet methods, the pay-dirt must have more Gold. High-grade areas in the deserts certainly do exist!

Metal Detecting for Gold

Miners 100 years ago didn't have the tools available for finding Gold as we do. Gold prospectors can work in old places where Gold was first discovered with sometimes very rewarding results. The metal detector is quickly becoming the new millenniums treasure hunting tool of choice. 

The very first thing you should do when you get a new metal detector is read the owner’s manual. After you have read it, start at the beginning and read it again. The key to successfully finding Gold with a metal detector is to understand your machine, so take the time to really learn it; how it works, the different adjustments, how to ground balance it, etc. One thing all successful nugget shooters have in common is an intimate knowledge and understanding of their machine.

Metal detecting for Gold nuggets presents quite a few challenges that make it one of the most difficult ways to prospect for Gold. The ground conditions in many of the Goldfields throughout the world present challenges that most metal detectors have a hard time handling.

There are a variety of different conditions that make nugget shooting especially challenging when compared to other types of metal detecting, but using the right type of detector will help immensely.

You have a substantial prospecting-advantage with a modern Gold detector! All the rules of placer and desert geology apply to Gold nugget hunting, and this knowledge should be utilized to establish where Gold deposits and nuggets are most likely to be found.

Particular attention should be paid to locations which have little or no streambed or other material present, so the detector’s coil can search as closely as possible to bedrock or false bedrock layers. Also, exposed tree roots along the edges of the present streams, rivers and dry-washes have been proving successful, especially along the smaller tributaries in the higher elevations of known Gold country.

Some of the most productive areas for electronic prospecting in the dry regions are in the near vicinity of old dry-washing operations. The old-timers were only able to make dry-washing work in very high-grade areas. They seldom recovered all the high-grade Gold out of an area, because they did not have the means or equipment to prospect extensive areas. You have a substantial prospecting-advantage with a modern Gold detector. Natural erosion over the years has likely uncovered more high-grade in the immediate area, or concentrated other spots into new high-grade Gold deposits.

When prospecting old dry-wash workings, it is always worth a little time to rake back some of the old tailings piles and scan them with your detector. Dry-washers, today and during the past, almost always used a classification screen over the feed area. The screen was commonly around half-inch mesh. An operation shoveling onto the screen at production speed in dry high-grade gravel might have missed larger nuggets as they rolled off the top of the screen. Sometimes, when working a layer of caliche, if the material was not broken-up well enough, it would roll off the screen with nuggets still attached. A metal detector reads out strongly on these kinds of targets. Make sure to ground-balance to the tailing pile. One nice thing about prospecting in these tailing piles is that they usually are not filled with iron trash targets.

When dealing with natural streambeds above the water, you generally do not find too many other reading metallic objects besides Gold, unless the spot which you are scanning is near an inhabited location, like a park or an old dump. So it is reasonably safe to dig any target that gives off a metallic reading in a streambed.

However, some locations have lots of trash and small iron targets. Sometimes, iron targets seem to accumulate heavily in the same areas as Gold. This presents a big challenge! Once you have been scanning a particular area for a while, you will gain an understanding of how much “trash” (metallic objects of no value) exists within the vicinity. With some experience on Gold objects, you will learn to distinguish the different tone changes between most Gold objects and most trash targets. Pay particular attention to the very faint readings, as is often the case with natural Gold targets.

One of the main keys to successful electronic prospecting is to slow down your sweeping action. You cannot do it fast like when hunting for coins. You almost have to crawl across the ground. Remember, you are listening for even the faintest whisper of a sudden increased threshold hum. A Gold target may sound like a coin—only a quieter signal.

Different types of detectors have special non-motion or pinpointing settings which allow the coil to be moved very slowly and still pick up targets. This means you are able to slow down your sweep to almost a standstill and still hear a target as the coil moves over it. On the other hand, these settings may be too sensitive to use for nugget hunting on some detectors, depending upon field conditions and how fast you are sweeping. When in doubt, experiment while using a test-nugget on or in the ground you are searching.

Another important point is to overlap your coil sweeps. The area covered by the search-field under your coil is similar to a triangle. Directly underneath the coil, the search area is about the same size as the diameter of your coil. The search area becomes narrower as it penetrates the ground further away from the coil.

However, the size of this triangular search-field is not constant underneath the coil. It changes as mineralized conditions change in the ground below your search coil. If you do not overlap your search strokes, you can leave as much as 50 percent or more of the area below the search coil behind, without being adequately searched.

You have to use your own judgment about how to discriminate between which targets to dig, and which to leave behind. This comes with practice and experience. Discrimination of any kind, whether by electronic circuitry or the audio sounds given off by the target, has limited accuracy. The depth of a target and the degree of ground-mineralization in that particular location can confuse any discriminator. In some places, you will want to dig every target. In other places, where there is lots of trash, you may find it more productive to discriminate your targets by sound and/or in combination with electronic discrimination features on your detector. In this case, you have to balance the need to leave some small pieces of Gold behind, with not wanting to dig a bucket full of trash and valueless iron targets; and therefore, less Gold.

When in doubt, dig! Or at least toss your sample nugget down and get a comparative reading.

With lots of practice in the field, you will eventually reach the point where your metal detector is like an extension of your arm—like an extension of your perception and knowingness. You will gain the ability to look down into the ground and have a pretty good idea of what is there.

Big nuggets are generally not too difficult to find. In most areas, however, there are hoards of smaller Gold targets in ratio to each large nugget found. Small pieces of Gold are your bread and butter! Most Gold is small Gold, but it has to be large enough to be worth your while. Some of the modern Gold detectors will pick up pieces of Gold so small that you could be finding them all day long; and at the end of the day, not have accumulated very much Gold by weight. In this case, you may want to move to a different area.

Just like in other forms of Gold mining, electronic prospectors have to set standards for themselves. Someone pursuing the activity to make money will be motivated to recover volume-amounts (by weight) of Gold. Another person pursuing electronic prospecting as a part time activity may receive his or her best thrills by recovering the smallest-sized targets.

One interesting development in the electronic prospecting field, which I have not seen happen in other Gold mining activities, is the tremendous emotional success gained from finding extraordinarily-small pieces of Gold. Normally, in gold prospecting, we get excited to find a big nugget or a rich deposit. These are easy to locate when scanned over by a metal detector. The big challenge with a metal detector is in locating the smaller pieces. Experienced prospectors know that if they are finding the small pieces, they will easily-find the big pieces.

When scanning, keep your coil as close to the ground as possible. It takes a coordinated arm and wrist-action to keep the bottom of the coil parallel and close to the ground throughout the full sweeping action. Allowing the coil to move one or two inches away from the ground during the outside of a sweeping motion will also reduce depth-penetration by one or two inches. This will certainly result in lost Gold targets. You have to practice keeping the coil close to the ground. Shorter sweeps is usually the answer.

Sometimes it helps to kick rocks out of the way, or use a garden rake to remove multiple smaller obstructions before you search an area. This allows you to keep the coil close to the ground with minimum obstructions.

During your prospecting activities, it is possible that you may find occasional targets which could potentially be classified as artifacts. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act defines just about anything you might find as a “protected” artifact. There are criminal penalties for disturbing or removing artifacts. What constitutes a protected artifact is primarily up to the judgment of local bureaucrats. Searching for natural Gold targets is legal. Messing around with old junk and trash may be illegal. Sometimes, it is better to just leave old items where they lie. You will have to decide.

The main suggestion I commonly give to beginners about electronic prospecting is to not give up. With practice and by working in the right area, you will surely find some Gold!

PINPOINTING

When you do have a reading target, its exact position in the ground should be pinpointed. This can be done by noting when the detector sounds out while scanning over the target in fore and aft and left to right motions. A steel or iron object can often be distinguished by noting the size and shape of the object during the pinpointing process. Sometimes trash objects are large and/or lengthy in size.

Sometimes a stronger-reading target will seem to cover a larger area than it actually does. If you are having trouble getting an exact location, continue to lift the search coil higher off the ground while scanning with an even back and forth motion. As the coil is raised higher, the signal will become fainter; but the position of the metal object will sound-out at the very center of the search coil.

PINPOINTING WITH THE GOLD PAN IN WET AREAS

Once you have pinpointed the exact position of a target in an area near water, one way of recovering the object is to carefully dig up that portion of ground, using a shovel or digging tool, and place the material in your Gold pan. Here is where a large plastic Gold pan comes in real handy. Be careful not to cause any more disturbance or vibration of the streambed than is necessary while you are attempting to dig up a target. It is possible to miss the target on the first try and cause it to work further down into the streambed because of its greater weight in the wet environment. Sometimes you can lose the target, and not be able to locate it again with the detector.

Sometimes the ground is hard and needs to be broken up or scraped with a small pick. Keep in mind that a sharp blow from a pick can destroy a coin or disfigure a Gold nugget, reducing its value. Digging and scraping is better than pounding, if possible. In hard ground, sometimes it is easier to loosen the material up and shuffle it into several small piles. These can then be flattened out and scanned to see which contains the target.

Once you have dug up that section of material where the target was reading, place it in your plastic Gold pan and scan it with your detector. If the contents of the pan do not make your detector sound-out, scan the original target area over again. If you get a read in the original location, pour the contents of the pan neatly into a pile out of your way, pinpoint the target all over again, and make another try at getting the target into your Gold pan. Continue this until you finally have the target sounding out in your pan. If you cannot see the target, and water is immediately available, pan-off the contents until the target is visible.

There is a good reason why you should not ever throw away any material from the target area until after you know for certain exactly what the reading target is. If you are looking for placer Gold deposits and it happens that your detector is sounding out on a Gold flake or nugget, the chances are pretty good of additional Gold being present in paying quantities within the material which has been dug out of the hole, even if it does not sound-out on your detector. Remember, small particles of Gold often do not make metal detectors sound-out. Therefore, the possibility exists that there could be hundreds of dollars worth of Gold in a single shovelful of material not tightly-concentrated enough to cause your detector to sound-out. So wait until you have seen the reading target before you start throwing any material away.

If you dig for a target and then cannot get any further reads on the detector from either the pan or in the original target area, quickly pan-off the pan’s contents. There is always a possibility of a concentrated Gold deposit which is no longer concentrated enough to read-out on your detector. In this case, you are most likely to have some of the Gold deposit in your Gold pan, which will quickly be discovered when you pan off the contents.

There is also another reason why you save the material from a hole until you have recovered your target. Because of the shape of a Gold pan, and depending upon the size and shape of the coil you are using, if the Gold target (especially a small target) ends up in the bottom of your pan, your coil may no-longer be able to scan close enough to the bottom of the pan to sound-off on the target. Because of this problem, Gold pans have limited workability as a pinpointing tool in electronic prospecting. Sometimes, you can have better luck scanning the bottom-side of a Gold pan.

DRY METHODS OF PINPOINTING

There are several popular methods of pinpointing reading targets in the dry regions where water is not available for panning. Some prospectors use a plastic cup. Material from the target area is scooped up and passed over the coil. If the contents of the cup do not sound-out on the detector, the target area is scanned again until the target is located. Take another scoop, pass it over the coil for a signal, and repeat until the target is in the cup. Then pour some of the contents into your hand. Pass the cup over the coil, then your hand, until you locate the target. Put the rest away in a neat pile, and repeat the process until you recover the object.

One important point to mention is that most search coils have equal sensitivity to targets both above and below the coil. In other words, during pinpointing, you can pass material over top of the coil and obtain the same results as if you turn the detector upside down and pass the material across the bottom of the coil.

Your handy magnet can be a big help when you are having difficulty finding a faintly reading target. Sometimes it is just a small piece of iron.

There is also the hand-to-hand method of pinpointing a target. You can reach down with your hand and grab a handful of dirt or material. Pass your hand over the coil to see if you are holding the target. Continue until you have the target in one hand. Then pass half the material in that hand to your other hand. Use the coil to find which hand has the reading target. Discard the material from the other hand and pass half the material from the reading hand to the second hand, again. Keep up the process until you only have a small amount of material in the reading hand. Carefully blow off the lighter material to locate the target.

Another procedure is to grab a handful and pass it over the coil as explained above. Once you have a reading handful, toss it in a pouch for later panning.

Some prospectors prefer to sprinkle a handful of reading material slowly on top of the detector’s coil. There are different ways to do this. One effective way, which requires some practice, is to sprinkle material over a slightly slanted coil while you vibrate it so that material slowly sweeps across and off. When the target drops onto the coil, the detector will sound-off with a distinctive bleep. Then, all you have to do is gently blow the dirt off the coil, or recover the target from the top of the pile where the material is landing. This method is nearly impossible in wet material.

One important thing about using your hands to pinpoint and recover Gold targets, is that some of today’s most sensitive high frequency Gold detectors react to the salt (mineral) content on or in your hand. When this occurs, your hand will give a reading when passed over the coil by itself, sometimes even a strong signal. This makes hand pinpointing methods more difficult. In this case, the plastic tray or cup works just fine, or the method of pouring material onto the coil.

If you find a Gold target, be sure to scan the hole again. Sometimes it is worth doing a lot of digging and/or raking, with alternate scanning of the immediate area. Gold targets almost never travel alone! I have seen dozens of Gold flakes and nuggets come from within a one-foot square area on bedrock. Many times!

HOT ROCKS

Sometimes you get soft or strong signals from your metal detector when the coil is passed over rocks which contain heavy mineralization. These rocks are called “hot rocks.” This needs to be clarified. It isn’t necessary for a rock to have an extraordinary amount of mineralization to sound-off as a hot rock. It just needs to have more than the average ground which your detector is ground-balanced to. The opposite of this is also true. A rock containing less mineralization than the average ground will change tone on a detector in the opposite way. These are called “cold rocks.” A hot rock from one location could be a cold rock in another location containing higher mineralization in the average ground.

Put another way, when your detector is properly ground-balanced to the average ground, it will sound-off on rocks containing condensed heavier mineralization. Often, the signals given off by these hot rocks can be mistaken for signals which might be given off by Gold targets in the ground. Some locations have lots of hot rocks. Naturally, since Gold travels with other heavy mineralization, you can expect to find hot rocks in the various Gold fields.

Hot rocks come in all sorts of colors and sizes. A big hot rock, depending upon the degree of mineralization over the average ground, can sound very similar to a Gold target. The same goes for small hot rocks.

Quite often, most of the hot rocks within a given area will be similar in nature, color and hardness, but not necessarily in size. After searching an area for a while, you will know what most of the hot rocks look like. This makes pinpointing targets a little easier, especially when dealing with small hot rocks. When receiving signals from rocks which are dissimilar to the average-looking hot rock of the area, check them out closely, especially when they have quartz. Some of these may not be hot rocks at all, but Gold specimens.

If you are finding hot rocks on top of the ground, you will almost always find them buried, as well.

Metal targets gradually lose signal-strength in proportion to the increased distance from the coil. Hot rocks rapidly lose their signal-strength as they are scanned further from the coil. Also, a metal target tends to create a more specific, sharper signal as the coil is passed over. The signal given off by most hot rocks is not as sharp. It is more of a mushy sound which doesn’t have as clear a change in tone-intensity as the coil passes over the target.

When uncertain about a reading target, one way that some hot rocks can be identified is by passing the coil over the target from different directions. If the target only sounds out when being swept from one particular direction, then it is nearly certain that the target is not a Gold nugget.

Sometimes, when lowering the sensitivity on your detector a few numbers, the signal given off by a nugget will continue, but weaker. A hot rock signal will quickly disappear by lowering the sensitivity. You can get a better idea how your detector is reacting to sensitivity changes by running it over your test-nugget.

Another test is to slowly raise the coil further away from the reading target as you are scanning. The signal of a metal object will become progressively fainter as the distance is increased. The signal given off by a hot rock will rapidly die away as just a little distance is put between the target and the coil. Most hot rocks in a given area will have a very similar sound, the intensity depending upon size and distance from the coil. Sometimes, you will find that a Gold nugget gives off a much sharper signal. But not always. Much also depends upon the size of a Gold target, its distance from the coil, and the amount of mineralization interference in the ground that is being scanned.

Each area is different. The hot rocks in some areas are reasonably easy to distinguish. In other areas, it is necessary to dig every signal.

Larger hot rocks are easier to detect. Many can simply be kicked out of the way. It is the smaller pebble-sized hot rocks which create faint signals. In some locations, these signals are so similar to the signals given off by Gold nuggets that you have no other choice but to dig them up.

If lots of hot rocks are making it difficult for you in a particular area, you might try experimenting with smaller coils. Smaller coils are more sensitive to smaller pieces of Gold. Therefore, the sharpness of the signal over Gold targets is also intensified. This may give you the needed edge in distinguishing the slightly-different signals being given off by hot rocks in that area.

Some Gold prospectors go so far as to ground-balance over top of a hot rock until it no longer gives off a signal. This will eliminate a large portion of the hot rocks in the area, but it is also likely to eliminate a large portion of the small and marginal signals given off by Gold targets. This procedure may work well in areas containing just large nuggets. However, most areas I am aware of have dozens or hundreds of smaller pieces of Gold for every larger piece that you will find.

Since cold rocks are made up of a lesser-concentration of iron than the average material which your detector is balanced to, they give off a negative reading signal on your detector. Ground-balancing over a cold rock will cause your detector to react positively to the average ground within the vicinity.

PRODUCTION

Once you find a location which is producing Gold targets, you will want to thoroughly work the entire area. This is commonly accomplished by carefully gridding the site. By this, I mean creating parallel criss cross lines on the ground, usually about four feet apart. You can do this by drawing light lines in the sand with a stick. Grid lines allow you to keep track of where you are, and what has already been searched.

If there are obstructions in the producing area (“nugget patch”), they should be moved or rolled out of the way if possible. The smaller rocks and materials on the ground can be raked out of the way. This allows you to keep the coil closer to the ground. In a proven area, this will surely mean more recovered Gold targets.

Some areas produce quite well on the surface. Then, by raking or shoveling several inches off the surface and scanning again, sometimes you can find even more targets. I know of numerous small-scale mining operations in many different parts of the world, using metal detectors as the only recovery system. They use a bulldozer to scrape away material which has already been scanned, two or three inches at a time. A layer is removed; the area is scanned thoroughly with metal detectors to locate all of the exposed Gold targets. Then, another layer is removed and scanned. This process is done all the way to bedrock. They make good money at it!

I have heard of others doing the same process on a smaller-scale by attaching plow blades to four-wheel drive vehicles. Some even do it using ATV’s!

While hunting over a proven nugget patch, be sure to keep your detector properly tuned all the time. Otherwise, you will certainly miss Gold targets.

PROSPECTING OLD HYDRAULIC MINING AREAS

Perhaps the most productive areas of all to prospect with metal detectors are areas which were already mined by the old-timers using hydraulic methods. Many of these areas are left with a large amount of bedrock exposed. This allows immediate and easy access for search coils to get close to old Gold traps. Sometimes, the exposed bedrock has been further-deteriorated because of direct exposure to the elements. Once a nugget patch is located, raking away decomposed bedrock sometimes can produce remarkable results.

While searching such areas, pay attention to the color of dirt which covers and surrounds the nugget patch. You might discover a pattern. In our area of operation, it is a white powder which often signifies the possible presence of a good spot. Perhaps in other areas, it might also be this white powder, or something else.

PROSPECTING OLD MINING TAILINGS

It is usually possible to find piles and piles of old mining tailings throughout most proven Gold-bearing country.

Many of the larger earlier Gold mining operations (the ones that were set up to move large volumes of material), concentrated on recovering only the fine and medium-sized values from the material being processed. This meant that the larger material was classified-out so the smaller material could be processed through controlled, slower-moving recovery systems. On the larger operations, classification was usually done either with mechanical vibrating classification screens, or with the use of a “trommel.” A trommel is a large circular screening classifier which rotates and tumbles material through, allowing the smaller classification of materials to pass through the outer screen and into a channel which directs them to the recovery system. The larger materials are passed down the inside of the trommel to be discarded as tailings.

In many of the larger operations, there were no means to recover the larger pieces of Gold which were screened-out along with the other large materials. As a result, larger nuggets were sometimes discarded along with the waste material as tailings.

Anywhere you see large tailings piles, especially near the present waterways, it is evidence of a large volume operation where it is possible that the nuggets were discarded with the waste and are likely to still be there. Some large tailing piles still have large goodies inside them, which sing out very nicely on the proper metal detectors. One way to distinguish the right kind of tailing pile to be looking through is there should be a pretty wide range of material sizes in the tailing pile. Tailing piles which consist only of the larger rocks (cobble piles) were most likely stacked there by hand during a smaller surface-type operation.

Scanning tailing piles with a metal detector is proving to be highly-productive in some cases, and should not be overlooked as a possibility for finding nice specimen-sized Gold nuggets. VLF ground-canceling detectors are usually best-suited for this, because tailings almost always also contain a large quantity of mineral content, which is likely to cause interference on a BFO-detector.

PROSPECTING OLD MINING SHAFTS

Even the most experienced cave explorers shy away from entering declining mine shafts because of the dangers involved.

CAUTION: The first thing to say about prospecting in old mine shafts is that they are dangerous! There are different things that can go wrong when prospecting around in such places, one main danger being a potential cave-in. The shoring beams in some of these old shafts may have become rotten and faulty over the years. So it is best not to lean up against or bump any of the old wooden structures situated in old mine shafts. Loud, sharp noises should also be avoided.

Shafts which extend down into the earth on a declining angle are particularly dangerous; because if the ladders or suspension systems are faulty and collapse while you are down inside, you may not have any way to get out again. It is never a bad idea to bring along a caving rope, and use it, when exploring declining-type old mine shafts. Caving rope is different from mountaineering rope in that it is made not to stretch nearly as much. But I suppose, when going down in dark holes, any rope is better than no rope at all!

Another potential danger involved with exploring old mine shafts is encountering poisonous or explosive gasses. Entire mines were shut down because of such gasses—even when they were good-producing mines. These, however, were usually caved in and closed off to prevent unsuspecting adventurers from entering at a later date and getting into trouble.

Before you enter any old mine and start sorting through its low-grade ore piles, or pecking samples off the walls of the mine, it is a good idea to make sure the mine is not already owned by someone else. Or, if somebody does own it, it is wise to get the person’s permission first. There is probably nothing more dangerous in a mine shaft, cave-ins and poisonous glasses included, than some old cantankerous miner who catches you, uninvited, in his mine and thinks you are stealing his Gold!

There is probably more danger in prospecting old shafts than in any other Gold prospecting activity.

After all that, just in case I have not succeeded in scaring you out of the idea of entering old mine shafts in your prospecting adventures, here are a few pointers about how and where you might find some rich ore deposits, or rich ore specimens, with the use of your metal detector:

But first, let me recommend that if you do go into such places, you bring along a buddy and leave another one at the surface with explicit instructions to not enter the shaft under any circumstances, but to go get help in the event that you should get into trouble within. It is also a good idea to let a few others know where you are going, just in case your outside-man doesn’t follow orders and you all become trapped inside.

There are two main sources of possible Gold and silver in an old mine:

1) High-grade ore specimens that may have been placed in the low-grade ore piles and left as waste material.

2) High-grade ore which has yet to be mined.

With the exception of the largest production hardrock mines, there is always a certain amount of rock (ore) which has been blasted away from the wall of the tunnel that was not milled and processed. This was because some ore is of such apparent low-grade value that it is not worth the expense to process.

Sometimes the vein being followed into the mountainside was not as wide as the tunnel needed to be in order to progress into the mountain. Therefore, that rock material which was not part of the vein itself, or the contact zone, that looked to be of lower-grade value, was also discarded into the waste piles.

Crushing and milling ore is, and always has been, somewhat of a timely and expensive process. For this reason, a good many mines only processed what appeared to be the highest-grade ore that was blasted from the ore body. The rest was usually piled out of production’s way inside or outside of the shafts.

In the smaller operations, the kind where the ore was crushed and milled by hand and then processed with a Gold pan to recover the values, only the highest of high-grade ores could be processed at a profit. The rest was usually laid aside out of the way.

The sorting of a higher-grade ore from lower-grade ore has always been a matter of judgment on the part of the person who was doing that part of the job. And, until the more recent breakthroughs in electronic detecting equipment, sorting needed to be done by eye or by feel (weight). There simply was no other way.

The interior of mine tunnels was often poorly lit with miner’s candles during earlier days, and the air inside the shaft was often foul after the powder explosions used to blast ore from the interior of the mountain. As a result of all this, it is not difficult to imagine that some higher-grade ore was likely discarded as waste material in most mines.

How rich the ore was in a mine will have a lot of bearing on whether or not a present-day prospector will find high-grade ore in the waste piles of that mine. The size of a mine does not necessarily have anything to do with how high-grade its ore was, although it may have a bearing upon how much waste ore will be available to test.

County reports can be looked over to locate the old mines within an area. Many of these reports also include information about the grade of ore being extracted from some of the mines.

When you are testing ore samples from a mine with a metal detector, and you do not come up with any specimens, try a few different piles. If you still do not come up with any specimens, it was probably not a high-grade mine. Try another.

Keep in mind that the floor of a mine shaft is likely to have some iron, brass and other metallic objects which will cause your detector to read-out.

One of the fastest and most effective ways of thoroughly checking out samples of ore is to lay the detector down on the ground or upon a makeshift bench with the search coil pointing upward so individual ore samples can be quickly passed by the most sensitive portion of the coil. The 3-inch diameter search coils are probably best-suited for this kind of work, because of the increased sensitivity, and because there is seldom great need for increased depth-sounding when testing ore specimens.

The most sensitive portion of the search coil is usually located near the center of the coil. It can be easily pinpointed by passing a coin back and forth across the coil while the detector is in tune, and by finding that spot where the coin causes the loudest and sharpest reading. The most sensitive area should be marked brightly with a Magic Marker so it will be easier for you to move ore samples directly past it. It is worthy to note that the top of the coil should have similar sensitivity to targets as does the bottom.

Ground-balancing would probably best be achieved by tuning to the overall ore pile. But, you may need to experiment. A lot will depend upon the grade of ore you are looking for. High-grade Gold specimens will require the surrounding mineral to be canceled out. On the other hand, sometimes high-grade ore is full of fine particles of Gold which would not sound-off on a detector. In this case, the high degree of mineralization in the ore specimen might sound-out like a hot rock. Therefore, you would not want to ground-balance out high mineralization. So, depending upon the nature of the ore in a mine, you will need to use your own best judgment regarding the proper way to ground-balance.

Bring along a bucket, canvas bag or a knapsack so you will have something to carry your specimens as you find them.

Both BFO and the VLF ground-canceling metal detectors can be successfully used to locate high-grade ore specimens. For the individual who is interested in finding a wider range of high-grade ore specimens rich enough to be worth milling on a small-scale for the Gold and silver values, perhaps a BFO is the better type of metal detector to be used for the job. This is because the BFO does exceptionally well at picking up highly-mineralized ore. When you are dealing with hardrock veins, high mineralization is a good index of Gold being present, especially when you are working with the ore that was blasted out of a previously-successful Gold mine. Ore which contains large amounts of locked-in values or lots of fine Gold that is thoroughly dispersed throughout the ore is not likely to read-out as a metal on any kind of conventional metal detector, although the high degree of mineralization which usually goes along with such ore probably will sound-out on a BFO-detector as a mineral. So the BFO-detector is handy in finding rich ores which might otherwise be undetectable.

By placing a BFO-detector on its mineral setting and keeping the pieces of ore which sound-out, you can accumulate a lot of good-paying ore. With the use of a BFO as such, the perimeters of ore piles can be scanned first to find a pile that has a lot of mineralization.

Portable rock crushers and mills and processing plants are available on the market. Perhaps by combining these with the use of a good BFO-detector to pick out the highly-mineralized, discarded ore, a small operation could be quite profitable without having to invest the higher costs associated with developing a lode mine from scratch.

LOCATING RICH ORE DEPOSITS

When prospecting around in an old mine with a metal detector, don’t discount the idea of searching the walls of the various shafts to locate rich ore deposits which may have been overlooked by the miners who originally developed the mine. With today’s market value of Gold and advanced milling techniques, a small-scale mining operation can be run profitably in ore producing about ½-ounce to the ton in Gold values, or perhaps even less. Abandoned mines which will pay this well and even better are scattered all over the west. If a person were really interested in locating a lode mine that he could work at a profit, one way would be with the use of a BFO-detector to prospect the various abandoned mines within the area of his or her interest. In using the BFO to scan the walls of such mines, highly-mineralized ore deposits can be located, samples can be taken for assay, and a person could find the mines having the richer-paying ore deposits. 

When prospecting like this, it is a good idea to bring a can of spray paint, a pen and paper and some zip-lock bags, so samples can be accurately marked as to where they came from, along with their respective deposits being marked with the spray paint.

If you are not interested in starting up a lode mine, but are just prospecting around for a bonus, again, the VLF detector is good for looking through mineralization and detecting the richest deposits. If, however, you do locate a reading metal inside the wall of a mine shaft with a VLF detector, and you have determined that it is not some falsely-reading mineralization, it could be well worth your while to investigate further. This is because the chances are pretty good that you have located some bonanza paying for ore. I know of one highly successful high-grade Gold mine in the Mother Lode area of California that is using VLF detectors as its sole method of determining where to blast. At this writing, they have located and recovered millions of dollars in Gold during the past two years, in a mine which was failing prior to the use of metal detectors.

MEDICAL

Bring along some mosquito repellent during electronic prospecting ventures. Otherwise, if bugs are around, sometimes it is difficult to put your full attention on listening to what your detector is trying to tell you. In some areas, you also have to be careful of ticks. Some ticks carry Lyme disease. Some insect repellents will keep ticks off of you. DEEP WOODS, TECNU 10-HOUR INSECT REPELLENT, and OFF seems to work pretty well. Spread the repellent on your boots, pants and other clothing.

In the hot climates, you should bring along the proper sunscreen and apply it to exposed body parts. It’s always a good idea to bring along a good first aid kit, and at least leave it in your vehicle in case of emergencies. Extra clothing and water is also a good idea. 

You can leave it in your vehicle. You never know.

Why a Gold Specific Detector?

99% of the metal detectors on the market today are not designed of

Gold prospecting. Yes, they will all detect Gold under the right circumstances, but more often than not they are rendered all but useless due to the highly mineralized ground conditions that are found in most Goldfields.

These other detectors will generally work fine for detecting relics at old town sites and finding coins at the park, but that is where they belong. Even many of the highest priced coin detectors on the market perform poorly in the Goldfields.

Among all of the metal detectors available today, there is a relatively small group of detectors that were designed specifically for Gold prospecting, and these are highly recommended if you are serious about metal detecting for Gold nuggets.

For a metal detector to be able to reliably find Gold nuggets in the areas that they occur, it needs to be able to handle highly mineralized ground and the natural variations in ground conditions that occur in the Goldfield. The important point here is to understand that the average detector designed to find coins and relics will probably work very poorly in the Goldfields.

If there is one “secret” to finding Gold, this is it; search where Gold has been found before. In the case of metal detecting Gold, you need to search where nuggets have been found in the past. Some areas have produced plenty of Gold, but not in sizes large enough to be found with a metal detector. Many of the Gold bearing states in the eastern US would be a good example of this. Some areas have produced Gold, but only dust and small flakes. If you want to find Gold with a metal detector, you need to seek out areas that have a history of producing nuggets.

Don’t just metal detect randomly. A common mistake is to assume that just because Gold was found in a general area, that you can go anywhere in that area, turn on your metal detector and start digging up nuggets. Find the exact areas that the old timers worked. Look for old placer tailing piles, places where miners hand stacked rocks along a creek. Find those prospects on the side of the hill where someone did some digging. Look for large areas dug up with bucket line dredges or big hydraulic pits. If you are in an arid region, look for drywasher pilesleft behind by the old timers. Anything that shows signs that Gold has been found in the area before is a good indication that it can be found today. The early prospectors were great at finding Gold, but they didn’t have metal detectors, so you have the chance of finding Gold that they missed.

Once you have found a good looking area, it’s time to start metal detecting. The first thing you need to do is ground balance your metal detector

 to the mineralization in the soil. Since you read your owner’s manual you already know how to do this (you did read it, right?) If you really have found a good location that was worked by the early day Gold prospectors, there is a good chance that right away you’re going to get a strong signal from your detector, and you will dig a rusty nail. You’ll move forward a few feet and get another hit, and you will dig up another rusty nail. You will go another few feet and dig up ten more nails, an old beer can, four little unidentified bits of iron, and a piece of bird shot. You have learned about the scourge of the modern day prospector… trash.

This is where learning the “language” of your metal detector will really pay off. The fact is that even guys that are really good at finding gold nuggets with a metal detector still dig a lot of trash. It is just a part of the sport, and it is something that you just have to deal with to some extent. However, learning your machine will really help cut down on the amount of digging you have to do. Quality discrimination should be able to separate out much of the nonferrous targets that you go over with your detector, either by producing a different tone than Gold makes, or by blanking them out completely. Each metal detector handles it differently, so learning your machine and how different types of trash sound compared to Gold are extremely important if you want to be successful.

It’s always a good idea to bring a small test nugget out into the field with you. Take a small nugget and glue it to a poker chip or guitar pick, something that is not made of metal and large enough that you won’t lose it. This will help you tune your ear to the sound of gold and what you should be listening for.

Another bit of encouragement... If you are digging small pieces of lead, you are on the right track. It is almost impossible to distinguish the difference between lead and Gold. While this can definitely be frustrating if you get into an area that has bullets and bird shot everywhere, you should also think of it as a good thing. If you are able to detect a small piece of bird shot, you will be able to find a small piece of Gold. Often it just takes time, and maybe hundreds of pieces of trash before you are lucky enough to find that first piece of Gold, but if you are persistent you will be rewarded.

Very-Low Frequency (VLF) and Pulse Induction (PI) Metal Detectors

Basically all of the Gold detectors that are in use today by successful nugget shooters are either Very-Low Frequency (VLF) or Pulse Induction (PI) technology. Each type has advantages and disadvantages to their design, and therefore many of the most successful prospectors own both types to use them in certain situations.

How VLF detectors work

VLFs are generally a bit more sensitive to small Gold nuggets than the PI detectors. Some of the most sensitive models can often find specks of gold that are almost too small to even see! All of the better VLFs for prospecting have some sort of discrimination feature which will indication what type of target is buried in the ground.

The discrimination on metal detectors is never 100% accurate, but in very trashy areas, the discrimination feature can help you decide which targets to dig and which to pass over. Just make sure you aren’t walking over the top of a nugget!

The biggest downside of the VLF detectors is their limited depth. With the exception of the biggest pieces of metal, nugget finds are generally limited to the top 12” of soil, with most of the smaller bits being found in the top 4” or so. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule.

Ground conditions weigh heavily on the ability to detect deeper pieces of gold. In ground that has a high percentage of iron mineralization, VLF detectors can become very noisy and difficult to operate. To get them to work properly in these areas, the sensitivity of the detectors need to be turned down considerably, which limits overall depth.

How PI detectors work

There are two huge advantages that the PI detectors have over the VLF type detectors. First, they are amazing at finding deeply buried targets, even in very iron rich ground. It is not uncommon for detectorists to find good sized nuggets at up to 2 feet in depth, and smaller pieces can often be found in the 12” range.

The other advantage of the PI detectors is how well they can cancel out ground noises, even in the most mineralized ground. They can maintain a smooth threshold sound in some areas that a VLF detector will chatter uncontrollably.

The PI detectors do have a couple disadvantages when compared to VLF detectors. One of the main differences is their ability to find small amounts of gold. They are just not quite as sensitive as the better VLF Gold detectors, and will pass over some small pieces of gold that the VLF’s will scream on.

There are also some types of very porous Gold that they will also miss as well. While not common, there are actually some very large “sponge-like” Gold specimens out there that are undetectable by PI detectors.

The other disadvantage of the PI detectors is their discrimination features. While they do have discrimination, it is generally considered to be fairly unreliable, and most detectorists that use PI’s learn to identify the tones of the machine rather than depend on the discrimination feature to determine which targets to dig.

When in doubt, dig it all! The best way to learn what your detector is telling you is to listen to the sound and then dig it out of the ground. Eventually, you will learn to separate the “good” sounds from the “bad” sounds.

Cost Considerations when Buying a Gold Detector

When it comes to metal detecting for Gold nuggets, the multi-purpose detector used by the average detectorist is generally not a good choice. Often companies that make metal detectors will advertise that their detector can find relics, coins, Gold, precious metals, gold nuggets, jewelry, etc., and yes, it most likely can find all of those things under ideal circumstances. The problem is that Gold country is far from what would be considered ideal circumstances.

The same can be said for most cheap metal detectors on the market today. There are an amazing amount of detectors on the market made in China and other foreign countries for amazingly cheap prices.

Again, they will often advertise that they can find Gold and precious metals, which is not untrue (assuming they work at all). But rest assured that most of these detectors will be all but worthless in Gold country.

Understanding this will save you a lot of trouble and headaches. Trying to save money by buying a cheap multi-purpose detector will only result in frustration, and you won’t be happy with it. It happens time and time again.

The Fisher Gold Bug Pro is a great VLF detector that is reasonably priced and very sensitive to small Gold.

So what should you expect to pay for a decent Gold detector? The good Gold detectors on the market right now range from around $600 up to nearly $6000. Expect to pay somewhere in that price range for a good Gold-specific detector.

It is worth mentioning that good deals can occasionally be found on good used metal detectors at places like Craigslist and eBay.

Of course you should always use your best judgment when buying used equipment, but there are definitely deals out there. I have seen some older models (but still proven Gold producers) sell for as little as a few hundred dollars.

Comparison of Gold Metal Detectors

 

I have included additional information with links to specific articles about some of these detectors, so be sure to explore further if you are looking for additional information on these detectors.

1.Fisher Gold Bug 2

 

I would go so far to say that the Gold Bug 2 is the most popular gold metal detector of all time, at least for finding gold nuggets. It has been on the market for over 20 years now, yet it is still the go-to detector for many prospectors, especially in areas that have really small gold nuggets. It is extremely sensitive, and can find tiny crumbs of gold that are so small they will hardly register on a digital scale.

One downside of the Gold Bug 2 is that its high sensitivity also makes it very sensitive to highly mineralized ground and hot rocks. There are occasions when it won’t operate well in some of the hottest ground. Of course this can be said for many other VLF detectors as well.

I think this detector still has one of the most loyal followings of any ever produced. I know lots of successful gold hunters who don’t even bother trying new detectors that come out because they’ve already got everything they need with the Gold Bug 2. And I can’t say they are wrong, because they find many ounces of gold each season using one.

The main thing I would recommend when using the Gold Bug 2 is to focus on hunting shallow bedrock areas where small gold can hide down in the cracks. This is not a detector to use for hunting deep targets. Depth is not what it is designed for. Search in those shallow areas where it is only a few inches or less down to bedrock. This is where the “bug” really shines!

Also Read: One Crumb at a Time: Gold Detecting with the Fisher Gold Bug 2

 

2. Fisher Gold Bug Pro

 

The Gold Bug Pro is the latest gold detector offered by Fisher Labs, and it does not disappoint. In fact, it is my personal VLF detector that I use when I am working on shallow ground, primarily because I just like how simple and fun it is to use. It is easily one of the most simple detectors I have ever used and with very little experience I feel that a beginner could start finding gold in no time using this detector.

Read: Quick Tips and Settings for the Gold Bug Pro

It will not detect at great depths like the pulse induction detectors will, but it handles hot ground very well for a VLF detector, and it has an accurate discrimination. This is another reason that I enjoy using the Gold Bug Pro; it works very well in trashy areas where you want to avoid iron rubbish. I still use it in all-metal mode, but by reading the target IDs on the LCD screen I can determine whether or not I want to dig the target.

One tip for using this detector is to get the optional 5″ x 10″ DD coil. This coil stays on my detector all the time. It is extremely sensitive and the ideal shape for searching on bedrock and around brush and trees.

Also Read: Fisher Gold Bug, Gold Bug Pro, and Gold Bug DP. What’s the difference?

 

3. White GMT

 

White’s make high quality detectors, and the GMT is certainly a popular one. There is a loyal following of nugget shooters who even prefer the GMT to the Gold Bug 2. No doubt about it, it’s a sensitive gold detector that will find small crumbs of gold.

The GMT has automatic tracking, meaning that it reads the ground conditions as you are detecting and adjusts itself to the current conditions.

In many ways the White’s GMT is very similar to the Fisher Gold Bug 2. Both have been on the market for many years now, yet they are easily as good as or better than all the newer detectors on the market even though they lack some of the “bells and whistles” that you get with the newer ones.

This was one of the early detectors to adopt a visual display, giving the user something else to determine whether the target should be dug or not. I know a lot of old-timers rely totally on sound to determine whether a target should be dug, but I personally like a visual display. Particularly in those trashy locations where you just can’t dig all the targets, it is really nice to be able to get a better understanding of what is under the ground.

Also Read: The White’s GMT: A Specialized Gold Detector

 

4. Tesoro Lobo SuperTRAQ

 

The SuperTRAQ is an “oldie but goodie” of gold detectors. It is extremely simple to operate and works really well. As with all VLF metal detectors, it can be challenging to operate in ground with high mineralization, but in ideal conditions it can also detect those smallest gold nuggets.

The SuperTRAQ lacks a visual display, and is quite similar to the Fisher Gold Bug 2 in that respect. It is a very capable gold detector, but it operates at 17.8 kHz (compared to the 72 kHz of the GB2) so it is simply not as sensitive as the Gold Bug 2 and for that reason it seems that very few gold prospectors use it these days.

That isn’t to say that it isn’t a capable gold detector, I just don’t seem to see it in use much anymore in the goldfields.

Like the White’s GMT, the SuperTRAQ has a ground tracking feature that detects the ground changes in the soil and automatically adjusts accordingly, but again it lacks the visual display.

More: Gold Nugget Detecting with the Tesoro Lobo SuperTRAQ

 

5. Garrett AT Gold

 

The AT Gold is Garrett’s newest offering for nugget hunting. It has been one of their best sellers, and works quite well. Back in the late 2000s there was a real increased interest in gold prospecting with the quick rise of gold prices. Several companies capitalized on this, and Garrett was no exception.

If you are looking for a gold detector with lots of features, options and different adjustments then this is a good one. There are several coil options that come with this detector, and it is probably one of the best deals for a new detector on the market today. You can buy the AT Gold as part of a bundle package and get some very good deals with lots of other gear and supplies if you are a new prospector just getting started.

Another nice thing about the Garrett AT Gold is that it’s completely waterproof, so you can use it to search for gold nuggets while wading in creeks and rivers. There aren’t very many waterproof options for gold hunting detectors, so the AT Gold is one of the better options if you need to get wet.

Read: Nugget Hunting with the Garrett AT Gold

 

6. Whites TDI

 

The TDI was the first Pulse Induction metal detector that Whites ever designed, as a competitor to the highly popular series of detectors produced by Minelab. While it never gold a huge following among gold hunters, there is no doubt that it will find gold nuggets. Some prospectors use it with great success.

It is certainly not as popular as Minelab’s gold detectors, but it is also priced much more reasonably. It is the least expensive Pulse Induction detector on the market right now, making it a good option if you are looking to get a metal detector with that technology for a reasonable cost.

 

7. Garrett ATX

 

The Garrett ATX is the first gold specific pulse induction metal detector that Garrett has ever designed. As a competitor to the popular Minelab detectors, it is a good introduction the field. The PI technology allows it to punch deep on large gold nuggets making it a great choice in areas that are known to produce large gold.

One common complaint with the ATX is that it is heavy, and older users have a hard time swinging it for hours on end. It is designed on the same platform as their landmine detectors, which means that it is durable but at the same time it’s maybe a bit overkill for the average gold prospector.

The ATX Deepseeker Package comes with a huge 20” DD coil that is designed to punch even deeper on those nuggets.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the ATX is that it is waterproof up to 10 feet. It was the first waterproof PI gold detector to hit the market (soon to be followed by the Minelab SDC2300) and opened up new areas that were previously inaccessible. The waterproof feature is not only handy for submerged hunting, but also for just hunting in the rain. When you need to head back to shelter with other detectors, you can keep on hunting if you have the Garrett ATX.

Also Read: The Garrett ATX Gold Detector

And: 3 Metal Detectors for Underwater Gold Hunting

 

8. Minelab GPX 5000

 

The GPX 5000 is an awesome gold detector. Equipped with a big coil, it is still the best detector on the market for finding big gold nuggets at extreme depths. Most detectors on the market will make this claim, but the Minelab detectors can really make that claim, which is the reason that they are the main detector being used in the goldfields worldwide.

It is specifically designed to search for nuggets in ground with high iron content. This is the reason why Minelab has been so popular in Australia and the brutal ground conditions there.

The other nice thing about the GPX series of detectors is the huge variety of coil options that area available for them. Between the Commander, Nuggetfinder and Coiltek coils, there are loads of different options. I personally like to use small coils, which will still detect gold at amazingly depths if you set your detector up properly.

 

9. GPZ 7000

 

The GPZ 7000 is Minelab’s latest offering, and it is proving to be a whole new level of metal detecting technology. I feel like a dealer saying that (I’m not), but I have seen this detector in action and it is finding gold nuggets in areas that have been absolutely HAMMERED by prospectors using just about every other detector on this list.

The downside: it costs nearly $10,000… and it usually takes lots of gold nuggets to pay for a detector of that price. Still, the GPZ 7000 is a heck of a detector and is probably the best detector on the market today.

Since this metal detector is still new to the market, there is currently only one coil option (Update 2018: There is a new 19″ coil now for the GPZ7000. Most prospectors I have talked with still prefer the 14″ coil). There is already discussion of a large coil in the works, and I am sure that there will be many more options in the coming years to go along with this detector.

If you are reading this list simply looking for the “best” gold detector out there then you’re probably looking for the GPZ 7000, but it’s going to cost you.

 

10. Minelab SDC 2300

 

The SDC is a newer detector from Minelab. It is a waterproof detector and is probably the best option available if you want to hunt in the water. Unlike the Garrett ATX, it is relatively lightweight and seems to be designed more ergonomically with the user in mind.

It is equipped from the factory with a small coil, and is extremely sensitive to small gold nuggets. In fact, it is really closing the gap between VLF and PI detectors for finding those tiny bits of gold. I know several prospectors that are using the SDC 2300 in dry washes in Arizona and cleaning out the bedrock cracks with this detector.

The SDC 2300 also folds up really nice and compact, making it the perfect detector for tossing in a backpack and exploring those remote goldfields away from roads.

 

11. Nokta Fors Gold+

 

The Nokta Fors Gold is a newer detector on the market. It is actually produced in Turkey, and it seemed that people a bit hesitant to buy it because they were accustomed to buying American-made detectors. Nonetheless, this detector has begun to prove itself highly capable in finding gold.

In fact, for a VLF detector many prospectors are amazed at how well it handle iron rich grounds. It also has some interesting features that are not available on other detectors, and it is priced very competitively.

 

12. Minelab XTerra 705

 

The XTerra 705 is one of the few multi-purpose metal detectors that will ACTUALLY find gold nuggets on a consistent basis, and can handle the ground conditions that they are found in. This is something to be wary of… there are tons of cheap multi-purpose detectors on the market that are advertised to find gold, but that does not mean they are actually good gold detectors. The XTerra 705 is very capable and works beautifully for gold nugget hunting.

It is very important that you get the proper coil for it.For gold prospecting you want to get the 5″ x 10″ DD coil which operates at 18.75 kHz. The other coils will not work well in the goldfields as they run at a different frequency, so make sure you use this coil and learn to operate it properly.

This is one of the few detectors on this list that you can successfully use for coins, relics, and gold nuggets without major sacrifices in performance.

 

13. Whites MXT

 

I have a soft spot for the MXT because it was the first high-quality metal detector that I ever purchased. At the time, I was interested in finding relics in ghost towns, so I wanted a detector that could work for both relics as well as gold nuggets. The MXT did not disappoint, although it took me a while to learn how to understand it.

If you get one for nugget hunting, I would highly recommend you get the 4×6 DD coil or the 6 x 10 DD coil. These coils will work much better in mineralized ground than the standard coils that come with it from the factory.

Along with the Xterra 705 mentioned above, the MXT is one of only a few detectors out there that is a good gold detector as well as a fine multi-purpose unit.

I have also successfully used the relic mode to hunt for gold in trashy locations with the MXT. It is a favorite for hunting around lots of iron rubbish.

More: Using the MXT to find Gold Nuggets

 

14. Minelab Eureka Gold

 

*NOTE: Production of the Eureka Gold was discontinued with the release of the Gold Monster 1000

The Eureka Gold has been on the market for a long time, and it is a capable gold detector, although honestly most of the other detectors on this list are better choices than the Eureka. I know a lot of gold prospectors, and I can’t think of one who is actively using the Eureka Gold today.

That isn’t to say that it’s not a decent gold detector, and it certainly deserves a spot on this list. It is still a better detector for gold nuggets than most detectors on the market today, but I probably wouldn’t recommend it compared to most of the other detectors on this list. Still, it is worth a mention. If you’ve got one collecting dust in your closet I wouldn’t hesitate to take it out and use it.

 

15. XP DEUS

 

The XP DEUS is another detector that is relatively new to the market. It is a VLF detector, and it gained its reputation not in the goldfields but in the old mining camps and fields in Europe. It has exceptional target separation that can pick out the sweet targets from the iron rubbish. In this regard, it surpasses most other detectors on the market. But how does it fair as a gold detector?

Well, anyone who has spent any time in gold country knows that certain areas contain an exceptional amount of trash. And as much as we like to say that we will dig all targets, some areas are so nasty that we simply walk past them, even though we know that there are nuggets in there. This is where the XP DEUS really shines as a gold detector. If you hunt in trashy areas this is a great little detector. Additionally it is totally wireless, which a neat feature.

With the newest software upgrade there is now a Goldfield Program that is specifically for gold prospecting.

More details about the features of the XP DEUS can be found in this article:

Hunting for Gold Nuggets with the XP DEUS

 

16. Makro Gold Racer (new addition to list. Summer, 2016)

 

With the prospecting season in full swing here in the northern part of the U.S., I have had the pleasure of getting to use a new gold detector that has hit the market; the Makro Gold Racer.

The Gold Racer operates at 56 kHz, so it is extremely sensitive to small gold very similar to the Gold Bug 2. I have used it with both the 5”x 10” DD coil and the 13” x 15” DD coil, and while both have their place I have found the smaller of the two to be quite a bit more sensitive. It also comes with a small 5” round coil, but I don’t particularly like that shape of coils and I much prefer to use the ellipticals.

It didn’t take me long to realize that the Makro Gold Racer deserves a spot on this list as well. I intend to use this detector quite a bit this coming season.

More: Nugget Hunting with the Makro Gold Racer

 

17. Minelab Gold Monster 1000 (new addition to list. Summer, 2017)

 

The newest gold detector to hit the market is the Minelab Gold Monster 1000. In my opinion, this detector is long overdue. Minelab is the leader in pulse induction detector technology, yet their VLF options were outdated and limited.

The new Gold Monster uses technology that is very different from previous detectors. It has been designed for sensitivity to small gold, and also general usability.

Early reports on this detector have been extremely positive. This detector does not have a threshold, which is different from other VLF detectors. Field testers are reporting that this detector has an impressive ability to discriminate out hot rocks that general give fits to other detectors.

More: A New Gold Detector! The Minelab Gold Monster 1000

 

The Best Gold Detectors Today

 

The metal detectors we listed above are all available and can be purchased on the market today. There are certainly others that were manufactured years ago that are still very capable of finding gold nuggets.

Yet, generally the newer technology will have advances that makes them better than their predecessors. There will certainly be some that disagree, but some of the newer detectors that have come out in recent years are some of the best that we have ever seen. The detectors on this list are all highly capable at finding gold nuggets under a variety of situations.

Conclusion About Gold Metal Decting

Still, remember that those gold nuggets do not find themselves.You have to get out there and swing your coil over top of a nugget if you actually hope to find one. Have fun in the goldfields!

Metal detecting for Gold nuggets and Meteorites is probably the toughest type of metal detecting, certainly much different than digging up coins at the park. Nuggets are generally small, the ground is highly mineralized, and often there is metal rubbish scattered everywhere. Still, when you find that first gold nugget there is a good chance that you will be hooked for life. Good Luck!

I hope this Gold history gives you a bit more information than just the simple “how to” information that is out there. While learning the proper steps of Gold panning, Sliuing, Crevicing for Metal detecting  is important, it really is the entire process that starts with getting the proper equipment, looking in the right places, and putting good quality material in your pan before you even begin.

If there is one bit of information that you should take away from this information, it would be that you need to spend more time worrying about where you get your gravel, rather than the technique itself.

Even the poorest technique will yield some Gold if you are searching in the right areas, but you can’t make Gold magically appear in places where it doesn’t exist! So take that extra time needed to find quality Gold-rich material.

Gold is where you find it. Gold is one of the rarest elements on Earth, and Gold has been the exchange of trade and the driving force for much of the commerce throughout the world. For millennia prospectors have gone on the search for the allusive metal left their comfort zones to seek this waiting in the ground hidden wealth.  

Some of the first prospectors ventured out into California’s famous Mother Lode country, weathered the harsh and unforgiving wilderness of Alaska and the Gold in the Klondike.

They traversed the Gold districts of America and traveled to far off and unknown lands throughout the globe.

Gold in the ground is still the ultimate find!

If you’re a Gold prospector or a rare gem collector? 

Check our new website! (prospectorsjournal.com). There you will find wonderful and practical resources to help you educate yourself and hopefully speed up your search for Gold. 

Learn how to look for and find Gold, educate yourself on where to find it and where others have already found it. How it can best be economically extracted from Mother Earth. And while you’re at it enjoy the beautiful American outdoors. 

Man has been finding Gold for a very long time. There is still more new Gold to be found than has been since the beginning of time. 

Today’s Gold prospectors are digging up huge amounts of Gold through new hard rock and placer discoveries. And there are large nuggets still to be found. Gold prices are higher now than ever before. 

One Gold coin in your pocket is worth more than $2,000 dollars. Imagine that. I mined when Gold was only $35.00. So my wife and I know of many places where you can recover ½ oz to an oz a day. Even a quarter of an oz is more than $500 dollars. The big mines work off of less than that per ton to be profitable.

These new discoveries are often in areas where men have found Gold in the past, even today new Gold is being discovered in unknown areas capable of starting a new modern Gold rush.

I’ve been prospecting and mining Gold for well over fifty years from Alaska to South America, and all in between.

My family and I now reside in Orange County California and we have found Gold within twenty minutes of our house. If you live anywhere in the 13 Western States, you are likely to be close to Gold bearing ground. It’s just a matter of finding it. I suggest you do your homework before you set out to find any of that precious metal. 

Search on websites, as well as many other helpful sites. Read all the books on the subject you can get your hands on and sometimes the older the better and older maps. Search old Gold location maps.

Joining a Gold prospecting club is a great way to meet other people with the same interest, and also to learn more about it and discover the best places to find this prized treasure. You'll find clubs across the nation, and more in those states where more Gold tends to be found.

Then be prepared to make sure you have all the equipment you will need and the most important is water. Then set out (not alone) and scout the likely known places you found in your research closest to home. You can branch out from there when you are ready. Good luck and send us lots of personal stories of your prospecting adventures with lots of photos and videos.

Note: We didn't Cover Dredging or Dredges as they are still Illegal in California. 

As I Said Earlier Gold Is Where You Find It. But I’ll Bet You Didn’t Know That Most Gold Is on or Near Earthquake Faults. Earthquakes Can Make Gold Veins in an Instant.

Pressure changes cause the precious metal to deposit each time the crust moves, a new study finds. The insight suggests that remote sensing could be used to find new deposits in rocks where fault jogs are common

Water in faults vaporizes during an earthquake, depositing Gold, according to a model published in the March 17 issue of the journal NatureGeoscience. The model provides a quantitative mechanism for the link between Gold and quartz seen in many of the world's Gold deposits, said Dion Weatherley, a geophysicist at the University of Queensland in Australia and lead author of the study.

In the Earth’s crust, Gold makes up about two out of every billion atoms,

 a rare metal in a sea of sand and salt and rock. 

Normally, deep underground, the weight of the earth above and the strain of two tectonic plates locked against one another makes the pressure along a fault really, really high—thousands of times that it is on the surface. But when an earthquake strikes and parts of the fault open up, a sudden drop of pressure causes liquid that is flowing around in the fault to rapidly vaporize, says Nature, dumping the Gold out of solution in small but highly purified deposits. Although the written history of California is not long, records of earthquakes exist that affected the Spanish missions that were constructed beginning in the late 18th century. Those records ceased when the missions were secularized in 1834, and from that point until the California Gold Rush in the 1840s, records were sparse. 

Other sources for the occurrence of earthquakes usually came from ship captains and other explorers. The earliest known earthquake was documented in 1769 by the Spanish explorers and Catholic missionaries of the Portolá expedition as they traveled northward from San Diego along the Santa Ana River near the present site of Los Angeles. For the period 1850–2004, there was about one potentially damaging event per year on average, though many of these did not cause serious consequences or loss of life.The few damaging earthquakes that occurred in the American Midwest and the East Coast were well known (1755 Cape Ann, 1811–12 New Madrid, 1886 Charleston), and it became apparent to settlers that the earthquake hazard situation was much different in the West. While the 1812 San Juan Capistrano, 1857 Fort Tejon, and 1872 Lone Pine shocks were only moderately destructive in mostly unpopulated areas, the 1868 Hayward event affected the thriving financial hub that is the San Francisco Bay Area, with damage from Santa Rosa in the north to Santa Cruz in the south. 

By this time, scientists were well aware of the threat, but seismology was still in its infancy. Reactions following destructive events in the late 19th and early 20th centuries included real estate developers, press, and boosters minimizing and downplaying the risk out of fear that the ongoing economic boom would be negatively affected. California earthquakes (1769–2000) According to seismologist Charles Richter, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake moved the United States Government into acknowledging the problem. Prior to that, no agency was specifically focused on researching earthquake activity. The United States Weather Bureau did record when they happened and several United States Geological Survey scientists had briefly disengaged from their regular duties of mapping mineral resources to write reports on the New Madrid and Charleston events, but no trained geologists were working on the problem until the Coast and Geodetic Survey was made responsible after 1906. 

The outlook improved when Professor Andrew Lawson brought the state's first monitoring program online at the University of California, Berkeley in 1910 with seismologist Harry Wood, who was later instrumental in getting the Caltech Seismological Laboratory operational in the 1920s. Early developments at the Caltech lab in Pasadena included an earthquake observation network using their own custom built short period seismometers, the Richter magnitude scale, and an updated version of the Mercalli intensity scale. In 1933, the Long Beach earthquake occurred in a populated area and damaged or destroyed many public school buildings in Long Beach and Los Angeles. Some decades later, the San Fernando earthquake affected the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles with heavy damage to several hospitals. In both cases, the perception of those involved with policy making in California was changed, and state laws and building codes were modified (but not without much debate) to require commercial and residential properties to be built to withstand earthquakes. 

Higher standards were established for fire stations, hospitals, and schools and construction of dwellings was also restricted near active faults. Tectonic setting See also: Los Angeles Basin, Mendocino Fracture Zone, and Salton Trough During the last 66 million years, nearly the entire west coast of North America was dominated by a subduction zone, with the Farallon Plate subducting beneath the North American Plate. Presently, the Juan de Fuca Plate (with its Explorer and Gorda satellite plates) and the Rivera and Cocos Plates are the only remnants of the once much larger Farallon Plate. The plate margin that remains in California is that of the strike-slip San Andreas Fault (SAF), the diffuse Pacific–North American plate boundary that extends east into the Basin and Range Province of eastern California and western Nevada (a seismically active area called Walker Lane) and southwest into the California Continental Borderland region off the central and southern coasts. 

This system of faults terminates in the north at the Mendocino Triple Junction, one of the most seismically active regions in the state, where earthquakes are occasionally the result of intraplate deformation within the Gorda Plate. It terminates in the south at the Salton Sea where displacement transitions to a series of spreading centers and transform faults, beginning with the Brawley Seismic Zone in the Imperial Valley.In the The south is where the recurring Parkfield earthquakes occur. The secondary faults lay to the west of the main SAF at the extreme southern portion, including the active and young San Jacinto Fault Zone, which may be taking over as the primary boundary south of Cajon Pass. A paleoseismic investigation using Lidar revealed that more than 5 meters (16 ft) of slip has accumulated since the 1857 event on the southern SAF, which borders the Mojave Desert to the north and east of the Greater Los Angeles Area. 

Near the Transverse Ranges, reverse and thrust faults have produced damaging earthquakes in Santa Barbara and the San Fernando Valley. Information by Region-California – USGS Southern California Earthquake Data Center Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country – Earthquake Country Alliance Broadband Seismic Data Collection Center – University of California, San Diego What Will Happen After The 'Big One' Hits SoCal? – KCET Little-known quake, tsunami hazards lurk offshore of Southern CaliforniaThe Conversation New California bill aims to create a public inventory of collapse-risk buildings – Temblor, Inc.

"Earthquakes in California"

This list may not reflect recent changes  

• List of earthquakes in California

Alquist Priolo Special Studies Zone Act

• Template:Earthquakes in California
• 1812 San Juan Capistrano earthquake
• 1812 Ventura earthquake
• 1838 San Andreas earthquake
• 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake
• 1868 Hayward earthquake
• 1872 Owens Valley earthquake
• 1892 Laguna Salada earthquake
• 1898 Mare Island earthquake
• 1899 San Jacinto earthquake
• 1915 Imperial Valley earthquakes
• 1918 San Jacinto earthquake
• 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake
• 1927 Lompoc earthquake
• 1933 Long Beach earthquake
• 1940 El Centro earthquake
• 1948 Desert Hot Springs earthquake
• 1952 Kern County earthquake
• 1968 Borrego Mountain earthquake
• 1969 Santa Rosa earthquakes
• 1971 San Fernando earthquake
• 1973 Point Mugu earthquake
• 1978 Santa Barbara earthquake
• 1979 Imperial Valley earthquake
• 1979 Coyote Lake earthquake
• 1981 Westmorland earthquake
• 1983 Coalinga earthquake
• 1984 Morgan Hill earthquake
• 1986 Chalfant Valley earthquake
• 1986 North Palm Springs earthquake
• 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake
• 1987 Superstition Hills earthquakes
• 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
• 1990 Upland earthquake
• 1991 Sierra Madre earthquake
• 1992 Big Bear earthquake
• 1992 Landers earthquake
• 1994 Northridge earthquake
• 1999 Hector Mine earthquake
• 2000 Yountville earthquake
• 2003 San Simeon earthquake
• 2007 Alum Rock earthquake
• 2008 Chino Hills earthquake
• 2010 Baja California earthquake
• 2014 South Napa earthquake
• 2014 La Habra earthquake
• 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes

• Olancha Earthquake Sequence (2009)

• Parkfield earthquake

• Seismic Hazards Mapping Act

• 1892 Vacaville–Winters earthquakes

Happy Gold prospecting! 

Best Places to Find Gold in Southern California

 

Southern California has not produced as much Gold as the Sierra or Klamath Mountains. But it does have some history of hard rock and Placer Gold mining.

 

The known Gold producing Rivers and Creeks in Southern California’s are located mostly in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County, Imperial Valley, and San Diego County.

 

Los Angeles County Gold (Area)

Los Angeles County California

 

Many Rivers, Creeks and Canyons in the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles County know placer Gold. San Gabriel River North, East & West Forks are known to have Gold. Santa Clara River is another area quite close to the city of angels that’s a historical site for Gold discovery.

Located roughly 35 miles northwest of downtown L.A. is Piru Creek known as the Piru Gold District is in northeastern Ventura County just south of the Frazier Mountain Gold District. Gold from placer mining in the Piru Gold District was abundant in mid1840’s. You can still see some slicing and panning on the creek as I write this today.

Mill Creek some fine gold found there by weekenders, Alder Creek. Wickiup Canyon, Gold Creek good Gold, Placerita Creek, Cow Creek, ColdWater Canyon, Bear Creek, Lyle Creek all forks. 

Latitude and Longitude. Here you’ll find the locations of most Gold and Placer mines in the area. Provided by mindate.org

 Note: We listed most of the mines locations and many by coordinates. All the mines listed here are not Gold mines. Many of them depicted here may not have Gold. Try to Distinguish which ones are most likely to have Gold as Gold can be near other minerals. Check Rivers, Washes, Creeks ETC. for the possibility of Gold. Example. If the mine has Gold in the name it is a pretty good bet.

Gold placer deposits exist near almost all lode Gold mining districts. We have listed all mines in each section and location. Gold can occur with mines such as silver, platinum, copper and other minerals so the rivers, creeks, washes in mountains and deserts  should be explored even if the mine is not listed as a Gold mine.

Locality	Latitude	Longitude	Distance	Bearing
Alder Creek 5 deposit, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 19' 4" N	118° 5' 21" W	2.3km (1.4 miles)	56.2° (NE)
Alder Creek 4 deposit, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 19' 50" N	118° 6' 24" W	2.7km (1.7 miles)	6.1° (N)
Mammoth deposit (Mount Gleason 6), Iron Mountain, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 19' 57" N	118° 6' 35" W	2.9km (1.8 miles)	359.6° (N)
Lynx Gulch-Big Tujunga Canyon area, Iron Mountain, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 19' 57" N	118° 6' 20" W	2.9km (1.8 miles)	7.6° (N)
Titan deposit (Mount Gleason 7; Alder Creek 1; Titan lode), Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 14" N	118° 6' 18" W	3.5km (2.2 miles)	7.2° (N)
Iron Mountain, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 21" N	118° 5' 30" W	4.0km (2.5 miles)	24.2° (NNE)
Alder Creek 2 deposit, Iron Mountain, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 21" N	118° 5' 30" W	4.0km (2.5 miles)	24.5° (NNE)
Iron Mountain deposit (Alder Creek 3; Iron Mountain group), Iron Mountain, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 22" N	118° 5' 22" W	4.1km (2.6 miles)	26.4° (NNE)
Daytonian deposit (Daytonia deposit), Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 36" N	118° 6' 15" W	4.2km (2.6 miles)	7.1° (N)
Monte Cristo Canyon, Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 39" N	118° 6' 35" W	4.2km (2.6 miles)	359.7° (N)
Black Crow Mine (Black Crow deposit), Iron Mountain, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 35" N	118° 5' 49" W	4.3km (2.7 miles)	15.7° (NNE)
Gold Bar Mine, Iron Mountain, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 30" N	118° 5' 4" W	4.6km (2.8 miles)	30.2° (NNE)
Josephine Mine, North Fork of Tujunga Canyon, Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 53" N	118° 6' 27" W	4.6km (2.9 miles)	2.6° (N)
Black Cargo Mine, Iron Mountain, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 47" N	118° 5' 35" W	4.7km (2.9 miles)	18.8° (NNE)
Tujunga group (Tajungo group), Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 49" N	118° 5' 21" W	4.9km (3.1 miles)	22.6° (NNE)
Lodestone Mine (Lodestone deposit; Mount Gleason 5), Iron Mountain, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 21' 6" N	118° 7' 37" W	5.3km (3.3 miles)	342.4° (NNW)
Monte Cristo Mine (West Vein lease), Monte Cristo Canyon, Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 21' 11" N	118° 5' 12" W	5.6km (3.5 miles)	22.2° (NNE)
Du Pont deposit (Pigment Division of E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co; Alder Creek 1; Alder Creek 5 - 0060370159; Mount Gleason 7), Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 21' 29" N	118° 6' 6" W	5.8km (3.6 miles)	7.1° (N)
Loris claim, La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 15' 33" N	118° 8' 24" W	5.9km (3.7 miles)	207.9° (SSW)
Beam Smelter Company and Associates prospect, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 43" N	118° 9' 38" W	6.4km (4.0 miles)	312.9° (NW)
Manzanita deposit, La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 16' 6" N	118° 10' 0" W	6.7km (4.2 miles)	231.2° (SW)
Condor prospect (Condor deposit), Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 21' 41" N	118° 8' 35" W	6.8km (4.3 miles)	333.3° (NNW)
Loomis Mine (Loomis prospect), North Fork Alder Creek, Granite Mountain, Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 20' 57" N	118° 2' 59" W	7.3km (4.5 miles)	48.9° (NE)
North Fork Alder Creek, Granite Mountain, Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 21' 6" N	118° 3' 2" W	7.4km (4.6 miles)	47.1° (NE)
Peerless claim, Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 22' 18" N	118° 7' 40" W	7.4km (4.6 miles)	347.2° (NNW)
Falcon Mine, Granite Mountain, Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 22' 24" N	118° 4' 59" W	7.9km (4.9 miles)	18.2° (NNE)
Granite Mountain, Acton, Acton District, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 22' 17" N	118° 4' 18" W	8.0km (5.0 miles)	25.7° (NNE)
Granite Mountain, Littlerock, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 22' 17" N	118° 4' 15" W	8.1km (5.0 miles)	26.2° (NNE)
Mount Gleason 3 deposit, Mount Gleason, Tujunga, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 22' 27" N	118° 8' 30" W	8.1km (5.0 miles)	338.9° (NNW)
Mallery No. 2 prospect, La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles Co., California, USA	34° 15' 29" N	118° 10' 38" W	8.2km (5.1 miles)	229.4° (SW)

 

 

 San Bernardino County Gold

San Bernardino County California

THE SAN BERNARDINO NATIONAL FOREST

Just east of Los Angeles, we find America’s largest county.  This area has both placer Gold deposits and lode Gold mines.

Large deposits of Gold were found in Stedman and Vanderbilt mines, as well as Alvord, Oro Grande and Old Dad Mountain. The first Gold recovery in the county was in Salt Springs area, also known as the Amargosa District.

 BIG BEAR

Holcomb Valley is on the north side of the San Bernardino Mountains just north of Big Bear Lake. Placer deposits were discovered here in 1860 by W. F. Holcomb and were extensively worked for a few years following, mostly by Mexicans. The area has been intermittently prospected ever since. From 1933 to 1941 about 200,000 cubic yards were mined by power shovel, with an average recovery of 38 cents (period values) per yard. The gold-bearing material consists of recent and older alluvium. There are a number of small lode and placer-gold prospects. The gold occurs in thin shear and fracture zones in granitic rocks or in contacts between carbonate and intrusive rocks.

The area around Big Bear has a long history of prospecting and mining. Much of the lands are under the jurisdiction of the San Bernardino National Forest Service and the Bureau Of Land Management. Large parts can be entered for prospecting, panning, and sluicing. The Gold is in The Valley North of Big Bear Lake. Its best showing of Gold keeps the people looking.

Gold has been reported in some places in the Santa Ana River. And in creeks and washes along state Hwy 38, near Mountain Home Village, Forest Falls, Angelus Oaks, Barton Flats, Headwaters of the Santa Ana River and near Seven Oaks, San Gorgonio Wilderness, Mill Creek where some of the White Quarts stringers are as wide as I have ever seen.

There are campgrounds near the headwaters where the confluence of the Heart Bar Creek and Coon Creek join the Santa Ana River. Gold has been found in areas near Big Bear Lake, Holcomb Valley, Lone Valley, and Big Horn Mountains.

This includes Lytle Creek, both forks, Cucamonga Canyon, Cajon Pass, City Creek, Sheep Mountain, Idyllwild, Pine Cove, Garner Valley, San Jacinto, Santa Rosa Mountains, and headwaters near Barton Flats.

 Note: We listed most of the mines locations and many by coordinates. All the mines listed here are not Gold mines. Many of them depicted here may not have Gold. Try to Distinguish which ones are most likely to have Gold as Gold can be near other minerals. Check Rivers, Washes, Creeks ETC. for the possibility of Gold. Example. If the mine has Gold in the name it is a pretty good bet.

Gold placer deposits exist near almost all lode Gold mining districts. We have listed all mines in each section and location. Gold can occur with mines such as silver, platinum, copper and other minerals so the rivers, creeks, washes in mountains and deserts  should be explored even if the mine is not listed as a Gold mine.

There is Gold Reported in Rattlesnake Creek in  San Bernardino County Appax: Coordinates: 34.204775225371364,-116.5815201998289

Rattlesnake Canyon Area Gold. Southern California.

Rattlesnake Canyon Area Gold AREAS CLASSIFIED AS MRZ-3a (p) Rattlesnake Canyon Area, MRZ-3a (p-l) Historically the length of Rattlesnake Canyon has been the locus of placer mining activity for Gold and scheelite. 

The Rattlesnake Canyon drainage transects an area underlain by exposures of the Furnace limestone in contact with intrusive granitic rocks. Developed along these intrusive/carbonate contacts have been small tungsten bearing tactics and in some cases Gold-bearing quartz veins associated with the contact zone. Weathering of these deposits has resulted in the downstream movement and the re-concentration of metallic minerals. 

T~e Gloria-Dee and Roy Ex have been noted within the literature as having produced both Gold and tungsten from placer material along the upper drainage of Rattlesnake Canyon. The U.S. Bureau of Mines panned stream sediment concentrates from throughout the 49 Bighorn Mountains and their study yielded only traces of Gold. The McClure-Bass, Vaughn, and Parker Group placers, located along the headwaters of Rattlesnake Canyon have a small history. production of placer Gold from gravels of the older alluvium. 

Because of the relatively steep gradient along the upper part of Rattlesnake Canyon, proximity to bedrock within the stream! channel, and ephemeral nature of the stream, detrital placer material is more accurately categorized as an occurrence rather than economic placer deposits. I Wayne Placer Area, MRZ-3a (p-2) This area, located about one-half mile northwest of the Big Bear Ranger Station, reportedly has produced minor amounts of placer 

Gold since about 1914. According to Gray (1960) placer Gold occurs in the alluvium contained in narrow washes that transect the area and the property was mined on a small one-man operational basis since the early 1900's.

Snow Peak Mountain Coordinates:34.092804153845144,-116.81685741298263

San Bernardino Mining District  Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

34° 17' 2'' North , 116° 54' 29'' West

San Bernardino Mountains

• 
  Holcomb Valley
• Arctic Canyon Mine
• Bucyrus Placer Mine
• H.O.K. Mine
• Holcomb Valley placers
• Little Nugget Mine
• Mammoth Mine
• Metzgar Placer Mine
• Mountain Bear Consolidated Mine (Bear claim; Mountain Bear placers; Argos claim)
• Olio Mine
• Osborne Mine (Mammoth claim; Olio claim; San Bernardino claim)
• Pocillo Mine (Pocilio claim; Alma)
• Redbird Lode prospect (Red Bird)
• Reservoir claim (Reservoir; Extension of Valley Consolidated Gold Mine; Ext. of Valley Cons. Gold Mine)
• San Bernardino occurrence
• Star Placer Mine
• Unnamed Au occurrence [2]
• Unnamed Au occurrence [4]
• Unnamed Au occurrence [9]
• Upper Holcomb Valley
• Little Coyote occurrence
• Money occurrence
• Mosquito occurrence
• Sunburst occurrence
• Unnamed Au occurrence [274]
• Unnamed Au occurrence [281]
• Unnamed Au occurrence [3]
• Unnamed Au occurrence [6]
• Yankee occurrence

 Orange County Gold

Orange County California

It is a surprise to most people that Gold has been found in the Santa Ana Mountains. Orange County like Los Angeles is one of the most populated areas of the United States, and yet Gold has been reported so close by. The best Orange county mining occurred southwest of Los Angeles near the border of Orange, San Diego and Riverside Counties.

Of course, the Gold was there long before any people were. And while Southern California is not as famous for its Gold strikes as those in the northern part of the state, many men have made their living by mining for Gold in these mountains over the past two centuries.

One of the most well-known Gold mines inTrubuco Canyon belonged to Jacob Yaeger. In 1887, Yaeger dug a tunnel straight through a hill under a mesa in Trabuco Canyon. He pulled some Gold out, and an unknown amount was recovered. Early news reports said he had pulled some Gold out and would trade it for supplies.

On the East side of the Santa Ana Mountains there are reported mines.

Rivers & Creeks of Orange County

The mainstream of the Santa Ana River is more than 100 miles long, and has more than 50 contributing tributaries. It has the largest stream system in Southern California. The headwaters for the river and its tributaries are in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Gorgonio and San Jacinto Mountains to the east. The river empties to the Pacific Ocean between Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

 Note: We listed most of the mines locations and many by coordinates. All the mines listed here are not Gold mines. Many of them depicted here may not have Gold. Try to Distinguish which ones are most likely to have Gold as Gold can be near other minerals. Check Rivers, Washes, Creeks ETC. for the possibility of Gold. Example. If the mine has Gold in the name it is a pretty good bet.

Gold placer deposits exist near almost all lode Gold mining districts. We have listed all mines in each section and location. Gold can occur with mines such as silver, platinum, copper and other minerals so the rivers, creeks, washes in mountains and deserts  should be explored even if the mine is not listed as a Gold mine.

Locations of some of the known Gold placers in the Santa Ana Mountains 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

33° 45' 23'' North , 117° 40' 39'' West.Latitude & Longitude (decimal):

33.75639,-117.67750

GeoHash:

G#: 9qh241jv5

GRN:

N23W70

Locality type:

Group of Placers

Gold Mines in Orange County, CA

Mine	Owner	Land Status	Work Type	Minerals
Blue Light				Gold
Blue Light Mine		Private		Gold
Joker and Catherine Prospect		Unknown		Gold
Los Pinos		Unknown		Gold
Ophir		Unknown		Gold
Ortega		National Forest		Gold
Santa Ana Mines		Unknown		Gold
Sentinal Oak		Unknown		Gold
Shirley Mine		Unknown		Gold
Wilhunt		National Forest		Gold
Wilhunt Lead-Silver		Unknown		Gold
Yaeger		National Forest		Gold
Yeager Mines		Unknown		Gold
Yvonne Claims		Unk		Gold

• Gold Mines in Lake Elsinore, California
• Gold Mines in San Clemente, California
• Gold Mines in Silverado, California
• Gold Mines in Trabuco Canyon, California
• Gold Mines in Rancho Santa Margarita, California
• Creeks & Rivers

Propective Creeks and Rivers in the area

Santiago Creek tributaries Handy Creek • Black Star Canyon • Silverado Canyon • Modjeska Creek San Diego Creek tributaries Bonita Creek • Sand Canyon Wash • Peters Canyon Wash • Bee Canyon Creek • Agua Chinon Creek • Serrano Creek • La Cañada Creek • See also: San Diego Creek#Tributaries Aliso Creek tributaries Wood Canyon Creek • Sulphur Creek • Aliso Hills Channel • Dairy Fork • Munger Creek • English Canyon Creek • See also: Aliso Creek (Orange County)#Tributaries San Juan Creek tributaries Trabuco Creek • El Horno Creek • Cañada Gobernadora • Trampas Canyon • Bell Canyon • Lucas Canyon Creek • Cold Springs Creek • Hot Springs Creek Trabuco Creek tributaries Oso Creek • Tijeras Canyon Creek • Live Oak Canyon Creek • Falls Canyon Creek • Hickey Canyon Creek • Holy Jim Creek Rivers partially in the county San Gabriel River • Santa Ana River Minor streams Newport Coast Creek • Muddy Creek • Prima Deshecha Cañada • Segunda Deshecha Cañada

Santiago Creektributaries	Handy Creek • Black Star Canyon • Silverado Canyon • Modjeska Creek
San Diego Creek tributaries	Bonita Creek • Sand Canyon Wash • Peters Canyon Wash • Bee Canyon Creek • Agua Chinon Creek • Serrano Creek • La Cañada Creek • See also: San Diego Creek#Tributaries
Aliso Creektributaries	Wood Canyon Creek • Sulphur Creek • Aliso Hills Channel • Dairy Fork • Munger Creek • English Canyon Creek • See also: Aliso Creek (Orange County)#Tributaries
San Juan Creektributaries	Trabuco Creek • El Horno Creek • Cañada Gobernadora • Trampas Canyon • Bell Canyon • Lucas Canyon Creek • Cold Springs Creek • Hot Springs Creek
Trabuco Creektributaries	Oso Creek • Tijeras Canyon Creek • Live Oak Canyon Creek • Falls Canyon Creek • Hickey Canyon Creek • Holy Jim Creek
Rivers partially in the county	San Gabriel River • Santa Ana River
Minor streams	Newport Coast Creek • Muddy Creek • Prima Deshecha Cañada • Segunda Deshecha Cañada

Categories:

• Rivers of Orange County, California

• Christianitos Canyon Creek (drains to San Mateo Creek)
• Talega Canyon
• Gabino Creek
• La Paz Canyon Creek
• Talega Canyon
• Gabino Creek
• La Paz Canyon Creek
• Ortega River
• Lucus Creek
• San Yuan Creek
• Oso Creek
• Trubuco Canyon Creek
• San Mateo Creek
• Aliso Creek - Alder Creek
• El Horno Creek - Oven Creek
• El Toro Creek - Bull Creek
• Laguna Canyon - Lagoon Canyon
• Bear Creek - Salt Creek

Kern County Gold

Kern County California

 Note: We listed most of the mines locations and many by coordinates. All the mines listed here are not Gold mines. Many of them depicted here may not have Gold. Try to Distinguish which ones are most likely to have Gold as Gold can be near other minerals. Check Rivers, Washes, Creeks ETC. for the possibility of Gold. Example. If the mine has Gold in the name it is a pretty good bet.

Gold placer deposits exist near almost all lode Gold mining districts. We have listed all mines in each section and location. Gold can occur with mines such as silver, platinum, copper and other minerals so the rivers, creeks, washes in mountains and deserts  should be explored even if the mine is not listed as a Gold mine.

 

All locations are within 100 ft. to 1,000 ft.

Locations listed here are hard rock mines or Placer or both. When lacated a Gold mine look around for a placer Rivers, Creek or Washes.

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	35° 19' 29'' North , 118° 24' 58'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	35.32472229, -118.416114807

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 21' 26'' North , 118° 22' 3'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 21' 38'' North , 118° 25' 7'' West

 

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 21' 38'' North , 118° 25' 7'' West

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 23' 4'' North , 118° 18' 54'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 23' 41'' North , 118° 19' 3'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 23' 58'' North , 118° 18' 38'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 24' 10'' North , 118° 18' 37'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 24' 50'' North , 118° 17' 29'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 24' 0'' North , 118° 16' 60'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 25' 3'' North , 118° 17' 21'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 26' 16'' North , 118° 18' 41'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 26' 9'' North , 118° 19' 29'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84): 35° 26' 32'' North , 118° 19' 46'' West

 

Claraville was founded as a mining camp named Kelso after placer gold was discovered in the Piute Mountains in 1861. It was renamed Claraville in honor of Clara Munckton, the first white woman there. The Mount Sinai mining district was formed. By 1865, shafts, tunnels and stamp mills and placers dotted the landscape.

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 29' 54'' North , 118° 21' 48'' West

 

A former Gold lode (Au) occurrence/mine located (1.0 mile) SSW of Inspiration Point just W of Alaska Flat (1 mile S of the Bright Star Mine), on National Forest land. 

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 30' 54'' North , 118° 23' 18'' West

 

A former Gold lode (Ag-Au) occurrence/mine located 1.7 miles W of Inspiration Point, along the W canyon wall of the South Fork of Erskine Creek a good place to prospect for placer gold; it’s on private (patented) land within a National Forest area. 

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 31' 15'' North , 118° 24' 60'' West

 

A Gold (Au-Ag) prospect located (3.4 miles) W of Inspiration Point along Bodfish Canyon near its headwater, good prospect for placer on National Forest land.

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 31' 18'' North , 118° 25' 44'' West

 

A former lode Gold (Au) occurrence/mine located about 8.3 km E of Havilah and about 4½ miles SE of Bodfish, along the upper N canyon wall of Clear Creek good prospect for placer, S of Saddle Spring Road, on private (patented) land within a National Forest. 

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 32' 28'' North , 118° 26' 24'' West

A former Gold (Au) occurrence/mine located about 7 km (4¾ miles) SE of Bodfish, along the W canyon wall of Bodfish Canyon, SE of Bodfish Peak and NNE of Rocky Point, on National Forest land.

 

.Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 33' 12'' North , 118° 24' 6'' West

 

A former Gold (Au) occurrence/mine located about 9 km (5¾ miles) ESE of Bodfish, along the W canyon wall of Erskine Creek is a good place to look for placer gold, on National Forest land. The property is comprised of 6 claims.

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

35° 30' 26'' North , 118° 26' 20'' West

 

An Gold (Au) occurrence located about 7.6 km E of Havilah, on the N slope of King Solomons Ridge, S of Prospect Clear Creek for Placer gold, on National Forest land. 

 

 

Mojave Desert Gold

Gold Prospecting in the Mojave Desert California

The Mojave Desert is a large region nearly 50,000 square miles in size that covers large parts of southern California, southern Nevada, and northwest Arizona and southwest Utah. Gold has been mined here since the early Spanish explorers first came to the region, and later discoveries were made in the 1800’s that brought considerable interest.

 

Finding gold is no easy task in this harsh environment. The Mojave gets less than 13” of rain per year on average, with very few perennial streams or rivers. The world famous Death Valley in southern California is part of the Mojave Desert, a place where summer temperatures average well over 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

It is important to emphasize this harsh environment before we even discuss locations where you can find gold in the Mojave Desert. This desert is unforgiving, and gold prospecting will take you to some remote and desolate places so it is absolutely critical that you are well-prepared before you venture out.

 

A Au-Ag-Cu-Sb-Pb mining district located 5 to 10 miles S to SE of Mojave, in the SE portion of the county.

Location: The Mojave-Rosamond district is in southeastern Kern County. The gold deposits are associated with the five prominent buttes south of the town of Mojave and west and north of the town of Rosamond.

History: Gold was discovered in the Yellow Rover vein on Standard Hill by George Bowers in 1894, and soon afterward other discoveries were made. Activity continued until about 1910 but waned over the next 20 years. The Cactus Queen mine was discovered in 1934, and from 1931 until 1941 mining was done in the district on a major scale. The mines were shut down during World War II, but there has been some activity since. The Tropico mine is now an historical museum and a popular tourist attraction. The district is estimated to have had a total gold and silver output valued at $23 million (period values).

Geology and Ore Deposits: The principal rocks are Tertiary rhyolite, rhyolite porphyry and quartz latite, which are underlain by Mesozoic quartz monzonite. All the ore deposits are associated with the five prominences (fig. 29), the most important of which, both in productivity and in the number of deposits, is Soledad Mountain. The ore occurs in epithermal fissure veins that occupy brecciated and sheared zones in the rhyolitic rocks. The ore contains finely divided gold, with appreciable amounts of silver minerals, including cerargyrite, argentite, and smaller amounts of proustite, pyrargyrite, and electrum. Pyrite, arsenopyrite, galena, and chalcopyrite also are present. The ore shoots range from a few feet to 40 feet in thickness, and are up to 200 feet long. The veins have been developed to depths of 1000 feet. Milling ore usually averaged about ⅓ ounce of gold per ton, but some rich ore shoots were worked in the earlier mining operations.

Mines: Burton-Brite-Blank, Cactus, Cactus Queen ($5 million +), Double Eagle, Crescent, Elephant ($200,000 to $400,000), Excelsior, Golden Queen (includes Echo and Gray Edge, Queen Ester and Silver Queen) ($10 million +), Middle Butte ($150,000 +), Milwaukee, Pride of Mojave, Quien Sabe, Standard group (Desert Queen, Exposed Treasure and Yellow Rover) ($3.5 million), Tropico (114,000 ounces), Wegman group (Eureka, Karma and Monarch) ($100,000 +), Western, Whitmore, Winkler, Yellow Dog (5,800 + ounces).

Where Gold was First Discovered in the Mojave Desert

 

The earliest documented gold discovery within the Mojave Desert was along the Colorado River, about 10 miles northeast of Yuma in what is now Imperial County, California. In fact, the placer gold in the Colorado River was known well before the discovery at Sutter’s Mill on the American River (which is often incorrectly credited as the first gold discovery in California.)

 

Gold was mined on the Colorado River in the Potholes District, Picacho District, and Cargo Muchacho District. La Paz was the biggest mining town to spring up, with an estimated population of 1,500 at its peak, but the placers quickly played out. See Kern County for more information on Gold in Mojave.

 Note: We listed most of the mines locations and many by coordinates. All the mines listed here are not Gold mines. Many of them depicted here may not have Gold. Try to Distinguish which ones are most likely to have Gold as Gold can be near other minerals. Check Rivers, Washes, Creeks ETC. for the possibility of Gold. Example. If the mine has Gold in the name it is a pretty good bet.

Gold placer deposits exist near almost all lode Gold mining districts. We have listed all mines in each section and location. Gold can occur with mines such as silver, platinum, copper and other minerals so the rivers, creeks, washes in mountains and deserts  should be explored even if the mine is not listed as a Gold mine.

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

33° 47' 59'' North , 117° 20' 5'' West

 

A former Gold (Au) occurrence/mine located W of Perris, just S of the Gavilan Mine. 

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

33° 36' 23'' North , 115° 22' 34'' West

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

33° 32' 52'' North , 115° 42' 57'' West

 

A former gold (Au) occurrence/mine located on the S slope of the Orocopia Mountains, 21 miles W of Mecca.Oro Copia: Spanish, meaning “lots of gold”.

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

33° 29' 12'' North , 114° 50' 2'' West

 

A former Gold (Au-Ag) occurrence/mine along the eastern slope of the Mule Mountains (8 miles W of Ripley). NOTE: USGS MRDS database file #10064444 presents different coordinates of 33.57089, -114.79302.

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

33° 44' 6'' North , 114° 53' 4'' West

 

A former Gold ( Cu-Au-Ag-Pb) occurrence/mine located (1.3 miles) E of McCoy Spring on the crest of the middle McCoy Mountains. 

 

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):

34° 1' 3'' North , 114° 55' 48'' West

 

A former Gold (Au-Ag-Pb-Cu) occurrence/mine located in the central Arica Mountains (5 miles S of Rice). 

 

Imperial County Gold

Imperial County California

 

Where can I find gold in Imperial County?

Gold and manganese will also play an important part in the future of Imperial County as sizable deposits of these minerals also remain. The largest gold reserves are to be found in the Cargo Muchacho and southeastern Chocolate mountains, the Palo Verde Mountains. The Chocolate Mountain range is loaded with Gold possibilities.

Placer Gold can be found all along the water of the Colorado River and most of its dry washes. The La Sierra de San Pablo mountain range to be renamed as the "Cargo Muchacho Mountains" Mostly Hard Rock mining takes place. But many of the washes have Gold.  And Gold Nuggets. Towns like Hedges, Ogilby, and Tumco all played significant roles in leading the way to new mines in the area, such as the Picacho Mine, Gold Cross, Guadalupe, and American Girl Mine. Mining continues in Imperial County today at the Mesquite Mine, roughly 10 miles north of Imperial Gold’s planned site.

 Note: We listed most of the mines locations and many by coordinates. All the mines listed here are not Gold mines. Many of them depicted here may not have Gold. Try to Distinguish which ones are most likely to have Gold as Gold can be near other minerals. Check Rivers, Washes, Creeks ETC. for the possibility of Gold. Example. If the mine has Gold in the name it is a pretty good bet.

Gold placer deposits exist near almost all lode Gold mining districts. We have listed all mines in each section and location. Gold can occur with mines such as silver, platinum, copper and other minerals so the rivers, creeks, washes in mountains and deserts  should be explored even if the mine is not listed as a Gold mine.

• Unnamed S prospect [1]
• Black Hills
•  Mountain
• Black Eagle prospect (Black Eagle Mine)
• Brawley
• Hebbard Clay
• Cactus
• Coon placer
• Cargo Muchacho Mountains
• Cargo Muchacho Mining District (Hedges Mining District; Ogilby Mining District)
• Obregon
• Pasadena Mountain
• Tumco (Hedges; Gold Rock Camp)
• Carrizo Creek
• Carrizo Gorge approaches
• Chocolate Mountains
• Chocolate Mountains Mining District
• Amos
• Black Mountain
• Glamis
• Indian Pass
• Lady Katy claims (Lady Katie group; Lucky Katy claims)
• Lion Head Mountain
• Mesquite District
• Pegleg Well
• Paymaster Mining District
• Buzzards Peak
• Imperial Gables
• Midway Well
• Mount Barrow
• Paymaster Landing
• Quartz Peak
• Picacho Mining District
• Blue Jacket Mine
• Pebble Mountain
• Picacho
• Picacho Peak
• Potholes Mining District
• Bard
• Unnamed S deposit [2]
• Coyote Mountains
• Carrizo Mountain
• Black Lady Mine (Shell Canyon; Trenchard claim; Copper Contact lode; Coyote Mountain; Black Lady group; Cevn group)
• Coyote Mountains deposit (Golden State Mining and Marble; Southern California Marble; Creole Marble; Columbia Cement)
• Coyote Mountains Gypsum & Sulfur Mine (Coyote Mt Gypsum & Sulfur; Swallow deposit; Coyote Mountain Gypsum & Sulfur)
• Coyote Mountains Silica deposit (Southern California Marble and Development Company; Columbia Cement Company)
• Edwards prospect
• Jumbo Clay deposit
• Jumbo deposit
• LLH Mine
• Navajo deposit (Weaver deposit)
• Snow White Mine
• Southern Pacific deposit (Coyote Mountains Limestone deposit)
• Sunshine Placer Gypsum Mine
• Unnamed W prospect [1]
• Wedge Mine
• Wednesday deposit
• Coyote Wells
• Cal-White Limestone deposit (Cal-White deposit; Ray claims; Kimberly; Cal White; Little White)
• Stuart Graphite prospect
• Desert Shores
• Coolidge Springs deposit
• Unnamed Barite occurrence [1]
• Dixieland
• El Centro Mine
• Masters borrow pit
• Unnamed Granite quarry [1]
• El Centro
• Simons Brick Company property
• Unnamed Wollastonite occurrence [1]
• Fish Creek Mountains
• American-Portland Cement Company Mine (California-Portland Cement Company)
• Blue Diamond Corp. deposit (Houck Tract 71 deposit)
• Bonanza Queen Mine
• California Portland Cement Company (Chaplin deposit)
• Campbell prospect
• Daisy Mine (Swallow placer No. 2)
• Dixieland Limestone claim
• Empire Marble Mountain & Mammoth deposit (Empire Marble Mt & Mammoth)
• Fish Mountain Silica deposit (Fish Mtn Silica deposit)
• Gypsum King placer
• Hanks Lost Mine prospect
• Imperial Gypsum deposit (Pacific Portland Cement; California Gypsum group; Tracts 68; 69; 70; 78; Ward; Gillette; Imperial Gypsum and Oil Corporation)
• Imperial Gypsum Mine
• National Gypsum Company (Blanc; Kipp; Carrizo)
• Plaster City Quarry (Fish Creek Quarry)
• Roberts and Peeler Mine (Peeler & Roberts Mine; Roberts Celestite Mine)
• Shoveler-Annex Quarry
• Fish Creek Mountains
• Swallow and South Pole placers
• Tract 72 Gypsum deposit
• U. S. Gypsum Company deposit A (U. S. Gypsum Company deposit)
• U. S. Gypsum Company deposit C
• Unnamed Baryte prospect [2]
• Unnamed Limestone deposit [1]
• Unnamed Sr occurrence [1]
• Unnamed Zn-Cu prospect [1]
• Waters Limestone deposit
• Frink
• Imperial Salt Works Mine (Western Salt Company)
• Unidentified Crushed Stone quarry [2]
• Unnamed Crushed Stone quarry [3]
• Heber
• Heber geothermal field
• Imperial Valley
• Jacumba Mountains
• Jacumba District
• Boulder Park
• Canteen Mine
• Little Mule Mountains
• Keller deposit
• Mount Signal (Mt. Signal)
• Unnamed Stone occurrence [6]
• Mule Mts (Palo Verde Mts)
• Mundo (Volcano Station)
• Niland
• Davis–Schrimpf Fumarole Field (Mud Volcanoes area; Mud Pots area)
• Imperial Irrigation District No. 1 Mine (Imperial Irrigation Dist. No. 1)
• Obsidian Butte
• California Pumice deposit (Calif Pumice deposit; Brand and Stevens deposit; Obsidian Butte Mine; Kalite Company deposit; Superlite Corp. deposit)
• Rock Hill deposit
• Sinclair No. 3 Mine
• River Ranches No. 1 Mine
• Sportsman No. 1 Mine
• Superlite Pumice deposit
• Unspecified U occurrence [1]
• Ocotillo
• Hematite prospect
• North Star prospect
• Red Schist prospect
• Roark Mine (Graphite claim)
• Unnamed Au prospect [4]
• Unnamed Crushed Stone prospect [7]
• Unnamed Hematite prospect [2]
• Unnamed Limestone prospect [2]
• Unnamed W mine [3]
• Unnamed W mine [4] (Unnamed prospect No. 2; Unnamed mine; Unnamed location)
• Unnamed W prospect [10] (Unnamed Prospect No. 3)
• Unnamed W prospect [5]
• Unnamed W prospect [6]
• Unnamed W prospect [7]
• Unnamed W prospect [8]
• Unnamed W prospect [9]
• Weaver deposit
• White Hope Limestone deposit
• Ogilby
• Unnamed Dumortierite occurrences [1]
• Orita
• Otay Bentonite deposit
• Red Dog Mining Inc. property
• Palo Verde Mountains
• Palo Verde Mining District

San Diego County Gold

San Diego California

Julian has become fairly well-known recently as a weekend getaway where recreational panners can pan for gold. The area is easily accessible and is a short 30-45 minute drive from San Diego on the highway. The road extends through curvy and hilly two lanes and is a pleasurable drive.

The location offers excellent prospects of finding Gold and when coupled with the ease of access, this is a great place to start prospecting.

 Several hundred thousand ounces in Gold has been reportedly discovered, although much of the gold mined during the early days went unreported.

Most of these production numbers are from lode Gold occurrences while minor amounts of placer deposits were also found.

There are still Gold prospectors in the San Diego area who are finding Gold nuggets successfully using metal detectors and drywashers. This dry desert hides good amounts of Gold if you know where to look for it.

Gold prospecting within easy driving distance of the areas of major population and the clear, mild weather is ideal for outdoor activities.

The Escondido Gold is 25 miles north of San Diego. Mexicans mined the rich surface ores here many years ago and there was considerable mining and prospecting activity in this area in the 1890's and early 1900's. 

The San Ysidro Mountains a few miles east of Chula Vista and 20 miles southeast of San Diego is the location of the Dulzura Gold District. Placer Gold was discovered here in 1828 and lode mining began in 1890. The deposits consist of broken and crushed quartz containing Gold.

The Laguna Gold area is about 45 miles east-northeast of San Diego in the Laguna Mountains. The Cuyamaca Gold District is a few miles northwest of the Laguna Gold District. 

The Pine Valley Gold District in San Diego County includes Descanso and is just off of Interstate 8 about 35 miles east of San Diego.

Directly east of Escondido is the famous Julian-Banner Gold District, which, together with the Cuyamaca and Pinacote Districts, were prime sources of gold in Region 2. The Pinacote Gold District is in the hills of western Riverside County between Perris and Lake Elsinore.  The area of the Pinacote Gold District was placer mined in the 1850's and there was considerable activity after discovery of a major vein in 1874, and until 1903.

The rich Dale, or Virginia Dale Gold District, is in southern San Bernardino County and northern Riverside County. It extends into California Gold Region 2 about 50 miles east-northeast of Palm Springs. There are many gold deposit sites between Palm Springs and the Dale Gold District.

 Note: We listed most of the mines locations and many by coordinates. All the mines listed here are not Gold mines. Many of them depicted here may not have Gold. Try to Distinguish which ones are most likely to have Gold as Gold can be near other minerals. Check Rivers, Washes, Creeks ETC. for the possibility of Gold. Example. If the mine has Gold in the name it is a pretty good bet.

Gold placer deposits exist near almost all lode Gold mining districts. We have listed all mines in each section and location. Gold can occur with mines such as silver, platinum, copper and other minerals so the rivers, creeks, washes in mountains and deserts  should be explored even if the mine is not listed as a Gold mine.

• San Diego County
• Julian Mining District
• Julian
• April Fool claim
• Asper prospect
• Banner Creek Placer deposits
• Ben Hur Mine
• Butte prospect
• Chieftan Mine
• Coarse Gold prospect
• Coleman Creek Placer deposits (Anthoney Ranch)
• Copper Brick deposit
• Dark Horse group
• Eagle Mine
• El Dorado claim
• Elk and Landslide deposit
• Ella Mine group (California claim; Old Ella; Ella Mine)
• Foster Quarry
• Friday Mine
• Gilson prospect (Gilson Hapoless prospect; Napoles)
• Gold Cross group (Fraction; Gold Cross Mine; Gold Cross No. 2 Mine; Cable Mine)
• Gold Crown group
• Gold King group (Gold Queen Mine; Good Hope prospect; King Mine; Gold King Nos. 2 and 3 claims; Queen Mine)
• Golden Chariot Mine (Golden Chariot claims; Chariot North claims; Ida Claire; Eureka group)
• Golden Gem group (Gem Mine; Gardiner; Gardner; Blue Hill; Big Blue; Canadian claim)
• Golden Queen Mine
• Grand Central claim (Grand Central Quartz Mine; Grand Central Quarry)
• Green Money Mine
• Helvetia Mine
• Herman claim
• High Peak Mine (Rossland claim; High Peak South Mine; Eagle claim; Roseland; Roselyn; Roosevelt lode; Rosalyn)
• Jumper Mine (Hussayhamda)
• Kentwood Scheelite claim
• Keystone Pilot prospect
• Ledge Lode prospect
• Lookout group
• Lucky Gene prospect
• Lucky Pardner Mine (Lucky Partner Mine; Pardner Mine)
• 
  
• Julian Mining District
• Julian
• Lucky Strike group
• Madden claim (Madden group; Madden Millsite claim; Antelope claim; Old Madden; Gopher claim; Curry claim)
• Majestic group
• Maude E. claim
• Nona group (Nona and Coarse Gold prospects)
• O. X. group
• Ora group (Ora No. 1 claim; Ord group; Ora No. 2 claim; Roocky Genes claim)
• Oriflamme Mine (Oro Flamme Mine; Oreiflamme Mine)
• Osage prospect
• Owens Mine (Old Owens; Janet Mine)
• Padlock Mine
• Penny prospect
• Pine Tree prospect
• Pioneer group
• Pride of the West Mine (Pride of Julian Mine)
• Prosperity prospect
• Red Hill and Copper Butte claims (Red Hill)
• Red Wing claim
• Ruby claim
• Seyer deposit
• Silver King group
• South California claim
• Stonewall Mine (Stonewall Jackson Mine)
• Summit and Summit Extension claims
• Talley group
• Tom Scott Mine
• Townsite prospect
• Truelsen's prospect
• Unnamed Fe prospect
• Unnamed Garnet occurrence
• Unspecified Cu-Ag occurrence
• Valentine Mine
• Van Wert Mine (Van Wirt Mine)
• Warlock Mine group (Neptune; Warlock group; Bedrock; Ruby claim; Chaparral; Shamrock)
• Washington Mine (George Washington Mine)
• West California claim

Riverside County Gold

Riverside County California

There are scattered Gold deposits throughout Riverside County, but none have been particularly rich from an economic perspective. Most of the Gold sources are within the Chuckwalla Mountains. Two noteworthy mines are the Red Cloud Mine and Great Western Mine. These were gold mines with byproducts of silver, copper and lead.

A few miles southwest of Perris right along the highway is the Good Hope Mine. Auriferous quartz veins cutting through granite were worked extensively for a time during the prior to 1896. As much as $2 million in Gold was credited to this mine.

There are quite a few scattered prospects in the mountains northwest of Indio, but be aware that the Joshua Tree National Park is off-limits to prospecting. It’s too bad, because there are quite a few old gold mines within the park. You can explore the area, but no gold prospecting is allowed.

Riverside and the joining San Diego counties show good places to prospect are Anzo Borrego, Desert State Park, Banner, Banning, Beaumont, Boulevard, Camp Pendleton, Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coachella, Corona, Desert Hot Springs, Dulzura, Edgemont, El Cajon, El Toro Marine Station, Encinitas, Escondido, Fallbrook, Hemet, Indio, Jacumba, Julian, La Mesa, Lake Elsinore, Lakeside, Leucadia,  Mountain Springs, Murietta Hot Springs, National City, Norco, Oceanside, Ocotillo, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Pine Valley, Poway, Ramona,  Temecula, Vista, and Warner Springs. 

Some other Gold districts ere: Boulder Creek Gold District, about 5 miles west of Cuyamaca; Deer Park Gold District, about six miles south of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park; Menifee Gold District, about 8 miles south of Perris; Mesa Grande Gold District, about 50 miles north of San Diego and just northwest of the town of Mesa Grande; Montezuma, or Rice Gold District, about 12 miles north of Julian.

I want to warn you that the importance of safety and preparation is the number one thing if you decide to venture out into the deserts of California. Water is practically all but nonexistent in most areas, so go prepared with several days worth of water and food. Make sure your vehicle is capable of handling the desert. Let others know where you are going. Don’t go it alone.

Depending on where you go, you should also use the proper precautions when you are close to the Mexico border. Many areas are still relatively safe, but there are certain areas known for drug and human smuggling activities that you should probably stay clear of. In most areas you will probably be just fine, but there are scattered Gold deposits in isolated locations very close to the border. Always use caution.

  Note: We listed most of the mines locations and many by coordinates. All the mines listed here are not Gold mines. Many of them depicted here may not have Gold. Try to Distinguish which ones are most likely to have Gold as Gold can be near other minerals. Check Rivers, Washes, Creeks ETC. for the possibility of Gold. Example. If the mine has Gold in the name it is a pretty good bet.

Gold placer deposits exist near almost all lode Gold mining districts. We have listed all mines in each section and location. Gold can occur with mines such as silver, platinum, copper and other minerals so the rivers, creeks, washes in mountains and deserts  should be explored even if the mine is not listed as a Gold mine.

• ⓘ Golden Key claim
• Pinacate Mining District • Perris • ⓘ Ida-Leona Mine (Gavilan)
• ⓘ Louise Mine
• Hexie Mountains • Hexie District • Monument Mountain • ⓘ Eldorado Mine (New Eldorado Mine)
• Eagle Mountains • Eagle Mountains Mining District (Monte Negro Mining District) • Eagle Mountain • ⓘ Black Eagle Mine
• ⓘ Sterling Mine
• Riverside Mountain • ⓘ Alice Mine [2]
• ⓘ Gold Dollar Mine (Gold Dollar group)
• ⓘ Gold Rice Mine
•
• Big Maria Mountains • Black Hill • ⓘ Anna Bell Mine
• ⓘ Morning Star Mine
• Black Butte • ⓘ Aztec and Rainbow claims (Aztec Mines)
• ⓘ Iron Chief Mine (Iron Chief deposit; Gray Eagle group; Messenger Mine)
• ⓘ Mission Sweet Mine
• ⓘ Rainbows End Mine (Annie Laurie; Nancy)
• Mule Mts (Palo Verde Mts) • Mule Mountains District (Hodges Mountain District) • ⓘ American Flag Mine (Hidden Treasure claims)
• Pinto Mountains • Dale District (Virginia Dale District) • Pinto Mountain • ⓘ Cow Bell Mine (Joel Mine)
• ⓘ Dalton Mine
• ⓘ Desert King Mine (Big Cross claim; Desert King claim; Desert Mining Mine)
• ⓘ Duplex Mine (Standard-Duplex group)
• ⓘ Gold Crown Mine [1] (Bon Ton Mine; Dale & Darcy)
• ⓘ Golden Egg Mine
• ⓘ Golden Rod Mine (Goldenrod Mine)
• ⓘ Los Angeles Mine (Brooklyn-Los Angeles claims)
• ⓘ Meek Mine (Thelma group; Desert Gold group)
• ⓘ Moose Mine
• ⓘ North Star Mine (Shavers Well prospect; Sunset Mine)
• ⓘ Numk prospect
• ⓘ Pinto Chief Mine
• ⓘ Rose of Peru Mine
• Riverside Mts (Siakariri) • Bendigo District (Riverside Mountain District) • ⓘ Black Gold occurrence
• ⓘ Black Ore claim
• Chuckwalla Mountains • Chuckwalla District (Pacific mining district) • Aztec Well • ⓘ C.O.D. Mine
• ⓘ Gold Crown Mine [2] (San Diego Mine)
• ⓘ Gold King Mine
• ⓘ Lost Pony Mine (Desert Center Mine)
• ⓘ Red Cloud Mine (Red Cloud group; Red Head group; Red Head patented claim; Great Western Mine; Great Western patented claim; White Wings patented claim; Dottie Welborn patented claim)
• McCoy Mts (Ironwood Mts) • Arlington District (Ironwood District) • McCoy Spring • ⓘ Scott Lode No. 1 Mine
• Orocopia Mts (Dos Palmas Mts) • Dos Palmas District • ⓘ Orocopia Mine (Oro Copia Mine; Dos Palmas Mine; Fish Mine; Fish deposit; Black Jack claim)
• ⓘ Mission Mine (Mission Gold Mine; Mission Gold Mines; Huff-Lane Mine; Huff-Lane; Huff and Lane; Lone Star Group)
• ⓘ Desert Center Mine (Desert Center claim)
• Chuckwalla Spring • ⓘ Augustine Mine
• ⓘ Chuckwalla Spring placers
• Pilot Mountain • ⓘ Eureka group (Sureka group)
• ⓘ Granite Mine
• ⓘ Jacknife group (Bradley Mine; Morgan Mine; Morning Star Mine)
• ⓘ Jean Mine (Postmaster Mine)
• ⓘ Nelson prospect
• ⓘ Steece group (Steece Mine; Black Canyon group)

How to File a Mining Claim

After you find Gold and it appears to be worthwhile (More than just recreational be it placer or lode you will have to file a Claim in Southern California.

 

Most Gold claims will always include a properly filed location of minerals with the county and BLM, maps with corners marked and a description with longitude/latitude, locations of access roads, forms on how to keep your claim active, and a notarized quit claim deed to the buyer. Some claims are better than others as to accessibility and the possibility of finding Gold.

 

Many claim sellers will answer any pertinent questions about their mining claims. It is important to understand what you are getting for your hard earned money. If you are in the area of the claim

most sellers are willing to show you the claim personally as to the

Boundaries and location. We always recommend that you check the claim status for yourself before purchasing. Check these on BLMs’ LR2000 website or call the State BLM Office in Sacramento.

Please do your homework before buying. Ask questions if you don’t know!

The BLM is in the business of managing land, NOT MINING. Get all

questions & concerns thoroughly explained and answered before buying.

 

Most claims on the open market today are not a patented site, nor are there any guarantees of ore content or values. They are most likely an UNPATENTED claim, and require a yearly maintenance fee of $140 per claim as of this writing year, per claim, (or submit a waiver Cost of $10.00 to retain ownership.

 

WHAT IS AN UNPATENTED MINING CLAIM? 

A mining claim is a parcel of land for which the Claimant has asserted a right of possession and the right to develop and extract a discovered,

valuable, mineral deposit.

 

IS THE LAND MINE?

In a landmark case in 1930, the Supreme Court stated that: When the location of a mining claim is perfected under the law, it has the effect of a grant by the United States of the

right of present and exclusive possession. The claim is property in the fullest sense of that term and may be Sold, Transferred, Mortgaged, and Inherited without infringing any right or title of the

United States and is considered real property. You own only the mineral rights until a patent is secured from the government. Presently, there is a moratorium on issuance of patents,

however this is subject to change in the future. Presently, because of the moratorium on issuing Patents, no applications are being accepted.

 

WHAT IF I FIND OTHERS CAMPING, FISHING, HUNTING HIKING, ETC ON MY CLAIM? 

Others may recreate on an unpatented mining claim, however: you have the right to post mining claim signs

Warning the public of possible hazards and dangerous conditions pertaining to your mining procedures. You may also post “No Trespassing of Mineral Rights”. In most instances, the public will

respect your rights and the signs help to convey the claimant’s rights.

 

CAN I SELL OR GIVE MY CLAIM AWAY? 

Mining claims and sites are considered real property! The interest in them and associated rights may be bought, sold, transferred, leased, rented, willed or

inherited. Unpatented mining claims in some states are not taxed. To keep your claim active, you must pay a maintenance fee to the BLM of $140.00 on or before September 1st of each year for the

following year. The BLM does not send notices and expects you to remember to file this fee or your mining claim is declared closed and you lose the possession of your claim. After a location of

mineral deposit has been filed with the county and BLM, a mining claim may be purchased by one or more claimants.

 

CAN I BUILD ON MY CLAIM? PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CLOSELY. The mining laws permit the prospector and miner to make reasonable use of a mining claim, as long as the use is incidental and necessary to prospecting, mining and processing operations. However, an erroneous impression sometimes exists to the effect that the act of staking a mining claim is the shortest route to obtaining public land for a home site, weekend retreat or other unlawful purpose.

 

ANY USE OF THE SURFACE OF AN UNPATENTED MINING CLAIM FOR PURPOSES UNRELATED TO MINING IS UNAUTHORIZED and therefore, considered to be in trespass. (BLM

notice to mining claimants, October 2007)

 

WHO CAN OWN A CLAIM: Any citizen of the United States, a minor who has reached the age of discretion, a corporation, and non-citizens (aliens) who have declared their intention to become a

citizen. After a location of mineral deposit has been filed with the county and BLM, a mining claim may be purchased by one or more claimants. The claimant can also be a business name.

 

There are lots of Gold claims for sale, lease,and joint venture Etc. in Southern California you just have to look for them. You can find them on the Internet, EBAY, and open market sellers in newspapers and mining magazines and of course at prospectorsjournal.com  

A mining claim is the right to explore for and extract minerals from a tract of land.  The mining law of 1866 gave discoverers rights to stake mining claims to extract Gold, Silver, Cinnabar (the principal ore of mercury) and copper. When Congress passed the General Mining Act of 1872, the wording was changed to "or other valuable deposits," giving greater scope to the law. The mining law opens up land in the public domain, that is, federal land which has never been set aside for a specific use.  All mining claims are initially unpatented  claims, which give the right only for those activities necessary to exploration and mining.

The original mining law gave miners the opportunity to obtain patents (deeds from the government), much as farmers could obtain title under the Homestead Act.  A patented mining claim is one for which the Federal Government has passed its title to the claimant, making it private land.  A mineral patent gives the owner exclusive title to the locatable minerals. It also gives the owner title to the surface and other resources. This means:  You own the land as well as the minerals. 

The process of patenting claims has been perhaps the most controversial part of the mining law. 

What is an unpatented mining claim?

In 1872, The United States Government granted any citizen the right to explore, locate and claim certain rights upon public lands.  An unpatented mining claim is a particular parcel of federal land, valuable for a specific mineral deposit or deposits. It is a parcel for which an individual has asserted a right of possession. The right is restricted to the extraction and development of a mineral deposit.  This means: you are leasing, from the government, the right to extract minerals. No land ownership is conveyed. 

Can I convert my unpatented property to patented property?

Since 1995, Congress has enacted one-year moratoriums on the issuance of patents, whereby new mining patents generally will not be issued - however, this is subject to change in the future.

Does the land belong to me?

You own the mineral rights only, until a patent can be secured from the government.  Presently, there is a moratorium on issuance of patents, however, this is subject to change in the future. You may use as much of the surface as reasonably necessary for mining your property.  You may recreate in your spare time on your unpatented mining claim.

Can I live on it?

Building a structure on your mining claim simply for recreation or purposes other than mining, is illegal.  All buildings, equipment, fences, signs, roads, any man made changes on the mining claim, must be reasonably incident to mining.  To build on a Gold mining claim, you must first obtain a permit from the federal agency managing the surface, for example, the USFS or BLM.

What if I find silver on my mining claim, or platinum or diamonds?   Does whatever I find on my property belong to me?

You own all the mineral rights to your mining claim and are not required to pay a royalty to anyone for extracting such minerals.

What if I find others camping, fishing, hunting, hiking, etc. on my claim? 

Others may recreate on an unpatented mining claim ..ie; fishing, swimming, hiking... however; you have the right to post mining claim signs warning the public of possible hazards and dangerous conditions pertaining to your mining procedures. You may also post "No Trespassing of Mineral Rights". In most instances, the public will respect your rights and signs that help to convey your rights. 

I live a thousand miles away from my mining property!  How do  I know others won't take my Gold?

There is certainly the possibility that someone will blatantly disregard federal mining claim signs and shake a few pans on your property. However, the reality of anyone taking any real values is minimal at best.  It simply is not worth worrying about since most values will require significant equipment and time to recover any Gold in quantities.  Anyone who would try to set up a serious operation on another claim owner's property would have to be just plain ignorant, blind, or unbelievably bold, as this is a federal offense and can mean prison time for the trespasser.  Most of the mining claims in the Salmon River area are easily monitored via local and other means.

The simple truth is this: The Gold on most any Gold mining claim is much safer locked up right there in the river bank than in any conventional bank. The Gold in these old river channels has been locked up for thousands of years and most of it is still right where it was deposited in the first place...Can't say that about many savings and loans institutions!

With so many mining claims on the market today, how do I make the wisest decision for buying a valid high-quality Gold property?

As you look around at the many different "mining claims" being offered today, aside from the seller guaranteeing that the title is free of any encumbrances, a major concern should be whether or not the property actually contains paying quantities of whatever valuable minerals being touted. Common sense dictates that no-one in their right mind would sell a property to you for a few thousand dollars, that had been tested and known to have exceedingly rich material. 

Ask the seller to show you their own recovered values. Ask them how many days / months / years the property has been tested, and what their average values have been. Don't let them merely show you a little bit of Gold in a vial and baffle you with a lot of seemingly reputable talk while expounding on their purported profound credentials and those of the mining claim and its surrounding area. You should be allowed to sample and find Gold on the property too. A revealing way to sample any property is to dig up some material from a few logical Gold traps and pan that material down. In the end, you should come up with good Gold in your pan.

If the seller can't show you their own recovered values, or speak of past production averages, and/or if you can't find any valuable minerals either, you might want to walk away from the sale.

What to look for if you're thinking of buying a mining claim

Unscrupulous sellers will try to sell you unpatented property they don't even own  

At the time of locating; claimants of unpatented property need to file their notice with the county and with the BLM.. 

1) Any unpatented placer gold mining claim - recorded with the appropriate county recorder - will have an "instrument number". It is a number that the county recorder stamps on the original Location Notice at the time of recording. 

2) Any unpatented placer Gold mining claim recorded with the appropriate state office of the BLM will have a BLM mining claim (MC) "serial number".   For instance, CAMC for California, ORMC for Oregon, etc..   

Ask for both.  Any legitimate owner - should be able to provide you with both.  They should be able to provide you with the BLM telephone number so you can verify the information, too.  If they can't (or won't) - Beware.

Overfilings;  Always check the BLM files before buying a claim to determine whether or not it conflicts with another senior pre-existing claim

Just about anyone can file a location notice with the county and BLM, and that “claimant” will receive an instrument number and serial number - However - it does not mean that the filing is valid. Novices &/or unscrupulous sellers can "overfile" any mineral property where a senior property owner has clearly established previous ownership, and then offer that "overfilling" for sale to the public (who typically has no idea of the conflict involved). Always check the BLM files before buying a claim, to see if it conflicts with any other senior valid pre-existing property (owner).

Often placer Gold mining claims are staked by the inexperienced 

doing so with nothing more than National Forest and/or a topographic map - in hand. Novices often make the mistaken assumption that simply because land is situated within a National Forest, that it is open to mineral entry. National Forest maps depict lands under the jurisdiction of the USFS. They do not depict many types of various reservations, proposed withdrawals, existing withdrawals, proposed land exchanges, lands conveyed back to the USFS - without mineral rights, municipal watersheds, or any other lands - not open to mineral entry. A BLM MTP shows all lands withdrawn from - or open to mineral entry. An MTP is the official federal record of land status. It will stand up in court as fact, as nothing else will.

How a placer Gold mining claim is described, is critical. if it is described incorrectly, it may be a fatal defect 

With rare exception, all placer Gold mining claims on surveyed lands must be described by aliquot part legal description. 

On unsurveyed lands, Gold mining claims must be described by a metes and bounds description. 

On surveyed lands, a rare exception that may justify a metes & bounds description is certain types of placer Gold deposits (radically meandering bench & gulch deposits), that are not practical to locate by aliquot part legal description, because in doing so, it would force the claimant to include excessive non-mineral land, as each 10-acre aliquot part of a placer Gold mining claim must be mineral-in-character, in order to be valid. 

Novices often have neither the expertise to correctly survey and measure a true metes and bounds described mining claim, nor actually do so, by placing any, or every corner in its correct position in mountainous terrain. 

Metes and bounds means a method of describing a parcel of land that does not conform to the rectangular U.S. Public Land Survey System, using compass bearings and distances from a known point to a specified point on the parcel and then by using a continuous and sequential set of compass bearings and distances beginning at the point of beginning, continuing along and between the corners or boundary markers of the parcel's outer perimeter, until returning to the point of beginning.

The most common blunder novice mining claim locators make, when attempting to utilize a metes and bounds description is this; Suppose a placer Gold bearing small river channel meanders northerly in a 180 degree horseshoe shaped curve, over a half mile distance. The novice then describes the Gold mining claim - supposedly - covering that whole Gold bearing river channel gravel deposit as; Beginning at post #1, thence 400 feet southerly across the river to Post #2, thence following the curve of the river - 2640 feet to Post #3, thence 400 northerly across the river to Post #4, thence following the curve of the river 2640 feet back to Post #1, the place of beginning.

Bear in mind that, a legitimate "compass bearing" is by three hundred sixty (360) "degree's" (azimuth), normally split into ninety (90) degree quadrants (90° from north to east, 90° from east to south, 90° from south to west, and 90° from west back to north. Today, azimuths are often stated in terms of 360°, the full circle of the compass rather than quadrants. A modern statement of the azimuth of "S 70° W" would be 250°; degrees are always counted in a clockwise direction from compass north.

To the experienced eye, the obvious defects are that "southerly - northerly" are not actual compass bearings. Nor is "following the curve of the river - 2640 feet", a continuous and sequential set of compass bearings and distances. Moreover, because the existing posts define the lands inside the claims boundaries, one need only draw straight lines between all 4 posts (described above), and you will instantly see, 90+ % of the river channel is not between them.

Beware of placer Gold mining claims supposedly described by metes and bounds descriptions, or any that are described as odd shapes (snowflake, horseshoe or triangular shaped, for instance)

The size of a placer Gold mining claim is important.  It will also clearly demonstrate the expertise of the locator. Each 10-acre aliquot part of a placer claim must be mineral-in-character. Mineral-in-character means land that is known, or can reasonably be inferred from the available geologic evidence, to contain valuable minerals subject to location under the general mining law for purpose of locating a placer 

Gold mining claim.

For instance, large placer Gold mining claims (160 acres, for example) that a topographic map, photographs or on-site inspection clearly shows contains only 40 acres of placer Gold bearing stream, or river channel, should only be a 40 acre placer Gold mining claim. Because the excess ground is not placer type mineral-in-character. Don't let anyone try to convince you that the mining claim(s) large size makes it more valuable, when in fact - it is NOT.  If the bulk of the property is not mineral-in-character, the non-mineral excess land adds no value to a placer Gold mining claim, and could one day subject the owner to a "validity contest", by the BLM, or USFS.

High quality accurate USGS topographic type maps of the mining claim are important 

Obviously, one can assume that a locator, or seller of a placer Gold mining claim, who cannot accurately depict, draft, or map the precise boundaries of a placer Gold mining claim, is a novice. Accurate mapping will also graphically display if the Gold mining claim is properly described, by simple - quick compression of the properties legal description, to the map of the mining claims boundaries. The quality of the map(s) depicting the Gold mining claim, reflect directly on the quality of the claims' title.

The factual placer Gold production history of the specific area where the placer Gold mining claim is situated, as well as the source(s) of the Gold, and Gold mining methods historically used to recover it, is important 

Truly, Gold is where you find it. However, normally placer Gold mining claims situated far from known sources of Gold, without any historically documented history of placer Gold production, lessen the chance that economic deposits of placer Gold will be found, or exist there. Novices, or unscrupulous people may stake placer Gold mining claims that are nothing more than "goat pasture". 

For a placer Gold mining claim to be valid, perfecting, and vesting the owners valid existing private property rights, it must contain a valid mineral discovery. If it does not, should the validity of the mining claim ever be contested by the agency (BLM -or- USFS) having administrative jurisdiction over the land, generally they will have little or no difficulty in quickly determining that the mining claim contains no valid mineral discovery, and consequently declare it void. 

Visible geologic evidence of a "placer" type deposit is important 

Generally, the bulk of placer Gold deposits are contained in alluvial gravel's (tertiary, bench, gulch, bar, stream or river bed deposits).  If the Gold mining claim you are thinking of purchasing doesn't have this geologic evidence, beware.

If you are unable to physically inspect the particular placer Gold mining claim, prior to it's sale, detailed photographs of it are important  

Obviously, photographs of the Gold mining claim depict what is there. Photos of the Gold mining claim should depict the quality of road access, campsites, streams, rivers, gravel deposits, bedrock exposures and general topography of the mining claim. The availability, and quality of those photographs graphically demonstrates the quality of the property.

The availability of adequate sources of water is extremely important 

Few realize, no dry washing plant has ever been invented, nor exists that will economically or effectively process large volumes of Gold bearing sand, or gravel. 

As an example, a relatively good placer (pay streak) would contain at least $25+ per yard in recoverable Gold. On a mining claim without water, a little backpack dry washer will process about five -5 gallon buckets full in a shift. A 5 gallon bucket contains about 1.5 cubic feet of material.  A yard contains 27 cubic feet of material. You do the math. 

To impress that point upon you, Nevada is this country's largest lode type Gold producer. Gold placer deposits exist near almost all lode Gold mining districts in Nevada. Nevada's history of placer Gold production is extremely meager in comparison to other states - where water is available, or plentiful. 

Without a close adequate source, or existing on site supply of water, mining placer deposits is not generally economically feasible. Gold rush and depression era placer Gold miners were smart. Common sense dictates they would mine out every single economic placer Gold deposit they found, if it was within their means. Without water, they could not economically mine literally thousands of placer Gold deposits, known to exist in arid, or desert-like states, where adequate water is not readily available.  

Beware of those who primarily focus on the recreational attributes of a placer Gold mining claim 

You can "recreate" on most BLM lands and in any National Forest - for free - except in fee campgrounds. There is no such thing as a "recreational" unpatented placer Gold mining claim. It is either "valid", or not.   In order for it to be "valid" it must be properly staked, filed, contain a "valid mineral discovery" and be properly maintained. Recreational attributes do not establish the Gold mining claims good title or validity. 

Physical characteristics to look for on a Gold mining claim.

Where is the Gold?

Gold can be found in many areas. Streams are commonly associated with the finding of Gold. This Gold is known as placer Gold. This means that the Gold has been weathered away from its source, literally, the mother of the smaller fragments.  It is the finding of placer Gold that can create a trail to the mother lode or source.  

Where should I look for Gold on my mining claim?

• Look for Gold where it has been found before. Doing research in off-peak season times is an excellent way to increase the odds of finding Gold.
• Look for Gold on the high benches. As a stream cuts deeper into a canyon, it can leave patches of gravel high upon the canyon wall. These are called benches. Look for round or rounded rocks well above the present high water level. Round or rounded rocks have lived in a river at some time in their lives.  
• Look for Gold wherever there are outcrops of rock / quartz.
• Look for Gold wherever there is a gulch or any water that is cutting through the land.  These water sources are known to cut through orebodies / unearth, and carry lots of Gold. 
• Along the rivers and first benches, look for signs for "bagging and tagging" up to the source.  more regarding pocket gold.
• Gravel bars, (usually found on the inside of the river bends). Although the Gold here is typically mostly small flakes to very fine, nice sized nuggets can get lodged in these low-pressure areas, as well. 
• In the river / along river banks, Gold will concentrate in areas where the water pressure decreases. Gold moves when the water pressure is high. Therefore, imagine what the water flow would look like at flood stage, then look for areas where the water pressure would decrease. Typical areas would be around large boulders, on the insides of curves, along the banks, etc..
• Look for Gold in small streaks of gravel laying on bedrock. Pot holes or cracks in the bedrock. Look for lines of moss running along the bedrock, too. There is almost always a small crack under the moss and these cracks can contain a surprising amount of Gold. 
• Around large boulders and other obstacles. This is where Gold will get trapped and is a good spot to dig for color. 
• Where the stream levels out after a steeper section in the river, such as the area downstream of rapids or waterfalls. 
• Look for areas where bedrock is shallow, and look for areas that will trap Gold; cracks, rough or broken bedrock, and large boulders. Always look for places that would have decreased water pressure at flood stage. 

Which Streams contain Gold? 

Generally speaking, streams that are most likely to contain Gold must have four characteristics;

1. They should be unregulated (not damned).

2. They should be in a mineral rich area

3. They should fall through enough elevation to cause 

     sufficient churning in the spring flood

4. Stream paths and rock formations facilitate the deposition of the dense materials (Gold, platinum, lead, iron, etc.)

What is bedrock?  and why does there always seem to be a relationship (to it), with finding Gold?

Bedrock is the general term for consolidated (solid) rock that underlies soils or other unconsolidated material or... the solid rock that underlies all soil, sand, clay, gravel and loose material on the earth's surface.  

Gold is extremely heavy, six or seven times heavier than rock, and, therefore, it settles down, on the bottom. The key word here is down. Gold's excessive weight forces it down-downhill, downstream, down into the sands and gravel, down into bedrock cracks and crevices, and down in your sluice box or Gold pan. Gold is assisted in its downward movement by wind, rain, earth tremor, earthquake faults, rockslide and agitation. Once Gold settles on the creek bed, it will shift downward through the lighter sand and gravel. Because of its weight, it will continue to sink until it reaches bedrock, where it will become trapped in crevices and holes.   Any exposed bedrock, no matter how high up, or how deep in the river, is always a good prospect for finding placer Gold. 

Ancient streambeds / river channels...

The Ancient Rivers of Gold in northern California are from the Tertiary Period. The Tertiary rivers existed millions of years ago and many of them had large quantities of Gold within their gravels. For this reason, they are known as the "Ancient Rivers of Gold."

Over the tens of thousands of years that lodes were being broken up and deposited in streams, the entire topography of the surrounding area was changing. Massive landslides and titanic upheavals frequently dammed up rivers and streams, forcing the water to find alternate routes. When this happened, the former streambeds were left high and dry, and these often contained much-concentrated Gold.

Geologists have argued that most of the Gold in today's river systems is not Gold that has eroded more recently from lode deposits, but Gold that was eroded out of the old ancient riverbeds where they have been crossed by the present river systems. The ancient channels, where they have been discovered and mined, have often proven to be extremely rich in Gold deposits. In fact, many of the richest bonanzas that have been found in today's river systems have been discovered directly downstream from where they have crossed the rich ancient streambed gravels. So always be on the lookout for signs of an ancient or dried-up streambed, as it could produce Gold beyond your wildest dreams. In fact, if a major new placer discovery were to be found today, it undoubtedly would occur in an ancient riverbed.

What a "valid" placer Gold mining claim is;  

A professional explanation in simple terms.This information concerns unpatented placer Gold mining claims (only).  

The largest initial possibility for gross misunderstanding is that a potential unpatented mining claim buyer thinks that the land, timber, and whatever else the property contains is being sold, along with the full bundle of private property rights normally associated with most other types of real estate. Do not buy an unpatented placer mining claim - if you think, or are being led to believe, you are buying a simple private property, with the right to build a vacation cabin, home, lodge, ranch, or farm on (it), because it's just not true.

The second largest potential for gross misunderstanding about unpatented placer Gold mining claims, is what makes one valid. A placer mining Gold claim, as a matter of public record can be located, recorded & fully maintained, yet be invalid. Mining claim invalidity can occur by any number of means, an inexperienced person would not see, nor even know. 

The purpose of U.S. Mining law is to allow a claimant who has discovered an applicable mineral, on lands open to mineral entry, to acquire, mine & patent it. The initial key factor being - that a discovery of valuable mineral deposit exists within the claim. Because, if one does not, the mining claim is invalid. On a placer Gold claim, at the very least the locator must show a discovery of Gold, that is worth the effort to develop and mine, by any permissible means, to eventually produce a profit. That is called "The prudent man test". Meaning a "prudent man" would not invest his time, labor, or capital attempting to develop a mineral deposit that could never be profitable.

The next test is called a "marketability test". Meaning, if you do produce a mineral, is there a market and can the mineral be sold at a profit? Obviously, if one can produce an ounce of Gold, below market price, a profit potential exists. Assuming all else is in proper order, if a placer mining Gold claim can pass a "Prudent Man'' and "Marketability" Test, the placer Gold claim contains a "valid mineral discovery", meaning - on its face, it is valid. 

A valid unpatented placer mining Gold claim is both real estate and private property, with Constitutionally protected title and rights conveyed by recorded deed. Ownership does not carry the full bundle of rights generally associated with most other real estate. However, it carries a good part of that private property "bundle of rights", if in fact, the unpatented placer mining claim is valid.

In law, the word "claim" in connection with the phrase "mining claim", with properly maintained title, represents a recognized right in real property, in both state and federal courts. The Supreme Court has established that a mining "claim" is not a claim in the ordinary sense of the word--a mere assertion of a right--but rather is a private property interest, which is itself real property in every sense, and not merely an assertion of a right to property. 

A valid unpatented mining claim is a tract of public domain land (unappropriated, unreserved & not segregated or withdrawn for other purposes), of a certain size that is open to mineral entry (under Federal mining laws and applicable State law), on which a discovery of an appropriate valuable mineral has been made, (usually placer Gold in alluvial gravel), on which a person, or persons have filed and maintain a mining claim and own certain private property rights (to it).

A placer Gold claim may only be located over river sands or gravel's bearing Gold or valuable minerals hosted in soils, alluvium (deposited by water), eluvium (deposited by wind), colluvium (deposited by gravity), talus, or other rock not in its original place.

The locator, sometimes called a claimant, (who must be a U.S. citizen, or person sworn to become one, in order to initiate one) monuments (stakes) the property, files (for a fee) a location notice containing the claim name, acreage, legal description, location date & claimant(s) of the property with the applicable county recorder (to comply with state law), then (for a fee) records a copy of that location notice, along with a map with the appropriate BLM State Office (to comply with Federal Law). 

The area within a placer claim must be described in the location notice in one of two ways; Either by the aliquot part legal description, or by a metes & bounds description. In either case, it is mandatory that the tract of land described, be as compact in form, and conform as near as practical to the rectangular system of U. S. land surveys.

Placer claims range in size from under 20 to a maximum of 160 acres. The law provides that a single person (locator) may claim up to 20 acres, two locators in association with one another may claim up to 40 acres, and so on and so forth up to 8 locators claiming a maximum of 160 acres. 

Generally, with most association type placer claims, one locator acts as the "agent" for the remainder of the locators. An association type placer claim, regardless of size, is a single claim. 

Only one "discovery" of a valuable mineral is required within the boundaries of any size placer claim, so long as the remainder of the land within it is "mineral in character". No private property rights "vest" in the claimant(s), if a claim does not contain a valid mineral discovery.

Once the placer claim is properly initiated, staked and filed with applicable agencies, it must be maintained on an annual basis. That is done in one of two ways, and proof it is properly maintained must be filed with the applicable State office of the BLM on or before 12 Noon - September 1 - of each year.

If the owner(s) fail to punctually file proof of annual labor, or do not pay the annual maintenance fee to the BLM, on or before September 1, the claim is instantly void (as though it never existed) - by operation of law, after September 1. "By Operation of Law" means that you do not get warning, notice, nor proceedings (with rare exception), because it is the owners obligation to know the law, and comply with it. ~

What associated ownership rights go with it

What you own if the placer mining claim is valid, meaning - properly staked, described, recorded, contains a valid mineral discovery and its title is appropriately maintained.

• You have the right to reasonable access to the mining claim. 
• You own the minerals situated within the mining claim. 
• Owners of an unpatented mining claim own 100% of all minerals within its boundaries. That means both any and all placer or lode Gold.  Per U.S. Federal Code; no one may legally stake any kind of claim within your boundaries without express written consent by the owner. If you were to find any vein systems, you may file lode claims covering those ledges and veins within your placer boundaries. 
• You have the right to mine and sell that mineral, without paying anyone a royalty.
• You have the right to post the property, giving on-site public notice of the mining claims existence.
• You have the right to use, or appropriate water necessary to work the Gold mining claim.
• You own the right, with permits, to use any or all of the surface to extract that mineral.
• You generally have the right to use timber from the claim, for mining purposes.
• You have the right to occupy the property, while inspecting, developing, improving, or mining it.
• You have the right to construct buildings - for, or incidental to mining purposes (permits required).
• You have the right to sell it, or a part of it, if the mining claim contains a valid mineral discovery.
• You have the right to enforce, or defend the title to your property in a civil court of law.
• You have the right to charge anyone who removes minerals from your property, without your express written consent, with criminal trespass and theft.
• You have the right to sue (for costs and damages) any applicable agency that, arbitrarily, or capriciously denies you permissible mining permits.
• The mining claim (if valid) cannot be "taken" from you - without - at least - just compensation.
• You have the right (with certain improvements) to apply for a fee simple patent, if/when the existing patent application moratorium is omitted from the annual DOI/BLM budget appropriation bill, or rescinded by law. ~ 

How does The Claim Post determine the sales price of a mining property they're offering for sale?

Like any real estate, the sales price of our mining properties is determined by a number of factors; Size, shape, access, and actual physical location are all very important issues when considering the real value of a mining property.

A 20-acre placer Gold property's dimensions is approximately 1,320-ft. in length, by 660-ft. in width - (1/4 x 1/8 of a mile). You can easily figure that it will take many years to completely mine an entire property from end to end, border to border.

One must also factor in the rarity or "uniqueness" of each individual mining property. Certain attributes like good access, a great campsite, shallow bedrock, multiple bends in the river with low pressure areas and large amounts of virgin high bench material will also add value to a Gold mining claim. 

And last, but certainly not least, is the current price of Gold.  With today's price of Gold, in most cases, our Gold mining claims will pay for themselves over and over again for decades to come.  A past customer recovered approximately one-half of his purchase price in less than two weeks (of dredging) on his mining claim, and he moved less than 30-linear feet of streambed.  He has approximately 1,290-ft. left to mine (in the river), let alone prospecting any high bench material for placer, pockets, sources / lodes, overall.  

If the properties are so rich, why is The Claim Post selling (them)? 

We are a small independent company that has been conducting our own Gold mining ventures in this area for many decades.  Over the course of many years, we have worked hard to locate and secure the rights to a handful of high grade Gold mining properties in this region; some of which, we are holding onto, and a few of which, we are offering for sale.  Available mining properties in this region are rare.  We invite you to consider the few mining properties we are offering for sale in this region.

A placer Gold mining claim without defects, is easy to manage, and maintain 

The caveat being, a placer Gold mining claim with defects - which are sometimes correctable, and sometimes not, may become a nightmare to manage, and sometimes impossible to maintain. Utilize common sense, perform due diligence, ask intelligent questions. If the seller can answer them in a professional manner, providing you with whatever is necessary to validate the legitimacy of title to the unpatented placer Gold mining claim offered for sale, it's title is probably good. If the seller cannot do so, his title may be defective, or invalid. You are the one who must decide. Do so - wisely.

A "valid" placer Gold mining claim is a true treasure, to be enjoyed and worked for generations to come. 

Owning a Gold property is an option against an unknown future -  Reserves for using when you need to.

Given today's economy there is something very comforting about having real Gold in ones' safe; security personified, beautiful tangible Gold that you can actually hold in your hands. Essentially the best hedge against both wild inflation and deep depression is the time honored inflation-proof, depression-proof, store of value; Gold. Unlike paper money or stocks, Gold requires no CEO or board of directors. It is self backed - valuable in itself - an actual wealth that can be found on / in the ground. There couldn’t be a better time to own a real Gold property.

Owning a Gold property as a reserve asset. 

Where your gold is locked up tight until you need it, or levage it through Banks, Loan companies, Bullion and Coin dealers and individual investors,  some of which will take a deposit of your Gold and hold on to it for you for a fee. Then you can borrow off the Gold deposited up to 80% of its value. Until you turn your Gold into cash there is no tax obligation and there is no tax obligation on borrowed money. So that is a win-win legal course. Big companies and high net worth individuals have practiced this system to save taxes and still pay their bills. Never touch the printable and it will likely grow wealth over time. It's one of the oldest Gold and money systems in the world.

This information is intended to give general reference with regard to unpatented mining claims. It contains general information about legal matters. The information is not advice and should not be treated as such. The information presented here and provided “as is” without any representations or warranties expressed or implied. The Claim Post provides no warranty expressed or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of furnished data. Visit the BLM website for further assistance.