Gold Basin is located roughly 10 miles south of the Colorado River (Lake Mead) in Mohave County, Arizona. It is situated between Meadview and Dolan Springs.
This is a fairly popular gold prospecting area that has been known to produce some very large gold nuggets over the years. Plenty of prospectors from Las Vegas explore Gold Basin each year.
The gold deposits cover a fairly large areas. Many gulches will produce gold. Some have been worked and others are relatively untouched.
Historical Mining at Gold Basin
The gold here was found much later than most other mining districts in the West. The first known placers were worked in 1932. That summer, as many as 100 miners were prospecting the area. The dire economic conditions created by the Great Depression attracted many miners back out into the goldfields.
These miners used drywashers to process the gravels in the gulches of Gold Basin. There is no water here, so traditional placering methods are of little value. Drywashers allowed them to work this arid mining district.
By the next season, as few as 40 men were left. Drywashing for gold is no easy task, and the spotty nature of the gold here likely means that most of these men recovered only modest amounts. The total production from that time is unknown.
A larger operation was established in the summer of 1933. Using trommels, screens, and commercial drywashers they were able to move 20 yards per hour. Various operations worked throughout Gold Basin at this time; most were short-lived.
Gold Production
From 1934 to 1949, the Gold Basin mining district was credited with $14,500 in gold. These estimates are likely low, but impossible to determine since much of that production came from individual miners who never reported their findings.
In the past few decades there has been a decent amount of interest from casual gold prospectors. The mild winter climate attracts quite a few “snowbirds” to the surrounding area, and many of them are miners. A man can still find decent gold with a drywasher, though metal detecting is probably the most popular methods here nowadays.
Gold-bearing Gravels
Most paying gravels are 1-3 feet thick and rest on a bedrock of cemented gravel. Gold is mixed amongst small schist and gneiss particles. Gold is often associated with quartz, although not always the case. More often it is mixed in with dark schist matrix.
The gold ranges from small particles up to some very nice sized nuggets. I have personally witnessed gold nuggets from Gold Basin as large as 1/2 ounce, but I am certain that multi-ounce nuggets have been found. These nuggets are almost always angular and coarse, indicating very little travel or erosion.
Quartzsite AZ | Historic Gold Mining Sites
Gold in Oatman! Riches in Arizona’s Mohave Desert