There are a few different options on where to sell your gold. If you are a prospector who has accumulated a bit of placer gold that you need to sell for some quick cash, one simple place that you can sell it is to a refinery. Refineries will pay you for the actual gold content […]
The largest gold nugget ever found in Alaska was discovered in 1998. It was recovered from a placer mining operation near the small town of Ruby, Alaska by Barry Clay. He was moving material with a bulldozer along Swift Creek when something unusual caught his attention. He jumped out of his dozer and examined the […]
Selling gold is easy; there seem to be gold buyers on every corner interested in buying your gold. However, for gold prospectors, it is important that you take your time and do your research before you sell your hard earned placer gold. Unlike scrap gold jewelry, placer gold and especially larger gold nuggets are valued […]
Sluice boxes are probably the best tool for the average prospector to find gold nuggets. This is because they are simple, inexpensive, and effective tools used to recover gold from a creek or river. While gold pans are certainly the most popular piece of equipment for finding gold, sluice boxes are designed to process a […]
Hydraulic mining was used extensively during the early years of the California Gold Rush and is still done to a lesser extent even today. Within the first few years of the initial discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill, most of gold placers that were easy to workable were already claimed. There were still many areas […]
One of the biggest misconceptions that most beginning prospectors have about gold is that it is only found in rivers and streams. No doubt about it, there has been a lot of gold taken out of the water, and even today miners are recovering gold in the same rivers where it was first discovered hundreds […]
There are many more methods to find gold than I will cover here, but lets discuss a few of the most common methods used by the small scale gold prospector. 1. Gold Panning Gold Panning is the most common and inexpensive method to prospect for gold. It is very simple with a little […]
Taking time to select the proper gold pan is often something that is overlooked by many beginning prospectors. This is probably due to the fact that they are relatively simple and inexpensive, and often times they are sold at camping supply stores that may only have one or two options to choose from anyways. However, […]
A Scenario: Why Most People Never Find Gold Here is what most beginners do on their first prospecting trip. Let’s see if this sounds familiar? You’ve armed yourself with all you need to find some placer gold. You have a gold pan, shovel, pick, snuffer bottle, and a little jar to carry your gold nuggets […]
1. Pick Your Spot Locate an area along a stream that has potential gold bearing gravels. You will be most successful prospecting in areas that have a known occurrences of placer gold. Dig down deep into the stream bed until you get to bedrock. Shovel a medium amount of gravel into your gold […]