Metal Detecting & Prospecting

Some basic gold prospecting supplies are essential for large mining companies and the recreational gold miner. Dry washers are a type of equipment useful in the dry southwest, particularly Arizona.

Metal detecting is an exciting and mentally relaxing pastime, and is truly treasure hunting. Many new at the hobby, however, make some horrendous blunders.

Found coins are usually in too poor a state to be used unless they are cleaned up first. Even banks will not accept them. Metal detectorists all need to clean their treasures, but what are the best ways? Here we have a look at the various household liquids that can be used, as well as different rock tumbling machines and electrolysis.

What most don't realize is that you CAN find gold, silver and gemstones near your own home. But there are a few reasons you probably won't.

If you want to try panning for gold, you might want to practice the techniques at home in your own yard.

New gold prospectors have a problem on their first gold club outing. They've heard about panning for gold, and maybe how to use recovery equipment, but on claim arrival finding a spot is a new story.

Every river in the world contains gold. However, some rivers contain so little gold that one could pan and sieve for years and not find even one small flake. The amateur prospector will not be able to determine whether gold is contained within an...

Taking the hassle out of hand panning for gold is what most amateur prospectors want. Many tools have been devised over time to relieve the prospector of this, including Miller Tables, sluices, Nugget Buckets, and Blue Bowl Concentrators. A Spiral Wheel Gold Panning Machine is one more to consider.

One of the most popular devices for separating fine placer from black sand concentrates is the famous Blue Bowl Concentrator. It is a type of gravity dam - the black sand is washed up and over a hollow plastic cone leaving only fine gold along the base of the cone and the bottom of the bowl.

Finding gold in the wild is hard. Where to to pan for gold is of paramount importance. Whether placer gold deposits or hard rock gold, you need an edge. Here are some gold geological considerations.

You want to search for gold ore, but how do you identify good gold prospects? Simply crushing any rock, you could crush the rest of your life without finding a flake. Here are some simple field tests.

The sluice (usually a wood, metal or plastic channel) allows water in a running creek to pass through, with the heaviest of material (gold) settling behind riffles. The setup & cleaning are crucial.

Since time immemorial, man’s efforts have been directed at one thing: making life easier, including when it comes to developing gold prospecting tools that eliminate much of the demanding work of mining. A Nugget Bucket reduces the gold panning process significantly.

One frustrating aspect to amateur gold prospecting is the difficulty refining gold from black sand pay dirt. There are a number of devices around that make the task easier, but for my money, a Miller Table with its regulated slow water flow and attracting surface is the best.