Metal Detecting & Prospecting

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

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.

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...

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.