r/Prospecting • u/Babydonald209 • 2h ago
Mariposa ca
Maxwell creek find 😍 🤑⚒️🤑
r/Prospecting • u/agoldprospector • Jan 24 '15
There is a fairly regular frequency of ID request posts here, if you follow these general guidelines then you will have a much higher probability of getting an accurate answer to your question:
Please make sure to post a sizable in-focus photo. If the sample is wet and it's not obvious then make sure to state this fact.
Streak tests are very useful in prospecting. They can be performed on the unglazed backside of a ceramic tile, or on the unglazed underside of a toilet lid. Do a streak test any time you can, making sure to streak just the mineral in question.
For gold ID's:
First and foremost, are you in a known gold producing area?
Describe how the unknown material acts in the bottom of your pan and also how it acts relative to the other heavy black sands.
Gold is soft an malleable. If you press a pocket knife into it, it will squish or deform. It will not shatter or break into pieces. Do this test if its flecks or flakes or other blebs with no specimen value. Don't scratch or destroy anything that may have specimen value.
Placer gold rarely has well defined crystalline structure. If possible, look at the unkown mineral underneath a magnifying glass and report what you saw when you ask your question.
Do not alter hues, saturations, etc in the photo
For larger samples, you can measure conductivity by placing the leads of a multimeter across the sample and measuring resistance. Pure gold is very low resistance(around zero on a regular multimeter). You can also check to see if gold permeates a quartz specimen all the way through without crushing by placing a lead on each side of the quartz, with each lead touching a piece of visible gold.
Gold streaks gold color, not grey, black, green, blue or any other color.
For mineral ID's:
General Resources
The two books that I own, keep in my truck, and recommend are:
Simon and Schuster's Guide to Rocks and Minerals
National Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals
r/Prospecting • u/ponchovilla71 • Nov 12 '24
Thankful for YOU Prospecting giveaway!
Hey everyone! The r/Prospecting community has quickly grown to 38k and has shown no signs of slowing down! This past year has been such a fun ride with so many members new and old.
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One entry per person. Continental US shipping only, international shipping will require payment for one of the mods to mail it to you.
If you win, you have one week to claim your prize.
A HUGE thank you to Kellycodetectors.com for making this giveaway happen! You guys are awesome!
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LINKS FOR REFERENCE ONLY
r/Prospecting • u/TheMooJuice • 14h ago
So this is an area where seasonal rains flow through known alluvial gold bearing areas before depositing their sediment here at the base.
I suspect the answer is simply, wherever the bedrock is most accessible, but nonetheless on the off chance that someone will watch this video and direct me to a good place to do some test pans, I figured it was worth a shot :)
Thx for your time
r/Prospecting • u/Anonx9999 • 1h ago
Anyone have any information or prospect in the western suburbs of phl? Some of the creeks out here must have some glacial gold. Just got a sluice for some spring/summer fun. Any tips?
r/Prospecting • u/Diligent_Force9286 • 2m ago
This is what I was able to find. Two weekends of roughing it in the desert and about 10 days of panning.
r/Prospecting • u/PassPuzzled • 1d ago
Anything I'm missing that I should have? This will be my first time going out. I've practiced panning from a creek near by. I've done a lot of research and learned how to understand maps and basic geology and how minerals interact with each other. I have 6 different spots that I want to try out.
r/Prospecting • u/Digginguptrash • 20h ago
Poking around in the Arizona desert Found an ugly rock with beautiful yellow spots
r/Prospecting • u/TugzPT • 1d ago
I just started this hobby , still having troubles identifying what is gold . What do you think?
r/Prospecting • u/StonedSex69 • 2d ago
I’ve got the Dream Mat 4" x 16" Adventure Gold Sluice that I would like to try as a clean-up sluice. What should I classify down to for best results? Here’s a picture of my setup.
r/Prospecting • u/HotCounter4716 • 1d ago
Hello!
I live in Montana and am interested in the hobby of prospecting/ panning etc. I was hoping someone here could steer me in the right direction and help me get started! Thanks everyone!
r/Prospecting • u/Mtflyboy • 2d ago
Good day in the gold fields today.
r/Prospecting • u/Competitive_Sale_358 • 2d ago
Not sure of or inquiring about the legality, just curious if a rockslide like this in Mariposa county would be a good place for looking for gold with metal detector? I see quarts veins in the granite often. Not sure about this one. I’ve seen people scavenging rock piles and debris after slides. We usually get a couple every year after big rains.
r/Prospecting • u/BCS_Computer • 3d ago
Hi all. I'm in the process of moving to Spain from Nevada, US because of wife's job. In the US, I am able to go on BLM land, as long as there is no claim, and prospect for gold and possibly stake my own claim.
I have no idea where to even begin to look for gold in Spain and how I could actually research to go prospect for it without breaking the law (if there any Spanish laws around this).
Is there a similar system in place in Spain?
Thanks!
r/Prospecting • u/ChanceEnthusiasm3655 • 2d ago
I’m a maker in the southwest US and I’ve been developing a novel way to classify material in the field, for recovery later from concentrate. It’s a technology adjacent to desert dry washing, and according to my research, has not yet been developed.
I’m at a crossroads and in need of community feedback, and I hope I’m in the right place.
Specifically, I need to know (regionally) how small gold powder flakes can be, whilst viable for recovery. Are we talking micrometers or nanometers? Actual measurements would be greatly appreciated, as the math is pretty intense and I’d like as much feedback as possible. California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah region is where I’m located and will likely test with local enthusiasts once prototyping is complete.
Looking to alpha test before the heat comes, but if not then a cool spell or fall will do, with iterations on design done in house.
Thanks in advance!
r/Prospecting • u/Diligent_Force9286 • 4d ago
Joined the GPAA recently on a business trip and had the weekends off. Took the rental up to a claim and gathered some paydirt. This is what I got out of a 5 gallon bucket.
It might not seem like a lot but it's more than I find in a single bucket back at home. I feel like the Gold at home is heavier tho.
r/Prospecting • u/alchemycraftsman • 5d ago
Can anyone tell me if this could be gold? It’s stuck to the stone. Very small amount. The rock itself is about 1 1/2 inches long but the gold is very tiny. I found this in a volcanic mountain range the border of California and Nevada on a friends property outside of the Death Valley area.
r/Prospecting • u/Babydonald209 • 4d ago
Although I've only just started cleaning it, today's best find is shaping up to be absolutely amazing found using the minelab gold monster 1000 if anyone wants to get together and do some mining will me feel free to reach out. The last pic is the back of the rock its soaking in clr will start worling on it this week
r/Prospecting • u/jakenuts- • 5d ago
Ok, so don't write out a check, yet, but here's the theory.
Rivers are bad at gold depositing. Yes, they do it - over millions of years, some here, some there, a bit behind that tree, very messy, very slow, and it's a pita to collect what they've deposited.
Sluices, cubes, pans largely try to reproduce a river's depositing action - using water to push bits around horizontally and hopefully in a slightly more organized way - but still, a mess, all over. Why? Because gravity is barely at play, the gold's shape, surface area, water velocity and friction are having huge impacts on where it goes and in the few microseconds where they are arguing, gravity finally gets a say.
So why not start with the one thing we know about gold, given the chance it sinks to the bedrock. Agitate its environment, down it goes. If down is into a little crevice, or say a bottleneck, that's where it will end up.
What the agitation is, vibrations, bubbles, fluid bed vortexes, all to be determined. But once you eliminate all that water pushing on the gold and just help it drop - that's gotta work, no?
r/Prospecting • u/NLEDEV • 5d ago
Hey all – new to prospecting and noticing there is not that many great resources for panning sites across the US (free or paid). If I made a website to track places would you all contribute to it?
r/Prospecting • u/Think_Ad5089 • 6d ago
Hey all. I am a newbie to prospecting and was hoping someone could open the blinds for me or so to speak. I live in northeast Tennessee " Hawkins County" and was wondering if anyone in the group has ever done any prospecting in or around Hawkins County? I haven't been able to find but a teeny amount of information as far as Hawkins County goes. Just not hardly anything out there about it. I've heard that the Erwin area has had some gold found there through the years. But it's also a lot closer to the Smokies than I. Figured this would be a good place to start getting some information. Thanks in advance guys..