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To: Snowshoe who wrote (19905)	6/17/2002 1:49:42 AM
From: smolejv@gmx.net	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 74559

>>I think if I ever take up this hobby I will use a metal detector and work on dry land<< The last time this worked, was the original Klondyke I guess. Where the original ppms of Au got enriched in a chain reaction of three events, two of them involving fluvial sedimentation. No wonder the first three lucky SAT on gold during their lunch break before looking closer what the bright ... thingies .. could be. IOW where would you look for gold on dry land? I'm serious.

To: Snowshoe who wrote (19905)	6/17/2002 5:53:57 AM
From: EL KABONG!!!	Respond to of 74559

Snowshoe, What is your weapon of choice for gold prospecting in the desert? Dry washer, or metal detector? We own a dry rocker (dry washer), but really don't use it. Too much work for much too little recovery. We don't own a metal detector. Mostly we pan in creek beds (on patented lands that are owned by GPAA and/or Lost Dutchman's) when water is running. We haven't done any panning now in a few years. I'm waiting until my wife retires so that we can take weekday trips up to club properties and not run into the weekend crowds. I don't own a dredge, and probably won't ever buy one. The club properties are worked over pretty good by folks with 4" and 5" dredges, working in 2 to 4 man teams. These folks scratch out a living from this stuff. I'm just in it for the healthy aspect of being outside, and maybe getting lucky and finding a flake or two (or Heaven permitting, an actual nugget). Mining, even recreational mining, isn't just simply reaching down and finding something. When done properly, it's hard labor. So I have no illusions about finding the mother lode or something like that. For me, it's all about communing with nature, maybe talking with the people working the site next to you, sharing a coffee, and perhaps sharing some excitement should someone actually find something. I've belonged to Lost Dutchman's since about 1980 or so. I've never found a flake nor a nugget. I do have some promising black sands though, from which I might eventually get a fraction of an ounce of gold. It's not the value of the sands that I like. It's more the "I did it myself" thing, something I can put in a bottle and look at in my old age. <g> Lost Dutchman's has a lot of sites in your state. If you're serious about recreational mining, you might want to look into them (or the much less expensive GPAA, which also has some properties around the country). Using a metal detector is not all it's cracked up to be. For the most part, a detector won't pick up "fines" (fine gold; flour gold) which is by far the most common form of gold found in placer mining. A detector will find larger flakes and nuggets, and if you're in hard rock mining areas, it will also find gold embedded in quartz or other minerals, if the gold is present in sufficient quantities. A detector is much more likely to find old coins, lost jewelry, watches, etc... And a detector only "works" the top few inches (to top few feet) of soil/sand/gravel/ice/snowpack, so if your prey is just below that first few feet, you could very well miss a good find that the guy with the pick and shovel will someday locate. KJC