Shoot for an Ounce of Gold A Day!

Prospecting for gold with a metal detector, which is known as "nugget-shooting," can be an exciting and highly profitable hobby. You needn't spend a king's ransom to get started either. However, you will need a gold detector, a plastic gold pan and screen (the Gravity Trap kit by Garrett fits the bill nicely), a small garden spade and a few other items, including a glass vial, a five-gallon plastic bucket, a pair of tweezers, an ore bag or two, a rock hammer, large and small pry bars, a large screwdriver and a magnifying glass. You can expect to find nuggets ranging in value between $100 and several thousand dollars. You'll experience adventure in the great outdoors, relive the past and get some good exercise while searching for nuggets.

Roy Lagal, well-known author and treasure hunter, says in his book, You Can Find an Ounce of Gold a Day, "Millions of dollars in gold nuggets are being discovered all over the world today with metal detectors. These devices enable suspect areas to be searched in a manner never before possible. It is reasonable to state that more nuggets have already been discovered with metal detectors than ever discovered in all of the famous old gold rushes."

Where in the world do you find these "suspect areas" mentioned by Roy? Let's take a look at the kinds of areas that produce placer gold and where to find them. Kinds of areas that produce placer gold include ore dumps and tailing piles; dry washes and dry creek beds; exposed bedrock in dry washes and creeks; ancient and Tertiary streambeds, benches, hardpans and cemented gravels of ancient bench placers, and old mines and dredge tailings. Add to that list a few places seldom considered, such as knotholes in tree trunks and exposed tree roots alongside gold-bearing streams, mosses lining the banks of streams, and exposed sandbars within flowing streams.

Where can you find gold producing areas? By researching publications such as Gold Placers and Placering in Arizona (Bulletin #168, University of Arizona, Tucson 1961), which is widely available in reprint form. Based on your research, select a location that suits your needs. Publications of this type give specific information on the geology and mines for each mining district. For example, in Arizona's Big Bug District, located on the northeastern slopes of the Bradshaw Mountains, a number of placer gold claims are discussed, including the Iron King, Union, McCabe-Gladstone, Little Jessie and the Big Bug mines. You also need to study topographic maps of the region you intend to explore to find roads, tracts of private property and wilderness areas to learn the nature of the terrain and the locations of various mines.

To find the locations of old tailing piles and ore dumps for lode mines, you need to take a look at an Arizona Bureau of Mines publication, Arizona Lode Gold Mines and Gold Mining (Bulletin #137, University of Arizona, Tucson 1967). Reprints are widely available. Each state has similar publications. In Nevada, for instance, you can write to the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89507 and ask for a catalog of publications. Areas where gold can be found by detectorists in Nevada include Manhattan, Goldfield, Dry Canyon, Ruby Hill and Relief Canyon. Another source of locations for gold mines and placer deposits located in the West can be found in Robert Johnson's Gold Diggers Atlas, published by Cy Johnson & Sons, Susanville, CA 1992.

Once you've selected a location for nugget-shooting, you need to become familiar with the kinds of geographic and manmade features that yield gold. Ore dumps, or places where gold ore was stored awaiting processing or shipment, are among the best locations for finding gold using a metal detector. Ore dumps are most often found at abandoned lode mines. Tailing piles are heaps of discarded rock thought to have no value; however, miners sometimes missed a few rocks with either gold attached or inside. A metal detector will easily find such specimens.

In desert regions, which includes much of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada, dry washes and dry creek beds are highly favorable locations for nugget-shooting, as are benches, hardpans and cemented gravels found along ancient streambeds. So, too, are tailing and header piles left behind by miners using dry washers. Hillsides above dry washes often produce nugget patches for those willing to work them. To be sure, there has to have been gold found and mined in the past, either upstream in the form of lode gold, or in the dry washes and creeks, in order for the detectorist to succeed.

Lode mines, evidenced by abandoned shafts and tunnels, can be a bonanza for the detectorist willing to search through ore dumps and tailings; however, for those with the proper equipment and experience, using a detector to scan hanging walls, stooped-out areas, timbers and rock pillars inside abandoned lode mines can be a highly profitable activity. Note: the gold ore found in such mines must have been of the free-milling type.

Places like knotholes in tree trunks and exposed tree roots alongside streams are good places to check during the summer and fall months, as these were sometimes under water during spring floods and caught nuggets! So, too, is the moss that grows alongside streams, as that moss often catches and holds nuggets during flood times.

Dry washes and dry streambeds present special opportunities for detectorists. In both instances, be certain to check exposed bedrock for nuggets. Careful examination of cracks and crevices in bedrock using your detector's searchcoil will often yield nuggets. Also be sure to slip your searchcoil beneath brush and trees (which are often "brushed-in") in dry washes, as nuggets are often trapped in these locations. Check the benches alongside dry washes, too. Benches alongside dry washes are places where water flows and deposits gold during periods of high water, such as flash floods.

Finally, one of the richest sources of nuggets is found in dredge tailings. Whole river valleys have been dredged in years past. Large rocks were discarded when they were too big for the trammel; yet, these are often found to contain gold that's easy to find with a metal detector.

Sometimes gold is hidden inside clay and mud balls at dredge sites. Check out the dredge piles alongside present-day streams with your detector to find these hidden values. Many dredge tailings have been "worked to death" in recent years. But don't let that bother you! Instead, search for nuggets on rainy or wet days because as the piles become wet, nuggets are often visible to the naked eye; furthermore, chunks of quartz that might contain gold tend to stand out from other rocks when wet. Then, too, when the dredge piles have been overworked by detectorists, try to find out where the piles came from, then work those areas with your detector. You need a medium or small searchcoil on dredge tailings. Dig all targets. Break open suspect rocks and boulders, as you never know what you’ll find.

Sources:

Harris, Bruce W., Gold Miner's Handbook, Keene Engineering, Northridge, CA 1993.

Lagal, Roy, You Can Find an Ounce of Gold a Day, Ram Publishing Co., Dallas, Texas, 1996 (booklet supplied with Garrett's Gold Stinger detector).

Straight, Jim, Follow the Drywashers, Vol. III, self-published RDK Graphics, Rialto, CA 1994.

Note: the above references are available from Cal-Gold, 2569 East Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107, (818) 792-6161. Call or write for a free catalog.

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