azblackbird

You can thank the Feds and their QE programs for the bump in PMs. Now that all the other countries are doing their own QE, we're almost back to dollar parity. Hard to peg gold since it's so manipulated. Same goes for the equity and forex markets. Once the Feds got involved, all bets are off on any price discovery. Best to just find as much gold as you possibly can and sit on it. Once the Feds lose control of the financial markets (and they eventually will) then gold will hit the stratosphere.

Wow! Nice piece.

I'm by far from "experienced", but I will offer you some advice on how I got into the gold prospecting business. First of all read everything you can on the basics of gold prospecting. In my opinion, this is the best book on the market for anybody interested in the pursuit of gold. It was penned by one of our very own forum members. I strongly suggest you read it, and then read it again! Second... read and research everything you can on the areas you are most interested in prospecting. This includes the history of the area, the geology, the mining reports, the assay reports, everything! There are tons of material, maps, geology reports, and government bulletins on just about every known mineral and mining area in the entire USA. Google is your friend! Third... get your boots on the ground. You can go out and prospect on your own like I do, or you can join a club and learn from others. Either way, you will want to relate all your research and reading with actual on the ground experience. Last but not least... HAVE FUN! Gold is very elusive. If it was that easy to find, the hills would be crawling with people. That's why it is very important to keep a good attitude. If it wasn't for my love of riding dirt bikes and exploring new places in the great outdoors, I'd have probably given up looking for gold a long time ago.

How do you figure I was insulting you? Everything I said about your knowledge and experience on the Supers and LDM was true... right? If not, then I apologize for making you out to be somebody you're not. No offense Mike, but I'm not going to waste my time going to some rendezvous of Dutch Hunters. I'm sure everybody is nice and everything and I'd probably have a good time, but I just don't believe in all that gobbledygook. I'm sorry, but the LDM stuff is just not my thing. I'd rather concentrate my efforts on what I know is true fact. Here's what I will do though. When you're in town for the LDM rendezvous (or anytime in the fall/winter), set aside an entire day and I will take you out to my neck of the woods (Bradshaws) and we can do some real gold prospecting. You can drive my Rhino and I'll ride my Rokon and we'll head for the hills and see what we can find. Feel free to send me a PM (either here or on TNET) when you have your plans defined and know which days you'll be in the Phx area and we'll make it happen. Sound like a deal?

Nice job! If it was that easy everybody would own a detector.

BD... I was just joshing with ya and being a little sarcastic to boot. I totally agree with you. It's a nice story! The Supers are no doubt some very rough country which leads me to believe that not much activity (mining wise) took place in those hills for that very fact. The logistics of the myths and tales and what it would take to mine in that area just don't add up contrary to what many would have you believe. Here's a thread by one of the FS guys (now retired) that was in charge of examining any permits for "treasure troving" in the Supers. He pretty much confirmed my beliefs and suspicions. This guy knows his doodoo! http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/lost-dutchman-s-mine/32106-treasure-trove-permits.html Personally, I do believe there was some pocket mining/prospecting going on in the late 1800's and again in the 1930's, which would validate some of the holes people have found over the years, but nothing on a wide scale basis as the legends and myths would have you believe. I'm no geologist, but I just don't think there's that much mineral activity in the mountains themselves. It's just too volcanic. Now on the other hand... once you get out of the hills and around the perimeters, there's tons of minerals as evidenced by many of the historical finds (Goldfield) and by even some of the present day activity (Miami-Globe) which undoubtedly has proven to be very rich. I guess everybody has to believe in something, so maybe I shouldn't poo-poo the LDM hunters so much. At lease the majority of those people who really believe in the legends and the myths of the LDM are getting out and doing something. Many of them get together each year and swap tales around the camp fire, and at least get out and do some hiking, whether they find anything or not, they're at least getting out and enjoying what mother nature has to offer. That's always a good thing.

If I was you, I would keep quiet about your unique talents. You could cause quite the stir if the LDM'ers found out how easy it would be for you to find the lost treasure. There are many in attendance who have been searching for the LDM for 30 years or more. I don't think they'd appreciate some new guy showing up and finding the LDM on his first hike into the mountains. That'd be a can of worms I definitely wouldn't want to open.

BD... apparently you don't know much about the LDM. First of all, the Spanish or the Jesuits did all the easy work and dug all the mines in the SWA many hundreds of years ago before it was a wilderness area. After digging their mines, they then hauled all the tailings away so there was no trace of their mining. Plus they booby trapped all their mines so nobody else could find them or steal any ore when they went on vacation and came back to dig some more. Don't believe me, just ask Gollum, he's an expert on the LDM and will verify what I say. Second of all, Jacob Waltz was the best miner in the entire state of AZ, and maybe even the world at the time. He was able to find the richest ore in history right smack dab in the middle of the Superstition Mountains. Once again, just ask Gollum. He'll tell you the ore assayed out to something like 10,000 ounces of gold to the ton. Nobody else has ever been able to find that rich of ore since then anywhere else in AZ. I believe everything Gollum says... he's been studying and researching the LDM for at least 25 years or more, so what he says is the truth. I think he's even been to the Superstitions a few times looking for the LDM, so that makes what he says even more believable. On top of that, there are Stone Maps that lead right to the mine. Those are facts that can not be disputed, as they are real and are now in a museum.

Here in AZ you are not charged for a legitimate rescue. Search and rescues are part of your tax dollars. We do have a "stupid motorist law" in which you can be charged for a rescue if you drive around any barricades and into a raging river during our monsoon season. Believe me... every time it rains more than a couple inches, there's always some bozo that thinks his high lift 4WD is immune to the forces of flowing water, so they disregard the warnings and end up getting swept away down stream several hundred yards and slammed into a tree. It happens every time we get a good rain. The GEOS insurance with the SPOT is for anything above and beyond a normal rescue. I carry it just because it's cheap and where I prospect I want to make sure somebody (whether LEO or private party) can come and get me. 99.9% of the time, if I were to get into any kind of serious trouble, usually a helicopter could easily come and pluck me out. It's that other .01% where a private party on horseback or ATV may have to be called in to come and get me that I want covered by insurance.

I've had the SPOT ever since they came out. I remember there were a lot of complaints on coverage just because they didn't have the number of birds in the air as they do now. I never had any problems here in the SW, so I've continued to use their services. Judging by all the world wide rescues they've initiated, sounds like they (GlobalStar) must have their sh*t together now. If I didn't already have the SPOT and felt confident in it's capabilities, the 406 EPIRB would definitely be in my survival toolbox.

Ditto to what Jasong said... nice nugget no matter the size.

Fricking awesome!

That's the story of my life. Ever since I began prospecting for gold, my main point of focus was to find those undiscovered patches and pockets that the old timers may have overlooked, or else didn't want to mess with because of the remoteness. Speaking for myself, I consider it too easy to go where everybody else has already been. Sure I could probably get a picker here and there just from following all the dig holes and drywash piles, but that's not what I'm after. I'd rather reap the rewards of finding my own. I'm either going big or going home! Thankfully, each time I go out prospecting I have a blast just riding my Rokon around and exploring the countryside... so getting skunked is no biggie. I just love riding dirt bikes and exploring new places... plain and simple! If I find any gold, then that's just icing on the cake as I'd be out riding around anyways. My problem, is I probably spend too much time riding and not enough time swinging. I need to learn to stop and smell the roses. I'm getting better though...

Just gotta love those bubble brained government sponsored "scientists". They can easily get their desired results in a lab setting, but don't have the faintest clue of the reality of what it takes to scale it up to commercial viability. Just like the algae bio fuel scam. They could easily grow and process algae in a controlled lab setting, but in the real world, they soon discovered it wasn't so easy, as all it takes is a small fluctuation in the temps, or the slightest contamination, and there goes 1000's of gallons of product down the drain.

If it's metal, chances are it was commercially mined at one point in time. What's the history/geology of your prospects? There were a lot of weird/exotic metals mined in AZ back in the day.