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For Those Who Go Out Prospecting I Have A Few Questions


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Depending on where your going to prospect, here in the US or elsewhere, your results will vary as to supplementing income.  Here in the US detecting for gold is more of a hobby when it comes to income, gold is not very abundant and can be difficult to locate in appreciable quantities.   Where as in Australia it can supplement or even be a primary income if you can get into a good location.  Consider that you will be putting down a fair amount of cash just getting the gear together to begin.  Then there's the amount of time you'll have to put into research, travel and searching.  That has a cost as well. Personally here in the US its strictly a hobby with a lot of bullets, in Australia it supplemented the trips to a degree but I never got into the black on it.

Critter's and bugs are always going to be there.  Just know your area and gear up as needed.  Snake gator's are always a good idea, good boots and insect deterrents as well.  The bigger hazards are in the environment your going to go into so do your research lots of information out there.  I don't consider the critters to be the biggest ones because getting lost,  injured or stranded can get you just as dead or uncomfortable.  So either travel in a group or always let someone know where your going and when you'll be back to help mitigate the big threats.

Typically Day gear for me is a camel pack, small first aid kit with a snake kit and antihistamine *for stings*, Lighter, GPS, Radio whether I'm with someone or not that has scan ability,  flash light and extra batteries, socks and a shirt *useful for other things if you get injured*, map if possible of the area I'm in and a compass for back up on the GPS.  Weights less than 10lbs.  In the US I carry a revolver, not for people but critters and as a signal device.   Depending on where I'm at and how far I plan to wander I vary these things Pack, water, First aid kit and GPS will always be on me.

Public and pending land "Australia"  are really the only places to go unless someone invites you on their claims.

It can be kinda daunting getting out there. 

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Detecting with the aim to find nuggets to sell is a break even proposition at best in the US, and that's only if you have a lot of location knowledge and detecting experience already. However, detecting with the idea to use the information acquired to search for large scale overlooked gold deposits can be profitable enough to provide or augment an income if you have the field experience and knowledge to recognize what others have missed over the last 150+ years. Developing that experience takes a lot of time and money which you may never get back. 

Also, anyone looking to make money via prospecting needs to have the ability to recognize all nature of potentially valuable ore or minerals one might encounter in the field, as well as a finger on the pulse of the changing economics of the mineral industry and the ability to switch gears and learn something completely different at moments notice, and to become proficient enough at that new thing to compete with those who were already there first. Concentrating on just gold means a lot of potential paychecks are overlooked in the process.

Again, for gold, I can't stress enough that the real money is in recognizing large scale deposits or trends in the field that others have missed. It requires believing in yourself and having confidence in your assessments when no one else does. I'm not talking about a mineshaft level prospect, I'm talking about massive open pit mineable deposits, because that's where the demand is today. Then, you have to have some skill at business in order to convince someone with money to see what you've seen and invest in exploring it.

In the end, detecting and detecting skill are a very minor part of it all, but still quite useful nonetheless. The information you get in the field is worth far more than the nuggets. Here in the US anyways.

 

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