Passing Through

This might be a wild goose chase, but if I'm right, this might be worthwhile. But, like most things, it needs to be vetted to determine if it has value.... A few years ago, I was wasting time learning about finding gold. I ran across this one guy that had been doing it all his life. Not as a hobby, but as a consultant to some of the largest companies in the world. Yeah, he was a pro. But that is not what I found important. It was his dismissiveness of "how difficult" what he did, really was. To him, he pointed out that most everything that he knew, and the info that he "sold" as a consultant, was really much more common sense and more paying attention to what others have already learned and freely made available publicly, to anyone that wanted to know. Then, he proceeded to give numerous examples of specifically where to find minerals of value, most of which had been totally ignored. The most memorable one was this: Somewhere along the interstate in ?North Dakota?, going West out of the mountains in ND into the plains (I think I remember), the guys cutting the interstate cut right through some of the richest diamond deposits he had ever seen. It was just on the side of the interstate. You could literally stop and pick them up, if you knew what you were looking for. Except, no one ever did, or didn't do very much or often. That story reminds me of being a kid, and taking my painstakingly created masterpieces to a saddle/leather shop, to take them on consignment. I had gone on my bike, and at 12 years old was quite proud of the work that I had done, (which was quite good). The store owner asked how long it had taken me. After hearing that, he asked how many coke bottles I had seen in the ditch, over the 2 miles I had ridden to the store. Then, he devastated me with this advice: "If you had just picked up those coke bottles, and ridden another mile to the 7-11, you could have sold them and made more in that hour, than you made in a day of creating this wonderful holster and that I had sold it for you already." I've never forgotten that very often, the "work" that we do, is seldom as profitable in cash as we feel it is. Just by looking at where the real money is with a cold eye and honest evaluation, we can be much more profitable. You guys should ID this guy, FIND the site and the books this guy wrote. Much of it is about gold. I was very very impressed. If I lived out west and could have a hobby like yours, I feel it MIGHT be one of the most profitable things I could do, before buying ANY gear first. Go get those diamonds on the side of the road. They are too far from Florida to make it worth my time... but.... SIDE NOTE --- I happened to be in Skagway, AK at an old cemetery, and walked up the stream a bit. There was a pocket of VERY heavy and VERY black sand. I just had to fill my 24 oz cup with it. I sneaked it past US/CA customs and still have it (in Florida). Anyone or anyway to pan that out to see if it had any gold?

I read this whole thread about the difficulty in finding diamond studs with great interest, but for a slightly different reason you all might find interesting.... ->> Your hobby could be used for more than just finding items of value. Although I've always been fascinated with gold, gold mines, exploring, and metal detecting, I don't know you you have ever considered that "you, personally", could be used as a "medical tool". If not, you should seriously think about making your services available to some of your hospitals. Here's my story: A few years ago, I had to get a dental implant to replace a tooth that had broken off, and part was broken off just below the gum. After arguing for about 10 minutes on how else this could be fixed, and for less than +$2,000, I gave in. They drill, use bone chips to fill the opening, and then wait a few months for it to become solid bone. Then they drill again, and then carefully screw a stud into that new bone, which is capped and then shortly ready for a "new tooth" to be screwed into the top of that stud. But, as they removed (unscrewed) the tools used after placing/screwing in the stud, somehow that small "tool" attached to the stud, was dropped... DOWN my throat!! As much as I usually hate taking pills, that is because you can feel them and sometimes choke a bit. I couldn't even detect I had swallowed anything. In fact, they looked around for a bit, and then decided we should have an "interesting conversation". The oral surgeon apologized, and then told me that unfortunately, it appeared that he had dropped this small attachment to the post, and I had swallowed it. He said, generally this will pass without a problem. But, it IS considered a medical emergency, because it might not pass, and cause serious problems. So, if I'd like, I could go to the emergency room, and they would "retrieve" the missing piece from my stomach! OK --- I'm fairly brave, and I sure didn't like the prospect of spending time in the ER, let alone sticking something down my throat, or worse. Thinking fast, I decided on a different plan. I'd "assume" it will pass, and if a problem developed, then I'd take more drastic action. So, home I went. But although I didn't mention it to the doctor, I dug out my mothballed radio shack detector, that I had bought a few decades ago (as a kit to assemble). Last time I used it, was to find the errant roofing nails that inevitably were left in my yard from a roof replacement. (A few years later, I even found a roofing HAMMER!) I had pulled the 2 9v batteries out, which I replaced, and then started the "adjustments" to see if I could detect my "new internal tool". Although it took me about 10-15 minutes, it did locate something around my belly button. Although I had had a stent, I knew those were way too small to be detected, and (hopefully) my heart was still located in the proper place. The "missing tool" I had to locate was just about the same length as an earring stud. A little thicker, and made from stainless steel. (You can look up what they look like at some of the dental implant providers for dentists. Mine was an "average size".) Over the next few days, I "watched" to make sure it was still there, until it was "no longer detected". I "insured" with other means, that indeed, I no longer carried an "onboard dental implant tool", that I could use the next time I lost a tooth. --- >>> I'm writing this here, not to just have fun relating this tale, but to urge you to make your services available to the medical, and probably the veterinarians as well. I am sure that it is often imperative to know if someone did, or did not swallow an object. In the case of button cells, they can easily kill an infant. I used to have some forensics customers that did autopsies on animals like seals, and they displayed what they had found. Turns out, that several coins will kill a good sized seal! (Sea World was new, and close by.) You guys really are experts at this, and just great hardware alone is going to work. Assuming the object suspected is KNOWN to be metal, you could also rule out a trip the the ER, or save someone's life. And if the object IS small, like a diamond stud, I don't care how much the local hospital or vet paid for whatever they use to detect metal, I'd bet you and your hardware would be better at it then they would!. Although very difficult, I successfully used crappy hardware and very little expertise to accomplish what I needed, few others could have done as well. I also could verify that I was totally out of any danger with my crude tools. Your abilities to detect objects could prevent trips to the ER, and unneeded Xrays (that can ALSO MISS small objects). Once located, IF the objects was safe enough to wait a few days, I would bet that it would be invaluable to many pet owners, (and parents?), to know what happened, when it was safe and AVOID that expensive trip to the vet or ER. --EXPERIMENT -- Offer to FIND small swallows metal objects in PETS in Craig's list, and see if anyone cares! --------------------------- SIDE note --- I'm a tech CEO/CTO, and I've been to Oatman's "Gold Road" mine, when they were providing tours to keep a few of the miners busy when $400 gold prevented profitable mining. At that time, the whole stock value of the mine was only about $15-$20 million. It was a very cool tour. I also found the remnants of abandoned "mine" outside of Laughlin, AZ, just on the other side of the river, then north of Davis Dam, at Katherine AZ. (https://goo.gl/maps/YbroPtM5KSZNumWMA). I think this is within 500 feet, and is an outcropping that is only about 8' tall, and had some nice looking white quartz in it. Being from Florida, I had no tools so all I could do is look. I enjoy tooling around in in the West. Once we ended up at "Scotty's Castle" in Death Valley more or less by accident. Also very cool, and a National monument. We also took a "shortcut" once from I-17 from Vegas to Phoenix, and saw this cool side road that saved about 40 miles. Since we were scheduled for dinner in Sedona, AZ in 30 minutes, "Schnebly Hill Road". About 90-120 minutes later in my small rental car, we rolled in after avoiding the 18" boulders, or falling off 2,000' from the side of that one lane road. Great views of Sedona though... When late, our hosts said to each other, "Oh no.. you don't think they took...". Yeah, I did, as evidenced by the 1/4" of red dust!