Gold Seeker

Congratulations on the notches on the ATX Steve and finding the patch with honest prospecting/research, that's sure is one nice looking nugget and the size is a BIG plus!!

Depending on the consistency and type of mud, knee deep mud can and will wear you out very fast, and can be very hard to get out of if it gets a good suction on your feet and legs, if you get stuck don't struggle, you'll only sink deeper, best bet is to "swim" out of the mud, but then you will be all wet and risk hypothermia, if you're determined to do this outing use your head and make sure you have a partner and or a way to contact someone if you need help.

Also it didn't say if the amount was in AUD or USA dollars, if it was AUD, that's only $250,660 USA dollars

A while back Shelton posted a video on the X-Pointer, the normal X-Pointer is not waterproof, but they have or will be coming out with a waterproof version soon. Here's a link to the topic, and a link to the website. http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/270-pin-pointer-for-gold-prospecting/ http://www.deteknix.com/detectors/pinpointer/underwater_pinpointer.html

Congratulations Ray, that is one great coin, and a rare one at that!!!

A few more states have been added, 13 total and more to come!

The nugget is still on display through today, the end of the Antique Show, so run out and get a look at it, I would if I were out there!!

The Butte Nugget has apparently sold for approximately the estimated selling price of $400,000, the actual selling price is not being revealed nor the name of the buyer. www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Giant-gold-Butte-Nugget-sells-to-secret-Bay-5846149.php "Just one day after it was unveiled to awed crowds in San Francisco, the whopping 'Butte Nugget’ of gold sold Friday to a “prominent Bay Area collector” for an undisclosed amount of money, according to the company brokering the deal. “The new owner wants to be secretive, so we can’t name him,” said Don Kagin of Tiburon, the coin dealer who acted as middle-man between the buyer and the prospector who found the 6.07-pound gold lump — the biggest nugget of its kind found in modern times in Gold Rush country. “Let’s just say it’s a win-win for everybody,” Kagin said. The seller also asked that the price be kept secret, he said. But he added: “We were asking for $400,000 and it obviously wasn’t far from that.” David McCarthy, Kagin’s chief numismatist, said he could only reveal that the buyer is “a prominent bay area collector” who specializes in historical items. “We spoke to six different people who seemed to have legitimate interest and the wherewithal to purchase the item, but he was the first person to make an offer and he had the right price,” McCarthy said. Interest in the nugget had built to a near frenzy among gold and history buffs since its existence was revealed in The Chronicle on Tuesday, with news inquiries coming in from as far away as Australia. When it went on display Thursday at the prestigious San Francisco Fall Antiques Show, hundreds flocked in for a peek. The nugget — which will remain on public display until the antiques show ends Sunday, McCarthy said — got its name because the gold hunter who found it in July dug it out of the ground in Butte County. That man also wanted his name and the location of the find to be secret, to avoid scammers and treasure seekers. “But I can say he’s very pleased with the sale,” McCarthy said."

Nice specimen!! Is that rose quartz or is it just the color of the cloth beneath it making the quartz look pink?

More info at the following link... http://westernmininghistory.com/mine_detail/10310373 "Comment A prospector discovered gold and silver at the surface in 1906, and did some trenching and surface work until 1910, when "a Fuller mining man", from back East bought a half interest and soon bought the whole property. The original Gooseberry Shaft was sunk at that time to a depth of 50 ft by hand. In 1928, J.D. Martin, Sr. purchased a half interest in the Gooseberry Mine from "the Fuller man," and together they operated the mine on a small scale, concentrating on development until the early 1930s when they switched from hand operation to a gas engine and air conditioning for the main shaft. The Martin family took over the mine in mid-1930s and for 40 years sank a 70 degree inclined shaft to the 1000-ft level. Over 9000 ft of drifts were driven at 100-ft intervals with the longest at the 1000-ft level extending 2100 feet west and 1640 feet east. Despite all this development, there was no production recorded from 1906 to 1966. Most of the drift material was stockpiled in dumps at surface, with no development of stopes or vein material. In 1974 the Martin family executed a partial sale of the Gooseberry Mine to APCO Minerals Inc. who sampled and began construction of a 350 tpd mill, shaft and plant. West Coast Oil and Gas (subsidiary of Scurry-Rainbow Oil Limited) took over the mine in 1976 and operated the mine until suspending mining operations in 1981. Asamera Minerals purchased the mine in late 1982. Mill capacity was increased to 500 tpd by the end of 1984. Mine closed down to a skeleton crew in 1985, but reopened in 1987 and production continued throughout 1990. Asamera went out of business in 1992. In December, 2004, the Carson City BLM reported the recent successful clean up of hazardous waste from the 90-acre Gooseberry Mine/Mill Complex. In an on-going program of cleaning up and rehabilitating abandoned mine sites in Nevada, the BLM contracted with Phillips Services Corporation (PSC) for on-site management of mine wastes, including the identification, removal and proper disposal of more than 100 drums of containerized hazardous wastes. Former mine heap leach tailings pond materials were also isolated in a lined containment trench to prevent the materials from contaminating surface and ground water as a result of storm/rain runoff. The site is now considered safe from hazardous waste. Future mine site rehabilitation (such as building removal and grading) will be conducted as funds become available. The former owner and operator of the facility, Pallas Resources (1993-1998) filed for bankruptcy and the private property was deeded to the Storey County Treasurer in June 1998. BLM is working with the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection (NDEP) and the Nevada Division of Minerals (NDOM) to close and rehabilitate the site." Link to the internet search I did to find the above info, you maybe able to find more info via the search results. http://www.bing.com/search?q=Minedat+Gooseberry+mine+Storey+Co.+NV.&qs=n&pq=minedat+gooseberry+mine+storey+co.+nv.&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=&cvid=a9ef922d8c5a48dd83d15f998afb8b22&first=1&FORM=PERE

Check out this monster nugget found in July in Northern California!!!! The person that found the nugget is remaining anonymous and also the exact location of the find of course is being keep secret. The article... www.chicoer.com/news/ci_26766424/monster-gold-nugget-unearthed-butte-foothills The video announcing the find...

Thanks for the reviews! I don't live in a gold region, I have to travel 4 to 5 hours just to get close, but I do live very close to resort beaches and detect them when I get a chance. That being said I would be interested to know how the Fors Gold does on coins and mainly jewelry, especially on small gold chains, small gold earrings/parts, etc., most detectors have trouble with small gold chains as we all know. If some of you have the chance to test the Fors Gold on such items it would be appreciated.

Thanks for posting the video, the only thing I like better than watching someone find gold is finding it myself!!

Man, I would love to find a hoard similar to that!

Check with a good electronics or computer store or online for the plastic screwdriver, also check for ceramic screwdrivers, maybe Radio Shack? Here's a link to Amazon that have both plastic and ceramic screwdrivers/tools needed for working on electronics, if you don't see what you need, do a quick internet search for what you seek. http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aplastic%20screwdriver

There's a new site for research for us prospectors called Land Matters, it's Non-Profit Educational Organization website primarily for prospectors and other land users, this site was created by Brian Cole and Leigh Johnson, with much help from MinerDiggins Adventures, who many may know as Clay and Ruby, who have been for years been producing mapping and mining claims programs for prospectors. The site has been posted on other gold prospecting forums but I haven't seen it posted here, it's free to use, many many hours have been put into this site and more to come, there are many different maps and map layers (geology, land status, minerals, mining, topos, etc.), articles, resources, and a searchable library for 8 states at this time and more states are coming as requested by end users as well as the entire USA and other parts of the world, it takes a little time and work to add each state but several more states are in the works at the time I'm posting this and will be added in the order they have been requested by end users, if you have a request please request it at the website or I can relay it to them. As mentioned it a non-profit project created out of the passion of what we do and many, many hours have been put into it's creation which isn't finished by a long shot, but they do accept donations if you are so inclined. http://www.mylandmatters.org/

AV, my condolences to you and your family.

Nice nugget, thanks for keeping us updated!!

WOW, those are very big nuggets!!!

Thanks Steve, I had that site bookmarked but forgot about, it a great site and resource for possibly IDing raw stones when one is out looking for gold, if you start finding some nice gemstones you can do very well, much better than finding gold many times.

LOL, I agree Steve, all of them are bias in their reporting of the news if you ask me!!!

Yes that "news" site does make up all of their articles, usually with a hint of truth as a basis. At the top of the page they have a link to their disclaimer. "DISCLAIMER World News Daily Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within worldnewsdailyreport.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental, except for all references to politicians and/or celebrities, in which case they are based on real people, but still based almost entirely in fiction. - See more at: http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/disclaimer/#sthash.uOveaL8p.dpuf"

Steve, you've just said what I have come to know about your agenda, if you will, over numerous years, I though everyone knew that about you, thanks for all you do for everyone with the same interests!

Tom, normal window screen is about 20 mesh, they do make a really small mesh window screen that is for keeping out "No-See-Um" which is a very small biting gnat/fly that we have here in the southeast and also in many other parts of the country, I would say that screen would be around 30 mesh or so, some tea strainers have a very small mesh as well, probably about 50 mesh or so. You can also buy just the mesh online and make your own classifiers for just a fraction of what store bought classifiers cost. Here's a video made by Doc of Gold Hog matting, he takes you through all the steps of classifying and also using several types of equipment to work down the cons, but at about the halfway point in the video he shows two different types of the tap method, he's doing this with -50 mesh gold and blacksands, but both methods work well no matter the size of the gold and material, I use both of these methods when I do my final panning and also in several stages, try to get all the gold and as little blacksand in one area of your pan using the tap methods and then suck it up in your snuffer bottle, don't worry about getting a little of the blacksand, then clean out your pan and dump the snuffer bottle contents into your pan and go through the process again and again, etc, each time getting rid of more blacksand until you have only clean gold. All of this can be done by just classifying and panning, it would be nice to have all the equipment that Doc is using, but it will just take a bit longer doing it all by hand so to speak.

I have a green bowl, but usually just classify my cons and pan out the gold, 20 to 30 mesh and bigger in a regular pan, -30 mesh and smaller in a Falcon finishing pan.