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Winter Prospecting on the Feather Watch as Jeff does some winter Prospecting for Gold trying to get the jump on Gary ( Two toes ) on there yearly Gold contest !!! I only had a short window between storms so I took a short drive to the River in search of Gold. Thanks for watching , I hope you enjoy the video Jeff

The historic mining area includes a museum in the miner's bunkhouse, the Mohawk Stamp Mill, Bushman five-stamp mill, stables, a blacksmith shop, and the Assay office. Located in Plumas County, California, USA

I accidently tripped over this little pdf pamphlet while doing research..... https://www.nevadacitychamber.com/images/gold_mining.pdf

I guess we'll never know, complete cleaning down to bedrock" w/ firehoses and total demolition of a hillside to fill a previous chasm" from the original disaster. Cheers, Ig

The whole town can be yours for less than $1 million! ? http://www.foxnews.com/real-estate/2018/06/28/entire-california-ghost-town-for-sale-for-under-1-million.html

Somebody must of got some "Amazing "Fines......blacksand at the least? Enjoy! There quite far along 1 year later! Canyon?...what canyon.....it continues....Cheers, Ig

The long awaited post about Suction Dredging in California Simply put…….Dredging is coming back to California Spring of next year. Firstly, we know you are as skeptical as we are, after all, we’ve been told things over the past 9 years (like rulings from courts and such) which give us hope, but it always ended up being the same BS, delays, denials and shutdowns The small mining community donated millions to go to court, Brandon Rinehart was dragged through many court battles and that too we all donated to. All to no avail. The politicians and courts didn’t give us much to trust in their words. , they stabbed us in the back every single time. It was all pure politics and science was ignored. Then AMRA introduced SB1222 and things busted wide open. We first of all want to thank Senator Stone and our small mining community for showing up, making calls, sending letters and getting the heck off their butts and being heard, it made the difference. To quote one of the Senators, they didn’t see that support coming. But most of all, our AMRA staff. History and stuff: California passed a law (signed by Brown in Jan 2016), SB637 and because of that and their right to “reasonable regulation” in the state, we must abide by it until things can either be reversed, or changed at the federal level. Some believe the state cannot regulate suction dredging and we agree to some degree here at AMRA, but what would happen if you dredged right now without the permit mandated by SB637? You’d have your equipment confiscated, you’d be fined and you’d be dragged through the California court system and found guilty based on the current language. As a part of SB637 (The Suction Dredge Bill) signed into law in January of 2016, it was mandated that the California Water Board (CAWB) study and evaluate whether permitting should be allowed in the state, and if so, the CAWB was tasked with creating a permitting structure. We believe the sponsors of SB637, Izzy Martin and the enviro group The Sierra Fund, along with their Senator who brought the bill forward, Ben Allen, a Democrat from Hollywood believed the CAWB would toe the political line and just slow walk, or deny permits all along. SB637 morphed into a defacto prohibition on mining as it then labeled all things as suction dredges. High bankers, water pumps, track wheel chairs, trucks and even sluice boxes. People were cited, their equipment confiscated and fines were paid. We pointed out that this morphing of language was illegal, immoral and adversely affected 10’s of thousands of people. Kind of hard to say an airplane is a wheelbarrow just because both have wheels and that is precisely what the vague language in SB637 did. They stated “you can still pan”. As we pointed out in testimony at the Senate hearing on SB1222, panning is not, nor has it ever been a mining method. It is a final process, but not a mining method. Therefore, since that was really all they left us with, we made that argument, which was quite compelling that this is a ban and an illegal prohibition on small scale mining. So the CAWB didn’t toe the political line as some expected. What happened is the folks at the CAWB who are scientists and engineers pulled the raw data of all the studies over the past 20 years which were provided to them by WMA (Western Mining Alliance) and decided to see if dredging was in fact harming fish or fish habitat. What they concluded was dredging was deminimus, meaning it doesn’t harm fish or fish habitat. Their Board of Directors voted unanimously it is deminimus (no harm). We attended and presented (on your behalf) at every one of the public hearings with the CAWB when the permitting was being discussed and we produced a pretty compelling video of the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) actively suction dredging in other states to “create fish habitat”. Let that sink in for a minute….other states are dredging to “create” fish habitat. How is it that other states dredge to create fish habitat, but California thinks it kills fish? Well, it is because this is all political and not scientific (like you guys didn’t know that…). So what happened is they didn’t take Craig’s word for what the outcome was on all these studies, they pulled the raw data and then over the next year, AMRA worked with them on a permitting structure and we did this quietly and behind the scenes. If you recall, the DFG created a nightmare proposal on dredging, the one we recommended was nothing like that. It was one that didn’t involve keeping a diary, waiting a year for a permit or costing 5 grand to run a 4” dredge while being limited to a small 20 foot area in a creek they chose. CAWB listened and while ultimately it was their decision on what permitting structure to go with, it is nothing like we feared. Over the past week we have been in meetings, had calls and emails too numerous to list asking questions we know you’d be asking because hell, they are what we would want to know as we are miners through and through like many of you. Most questions we can answer now, some we cannot answer until late June when we have some formal meetings with the Director of the CAWB and a few Senators, but we are in fact going to be dredging next spring. It will be nearly impossible for the CAWB to pull back this acknowledgment that dredging WILL be permitted next year. AMRA will be discussing this live all weekend at out outing near Groveland CA, it's open to the public and it's free. We will also be covering this in detail at our annual dinner in Chino CA June 2nd, see our website for details or the post below for the outing directions and times. So, here’s the nuts and bolts: Firstly, almost all of the equipment wrapped up in the vague language of SB637 is being reversed and will once again be legal and not considered a suction dredge. High bankers are one piece of equipment we are still actively discussing and may involve a permit of some kind if run in the creek. We believe strongly since this is incidental fallback, like a dredge, it adds nothing and does not cause any adverse impacts on California waterways. Science should prevail, not emotion or how someone feels it might, may, could or potentially impact a waterway. Facts and science. Permitting applications will be available in early Spring and we are shooting for the very first day of Spring which is March 20, 2019. Why does it take this long, well this whole process was in fact ready to go last summer and the permitting structure was created, written and was ready for public comment, then the Director of the Water Board was replaced. The new Director, appointed by Governor Brown stopped all progress on the permits. SB637 had a mandate of 1 year for the CAWB to come up with a plan and they are now at 2 years, 4 months and 16 days. That is not just unacceptable, it is in violation of the law and we made sure they knew that. What remains now in the process is the public comment period where they tell the public what they plan to do and ask for comments. We expect you all to provide input. Cost: It is not going to be $2000 like someone posted on FB, that is incorrect. The permit costs we expect to be around $200 or close to it. They have a calculation where the permit structure needs to be 110% of the cost to do the permits so it shouldn’t be that much. It will be an on-line application process meaning you go to a specific link at the CAWB and fill it out on your computer. It should take no more than 3 or 4 weeks for the permit, but we are going to see if this can be sped up like the Ag permits farmers obtain routinely and rapidly. The permits are good perpetually, meaning that you pay for the permit in 2019, then if you want to dredge next year, you do not have to re-apply, just pay the fee and go dredge. I dredge multiple rivers, do I need a permit for each waterway? No, one permit for the whole state. Do studies have to be done for the creek I want to dredge? No. There will be no site specific studies required for any permits. Will I need to get a DFG permit like we did in 2009 in addition to the CAWB permit? No. Department of Fish and Game, who is currently required to obtain a permit from……….will be eliminated. No permits will be required from DFG for suction dredging. Who enforces this? DFG will be the enforcement arm and will be the agency tasked with checking for permits like we all remember….although in decades of dredging with a permit, I never once got checked. Do we have to keep silly diaries and all the other documentation like what was proposed before? No. There are no after season, nor continual season reporting requirements like DFG proposed in 2012 like keeping a diary and all that nonsense. There are a few things still unanswered like: Are there restrictions on sizes of dredges and motors. We believe dredging will be handled like it was prior to the moratorium in 2009, but do need this in writing before making a statement. What specific rivers/waterways will have a season, although it appears as it is exactly like it was in 2009. No dredging during spawning season (which we support). The exact cost, although we believe it will be a few hundred dollars at most, not the $2,000 circulating on the internet. We also do not know the specific regulations to a fine detail. However the CAWB has specifically stated they would like AMRA (Shannon Poe) to help them with the language and make sure the language does not encompass other equipment like the vague SB637. So as you can see, this is monumental. We are going to obtain this in writing shortly and you have our sincere promise that we will be working with them daily if necessary. They have made these statements in front of two sitting California Senators. It would be close to impossible for them to back out of this without some severe exposure to a lawsuit….and bring one we would on your behalf. We know you’ll have questions, and if we can answer them, we will, if we cannot, we will get them. Mr. Shannon Poe President, AMRA Fighting for your right to mine

Awoke to a light coming down from the attic access this morning. So I blew out the candle put down the beans, grabbed up the MD and headed up to the surface. Had no idea what I intended to detect in all this snow, perhaps pennies from Heaven. Wasn't long though before I got my first good signal and started digging. Was working this claim on the divide between the Stanislaus and Mokelumne rivers last "Fall" when winter set in and had to lay over for a spell. Don't know exactly what I have detected here but it appears to have crash landed during one of the big blows. I have included a couple photographs so you will be aware of what is headed downhill with the coming of "Spring". The triangle pictured in the snow is a log cabin roof with access on the opposite gable. The green object in the other photograph hit in the "tin-foil range" but does not taste like metal. I knocked on what appeared to be a tank hatch but got no reply. Just I started to rebury the thing it started to hum the Marine Corps Hymn at which point I returned to the cabin for some push-ups. In what range would a person expect to get for an empty 300 gallon propane tank at depth?

Hi all, some of you have known me for many years as Mlgdave, owner of Goldbay.com and now I also own The Colorado Quartz Gold mine in California and ramping back up to run and mine 140 and 180 feet underground. This week me and my partner worked an old stope and found and extracted a killer piece! (more to come) I am living at the mine full time and should have some good stories and finds for you guys over the next few months/years Mlgdave

Here is a picture taken on Gold Lake highway today. April 30. Looks to be awhile to get up to the prospecting and detecting areas there.

Southern California Desert, GPZ 7000, settings high yield, normal ground, high smoothing, sens @9 rest at default. It was very windy so the audio is a no go.

Latest News! Cheers,Ig Today! 2Days Ago:

Oroville dam Update! At 18:40 he shows ya his "goldpan"! Cheers,Ig

I keep reading stuff printed in papers or on other media that is perhaps at best on the verge of sort of true. They are getting desperate for readers / viewers and seem to want to say dang near anything for eyeballs. I heard some funny stories at the GPAA show of folks trying to sneak into the construction area below the Oroville dam spillway - convinced there will be gobs of gold all around because they saw it on TV or in a newspaper. Here are a few recent story lines: "Gold hunters in the area tell the Chico Enterprise-Record the floods have "rearranged the rivers" and "move things around." That means gold veins that have been hidden for 200 years are suddenly exposed." "According to CBS San Francisco, the floods also swept gold out of abandoned mines and washed it downriver. " "While KCRA reports that gold can simply be picked off the ground following major flooding, the best prospecting will come in the summer months when the water has receded." C'mon gents! We need to head off to those hills if the gold can now just be picked up off the ground. No doubt gravels have been moved around, gold deposited into crevices and new paystreaks formed. But gold veins hidden since before the 49ers arrived now revealed? I'd guess there are not many. Gold washed out of abandoned mines? I'd guess not much. Gold can just be picked up off the ground? I am sure there are a few new sunbakers sitting around here and there, but not many. I do agree that the best prospecting will come in the summer months when the water levels go down and some good gold will be found, but the media is gone bonkers about saying anything to attract attention.

LOL @Digger Bob making the most out of a big dam problem --- http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/butte/paradise-prospector-a-golden-opportunity-at-the-damaged-spillway/370298858

The more experienced guys here know that when serious flooding happens, it renews (to a certain extent ) the river placers in the CA mother lode country. So although no one wants to see property damage or people hurt, the flooding is of great interest to prospectors. I thought I would start this thread to keep track of how the big rain that's supposed to be headed our way unfolds. Here in Reno the flood is not supposed to be quite the equal of what happened in 2005, which was really not that big of a deal - but I'm more interested in what happens in the mountains because that's what moves gold around. Flooding is hard to predict because a few degrees of warming can melt snow ad greatly increase the amount of water flowing through the rivers. in the next few days we shall see what happens.

Cheers! IG , Pssssst.... I won't Tell if You Don't Amazing amount of Dirt Moved

A comparatively minor storm has just passed through, and although we are not at flood stage anywhere, all the rivers are rolling along at a fast clip with every little drainage flowing - even stuff that almost never has water. Small streams that are normally just a trickle are already full of water. Any good sized storm could bring another round of serious flooding because everything is pretty much full already. The ground has no capacity to absorb any more water. The storm coming in late Sunday through Tuesday looks to be a fairly powerful and wet one. Been watching it on the weather forecast and every round of modeling seems like they are upping the amount of rain and the impact it will have. The forecast I look at is currently calling for over 2 inches in Reno and around 5 inches in Quincy. Caltrans is warning the Northern Sierra counties: "there will be heavy rain and high snow levels resulting in increased likelihood of flooding of rivers and streams."

I got out to do a little metal detector prospecting in California yesterday, and got my first nugget of 2017. I've not done any prospecting for months and this was the first time I'd been out prospecting this year. It's been a rough past few months. Some of you may know why, my mom passed away a couple weeks ago. So I decided this would be a good time for me to get away and to take my dad as well for a short day trip to get away from things for a few hours. It was tough to get over the hill into California even on a sunny dry day - I80 westbound has been closed most of the last few days and they were diverting westbound car traffic at Hwy 20 and holding westbound trucks at the state line. A small section of a hill just east of Alta is just sliding down on the freeway like toothpaste. Caltrans clears off what flows onto the road and then more flows down. We were also in a stop and go traffic jam from mogul - just west of Reno - to nearly the state line as NDOT did emergency repairs on the Nevada side. However, once I made it in, it was a beautiful sunny day. In the gold country, I could see the rivers are all running high and water is flowing down every little drainage. I saw a lot of little mud and rock slides and places where erosion has done damage to the roadways. It was also very green in the lower elevations of the gold country as all the grass and little plants are springing to life. It's still full on winter here around Reno. I-80 west is finally open this morning, but the next round of storms arrives tomorrow (Thursday). I dug a lot of little bullet frags and bird shot, but it was great just to get out and stretch my legs. I think the little nugget I dug was about my 5th target. It weighs 0.2 grams. Not much but it is gold and now I have something in my bottle for 2017. Gotta start somewhere!

I am interested in hearing if anyone has had any luck detecting the Chocolates. West of 78/Ogilby. I am aware of both the mine and the bombing range, there are areas that are open. I have never seen or heard of a detected nugget, small gold that can be drywashed but has anyone here had any detecting success?

Took the jeep out for a first run in the hills and while out around deadwood and Forrest hill, stopped to chat with this guy who was out scouting deer and doing a little hunting. I don't know how accurate the information, or if anything is really any different than usual as the danger goes out in the woods, but... He was telling me to be a little more cautious than normal on account they been having a mountain lion problem of late in town, seems the critters are wandering into town in much higher numbers than in previous years. So, the guy who drew the short straw has been trapping any that come into town and after putting tracking collars on them, they drive them out to the end of deadwood road by the cemetery and let them loose. point of the story there may be more than a few hungry lions hanging around the area so if you are out and about the area doing a little prospecting they'll see you... the deer were scarce too, usually I see a few this time I didn't see any.

Went up to the Plumas National Forest yesterday. My buddy has a very cool Ford military jeep. The thing goes anywhere and we needed it to get where we went. We found 2 small hardrock mines. Both were collapsed. One must have been large enough for rail and mine carts because I found a narrow gauge rail spike. Also found some rock drills/chisels and the sledge hammer head that was used with them hidden under a ledge of a very large boulder. There was so much ferrous trash that I didn't even turn on the 7000 all day. I used my Whites GMT and just looked for large ferrous targets and small non-ferrous. Not sure what the loop is for but it looks hand forges along with what looks like a hand forged door handle? The curved parts are SQ like a sq nail and they are bent over in opposite directions. I thought is was a door handle because it has shoulders that look like they were meant to only allow it to be hammered in part way. Then the two "nails" were bent over like a door nail. "As dead as a doornail"? That's my guess. It was an awesome day, 72 degrees F and sunny, no breakdowns with the jeep and some cool finds! Any one else have a guess about the doorhandle or the "loop"?

Why does California have so much gold that is seemingly just laying not far below the surface of the topsoil?

Minelab has released what has been dubbed the "lifestyle video" which leans more to being a short travel guide about Placer County than about the PRO-GOLD Panning kit specifically. I am sure a lot of people here will recognize many of the locations. It is actually quite a bit of work doing a video like this but we had fun also so I am fortunate to have taken part. Thanks Minelab! The video also has an accompanying blog post by Chris Ralph at Minelab Treasure Talk.