Gold Is Not Where You Find It!

[mn90403]

Thanks Doc.  

Your article puts together a number of concepts that the 'old timers'  had to have processed.  They were wandering around all over the countryside with a mule (in the West) and some water looking for color.  What were they looking for?  Many of them were looking for a similar place where gold had been found before.  Their brain was processing the clues.  Many died chasing those placer clues.  Lots more died chasing the lode clues.

You have to be in the right area to have clues.  It takes more than a mountain!  You could spend a lifetime in the Santa Monica Mountains looking for gold and it would be like that parking lot.

Go where gold has been found before works for beginners and the rest of us with the new technology in our hands if we know how to use it.  There are even a few new clues to be discovered.

All of that being said ... there are just some electronic prospectors that are better than others.  Doc, you are one of the best.

Mitchel

[Doc]

8 hours ago, Reg Wilson said:

This is some of the best advise I have read anywhere, on any forum. Tips from a man who obviously knows how to prospect, and not just fossick. Well done.

Thank you Reg, really a nice compliment from someone I admire.

Doc

[Doc]

4 hours ago, goldseeker4000 said:

well put Doc. I just read this thread after I started a thread on gold, geology and sharing knowledge. Knowlege is the key to finding the gold we seek. If one doesn't stop and ponder how or why the nugget they just found got there, they are missing out on learning the clues that will put them onto that nuggets friends hiding close by or that nuggets other relatives hiding further up the hill 500 yards away. This is a game of clues. Learn everything you can find on an area geologically speaking including success of others if it is shared or slips from their mouth. This is how a friend of mine, Rick Radke who is now gone from this life, was so successful. He was very good at unraveling the clues.

I think you have hit the nail on the head.  Maybe that is why I love detecting so much.  I don't think many people know that I was a police officer and a police detective.  And for the last 40 years I have been a Licensed Private Investigator.  I love a mystery.  I love looking for the clues that lead me to a successful conclusion.  And you are so right, that is exactly what we do when we find that first nugget.  I often have referred to that first nugget in a new area as your "CLUE NUGGET"

Thank you for the comment.

Doc

[Doc]

2 hours ago, Lanny said:

Lots of nuggets in your post Doc, and lots of years of hard-won understanding to boot.

Thanks for taking the time to post what has been sifted, sorted, and garnered from being in the field and being successful.

I too have heard from many people that they can't find a nugget, and I think you've provided the best answer I've heard yet to explain that failure. Sometimes, it just needs to be put into words . . .

I'll add one thing that I get tired of all kinds of nugget hunters saying: "The Old Timers/the Chinese got it all." Such a misleading stereotype. I have found so many great nuggets in areas where the Old Timers and the Chinese worked the place to death that I spend a lot of time looking carefully exactly where they worked! Those old boys knew how to find gold, and they didn't come close to getting it all. Add to that the fact they had no electronic technology to see into concreted material, to see deep into bedrock cracks, etc. and looking exactly where those argonauts of old found the gold is the perfect place to look especially for beginners, and I'll add something Ray says, "Check the margins of any area they worked" as that has led me to a lot of nuggets as well.

All the best,

Lanny

Great advice Lanny.  Sometimes the margins may be dead, but what they really are is a break.  There is gold in one area, then a margin of nothing, and then you stumble into a fresh patch.  I guess that marginal area could have been cause by a ground fault or a shift that broke up one area into two distinct areas.

Doc

[roadapple]

 A Great Read !!!!  Seems to fall on the same analogy of " why do 10% of the fishermen catch all the fish " , they study their surroundings and know what they're looking for !   ...... Thanks Doc !

[Ryan]

Good stuff here. I like to say "Gold is where I find it"? 

And doc ..want to tell you that my favorite piece of gear so far is my scoop pouch. Simple, effective, well designed, and of quality material. Every time I go for my scoop I am thankful for that simple piece of gear.

[bloodgold2]

Hi Doc, yeah I would agree with your post mate. You have done well explaining it in an overall prospective, well written. Cheers Dave.Merry xmas to all.

[Gerry in Idaho]

Golden words of advice Doc.  I too find gold most times I go out to known nugget areas.  I am usually getting the big EGG-O when Prospecting for new ground.  But on a rare occasion that new ground can lead to some serious gold.  The attached photo is of one of my customers who spend a winter doing research and decided to hunt 4 different areas with his dad.  The last place turned to be a real winner with over a pound of gold from there.  Keep it up.

[Lanny]

On 12/23/2017 at 5:02 PM, Gerry in Idaho said:

Golden words of advice Doc.  I too find gold most times I go out to known nugget areas.  I am usually getting the big EGG-O when Prospecting for new ground.  But on a rare occasion that new ground can lead to some serious gold.  The attached photo is of one of my customers who spend a winter doing research and decided to hunt 4 different areas with his dad.  The last place turned to be a real winner with over a pound of gold from there.  Keep it up.

Loved the picture and the wise words!

All the best,

Lanny