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General information on Gold

From themost primitive tribes to the most sophisticated cultures, man has pursued gold from the beginning of recorded history.Gold is like nothing else under the sun, sky and sea. It’s beautiful qualities are both overwhelmingly practical and yet somehow mystical. Wherever gold has become the basis of economic life, it’s flow and movement has created paths that have changed forever the destiny of men and nations. Over the centuries, gold has assumed many additional roles, especially in our age of sophistication and technology. Gold is still priced as a store of money and value, but it has many uses. While its principal use is still in jewelry, gold now has many additional applications in our contemporary life. Gold has soared into space with the astronauts, its reflective ability used on the heat shields that are critical to life. It is used in medicine and dentistry as well as a number of industries and especially in electronics.

Great discoveries of gold have always created a rush by men seeking to gain their share. The lure of gold and instant wealth has been a dream since the dawn of civilization. Even the mere rumor of gold has sent rushes of humanity in a fevered search across oceans and continents. Gold fever has made men and cities. This is as true today as it has been at in any other time in history.

Where to find it:

What areas of the world still have gold left to be found? If you have first-hand experience with a spot where other treasure hunters can go, enter info here:
For a free Prospecting for GOLD PAMPHLET, click here.


GPS Coordinates, if known:
Town/region: Sutters Mill
State, country: California
Tips for finding it: This is where the Gold Rush first started, and there is still Gold in them thar hills. You can sit on the river's edge and pan for gold. It is a great way to spend a nice afternoon in the california heat.
GPS Coordinates, if known:
Town/region:
State, country:
Tips for finding it:


GPS Coordinates, if known:
Town/region: St. Louis
State, country: Missouri
Tips for finding it:

St. Louis has a rich history that few
people stop to consider. How many
flat-boats sank while crossing the
Mississippi River during the settling
of St. Louis and the westward
expansion before bridges were built?
How many homes were washed away
by the great flood of 1993?
I would be checking the sandbars and
river banks when the water is at low
flood stage. That old muddy river
may hold a few surprises yet.

As of yet, I have only found old lead
fishing weights with my trusty $60.00
metal detector. But that is actually
good news because gold and lead are
very close to one another on the Element
Chart. If I am finding lead fishing weights,
it means that it is only a matter of time
before I find something of greater interest.

This also tells me that it would be a good
idea to walk old creek beds with my metal
detector, since no one else has thought
of doing so. The perfect excuse to get out
for a walk in the woods on the weekend
and go camping with a backpack.

Just stay clear of private land unless
you have permission from it's owner.
GPS Coordinates, if known: Many!
Town/region: Various locations across the western US
State, country: USA
Tips for finding it:Learn about how to find gold - there are many good books.
An interesting series of web pages about places to dig can be found at:
Where to dig for gold in the Western US.

Gold is found in Wyoming and some recent discoveries in the Rattlesnake Hills, Seminoe Mountains and South Pass suggest the region has several undiscovered gold deposits. Alaska is also known for rich gold deposits. At Donlin Creek in the Kuskokwim Mountains, a very large gold deposit was discovered in the 1980s, yet remains unexploited even though it contain more than $27 billion in gold.

For photos on gold see the Photo Album on this website. Free gold reports are available to download from the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists: (Sept 2006), (Dec. 2006), and (March 2007).

Detailed books on gold and base metals are available at the University of Wyoming.


Gold From Dickie Springs, Wyoming

Tools needed:
Pan, 35mm film canister
You can make your own filter. take a 1x2 piece of wood, and some screen door material.
Cut the 1x2 into 4 identical pieces, screw them together to make a box frame. Then take the screen and using a staple gun, attach the screen material to the box frame. Be generous on the staples. You do not want it to come apart. Take several box frames and different size mesh materials, and stack them on top of each other, will allow you to sift at different sizes all the way down to very fine. Then remove the frames one at a time and examine the layers.

It also helps to cut the bottom half off of a five gallon bucket and attach a
copper screen to the lower opening to make a sifter. I heard that copper
is often found in and around gold veins in nature and the two minerals are
somehow atomicly attracted to one another. Neither mineral is magnetic
so the attraction can't be magnetic in nature, there is obviously some other
force at work there. But many old timers will swear by it.

Also, the wooden frames used for cross-stitching and needle point work
in sewing work well for different mesh sizes of sifters. Find the right size
that fits in your homemade 5 gallon bucket sifter and you have an all in
one set that can be carried with one handle and is far lighter than other
such rigs. Also a plastic Frisbee or an old Chinese Wok pan works great
for panning gold, there is no reason to buy a special gold pan.

A length of seemless gutter with outdoor carpet on the bottom surface
forms a great sluth box. (You will learn what that is, it's simple)
It works like a pan only water runs through it and you slowly pour
your sand or dirt into one end and the heavier particles get trapped
in the carpet as it washes down the gutter like thousands of tiny
fingers trapping your gold nuggets while letting the dirt and allot
of the sand wash away. Ingenious contraption if there ever was one.

You can make everything you need from stuff you can find in a yard sale.
It just takes a little vision and creativity that's all.





Special skills needed:
Patience... and a sixth sense for sniffing out lucrative deposit trails
or mineral veins in streambeds and other geographical features that may
or may not be wet in nature.

Basic Infomation about how to dig your own placer gold can be found at:
Basic Placer gold digging


Identification tips:
Few minerals have as intense a metallic luster, or form in the same types of shapes. It is heavy and soft, and deforms like a soft metal when struck or cut.
Two minerals commonly confused by beginners as gold include pyrite and mica. Mica breaks into sparkling little sheets when rubbed between the fingers and just does not have a true metallic luster. Mica is also fairly light – it does not have the density of gold, and it will not be found in the heavy concentrates when panning or dredging. Pyrite, when fresh and unoxidized, does have a nice metallic gold color and though not as heavy as gold, is heavier than most other rock forming minerals, so that it will be found in the heavy concentrates. It also commonly occurs with gold in quartz veins. That ‘s why it gets the well-deserved name of fools gold. It often forms cubic to angular shaped crystals, which are usually easily recognizable. Luckily, pyrite also rapidly oxidizes in the air and the surface changes to a rust brown mineral, usually limonite, and in this form it is not often mistaken for gold. If it is hit by a hammer, Pyrite shatters because it is brittle, but gold will flatten out in a manner similar to lead. This is a quick and easy test, but should not be preformed on things that could be nice gold specimens, as it destroys their collector value (which can be significant). I always tell folks that once you’ve seen enough real gold, it’s hard to mistake mica or pyrite for the real thing. The following website has a good number of clear photos showing natural gold in a variety of forms if you’d like to see some.

Natural crystal and nugget gold


Real Gold is soft and weighs more than Fool's Gold. Have a pocket knife handy to test the Gold you find. If you can scrape a little off, it is more than likely real Gold.

Also, real gold is comparable to lead and has a similar melting point.
My suggestion is when in doubt, collect it all. Then later when you have
enough of what you suspect is gold... melt it down in a small gas fired
smelter using a small ladle used for making homemade fishing weights
and musket balls. The Fool's Gold is a type of pyrite like quartz and won't
melt, you can pick it out with sweezers or tongs and drop it in water so it
doesn't pop in your face or cause a fire. The melted molten substance
that is left in the bottom of the ladle afterwards is real Gold and can be
further refined or purified by removing any impurities floating on the
surface when it is in it's molten state. If you have enough of it you can
make your own little gold bars by pouring it into a customised mold
with your initials or your business start-up's company logo.
Information on smelting your own gold and other metals can be found
on the internet as well as "how to" manuals. It's how foundries get started
and it is also how bronze sculptures are made. It's interesting subject
matter to say the least.




Additional helpful resources:
[include links to websites, book titles, maps, clubs]

A gold prospecting encyclopedia, including lots of "How To" type
of information can be found at this website:
Prospecting Encyclopedia

Google "Gold Prospecting" and you will learn allot.
Beware of items pertaining to the Klamath River in California
or Oregon, these areas are littered with serious gold miners
that are competing ferociously with expensive floating dredges
and other high tech modern gear. It's good to learn from them,
but I wouldn't get in their way if you know what I mean.

Besides, their dredging the river with scuba gear... I am the
sort of guy that would be looking up toward the mountains that
feed that river, and following the various streambeds back
toward their sources. Those nuggets are coming from
somewhere, and what goes up must come down.
Often times larger nuggets that have eroaded away from
a gold vein are too heavy for water currents to move and
they become lodged in a creekbed up in the mountains.
So if you find one... chances are there is a much larger
find near that location. Most 49'ers being simple minded
gun toting uneducated lay persons often jumped the gun
and went to town, instead of investigating further.

Those that were smart enough to do so eventually filed
lucrative gold mining claims and bought the land that
made them millions.

If your planning an adventure, I would use Google Maps which
uses high res satelite imagery over electronic maps to paint a
clear picture of the terrain and it's relationship to roads and
near-by towns or cities. You can almost pinpoint where you
want to go before you even pack your bags.

A very helpful tool for mapping out and narrowing down your
desired search area before you actually get out there in the
field. Making the time you spend in the field more productive
and pro-active. We have the technology, why not use it?



Recommend a guide or tour:
[If you need a guide, list them here with phone/email and website URL]

I would recommend doing some personal research on the subject as
far as geography and technique is concerned, then take a hike with a
backpack outfitted with a tent and the camping gear you'll need for a
week or two following streambeds by canoe or on foot... in other words,
go it alone without a guide or organized tour. Just you, your backpack,
your trusty metal detector, your pan and sifter, and your whits.

Your hunting for gold, that isn't something you want everyone knowing
exactly where you found it and how much was found, if any.

"Think And Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill
A must read book for any serious minded prospector or
entrepreneur wanting to maximize and leverage their efforts
to attain success.

Besides, you don't want to be led to places that have already been
panned over with limited opportunity for success, unless you just
need a cheap vacation to keep the kids busy and interested.

They would be allot more interested if they actually found something
they could have turned into a necklace or a thousand dollars in cash.
I would go it alone... it's allot more exciting that way, just be carefull
and above all, enjoy yourself while doing it.



Recommend an appraiser
:
Just about every major city has at least one coin shop.
Tip: They deal in more than coins.

Allot of times they can grade the gold you find for purity, provide you
with a certified written appraisal for a fee and even buy it from you,
if you are ready to sell it. Remember, you don't pay taxes on the gold,
only on the money you make when you sell it. So you might want to hold
on to your findings for a rainy day so to speak. That's what I would do,
but it's your gold, liquidate it at your leisure.

Some info on selling gold can be found at:

Selling your gold nuggets


DiamondProspector
DiamondProspector
Latest page update: made by DiamondProspector , Aug 18 2009, 5:25 PM EDT (about this update About This Update DiamondProspector added link to a free gold prospecting pdf - DiamondProspector

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Started By Thread Subject Replies Last Post
ModerndayEdison The Golden Fleece (page: 1 2 3 4 5 ... last page) 142 Feb 19 2010, 6:49 PM EST by ModerndayEdison
Thread started: Feb 9 2010, 4:58 AM EST  Watch

I have heard stories since my child hood back in Sunday School when I was young
about a certain Golden Fleece that was an early attempt at sluicing for Gold.

The most detailed and prominent one was of story that predated the crucifiction of
Christ in Ancient Greece... a poor Pagan farmer and sheep herder gathered wool
from 10 of his most prized animals, and matted it together in a rough quilt like blanket
and then spread it across a local stream on his farm using rocks to keep it in place.

Then once a day for 3 moon cycles he would walk out to the stream and throw a bucket
of sand or dirt from the stream bed or bank on it.....allowing the water to wash over it.

Everyone thought he was nuts... off his rocker with a screw loose.
But in the end when he pulled the large wet water logged Fleece out of the
stream and rung it free of water... it was impregnated with thousands of
tiny pieces of Gold. He separated the fleece into several pieces and gave
each piece to each one of his children as their inheritence and was killed
soon after by the tax collectors for tax evasion.

It is widely suspected by historians that at one point in time King Salomon
had one of these pieces of the original Golden fleece in his possession.
But it is not known for certain.

I have a large course cotton sheet that folds up nicely that I am planning
to take with me on a motorcycle Gold prospecting trip this summer.

I am thinking about giving it a try.
It's kind of like running a trout line.
But for Gold......instead of fish.

This sort of thing isn't illegal in
the United States today, is it?

It's something that interests me and
I am curious if it will work or not.
But not if it means jail time.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?



---Modernday Edison


.
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williamking1 The Price of Gold and Other Illusions 15 Feb 18 2010, 6:28 PM EST by ModerndayEdison
Thread started: Jan 19 2010, 11:14 AM EST  Watch
The Price of Gold and Other Illusions

I came across a web site you might find interesting: goldprice.org/30-year-gold-price-history.html

Gold is a commodity that is used for jewelry, coin, and some industrial use. What is it really worth?
It depends upon the society in which you live. Just look at the charts on goldprice.org. Is it a hedge
for inflation? Maybe. The problem with inflation is you get a jolt from it, but if it levels off the
mind perceives everything as normal or at least stable again. If it just keeps climbing that is another
story. Gold prices rise with financial crises, then drop and level off after the storm. Where they level
off at is the perceived worth of gold at that time. Crises sells gold and that is what is happening now.
Will we have inflation? Yes. That is how government pays off massive debt, with devalued dollars
And tax creep. Will gold drop in price? I don’t know. Look at the charts on goldprice.org and make up your mind. Is it great time to be a treasure hunter? You better believe it is.

PS If you have an online business, here is a site that I advertise on that does produce hits and doesn’t cost a dime. If it cost I could not use it. http://www.fwebtraffic.com/?rid=1267838
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Keyword tags: gold gold price inflation
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DiamondProspector Websites on gold prospecting and geology 1 Feb 10 2010, 5:52 PM EST by RockBuddy
Thread started: Feb 10 2010, 4:47 PM EST  Watch
Here are some sites on gold prospecting and mining.

http://goldarizona.blogspot.com/
http://goldalaska.blogspot.com/
http://southpassgreenstone.blogspot.com/
http://goldmtn.blogspot.com/
http://www.goldhunter.webs.com/
http://gemhunter.webs.com/goldplatinum.htm
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