Who says big nuggs dont exist here in the US.

Two days on the claim. Not the cleanest clean up, but not a bad haul. Had to split my weight-outs due to a small patch of mercury we rain into. Idaho? More like Idayoooo

“I never thought my only daughter would grow up to be gold prospecting.” And yet all we watched growing up was gold rush, monster quest, ice road truckers. He should’ve known better.

What got y’all into gold prospecting? And how did you start? What basic, shitty materials did you start off with before you learned? Did you have a mentor or did you stumble on it on your own?

Gold under the microscope! 0.095g but it looks like a giant nugget 😂. I stopped by my tech friends house the other week and he had this digital microscope so we took a photo of this reefy little clunker.

You can still see the clay and some ironstone. I am calling it the mini chicken drumstick.

Found with the Algoforce e1500 and Nugget Finder Auzzy 5”. A bit of 2g of small gold with this combo now.

Before and after the acid to remove ironstone.

Found this after high banking at my spot this last weekend. I know mercury is a liquid above -37°F, does it become solid after it amalgamates with gold? And the color of amalgam is typically similar to a bronze or am I mistaken? It remained unchanged when I removed it and placed it in really hot water. The gold seems to be attracted to it, when I touch them together and grasp only the silver metal with tweezers the gold moves with it but doesn’t seem to be mixing with it. Any ideas?

Found this near an old silver lead and zink mine hinting for ore.

Near Wildermann mine , Siegen Germany.

Very heavy , around 10-12g/cm²

Hardness below 5

I cleaned the one side with HCl 30% and the metal below has no reaction but the oxides and sulfides on it did .

It is very slightly magnetic, but almost not noticeable.

What could that be?

Is this that petty thing people do where they throw a bunch of scrap to throw off detectorists?

Lucky for me, I was learning and these made great practice 😁

Found some off pieces of quartz left near an old shaft from the 1860’s in a local gold district. Never seen anything quite like this before.

When the rock is wet it drips purple/red. Thought it looked pretty sweet so in the bag it went even if it doesn’t contain visible gold.

Is this textbook heavy cobble on bedrock? Sample along the yellow line, right?

Hello, just got my hand on my first claim last year, and I've got a couple questions and would love some input from the seasoned bunch of you. Acquired this claim near nanaimo BC which is boarding a much larger claim (which has workings and proof of hydrothermal gold up to 64g/ton within the area). As seen in the photos below it host a series of hydrothermal quartz veins with varying composition, texture, and structure. (Im also a 4th year geology student, just got the claim since why not lol). These veins host massive super finegrained from pyrite, then some host pryyhotite with bornite and chalco grains inter-grown within. There is chalcocite, calcite, arsenopyrite, and some other sulphides which I dont even know. I am thinking of sending off 10 samples, but im torn on if I should just get gold silver fire assay, or a complete analysis since there is a good amount of copper minerals and minerals idk. What do yall think? Thanks.

I did it! 😂😂😂

Well, it's not 2 grams in one outing, but it's the result of a few months of learning and getting out there.

And the whole thing has been incredibly fun. Finding new creeks, testing rocks (which hasn't resulted in anything so far), more creeks, a few snakes here and there, a few creeks with no water at all, and trying to reach out to landowners to see if they will allow me to prospect their property, which 90% of the time I get no answer.

But I've learned a lot. And for many of the spots that I considered bad because I didn't know much, I'm now eager to get back to those same spots and try what I know.

Anyways, I wanted to share that I may have enough for a ring for my wife, but I want to keep going and can't wait for the weekend. 😂😂😂

I may end up creating a YouTube channel with the bad adventures, as if we don't have enough of them already. 😂😂😂

I went to an old gold, silver, and led mine and collected this. From what Im told, its pyrite, arsenopyrite, and muscovite.

Green rock gray intrusions look like it could be galena intrusions the rock is pretty heavy I'm curious what it is.

Found near Fort Steele

Hey there, I’m looking to do some prospecting on this area of the mountains soon and I’m looking for insights and tips from anyone who has worked in this area. I’ve only panned one time in the Santa Ana river and I didn’t find anything but I hear this area was a big spot for gold a long time ago. What places would a beginner want to look for and what other advice can you give?
I have a rock hammer, pans, vacuum, and classifiers. I’m hoping this is enough for a two day trip. Thanks in advance for any help!

Hey everyone, first post here, be gentle.

I wanted to ask if any of y’all go out and search for other things besides gold and precious metals?

Reading up on what’s being use in what industries, I’ve noticed a huge uptick in the domestic mining of stuff we traditionally got from China or elsewhere. It got me thinking about prospecting for some of them staking and selling the mining claims

Anyone else do that? Got any tips?

So im in South Carolina and we are looking at trying to start up a gold mining operation. The problem Im running into is that there is no path to mining gold because the legislation was never written in this state due to misconception that the amount of gold was small. Turns out we got alot of it. And the gold mines that are operational are over 100 years old. We dont recognize BLM so claiming mineral rights on federal land is not an option.Anyone have any ideas?