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Had a very close family friend that was big into prospecting. He was a member of the GPAA (for folks in the US- you get a pretty handy catalog of areas to hunt and other stuff. The guys that run the GPAA have a show on the outdoor channel called Gold Fever, it's a pretty cute and light-hearted show about prospecting that also happens to be really informative). He did most of his work around northern georgia, following streams and creeks and did okay enough but before he passed away I asked him about it being enough to live on and he said that 90% of the younger people who get a few thousand dollars worth of gear and plan to make their living prospecting usually wind up living out of their cars and dead broke- that's why you can find used gear for really good prices. He said the others he had met that actually make a living at it basically write the books on roughing it and if living in a pop-up camper eating canned beans while busting your rear end for 16 hours a day seems ideal, go for it. He was single and retired and geology and prospecting were hobbies for him. The most interesting stuff was his stories about going out west and I guess that the mines out there deteriorate at a much slower rate so crazy people still regularly go into them and I guess that as far as competitive/secrecy goes, there were some really bad characters out there (at least in the 80's) that would not hesitate to kill someone if they got too close to their mine. I'm hoping it's not the same now but I'm sure there are still some crazies out there. If you're on the east coast of the US and anywhere near northern Georgia, there are lots of places to try panning and actual mining camps that rent out rooms. He had some high end detectors but digging dirt out from bedrock and panning it was really fun for me.
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Aug 1, 2014 07:50
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 09:22 |
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