|
This is totally my wheelhouse. I have done a moderate amount of Gem hunting in my area (smokey quartz, milk opal, corundum, and garnet/star garnet in my area) is pretty fun, but I strongly suggest you seek out and become a member of a Gem/Prospecting club. Initially I was just using online sources, but lots of sites are pretty hush-hush so they don't get overrun with mouth breathers. Put down your social anxiety, and actually meet people who know more than you it was pretty invaluable and saved me a lot of time and I started getting pretty decent finds. But what I really love is finding GOLD. It is very dependant on what area you are in. My area tends to be more towards very fine flour gold. I have a specific spot that I crevice for gold (similar to Pioneer Pauly, but I just clean out bedrock cracks along the shoreline). I have a lot of friends who raft so I get to some remote inaccessible spots when we do overnight trips, and I've had a noticeable difference in yields. If you are going to metal detect they do make specialized detectors for it. I know some true miners who make a living off hard rock mining and they told me to stop loving with a gold pan and just use a water-proof metal detector in a specific river/creek near where I live. yet to put down the money for that but I'm strongly considering it. I also enjoy a little bit of detecting too, I've found a few silver coins from old mining sites. A good resource is the US Geological survey. I use my state's branch that has a pretty good interactive map that shows you anything from mineral zones, fault locations, mining history etc. I have pulled up awesome multi-page surveys from the mining history side, some of them have very detailed maps of old mines, or where ore bodies are located. also https://www.mylandmatters.org is a decent resource for claim history. NOTE this is NOT 100% accurate by any means when it comes to present claims!!! Also be careful about any highbanking/dredging as they are much more strictly regulated than just panning/sluicing. My state has the Department of Water Resources that controls which streams and when dredging equipment is allowed. Spoiler: Very loving few for very short periods. Though I can understand this as industrial dredging fucks up the river. Check google maps for Idaho's Crooked River near Elk City as an example. If you just like seeing cool rocks, Check out the youtube of Blue Cap Productions https://www.youtube.com/user/bluecapproductions They are a great channel that showcases some of the best examples of valuable crystal minerals you've never even heard of. I came across this channel years ago and it really got me into gem-hunting. Willfrey fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Jul 20, 2020 |
#
¿
Jul 20, 2020 18:59
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 15:40 |
|