The Mining Blog

The New Year - Good and Bad

1/11/2017

     Well I have bad news, we have had some pretty steady rain in this part of the country. With all the rain and the snow, I have been unable to go out and do much of anything. So over the last month, I have been doing nothing but working on the house, something I need to be doing, but I'd much rather go mining.　

     But, I also have some good news. With all the rain and the snow, the rivers have been running very high. This coming mining season should be a very good one. With all the runoff there is going to be a lot of movement within the riverbed. This will expose a lot of new areas to prospect and should bring some new gold into the river.　

     With all the snow building up in the Sierras, this season may get off to a late start. But with the prospect of a nice clean river bed and new gold, I'm willing to wait.　

     I have been able to shoot a couple of new videos on cleaning up black sand concentrates and hopefully I should get those finished and posted pretty soon. If it will quit raining long enough, I'm going to try to get out and shoot a video on prospecting when the water is high.

　
     Well, my break time is over, I have to get back to work on the house.

5 Comments

Michael Hamer

1/17/2017 09:11:18 pm

Hi Gary....You have asked for video questions so here goes...

For us older prospectors:

Don't want to hike in a sluice...just a detector, a pan and some sniping/crevicing tools.

Can you talk about snorkels and masks with reader lenses attached for older eyeballs? Wetsuit considerations?

A daypack is fine for smaller tools, but what about wetsuits?; How do you hike in with the extra weight?

I assume you carry a firearm when in the wilderness? Rifle or handgun and why?

Since dredging is essentially eliminated for Calif and Oregon, what are generally the best kinds of claims for nugget hunting, desert or mountains? BLM land? Pay for club claim access? Laws for Oregon? Higher up the river banks for ancient river beds? Laws?

I prefer to camp for a few days at a time. Day trips are not out of the question. The prospectors here are secretive, like everywhere I suppose. How do I hook up with people in my area for prospecting trips?

Being a musician I have to say you have some righteous music for your vids. WTG

Thank you!! Your viewers should visit your eBay sight and support your efforts.

Gary

1/24/2017 04:53:05 pm

Thanks for the questions, you have given some good ideas for videos. I will try to answer your questions best I can.
1- masks, there are several ways to go. You can get your prescription cut into your mask lens, you can buy a mask that has precut lens in it or you can get lens that glue on. A good dive shop will have all the info.
2 - Going in, a wet suit only weights a few pounds when dry, hiking out with a wet one will add about 8-10 lbs. I do not use dive weights.
3 - I do not carry a gun, some of the guys I prospect with do (handgun), I have never felt the need.
4 - When detecting for nuggets, I prefer areas around old channels, this is a area where research is required to get good results.
5 - When dealing with other miners, friendships take along time. There is a natural mistrust. You don't know if they are from the government looking for a reason to tag you. The real possibility of being robbed, or they may want to claim jump.
I have found, 95% of the miners I have meet are some of the best people you will ever meet - but I still keep a eye out for the 5%.
I hope this helps a little, I will try to work in some full answers in future videos.

Thank you for the support - Gary

1/25/2017 06:05:13 pm

Very good answers, each of them, thank you. Someday I'll tell you about my encounter with a bear during a fishing trip, thus the gun question, but I identify with your decision....will be learning more about old channels and the best areas/claims to access in Oregon to get my feet wet with nugget hunting, crevicing & sniping..can hardly wait.

Paul Davidson

1/31/2017 01:50:52 pm

Gary just found your You Tubes and spent most of the afternoon watching. Can't wait to get some mining in. I live in Grass Valley, CA and have done some on the forks of the Yuba River. Not much luck but with your videos I have new found hope. There are many old hydrolic mines in our area. Any advise about trying around them?

1/31/2017 03:45:59 pm

I worked the middle fork of the Yuba River for 15 years. Lots of gold, not many large nuggets. The largest nugget I found was 1.2 oz. I have done very well working the hill side below hydraulic pits. The Yuba River carries a lot of gold in the gravel, you can do very well with a highbanker. Good luck!

The New Year - Good and Bad

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