Buying Land in Gold Country
 

i know that a lot of people have had plenty of time to pick over the local geology in California gold-mining territory.

but i still wonder, what would happen if you bought a piece of land in Placerville or wherever else the original 1849 prospectors prospected ?

i know that mining companies hire geologist who look at the local rocks & take core samples and are a 1000 steps ahead of me in terms of extracting some Au from the ground.

BUT - only so much of the ground has been picked over.

THE QUESTION

if you bought a piece of land in prime gold territory, in the Sierra Foothills, and "just started digging" - wouldn't you find some gold ?

until you go the "mountaintop removal" route and dig out EVERYTHING, isn't there some fair chance that there IS gold left in the ground up there ?

i know it's not a get-rich-quick scheme. but i know if i bought 5 or 20 acres in "gold country", i would end up doing a lot of digging, not for gold, but just as part of living.

i'd be digging dirt to put in some gopher protection on the garden. i'd be digging a basement because i'd want a house. i'd dig partially because i just like digging.

assuming you don't buy a property that's all mine tailings, wouldn't you have a fair chance of finding some decent gold nuggets if you just had a piece of land in gold country and started farming & stuff ?

alright, a naive question probably, i admit. :thumb.aspx:

Re: Buying Land in Gold Country
 

gundriller, just because you purchased the land, does not automatically mean you have the 'gold rights' to the land. Someone else may have already laid claim.

I purchased a gold detector awhile back, and tried it once, but the rivers were flowing too high this time of year. Later in the summer, I plan on doing some prospecting.

There's lot of areas open to the public to pan for gold, metal detect, etc. on government land, state parks. For now at least. It wouldn't surprise me if that gets taken from us at some point in the future.

Re: Buying Land in Gold Country
 

Gold isn't hard to find. There's a lot of it out there but it's scattered.

One sage statement prospectors report is "Gold is where you find it". It's in the ground. The questions are (1) where is it precisely?, and (2) where is a contration of colors located that's rich enough to make it economically feasible to mine?

A person has to "prospect" to locate gold. A "prosect" is a geographic area in which a significant concentration of gold might well be found. The best way to identify historic prospects is to search records archived in county Recorders offices (or an office by some other name that a county may use to hold records of property deeds, mineral claims, old mines, etc.).

Gold can be found in any area where it has historically been found. A person has to "sample" (pan loose gravels/"dirt", and assay suspect rock matrix' in likely locations to see if the sample holds colors.

There is two types of native gold. They are "load", and "placer" (pronounced like the "a" in "platter). All gold was originally formed in a rock matrix. Gold still located in it's original rock is called "load" gold. Gold that has naturally been freed from it's matrix by nature over tens and hundreds of thousand, & millions of years, is called "placer" gold. Placer gold that has at some time been located in a waterway is called "alluvial" gold..."colors" existing in company with other "alluvial" (water-borne) materials.

Prospecting & sampling by a little guy is limited to materials located fairly near the surface. A person can excavate down 18" & not find anything, and never know that there may be gold located deeper in that spot. serious research to locate and recover a rich deposit of gold is VERY expensive. The best a little guy (say a week-ender) can do at it is the best s/he can do.

Another sage saying that knowledgable prospectors know is that if a person doesn't know a specific location where s/he can recover significant gold, the s/he needs to go prospecting.


I wish you the very best in your pursuit...what I call "the great chase".

Re: Buying Land in Gold Country
 

Sure you can find some gold. Lots of people do it all the time. I have known some of those people. All without exception had another source of income. They all knew what to do, and they all found about the same amount of gold: a little over an ounce per month.

If you want land with a possibility of gold, consider a mining claim instead of a purchase. You can inquire at the Bureau of Land Management, or your state Bureau of Mines, or even the county recorder. All of these people are eager to help and will give you a flood of useful information. All states have land available for claims. You don't have to actually mine if you don't want to. It costs about $150 to file a claim and $135 a year to keep it. You never own the land and anything you haul in has to be either hauled out or abandoned. You can't stop other people from crossing the claim or even camping on it, but you can stop them from digging or panning. You might be surprised by the number of tourists who visit. Many of them think they have a legal right to steal your stuff and you have to be prepared to defend yourself. The sheriff won't want to be bothered unless there is a body involved, and then he will try to con the sheriff of the next county into handling it.

That is as good as buying a gold mine but a lot cheaper.

Re: Buying Land in Gold Country
 

You'd definitely be better off getting a mining claim. The two best sources of info re: mining claims are:

www.geocommunicator.gov
www.blm.gov/lr2000

The Geocommunicator site will show topographically either presently claimed land and/or previously claimed land. I would find the specific region which interests you and search between the previous and presently claimed lands to find something that isn't currently claimed. Two caveats though.... one... the geocommunicator is good for a general level of information and the maps don't adequately represent specific parcels of land. Case in point, I have a 160 acre mining claim, yet the geocommunicator recognizes it as a 320 acre mining claim. Secondly, some people claim lands so they can use it for their own vacation spot - a private place to go camping (and having a reason to be there), so a previously claimed piece of land may be due to someone wanting to have their own camping spot, or someone in the 1980's who was speculating on some miner buying it sight unseen.

This is where the LR2000 comes into play.

The LR2000 is a database of who owns the claim, their mailing address, the size of the claim and what portion of the section the claim is in. Personally, in my search for unoccupied claims, I use the geocommunicator first, then I look at the LR2000 and look for previous claimholders and I do a google search for their phone numbers. I recently called up a guy who had one of my new claims and he told me that in the 1980's on my (now new) claim, he pulled out 3lbs of gold out of one crack in the bedrock. I think I have a keeper here.

Once you find a place that you want to claim, go out and do a sampling on it to ensure it actually has gold. Then take a trip to your local BLM office to ensure that by checking their records, the claim is still viable.

Another even more intensive way to find a claim is to pick your favorite region or river, go to the BLM office with a topo map in hand and work up your favorite river's claims paperwork by reviewing each actual claimant's paperwork, claim by claim. Until very recently, a lot of the claim corners were not posted by GPS. With a little research, you may find pockets of property that appears to be claimed by the geocommunicator, but in fact is still available. A lot of work, but on the good stretches of river or creeks, could get you some prime territory with a little bit of work.

The research takes some time, but it is well worth it. I did a bunch of research this last fall and found up to 20 (now) unoccupied claims that would bear looking into, but due to the newfound richness of my newest claim, I may not have the time or energy to pursue the others.

The research is big fun, and you get to talk to some great people who have wonderful stories. Don't waste your time buying someone else's claim, with a little research and $175, you will be the proud owner of your own claim.

Re: Buying Land in Gold Country
 

WOW ! This is a boatload of info. Thanks very much for sharing your expertise.

Re: Buying Land in Gold Country
 

Check this site to look up the land in question.

It will tell you who holds the patent and what the rights are.
You can also order certified patents to perfect your land patent Sandwich from this site and or by phone.

Unless the land is in one of the original 13 states it will be here.

http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/PatentSearch/

Re: Buying Land in Gold Country
 

Can anyone explain this in more detail? I've been looking at buying land lately and found a 50 acre tract I really like. The Mineral Rights do not convey however. What does this mean exactly? If I own the land, can the owner of the "Mineral Rights" just come on to my land and start digging anytime they'd like?

Re: Buying Land in Gold Country
 

In a word, yes.