Dry washing gold
 

I went out last weekend and did some exploring over in the California mother lode country. Never found any gold with the metal detector, although I saw some good locations that I will come back to.

I also did a little Dry washing just to do a little test for 2 hours. It was a spot I'd seen this spring and I wanted to see what it held. I was kind of suprised by the gold - a little over half a gram, or around 1/3 of a pennyweight. It included a nice little 8 grain nugget. Nice gold for a half hearted couple hours work. I will definitely return next year to that spot.

Chris

Re: Dry washing gold
 

Thats awesome!

Great score for such a short amount of work.

Thanks for sharing!

Re: Dry washing gold
 

Prospecting is one thing I'd like to try. I've always been an interested viewer of the Gold Fever show.

Good people, hard work, and the chance of great reward from the hobby.

Re: Dry washing gold
 

Nice find Chris!

I never had the opportunity to do any dry washing. How are the prospectors out in California dealing with the new dredging laws. I heard locally (Ohio) that highbankers could still be used, but not dredges.

Could you spell it out in plan English for us what is and is not allowed? Like, is a highbanker with a suction nozzle considered a dredge or is it still considered a highbanker?

Thanks!

Re: Dry washing gold
 

Newmisty - The yield makes me wantt o return, but its the high country, probably got snow in the storm we had a couple days ago and wont be good for dry washing again until next year.

Workaholic - prospecting is a lot of fun - I've been doing it for over 30 years. Your odds of really striking it rich are pretty tiny, but the chances to get some gold and have some fun are excellent.

Lt. Dan - You heard correctly. So long as you have some sort of retaining pond set up so the muddy water does not drain back into the stream, then high banking is OK. So long as you are working a spot away from the river and nothing drains back into the stream, you could use a high banker with a suction nozzle. You cannot put the high banker into the stream itself and use it like a dredge - that would violate the ban. Lots of folks are real unhappy about the ban. I am the associate editor of a prospecting magazine and you can read more details at our website:

http://www.icmj.com/news.php

Dry Washing is OK too, but requires the soil to be real dry and generally sandy, not clumped with clay. The spot I was working with the dry washer has no flowing water anywhere nearby.

Chris

Re: Dry washing gold
 

Wow, I learned a lot in this thread.

Thanks for the link.

Re: Dry washing gold
 

Dry Washing materials is generally not effective in the eastern US because of the comparatively high levels of soil moisture & humidity that soil sucks from the air. Materials usually have to be spread out on a tarp, sun dried, and then run through a dry washer = takes too much time and work. POarticularly when one figures that even dry materials dry-washed in the west have to be run twice to maximally recover colors.

The western US is another story....compartively arrid and VERY dry soils under normal conditions. BUt still don't start too early - let the sun come up and dry what moisture accumulated during the night.