Parks, same same. Yeah that was always my idea how to make a small fortune from prospecting and that was to start with a much larger fortune I think it depends on your location. We'd prefer to look for gold but the closest is 1, km up the road and nearly 2, km to where we prefer to look. We also look for bottles. This time we found a rare one but we still don't know the value. Mrs M displayed it on the treasure hunting site but the administrator removed it saying that she would be inundated with inquiries and offers to purchase.
That's what she was hoping for. Some rare bottles can bring thousands of dollars so could eclipse a good nugget that of course is just as rare. If you're prospecting for money you're likely to come home disappointed. This almost spherical rock will cut like the one on the right. Granite impregnated with hornblende. That is one unusual Rock there Moneybox Growing Old is Inevitable Growing Up is Optional Union Proud and Union Strong U Active Member Jim Rocher over at Bedrock Dreams had some thoughts last year on the more general question of whether it is possible to make a living at small scale prospecting or mining.
What does making a living mean to you, first of all? Does it mean you have no fixed address, no dependents, no bills to pay and simply cruise around to various claims or gold areas mining as you go and sleeping in the bed of your pick up each night?
Does it mean you eat cold beans out of cans and minimize your gas expenditures so that you're overhead is also minimized? Does it mean as an individual you can work marginal gold ground using a dry washer, sluice box, or highbanker and pull on average a gram or two a day Yep, seasons can interfere. The weather is not always gonna cooperate when you need to get the gold.
Ma Nature operates on her own terms, not based on yours or your immediate needs, financial or otherwise. You see what I'm getting at here? Sure, you might make a living at small-scale gold mining here in the Lower 48 if you go at it in a similar fashion with little or no overhead, but most of us probably you as well have dependents and families and bills and mortgages to pay. So what does making a living at gold mining mean to you?
Making two thousand, three thousand, five thousand dollars or more a month by mining worked-out areas or borderline claims with your family on pins and needles never knowing exactly HOW much you'll earn through your small-scale mining activities?
If you think you can predict the outcome here and say to yourself I can pay for health insurance for the family, make sure my kids have school clothes and the latest I-Phones, and my wife is happy with her home and new furniture then I'll say this Plain and simple. You are allowing your dreams to impact reality as it is and in the final analysis you're heading for a very rude awakening. It's nigh impossible to make a living as a small-scale gold miner here in the Lower 48 these days.
Hell, even when virgin ground was still plentiful here and new gold discoveries were waiting around the next bend small-scale mining was a tough proposition. And this was in an era where rules and regulations governing mining activities were essentially non-existent. Interestingly enough, the majority of the e-mails and comments I get regarding this topic come mostly from those with little real field experience as small-scale gold miners and even less overall knowledge.
Greenhorns and newbies, many of them. As the Good Lord is my witness, those operating from this premise are the very first to seize on the "making a living" thing and the last to let go of it. You could say they don't know any better and while that's true, the reality of the matter is that most folks don't like being told the truth.
They believe what they want to believe, no matter how unrealistic or nonsensical that idea is. Dreams die hard. There are quite a number of success stories coming from these miners, but their path to riches is covered with extreme obstacles such as corruption, theft, violence, disease, and even murder. But what about mining here in the United States? There is a world of difference between a large commercial mine and a guy with a sluice box trying to find some gold in the river. These folks have mined gold for over half of their lives, but they are still struggling to make any real money for their efforts.
Why is this the case? There are all sorts of reasons, as everybody has different backgrounds and circumstances. However, we do know there are external factors that affect the profitability of gold mining. According to experts, many large gold deposits that are already discovered have been claimed up.
This impending shortage can put the gold demand and supply off balance. Add to the fact that there are barely any new large gold mines been uncovered nowadays; we can expect even more gold scarcity and higher gold prices. This is not to say that you can still find gold.
Of course you can! But we are talking about making a living here. Most serious prospectors today would be doing great if the were able to find a pound of gold in a season. That is definitely a lot of gold and a serious haul for anyone, and just about every gold prospector I know would be thrilled to find that much gold. If you have been wondering how gold rushes of the s are different from the present day, they are mostly similar. There were no roads left, as civilization had passed that part of the world by.
It took Mr. Smith some time to locate this desolate mining area. After extensive exploring he finally found the old mining claim. He did find traces of gold, but it looked like the area had been closed for good reason.
After a few days of sampling he came upon a small stream with a waterfall. Like any good prospector, he took his shovel and dug deep then placed the dirt in his pan. The result was over an ounce of gold. Most prospectors would have cleaned out that stream and been very happy. What happened next is what makes Mr. Smith different from most of us. Like the wise old prospectors, he wanted to know where that gold came from.
About a half mile up the stream he located what he felt was the source of the gold -- a large quartz outcropping. Smith knew that the only way to know for sure if the outcropping was the source of the gold was to blast it. He had to go back to town in order to get the necessary equipment, a good three-day trip with mules. I wonder how many of us would have bothered to extend that much effort. Smith returned several weeks later and carefully drilled several holes into the outcropping.
He dropped dynamite into the holes and then blew the large quartz outcropping open. One of the large rocks was cracked in half, revealing a high gloss material like mica often seen mixed with quartz.
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