How to Sample

The first thing that needs to be done in order to sample is to gather the material that has been found. There are of course sophisticated ways such as taking a portion of the production that has been obtained every day, however in this case we are talking about amateur prospectors who are in most cases just testing and are not necessarily involved in mining.

If the material of a deposit that has been found is a little bit cemented, the prospector has the option of using the prospect hole method. The prospector can first try to use augers, spades or posthole diggers and see if this works, if it does not, then a pick and miner’s shovel can be used.

These techniques are only useful when the sample is being taken from a deposit that is somewhat close to the surface. The deepness of the hole in these types of cases can only be around twenty four to forty eight inches and this is not sufficient depth for placers that are just about the only type of deposit that the prospect type of hole is appropriate. In most cases, if the post hole method samples show any color in a good amount, it would be necessary to dig deeper to get another sample.

If there are sufficient holes that are dug in proportion to the size of the placer and spaced out enough so that they get all kinds of material in the deposit, the sample will provide a pretty good indication of the richness of the deposit to the depth that has been sampled.

In certain occasions and usually if the prospector has a back hoe, he will be able to trench an area. This way provides an even more optional sample material than the pit technique however because of the greater amount of material that is taken out the problems of contamination and making the sample smaller to a size where it can be worked on do present more of a problem.

Pits and trenches are in most cases good to see if a surface placer is worth working on. Due to the fact that this factor is what the amateur prospector is interested in knowing the search will end here and he will start his operation of recovery. If the prospector however is interested in finding out about more information about the size and the richness of the whole deposit the next thing that would need to be done is drilling.