Simple Gold Prospecting

Prospecting for gold is somewhat like playing detective work. The traces of gold that you might find in your pan are not the important issue they are only signs and indications. This means that they point out where the gold is, which might be in an exposed vein or a rich pocket in the earth. And just like with anything that needs to be investigated, it takes a lot of knowledge on the subject as well as thinking and planning as this will help to make the job a lot easier.

The basic rules of gold prospecting are easy to learn though and they consist of: The gold comes to the top in the upward thrust of the mountains. It is then washed down to the seas and since it is very heavy, it settles itself to the bottom of the wash wherever the current is not strong enough to drag it along. 

An intelligent gold prospector will be lead into action when he or she finds or picks out areas along a stream where the current slows down a bit or where it changes directions. This can be found in the inside bend of a stream for example, the upstream side of a sandbar, the banks of a stream where the water is subsiding etc. The same thing can be used and applied to dry country, in places where the river is no longer there but its outline can still be seen and still remains.

 Keep in mind that the dessert is not always dry all throughout the year. The desert does have rain and when it does rain the water pulls down the channels in an incredible downpour. When this type of rain has finished, a gold prospector can look along the dry banks as if the water were still there; this can be done by thinking about how the heavy gold could be carried along in it. you will also want to look in the middle of the former stream where most likely the bigger and heavier bits of gold were carried out into and then settled down once the water disappeared.