Desert Gold Diggers

Assuming you have selected an area free of claims, or where you have permission, you then have to narrow your focus and select a likely gold bearing spot. An area that seems small on a map can be intimidating on the ground. For instance the Desert Gold Diggers have claims ranging in size from 60 to 160 acres. This is a lot of ground and picking a spot can seem overwhelming. Below are a few tips and links to the best articles I have found.

The best method if you are on a club outing is simply to ask one of the other members. There are bound to be members who are familiar with the claim and by asking around you are almost assured of finding someone who will assist you in finding a good place to start. For an example of this see the August 2003 DGD Club Outing. Also you can watch where other members are working. This applies whether you are panning, detecting or using some other method. Since each area is different, watching others and asking questions at each outing will give you a good overview of where to look. Even the original prospectors gained much of their knowledge from the more experienced ones. Keep in mind that gold is elusive and even the more experienced prospectors come up empty handed. The main thing is to have patience, keep your eyes open and keep learning.

Now for some hints to get you started. This will be just a brief overview. For a more detailed explanation see Reading A Stream in the Online Resources section in the references below. Build on this by attending outings, watching others, asking questions and discussing methodology with other members. What we are looking for is something that changes the stream flow. Without change there is nothing to cause gold to settle. All hints depend on looking for these changes. Use your imagination and look for others.

• In a wash or stream bed, try to determine the path of the main flow or channel as this will be the main path of the gold. Anywhere this path is obstructed, changes direction, or widens will be possible locations for gold. You are looking for anywhere that the water might change direction or slow down. It is hard to look at a dry wash and imagine a torrent of water flowing in it but this is a common occurrence in the desert.
• Test under the downstream side of boulders or large rocks that would not be easily moveable during a flood. Be careful not to let one tip over on you. Eddy currents on the downstream side of boulders are good places for gold to settle.
• Natural traps in the bedrock are great places. These are hard to find as they are covered by dirt but sometimes looking at the sides of the wash will give a clue, as when the sides show banding perpendicular to the wash that erodes unevenly. This could create natural riffles in the bedrock similar to a sluice box.
• Look for crevices and pot holes where gold may be trapped. The closer to the center of the main channel the better. Be aware that not all of these will contain gold. Crevices perpendicular to the water flow are best. Potholes with smooth sides or located where water scours out the material will not be productive. It is best to look for potholes containing coarse gravels.
• If metal detecting, look for soil discoloration, specifically a reddish soil indicating mineralization. Patches of reddish soil within areas of normal looking brownish soil are good places to check.

Even though the above hints generally hold true, note the following from Gold Placers, listed in the Online Resources section in the references below. "Desert placers are so different from normal stream placers as to deserve a special classification." "The intermittent flows provide scant opportunity for effective sorting of the gravels or concentration of the gold. Under such conditions the movement and concentration of placer gold will be extremely erratic." "As a result, gold concentrations, if present at all, may be found in one or more discrete lenses or layers scattered throughout the gully sediments and the best chance of finding pay gravel is to a great extent fortuitous and largely dependent on careful prospecting." A nice example of this is given in Locating "Arizona" Gold listed in the Online Resources section below.

Once you have panned down to the gold and black sands, it is much quicker to suck up all the concentrates into a sniffer bottle and do the final separation later at your leisure. At this point you should already know if the concentrates contain gold as you should be able to see gold among the black sands. Doing the final separation in the field takes away time from finding more gold. It is also nice to have something to look forward to later.

Online Resources

• Prospecting Tips
  • Reading A Stream, which is an extract from Dredging for Gold by Matt Thornton, is an excellent guide to locating gold bearing spots.
  • AZOD's Gold Prospecting Section has a very interesting article titled Locating "Arizona" Gold by Robert Mitchell. This two part article is a good example of where gold can be found in Arizona's deserts.
  • Minin' Gold The Recreational Gold Prospecting and Mining Page by Bill Westcott is another great resource. His How to get it page has links to several articles which offer good information. Winter Methods are 3 interesting articles by Russ Ford who lives in Prescott, Arizona.
  • The New 49'ers web site contains interesting stories highlighting good tips. The Learning How to Find Gold section is a work in progress with many "coming soon" links, but does contain some interesting information. The "Prospecting & Sampling" page has a good article titled "Fight the Gold Bug with Sampling". It discusses dredging but the technique of sampling is universal. This would would be a good site to check occasionally for additional tips and stories.
  • Chris Gholson's Arizona Outback has many interesting articles such as "Tips for Nuggetshooting" and "Cleaning Natural Gold Nuggets and Specimens" found under the Research Center listings.
• General Information
  • How to Mine and Prospect for Placer Gold by J.M. West. This Bureau of Mines publication, Information Circular 8517, was released in 1971. It contains some good information and defines gold sizes in terms of mesh size. (Note typo for mesh size, should be openings per linear inch not square inch.)
  • Gold Placers (PDF file), an EPA Technical Resource Document, discusses desert placers in Section 1.3 Physical Characterization of Placer Deposits. This covers essentially the same information as found in Wells, J.H. 1973 - Placer Examination, Principles and Practice, Technical Bulletin 4, U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Part II, Types of Placers.
• USGS Publications
  • GOLD Discusses the nature of gold, its origins, and the geologic environments in which it is commonly found. Provides information about the uses of gold and a brief historical account of production in the United States.
  • PROSPECTING FOR GOLD IN THE UNITED STATES Describes various kinds of gold deposits and their locations. Offers a brief review of the problems faced by present-day prospectors and lists available maps and services.

Please send any comments and suggestions on these pages to the DGD Webmaster. I would especially like to hear about other good articles on finding gold.

Home Page

This page was last updated on 1 August 2005.