I used to watch the Gold "reality" shows on TV so I'm vaguely familiar with the types of sluce boxes, serious dredging. Tony Beets, Parker Schnabel, et al. I like the way Tony Beets thinks. What a character! I know most of those shows are somewhat fake, but I found gold mining fun to watch.
Is there much magnetic black sand and/or iron pyrite in the concentrates in AZ?
At one point 10 or 12 years ago I was considering buying scrap gold on eBay (especially old pocket watch cases) and processing it in my shop to make small purified ingots. A great way to accumulate gold without the IRS getting involved and wanting their ~36% tax on coin or ingot sales profit. I never got around to it though.
Since we’re a copper state we have lots of mineralization so yeah, lots of black sands. Both magnetite and hematite. Copper, silver, gold, iron and iron pyrite like to hang out together. It’s good to see black sands, but doesn’t mean there’s gold there. Especially if it’s ribbons of black sand on top of the blonde sands. Where the heavy black gravels and rocks drop out is a more likely place to find gold. We had some good winter rains and snows here so hopefully it kicked up some new stuff.
Haven’t had a television in nearly twenty years so never got to see any of the gold shows. I have friends that go up to Alaska every summer and do quite well. Because of Covid and the economy we’ve sold a lot of equipment the past few years. Lots of metal detectors. Last 6-7 years before get’n this RA I detected mostly. A lot easier on the body. Lots of trash and bullets out there! You can go months without finding a a nugget detecting, where if you’re dry washing or running a sluice you generally get a fair bit of gold every outing. Over the course of a year it might equal out if you get into a nugget patch detecting. It’s a fun healthy hobby and you never know, you could strike it big. I never hit it big much less even paid for my equipment and gas, but I’ve damn sure enjoyed being out in the desert.
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