7 Tips on Prospecting for Gold With a Metal Detector

My most pleasant and relaxing pastime is to roam through the Victorian Iron Bark Forests, just as the sun rises, swinging a Metal Detector. At that time of the day the wallabies are just a couple of metres away, standing and watching you as you move so slowly and quietly along.
Ah, beautiful! Then 'buzzzip' in your headphone wakes you. Now I've got to dig this target up, but later.
The First thing you are going to need is a Metal Detector

1. Minelab Detectors are the best to use in Australian Goldfields. Heavy with Iron Stone, the ground reacts noisily with other brands, but Minelabs have the ability to tune the effect out. Detectors can be hired (with tools) from businesses in towns close to the old Goldfields, or if you buy one, you'll pay $4000 or so for a used one. You'd find that the business would give you coaching even if you hired one for a few days, and that way you would have access to the very latest model.
2. These detectors need to be moving over a metal target to generate a signal, and the sound that you hear can give you a fairly good indication as to the type of metal target. Lead bullets are very common, and do give a warmer signal (buzzzzim) than Brass (buzzzzitt), while Gold gives a very mellow (buzzzoom), which once heard, you'll never forget.
3. Where do you go? This is the most asked question, and the answer that I always give, is to start out at one of the old Goldfields. If you're camping or caravanning you can camp close to the old workings, and then you could pick a Goldfield a bit further from town.
4. You do need a hand held GPS unit and some maps for your search area and these would be available from the same place you got your detector. Where the visibility is limited by bush, always take a GPS reading where you've parked your vehicle, turn the GPS off to save the battery, and away you go to find your first Nugget.
5. Where do you start searching? Don't waste time going over the old diggings, but search for a few metres around the perimeter, especially in any low lying spots, or a small gutter running into the area. My biggest Nugget of over 2 Troy Ounces was found in just such a place, that had been really flogged by Metal Detectors.
6. While you are doing this search, you also keep an eye on the surrounding country, noting Gullys that come in, Ridges, Slopes that are fairly gentle, spotting any Quartz Blows, so that when you get back to camp and are slurping down a Cold One, you can check your maps, and just try to work out where the Gold in the old workings came from, then tomorrow you follow that trail back to what you reckon was the original source.
7. Now we're going to dig that target up. Get a general idea where the signal is loudest, then sweep the detector coil across that spot in parallel tracks noting the loudest track. Mark that line with your pick, then stand at one end of that line, and do the parallel sweeps again. Where the two loudest sweeps cross is where your target will be. Start a hole about 12 inches across, digging from the outside, you don't want to put your pick through the Nugget. If you get down to 8 or 9 inches and the target is still in the hole, there is a good chance it's Gold.

Don't worry about being a Newbie, I know one who hired a detector from Coiltek in Maryborough, Victoria, in the morning, went out with it, had trouble, took it back to Coiltek for another lesson, went back to his Goldfield and found a 4.5 ouncer.
The thrill you get when you've dug up even a 1 gram piece of Gold is fantastic, and your first thought is to rush back to show it off, but Steady On, there could be another lurking close by, and quite often there is.

Bob Rumball retired from a lifetime of business management during which he owned and managed a Honda Motor Cycle dealership, earning a trip to Japan as one of the leading Honda dealers in Australia. He also managed a Builders Supplies and Hardware business, and a Crop Irrigation Design and Installation service. On Retirement he sold up, got a 28 foot caravan, 4WD, Minelab Metal Detector, and headed for the Australian Goldfields in 5 states. After 7 or 8 years of fairly successful Gold Prospecting, he returned to Queensland, and now spends most of his time writing.

Australian Outack photo-cards, e-books, bush poetry, and gold maps are available at [http://www.aussie-outback-e-books.com/]
He is presently developing a new website at [http://www.earning-money-at-home.com/]

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Gold Prospecting Equipment - Should You Build Or Buy?

Last summer, for the very first time, a friend and I developed a passion for gold prospecting. But it wasn't just the finding of the gold that we loved, it was more the understanding of the methods used in finding it, of the engineering of how pans and sluice boxes work. We chose to build our own equipment (for the most part), veering away from the spendy stuff found online. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure that stuff works great. But we wanted the excitement of doing it all ourselves. So how did we build our own gold prospecting equipment? It was simple.

The two most common pieces of equipment in gold prospecting are the gold pan, and the sluice box. Your average gold pan is very cheap, usually about $10. Black plastic is what I prefer. The gold shows up perfectly against the black. Sluice boxes, on the other hand, can get a bit pricey. Building a sluice is actually a lot simpler than it sounds. Using pieces of plastic cut into simple geometric shapes (squares and rectangles) we build a very lightweight sluice box from plastic simply by gluing the pieces together with plastic cement and waiting 24 hours.

 For plans on building your own sluice box, one simply has to type in "sluice box plans" into google and they'll find dozens of step by step instructions on how to build their very own gold catching contraption. A sluice box has a very simple design. It's just a box, after all. Who can't build a box? A lot of outfitters will try and sell you on lightweight, expensive aluminum, wanting top dollar for a simple sluice box. I say why pay the money when you can easily build a sluice with common materials.

But back to the sluice box for a moment. Lightweight plastic is easy to work with. As long as one doesn't buy sheets more than a quarter inch thick, it can be reasonably cut with an exacto blade. Add to that the cost of a bottle of plastic cement and you'll have your very own sluice box in a matter of a few hours and whatever other pieces of gold prospecting equipment you'll need.

The only thing left to do is find a river that has a reasonable amount of gold still hiding away. In California, that's pretty easy to do. Gold infested rivers are scattered all throughout southern and northern California. Different places have different levels of gold, but I'm assuming that those reading this already have a spot picked out.

I hope you liked this article about making your own gold prospecting equipment. If you want to read more, check out my profile on Hubpages

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Sales Prospecting in the Messaging Age

"Prospecting" is a term that has been used by Sales People (more often by Sales Managers) for innumerable years to refer to the process of acquiring new clients. As a word, it has an almost romantic, "old world" flavour that conjures up images of pioneering adventurers hiking into the gold fields "panning" for gold, sifting or digging through tonnes of dirt and rubble to find, after a lot of sweat and toil, nuggets of opportunity.

These days, if you're actually prospecting for gold you no longer use gold pans, pickaxes, shovels or mules.

The world has changed markedly and fundamentally over the last three decades and the pace of change has accelerated over the last few years. At the heart of that change has been the increased pervasiveness of technology in our personal and business lives, capped off by the growing impact of the internet. This has led to a spectacular rise in the quantity of "messages" that we are subjected to.

We have more "messaging" directed at us now than we can consume. I use the word "messaging" rather than "information". "Information" has a neutral tone to it, as though the data presented is that, just data. But, what we get from the internet and other sources of "information", irrespective of how it is packaged, is not neutral: it is designed to influence.

I read an interesting article in my local newspaper a few weeks ago. The author compared the number of employed journalists to the number of employed Public Relations consultants over the last half-century. According to the article, in the 1950's that ratio was roughly 1 journalist to 1 PR person. Today that ratio is roughly 1 journalist to 4 PR people (according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics the ratio is projected to increase to 1 journalist to 5 PR people by 2018). Get the message?

We have moved beyond the Information Age and into the Messaging Age.

As private and business consumers (someone's potential prospects), we have taken steps to adapt to the new age. We, a) know that everything is a message, b) have developed very personalised "message filters" to only notice things that actually are of interest to us and c) have heightened our defences to messages that aren't of interest to us right now. We've done this to protect our ability to stay focussed on the task at hand (and to retain our sanity).

So how do you prospect effectively in this new environment?

1. Realise that your Prospect will only hear your message when they want to hear it.
You can't control when your prospect wants to hear your message. What you can do is maximise the chance that, when they want to hear it, your message is available to them. Here's how you do it.

2. Understand and target your niche
In the Messaging Age everyone is a niche player. That doesn't mean that they are a "small" player. It is far easier to differentiate and message to a niche and much more likely that your message will be heard. Understanding your customer has become more important than ever. Not just to ensure that your products or services are of value to your potential market but simply to earn the opportunity to be heard.

3. Sharpen your new prospecting tools
Your new tools are web and technology based. In the Messaging Age, these are your tools of choice. Whether you like it or not every business now has a shopfront in the world's biggest mall. It's a lot cheaper than a physical shop but you still need to be found, people need to walk into your store, they need to enjoy the experience enough to stay for a while and they need to find help if they want it. They also need to have the opportunity to opt into a way of remembering you once they've left.

4. Check that your old tools are still sharp
Like the pick-axes and gold pans of old, sales prospecting tools that you used to rely on (cold calling, direct mail, face-to-face word-of-mouth) may be past their use by date. Are they still effective for you? Have you given up on them when they could still be effective? Are you using them in the right way for your circumstances?

5. Address both existing customers and new prospects, but separately
One thing that hasn't changed is that it's still much harder to get a new customer than to retain an existing one. Existing customers are much more likely to listen to your message (cross-sell or up-sell) than prospects and they are more likely to want to hear it in a more personalised way. For example, newsletters are a good way of keeping your message in front of prospects who have an interest in your offering but are not ready to listen right now. The occasional, personal "cold call" is usually more effective for existing customers.

6. Build a Client Acquisition System
Above all, whether you're a multinational or a sole trader, you need to look at your client acquisition endeavours as an integrated system that addresses your company's unique situation and the behaviours of your niche. Not all tools will be as effective for all businesses and using some tools in the wrong way can even work against you.

In the Messaging Age the Prospect decides when to listen. Effective Sales Prospecting needs to be more analytical, sophisticated and systematic than ever before to deliver sustained results.

Antun Scurla is an independent Sales and Management Consultant ( http://www.analyticalselling.com/ ) who helps Clients get the best out of their Opportunities, Sales Processes and Prospecting efforts.

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The Benefits of Renting Gold Metal Detectors

It's easy to become addicted to gold after you've tried panning or sluicing as methods to find it. Once you realize that you're hooked, it's best to come up with more practical ways of gold detection.

It is important to realize before purchasing your own gold metal detector that all of these devices are not intended for gold hunting. The reality is that the majority of metal detection devices are ineffectual in gold prone areas due to they fact they can't function well amidst the high levels of mineralization typically found in these areas. Their readings will be inaccurate and will be a source of great frustration for you.

Metal detectors that are specially designed for gold hunting can deal more effectively with mineralization which allows them to detect the most minute amounts of gold once you learn how to use them properly. You'll need lots of experience and persistence to master these metal detectors but once you do, your gold hunting experience will be greatly enhanced as a result.

Because the purchase of a gold metal detector is costly, it may not be feasible for an individual to buy one of these devices if they only go gold prospecting a couple of times yearly.

When prospecting for gold by using panning techniques, you'll more than likely find at least some gold flakes as a result of your efforts. Using a metal detector for gold prospecting necessitates much more endurance. You should prepare yourself for the reality that it may require a few prospecting trips before you locate a gold nugget for the first time. For those individuals willing to put in the time, the rewards will be well worth it.

It is regrettable that many gold seekers abandon metal detecting prematurely and so never find that desired gold nugget. They decide instead to yield to their feelings of frustration and give up their hobby. In too many cases, they resort to selling their brand new top dollar metal detector for much less than they paid for it.

Because of this, I strongly recommend that you either rent a metal detector or borrow one. There are some stores who will also give you the option of a guided tour in conjunction with a rental of a metal detector. This is beneficial for a variety of reasons. The primary reason is that these individuals are familiar with the area and know the most ideal spots where you'll be more likely to locate a gold nugget. The second reason is that a gold detector is not a simple device to operate and these expects will be there to give you some much needed instruction.

The third factor is that metal detection is a much more involved process than simply pressing the on button. Having a professional at your side will help you recognize and locate the signs indicating the presence of gold. The fourth reason is that renting a metal detector will allow you to get some experience with the hobby and with the brand of metal detector you've selected without having to pay from $700 to $5000 before you are definitely sure that this is the hobby and device for you.

If there are no metal detector rentals in your area or if you are intent on buying your own, I strongly suggest that you look into the purchase of a secondhand unit to make sure you like it.

Bill McNeil has been metal detecting almost his entire life (which is a long time!). He is the author of Metal Detectors Online. The site is full of metal detecting tips and reviews on the most popular models. Check it out today!

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Prospecting For Gold - Join The Gold Rush Of 2012

Prospecting for gold - there has never been a better time for this, as gold prices soar and people out of work are ready to try something new.

Even after you grab your gold panning equipment and head for the hills or stream, you have to remember one thing. While gold is relatively easy to find, provided you go to the places where gold has been found before, getting a real quantity of gold is the real challenge.

The yellow stuff is pretty widely dispersed in the US and Canada, and many people live within driving distance of the gold fields. There are prospecting clubs to join, which often have mining claims of their own for the enjoyment of members. Club dues can be quite cheap.

And some states have set aside areas on gold bearing streams where recreational prospecting can be enjoyed with no entry fees to pay. National Forest lands and lands managed by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are usually open to prospecting and in some cases filing mining claims.
It's a great idea, especially if you are quite new to prospecting for gold, to hook up with a friend or relative who has some experience and success under his belt. This can greatly shorten your learning curve and get you into the good stuff much quicker.

Expect to work hard. If you have some weight you would like to lose, I can't think of a more fun way to do it. You will be moving rocks, shoveling gravel, panning for gold hunched over the water, walking miles sometimes checking out potential hot spots.

But when you start to see those flakes and little chunks showing up in your gold pan or sluice box or rocker box, the thrill is worth all the hard work. So you hunker down and work all the harder.
You will need some basic gold mining supplies. A good place to start is to take a look online for gold panning kits. These usually have things like a basic durable plastic or steel pan, a instructional guide to gold hunting, a snuffer bottle for sucking up the pretty stuff in your pan, and a little vial to hold your flakes.

A word about gold pans. The old timers only had steel pans. Modern miners like the tough plaster pans, in green or blue (for ease of seeing the gold) with built in gold catching riffles.
My first pan was a Garrett Gravity Trap Pan, which has a perfect green color, and while I own several good pans, the Garrett is still my favorite.

Most prospectors have their personal favorites. And that goes also for other basic gold prospecting equipment like sluices, rocker boxes, high bankers and so on.
So just get out there and do it. You may not get rich, but you will have a ball. Take your kids - they will get a kick out of it also. Good for all ages.

Chas is a gold prospector with many years of experience. To learn how to find gold, and about basic gold panning supplies you will need, watch the videos and enjoy the adventure.

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Gold Panning Tips

Gold Panning Made Easy
Gold panning is a great outdoor sport. It has some nice things going for it.

- it gets you outside in the fresh air and sunshine
- it gives you great exercise
- it teaches you things about how nature and gravity work
- it gives you the thrill of a treasure hunt
- basic gold panning supplies are inexpensive
- you might actually get some nice gold!

Panning for gold is an activity I was introduced to almost 30 years ago. I live in Oregon, where gold streams are abundant and pretty easy to get to. I went with my cousin, and the first time I saw those golden flakes in the bottom of my pan, I was hooked.

So I went out and got some basic gold panning supplies, like a Gravity Trap gold pan and a snuffer bottle. I already had five gallon buckets and a GI folding shovel.
As time went on, I got more stuff and even built some equipment, like gold screens, a wooden sluice box and four rocker boxes. All part of the fun.

But the key thing I want to emphasize is the importance of really getting your panning skills perfected. If you become a good gold panner, then you will greatly increase the amount of gold you get from the sand and gravel. So practice is essential.

Gold panning relies on two critical things. One is that gold is heavy. The second thing is, you are using gravity to separate out the gold from the sand and gravel debris in your pan.
You dump a scoop or shovel full of what you hope is gold bearing material into your pan, then submerge the pan in the water. Use your hand to break up any clay or clods in the water and agitate the material with your hand to get the heavies to begin to settle to the bottom of the pan.
So your first goal is to saturate the material and get the gold sinking to the bottom of the pan, where it belongs.

Now you rotate the pan while submerged to get the material moving in a circular motion. Stop periodically to pick out and toss the large rocks. Eventually, you will end up with just sand and smaller stuff.

As you rotate the pan, you can tilt it forward occasionally and let debris wash over the lip of the pan, then tilt the pan the other way to settle things back again. Keep repeating this process until you have greatly reduced what is left in your pan. You will finally end up with heavy black sand, and your GOLD.

The popular plastic gold pans have riffles built in, to catch the gold as material passes over the lip back into the water. So be sure you always run your material over the riffles as it exits the pan.
You will probably find some lead fishing weights or buckshot in your pan sometimes. Removing the lead from the stream is a good environmental thing to do.
May the bottom of your pan turn to gold!

Get yourself started off right with more good information and tips on how to find and pan for gold, check out my gold panning website at http://goldpanningsupplies.net
To read more about my gold panning adventures in Oregon, check out http://hubpages.com/hub/gold-panning-in-Oregon

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Top 3 Reasons to Buy Gold, Pure Gold Bars, Gold Nuggets, Gold Bullion, Gold Ingots

Gold. The very name of gold excites people just like you.
Did you know though, that everyday individuals, just like you and me can buy pure gold bars, gold nuggets, even gold bullion, gold ingots, 999.9 gold and 1oz gold bars very quickly and easily over the internet and online from highly reputable and totally trustworthy sources?

Would it surprise you even more if I told you that some of the best deals that you can get online for buying pure gold bars, can be found on your old favorite marketplace of all time in our modern age - Ebay? Astonishing isn't it?

The answer though is Yes You Can!

Someone, just like you can buy pure gold bars and find them for sale, right now on eBay. And with eBay's Positive Feedback Trader Rating system, there really is no reason for you to be afraid of buying from upon this marketplace.
Invest in gold for your own future and the future of your family today! Here we provide you with the:

 Top 3 Reasons To Buy Gold ... pure gold bars, gold nuggets, gold bullion and gold ingots for investment purposes or just for the joy of owning this most valuable commodity known to man.
Gold is an independent asset, it moves quite independently from the economic cycle. It's really not too hard to understand this since one must consider the sheer diversity of it's supply and demand base, this is afterall, the penultimate determining factor of price movements in the market place.

Commodities tend to typically fall during economic recessions, since the raw materials used in the production of non essential goods and services declines. However, the demand for gold, in comparison to other commodities is actually quite small. In 2007 just 14% of gold demand came from the industrial sector which was mostly, electronics. This is in great contrast to base metals and even other precious metals where the greater demand comes from industry.

 The upside of this is that gold is not so susceptible to the vagaries of the general economic market conditions. With that being said however, the demand for gold in electronics is likely to fall if the overall economy does in fact fall into a full blown recession. as consumer spending on electronics naturally falls with it.

Recession in the US would without a doubt have some negative implications for the gold jewelry demand in North America, as consumer spending slowed down. All is not lost however, far from it as regards gold investing is concerned since this would at least be offset by the increased share of gold jwelery within the rail sector. Added to this point, gold is actually much less vulnerable than other jewelry materials, such as diamonds or platinum to a US recession as far greater demand for gold comes from outside of North America - 70% of diamond jewelery demand comes from the US, compare this with just 10% for gold.

The final source of demand that comes from investors themselves, people like you and me. Investors buy gold for a huge number of reasons. One of the chief reasons amongst these are gold's inflation and dollar hedging properties, both of which factors have been proven for a very long period of time. How a recession affects investment demand would depend, in part, on how inflation and the dollar react.

The upcoming and brewing recession has so far been rather positive for gold on both fronts. The dollar has continued it's downward slide, while inflation has unusually enough, headed higher. U.S. consumer prices increased at an annual rate of 4% in February this year, up from 2.4% just a year earlier. If trends continue as they are, investment demand for gold as an inflation and dollar hedge is very likely to remain strong. And if the recession does deepen it's affects amid concern over the health of the U.S. backing sector, the demand for gold as a safe haven asset is also likely to remain most robust.

What does this mean for you? Gold is right now, one of the most solid investments that you could consider making, is the message in a nutshell.
If we look at the supply side, there are three main sources, 1/ Mine production. 2/ Official sector sales and 3/ Scrap or recycled gold. Mine production by far is the biggest element from these three. This accounts for a full 70% of total supply in the last year. This upward trend in mine supply of gold production that was by way of example underway in the 1980's was not stopped by the 1990 recession. The U.S. economy suffered an outright contraction, while world GDP growth slowed to 1.6% from 2.9% the previous year. Nor was the downtrend in mining output that began in 2001 reversed by the sharp acceleration in world growth that followed.

Mine production of gold is influenced by very specific factors, for example the level of exploration spending, the success or otherwise in the discovery of new gold deposits and the actual cost of extraction and processing, which actually means that some new deposits are not worth their weight in gold, extracting from source. The lead times in gold mining are often fairly extracted and prolonged affairs, it can take years to re-open a formerly dis-used closed mine, let alone further expenses incurred from finding and mining new gold reserves.

Another factor is the Central Bank themselves and their strategic decisions to buy or to sell gold, decisions which tend not to be reactive to the economic cycle. These decisions by this body are usually made several years in advance and are then carried out over a timespan of years according to their own plans, for strategic purposes. In the country of Switzerland for example, the proposition to sell gold, or the first gold sales program, was first recommended by a group of experts in 1997.

However, the actual sales program did not even begin to commence proceedings until the May of 2000, with the sales then taking place over a period of 5 years, such was the confidence in this commodity to deliver it's long term gains and profits for them. If this is good enough decision making on a strategic basis for them, this tells you that the long term investment for gold bodes well for you also.
Gold scrap supply is influenced by many factors, the most important of these perhaps being price and price volatility, however recessions and periods of economic distress have also had an impact. To demonstrate, one of the most dramatic examples was when Korea was pushed into recession during the 1998 Asian currency crisis, it's scrap supply increased by almost 200 tonnes as the government then bought gold from the local populace in exchange for won denominated bonds. It then went on to sell the gold upon the international market in order to raise enough dollars currency to avoid defaulting on it's external debt.

In summary, a U.S. recession does not have any negative implications for the gold price thanks to the unique drivers of gold demand and supply. The only element of gold demand that could be affected by a recession is investment demand, but that in turn will also depend to a large part on the actual 'type' of recession. So far, the brewing recession has been positive for gold investment purposes as it has been accompanied by a rise in inflation and a falling dollar, which has boosted the demand for gold as a dollar and inflation hedge.

Mark P Andrews is the co-owner of GoldsGold.com http://www.GoldsGold.com - A great resource online for buying gold, pure gold bars, gold nuggets, gold bullion, gold ingots, 999.9 gold, gold by the gram or gold by the ounce, gold claims, gold mine shares, gold prospecting equipment, gold nuggets, gold prospecting equipment, gold sluices, gold dredgers, gold drywashers, gold pumps, gold metal detectors - in fact, if it's related to gold, we very highly likely have it available on our web site - check out the link right now for further details! http://GoldsGold.com

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