Reno Chris

Fred was a great guy...

Fred, if you had it within you, then you would be most welcome.

Hey I went back to the spot where I got some nuggets the other day and had a pretty good afternoon - even though I didn't get there until after lunch. I decided to shoot some YouTube video, and it worked out pretty good as I was finding good gold. It was a lot of fun.

Matt -send me an email, as I cant send you a message through this board. Let's figure out a time. Sorry Bill. Maybe early September? or if not, then next year.

Hey Bill Southern and the rest of you gents roasting in the AZ heat - I have a question for you: Is it normal for you folks to have snow drifts among the trees in your prospecting areas in mid-July? Well, when they have a big snow year in the Sierra, its not that strange. This was just a little tiny drift, but there were ones a lot larger, including one blocking one of the roads I wanted to go down. This little guy was just the only one I photographed. Wait a minute - I forgot, you guys dont have trees, let alone snow among the trees. Sorry you didn't make it up this way Bill, we cou

There is no tourmaline visible in the original photo - the dark mineral is Biotite mica. Tourmaline has no perfect cleavage like mica - like the minerals in the original photo. Biotite is dark colored and may be nearly black. If you cleaved off a thin flake of it, it likely would be dark brown.

We get a lot of questions about different types of rock that might be gold ore and what this might look like. I did a video in which I show a wide variety of gold ores from around the world that vary from super rich to low grade open pit type ore. Its a long video, but there are a lot of slides of different types of gold ore. If you've ever wondered what gold ore looks like, this is the video you want to watch.

A sedimentary rock, maybe sandstone, with some layers a bit richer in iron that others.

As fine a specimen of leaverite as one could find. Looks like a good pond skipping rock. Nothing of any value.

Ooooh - square nails = old diggings.

I second the motion to read Chris Ralph's book. (since that's me). Its available on Amazon - Fists Full of Gold is the title. Perhaps the best area to detect in southern California is the El Paso Mountains area. (Goler Gulch, etc.) Yes, its a fair ways up 395 from Dana point, but people do find gold there. Another location is in the area of the Dale district. Farther out is the Chocolate Mtns / Cargo Muchacho / Potholes area, and people find gold there too. All these areas have plenty of existing claims. Join some clubs to get access. The trash and bullets are a product of people

The word is out that Jim has passed away. I last saw and spoke with Jim a bit over a year ago. He spent several hours on both Saturday and Sunday in the ICMJ booth with me at the Pomona GPAA show. He was a good man and wrote many books on prospecting as well as many articles for the ICMJ. It is sad to see him go. I know I posted this picture before, but its my last one with Jim.

I like that cover. It looks good and I wish you the best of luck with your book project.

Looks good. I request you do a capture on your laptop or desktop and post a version that is large enough for the forum members to read the sales print on the back. I tried blowing it up and everything just gets blurry.

Great stuff and you know well how to trace a lead up to its source, that's for sure.