Yes- I’m officially a gold digger. Seriously though- this is a fun hobby and a way to get out in the beautiful AZ Wilderness. My boyfriend is a member of an organization that has claims in AZ. This is needed in order to legally prospect for gold. Quick disclaimer here for the environmentalists; we prospect on a very small scale and do not destroy the earth.
In many cases- mining operations in general support all of the technology that people use today. But that’s a whole different topic. There are currently some beautiful places in AZ that are in danger of shutting down due to mining and this does make me sad..
Okay- so back to Gold Prospecting. On this particular day, we used the dry washer and metal detector, as you can see in a few of the images below.
This is the dry washer- (ran by a small motor). Dirt and rocks are shoveled into the metal piece that get separated once the dirt falls through the small openings. The dirt is then inspected through another process to extract the possible gold.
This is the extent of the digging and the hole that gets formed after hours of work. The hole gets filled back up afterwards.
I do enjoy metal detecting. It’s not that difficult to learn and you get some great exercise. In a two hour time frame, we can dig up 15 targets or so. So far I have found old bullets, a mule shoe, square nails, and coins.
I did not have my Tri-pod, but I was still able to get a self-portrait with my complex camera on a Bucket set up. There’s no reason that you can’t capture any of your moments outdoors. You just have to be creative!
Well, like all my posts and articles on the outdoors, I hope this planted a seed for you! If you do want to go Gold Prospecting, look into the proper steps so you don’t get busted. 🙂
For those of you who are regular gold prospectors, would love to hear what you think of Copper Basin. I realize there is a lot more to the process- but for the intention of this post I limited the details.
Thanks for reading this post…and Have an Amazing Day!!
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