Robey, now 9 years old, is our oldest
grandson and a more experienced  prospector
than most adults we meet! Quartz and calcite
crystals are his specialty. 

Now let's take a look at amateur prospectors as referred to in "Anatomy of a Mine" General Technical Report INT-GTR-35 by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service.  

"Amateur Prospectors -- In recent years, as full-time professional prospectors have almost disappeared from the scene, amateur prospectors have become far more numerous. To many outside of the mining business it is difficult to distinguish between the two.”

The Black Hills gold rush brought thousands of amateur prospectors looking to find nuggets for the pickin’.  Early newspaper articles repeated time and again that rather than follow to the newest “rush,” prospectors might be well advised to stick it out on a paying claim. 

We see this same principle in modern-day prospecting… the historically popular placer creeks are rushed, swarming with would-be prospectors.  Now we don’t blame anyone for prospecting where there is proven placer, but just the sheer number of prospectors should point to the fact that “easy” gold might be found at less known drainages. The popular placer creeks are, however, a good place to study how and where gold might be found.  The flip side of this would be that we’ve seen the same prospect hole dug and re-dug and there still is no show of gold!

What indicates to us the difference between what we call a “greenhorn” and a professional would be, first, observation.  How do we know when we go to our claim and see diggings whether it is a casual panner, a greenhorn with a new metal detector, or a serious prospector looking for good pay dirt?

Every gold panning guide gives virtually the same advice… inside bend of creek, ripple areas, black sands behind large boulders… you know the drill.

A good example would be our Boulder Creek claim.  Every time we go to that claim we see evidence of claim jumping.  It is usually indicative of the amateur prospector following a panning guide book… scratching behind large boulders, inside bend of creek, ripple areas.  That’s our first clue that someone is a greenhorn, both in exploration and ignorance of mineral trespass!

The indication that someone is a little more knowledgeable shows up when they have created a hole (disturbance) within the creek boundary.  At least they’ve figured out you have to scratch more than the surface to find pay dirt! 

The unfortunate fact is, however, it takes time and hard work to establish a good hole.  If you are guilty of mineral trespass, the more time and effort you exert the more obvious it becomes!  You might be lucky enough to go unobserved for a limited time, but every tick of the clock, every shovel of dirt brings you closer to being found out! 

To some there is a sense of adventure in mineral trespass… but we not only respect a claimholders’ rights, we don’t like watching over our shoulder all the time!

Our claim on Boulder is a true test of amateur vs. professional miner; each spring brings a flood of some magnitude.  The creek swells with the spring thaw.  The spring flood usually washes out the crossing to some extent.  The crossing has sometimes washed to a point where there are 6-foot cut banks.  We actually watched a pickup try to navigate during flooding; it floated downstream!

That may be one of several floods each season.  The point we’re trying to make is that this seasonal flooding re-distributes huge boulders as well as in-creek gravel bars, trees, etc. It may expose bedrock that was previously buried under feet of overburden, or it may bury bedrock that was previously exposed! A really good flood can re-route the water channel!  A greenhorn would find this to be like putting together a puzzle missing key pieces!

Bob loves this natural phenomena… observing currents and small eddies to determine how the creek deposits gold.

This is called, in general, reading the creek.  It’s most awe inspiring during flooding, but can be done with physical observation of any drainage. 

To us, this would be one way to distinguish an amateur from a professional… can they “read’ the creek?

"The publicity, sometimes highly distorted, given to rushes..., the convenience of modern off-road vehicles, and the increasing amount of leisure time available to so many, have combined to produce tens of thousands of amateur prospectors.  Some of these individuals make great efforts to equip and train themselves, and they are capable of finding prospects worthy of exploration and development.”

The above statement strikes a chord, but there is so much it doesn’t say! The phrase “equip and train” is often left trailing at the word “equip.”  A fancy 4-wheeler gets you there; a bunch of expensive equipment looks good; but if you can’t pan and set up a sluice box, what good is any of it?

Our first judgment of a gold panner would be the pan itself!  It doesn’t matter what brand or what material it is made of… a shiny new pan screams greenhorn! 

We have maybe 10 gold pans.  Teresa usually uses the little cheap black pans for test panning… I think we have about 4 of those.  You can screen the material (if it is dry enough) to get a larger sample or rough pan which is what we call panning everything.  Why the cheapo pan?  A test pan is just that… the cheap ones are small and extremely portable and you’re not panning to recover a quantity of gold, just see what’s there.  The material in the pan when it is washed is as much an indicator as the gold you do or do not find!  Is there black sand, is there evidence of quartz… gold is a bonus in a test pan! The other pans we use for various reasons… the one quality they share is a well-worn appearance! If you can’t pan, don’t make any further investment. Everything you do, short of a commercial operation, ends with panning.  We probably have a couple hundred dollars invested in equipment over a period of 25 years, none of it is shiny or new and we recover gold just about every time we prospect!

So our second judgment would be based on whether the test pan can be interpreted to be a good prospect?  Teresa is a knowledgeable panner, but usually shows test pan results to Bob for interpretation.  He is a better judge of what the test pan might mean.

“However, the majority of the amateurs are poorly motivated and so lacking in the most rudimentary knowledge that they create difficulties for those seriously engaged in prospecting and exploration.”

That’s a pretty fair summary of a lot of grievances… but most of our statements so far dwell on what we consider a professional placer prospector.  There’s so much more, but we need to address lode prospecting as well.

First of all, a good grasp of geology is necessary.  That’s to Bob’s benefit; he was mentored by about 15 degreed geologists in his mining experience… they appreciated his grasp of the subject and compensated with shared knowledge.  It became office amusement to test new geologists against Bob! He has also read extensively on the subject.

The Black Hills have a unique geology, such as does every geologic occurrence.  Several of those degreed mentors specialized in gold occurrences of the Black Hills and made an effort to share that knowledge. 

Knowledge of gold occurrences in the Black Hills is a specialty that few appreciate.  There’s a reason you see geology teams from various colleges in the Black Hills… it’s a geology education in itself!

"The amateur's common lack of consideration for the rights of land owners, his abuse of laws and regulations, and his ill-conceived bulldozing of the surface have become so offensive that there is mounting pressure for drastic restrictions on all prospecting and exploration activities.”

Offensive to us, as evidenced by past blogs on mineral trespass, claim etiquette and mine safety. On the other hand, it is also offensive some of the  dramatic measures taken to prevent prospecting!  This brings us to the final excerpt of the statement…

  “A great deal of wisdom and fine judgment will be required in finding ways to regulate the recreationist-prospector while not unduly restricting serious prospectors and geologists upon whom the Nation depends for future mineral discoveries."

We don’t know if there’s another “Homestake” out there, but current politics does not encourage large gold companies to explore the Black Hills.  We think the Hills are a wonderful prospect for professional prospectors of small operations… that is why we are in the permitting process for a placer operation and have staked several lode claims with the intent to permit them also!