partners...

Many of the inquiries we get about claims are asking for large claims… up to eight locators are allowed on a placer location. At 20 acres per locator, a claim can take in up to 160 acres.

We have claims we’ve located with friends/partners, and we have claims we’ve used just Bob’s and my name.

Here’s what we’ve learned. A friend, just like in a workplace situation, can become either a better friend or foe very quickly when it comes to gold!

One of Bob’s earliest partners taught him much about prospecting, staking claims, etc. They had a few differences of opinion and Bob located his own claims to avoid dispute.

About then Bob and I “partnered” up and we’ve managed to keep it pretty civil J !

Throughout the years since, we’ve sworn many times to NOT take in partners, but often the necessity of a larger claim means either bringing in partners or forfeiting a chunk of really good mineral ground to someone else’s location.

Probably the most irritating aspect of sharing a claim is not your fellow locator, but the “friends” they bring with them! I don’t know how many times Bob and I have started a promising dig, returning to find it gutted by friends and friends-of-friends!

Beware… if you find gold they will jump right in there!

I have my own idea of how a dig should develop. Once we find a promising spot by test pan, I try to clear as much overburden as I can to expose gravel layers. I’ve learned very quickly not to expose any more than I’m going to work that day. One friend-of-a-friend shadowed us to a good find. Several days later they had taken out about 3-4 yards of material!

So I learned that lesson -- expose only what you are going to work that day. Pile the overburden away from anticipated direction of digging. You’d be surprised how often I’ve had to remove someone else’s overburden piled in front of pay dirt!

Mark your hole in a way which will allow you to recognize new disturbance. Strategically arranged rocks will let you know immediately if someone else has been digging there. It doesn’t hurt to slough a little overburden in on top of the rocks. It will camouflage your digging and when you clean back to the rocks you placed, you know you’re back in “the zone.” Also, if someone test pans the overburden you knocked into the digging, they’ll probably get zip and go away!

Another lesson to learn: Alert fellow claimholders from Day One -- DO NOT dig in my diggings! It will save a lot of grief!

Probably most irksome to me personally is to return to a digging and find the pay zone gutted from underneath with a shovel, six feet of overburden collapsing into the pit! You probably don’t want to be ANY WHERE near when I discover this!

Pick your partners carefully. If you operate independently, set some ground rules right up front. It’s probably most prudent to designate portions of the claim to each locator. Gold may not be magnetic, but it does magnify the worst character traits in a friend or partner!

Let’s see… we’ve lost a nice nugget when a friend tripped over the pan (accident?) and later saw that nugget displayed by the friend thinking we wouldn‘t recognize it. Must have tripped right into his boot! We’ve had digs gutted and left to cave in multiple times; had digs cut to within inches of a flowing creek which we had to reclaim to avoid diverting the creek; failure to expend labor for assessment; failure to help establish monuments and maintain paperwork… the list goes on!

Choose carefully… a friendship might not be worth it’s weight in gold!