Pay to Play Nugget Shooting

[IMAUDIGGER]

Can anybody provide some references for these types of places.
I'm thinking places that offer nugget producing dozer pushes and access to panning/sluicing opportunities.
Thanks.

 

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[arizau]

I think(??) I read of a Phoenix based club that does or did that but I think it was for metal detectorists. Maybe do a google search of the clubs and their activities.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I was thinking along the lines of a place that provided lodging similiar to Airbnb and access to that type of mining.

I seem to remember some commercial mines allowing detecting after they scraped the pay gravel off. Not sure what to google.

 

[Terry Soloman]

This is exactly what I did for 10-years at Arizona Gold Adventures. It is a very expensive business to get into. The reason is liability insurance, equipment and claim costs, and keeping professional placer miners to instruct. Clubs do "pushes" every now and then when they can get the permits, but that has become very rare these days. Shoot me a PM, and I'll put you in touch with Bill Southern in Morristown, AZ.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Thanks for the info Terry.
I'm curious, what percentage of your customers were people vacationing from overseas?

I was simply looking to see how many outfits offered this type of service. Kind of wanted to check out some websites..check prices. Merely curiosity.

I met a guy once that ran a business similar to this, but his operation focused on dredging and a small trommel operation.
He also ran it like a "guide" type operation. People just showed up and he provided equipment and instruction. He said most of his customers were repeat annual customers.

 

[Terry Soloman]

About 45-percent were from Japan and Europe. 90-percent were "Bucket List," clients, and 10-percent were hardcore multi-day nuggetshooters. Most of the operations left that I know of are in Alaska.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

That's what I was thinking.

 

[BillA]

tours to downunder too

edit: used to be to the Osa here in CR also, but no more
I suspect there may be some operators in Panama, conditions are ok

 

[alaskaseeker]

The only places i knew about that i knew weren't salted were Ganes and Moore creeks I was lucky enough to have been in both places before they became pay to mine. Banged in some nice gold in both areas. I worked near Ganes at one of the LRRSs sites this was a rich area for sure. There were several places where i got to hunt, as i got to meet several of the miners areas that were mined out but i managed to find gold. This was an exciting part of my life, working at a high paying job site and able to drive to areas to detect.. To this day my detector probably is the only one that has been there.. Lol I remember one sunday i drove to an area that i wanted to hunt. I parked, grabbed my gear and walked over to where the conical shaped tailing piles started. Dragline tailings. The drone from the millions of mosquitos was too much for me lol i just got back in the truck and drove over to Ganes...