Why do you prospect for gold?

[Tahoegold]

The reason why I prospect is to get rich! Ha! The excuse I use is it gets me out of the house and keeps me in shape. Prospecting is hard work and lots of moving around, hiking, digging, adventure, with the possibility of rewards! I met one guy that has sold more gold than I could ever know, but made more on the gravel he supplied from his land. After seeing that, I thought, how can I retire on finding a nice pile of Gold? It would have to be pounds. I've heard of quarts having gold and sliced into pieces going for hundreds of thousands. That was discovered on an existing claim using a professional geologist to map the vein. Still, the guy that owned the claim had so much money already that it was a fraction of his worth. So, what was the allure? Fun, personal conquest? The average prospector is getting a gram if they are lucky in an outing I think, of course, no one in their right mind would admit to more if they really found a pile.
I also know of a guy that found 10 lbs and someone came in and dug his unclaimed spot 10ft across and 15 ft deep. He had gone only 5ft. It was all gone. He never found out how someone discovered his site.
Prospecting is dangerous and attracts the larcenous qualities in people.
In the turn of the century, 1900s, there was a certain kind of miner that only liked gold hard rock mining. In WWII, America hijacked these miners for nickle and other metals for the war effort. It didn't work out well, the miners weren't motivated.
So, those who have claims, mines etc, why do you do it? Is it your way of making a living? If so, is it fun?
What motivates you to do this? How do you prospect? What is your goal?

 

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[dave wiseman]

i did the placer for four years or so and then hard rock for over thirty years.At the end of the game no matter what you found or didn't or how much...it's all about the search..the looking..the discovery..finding gold and mostly finding yourself.

 

[Tahoegold]

i did the placer for four years or so and then hard rock for over thirty years.At the end of the game no matter what you found or didn't or how much...it's all about the search..the looking..the discovery..finding gold and mostly finding yourself.

Thanks Dave,
I think that is what I am finding. I'm finding a small amount, but, it's the skill and the search and the knowledge need that I find so enjoyable. Putting my knowledge to the quest ...to find gold. In a smaller way I hope to strike it rich. In a grander way, I know I never will if I don't teach myself the skills to obtain it.

 

[63bkpkr]

The Adventure "of it all" in Primitive Country that I love. It's not work, in one respect, it's all about the experience/adventure and lasting feeling/memories it leaves inside of me..........63bkpkr

Oh, and the Gold is Cool!

 

[Tahoegold]

63bkpkr,
I've read some of your posts. I can see you've put yourself in some remote areas.
Prospecting does something to certain folks that just drive them on. I don't think people that don't have the desire can see that it is the chase. Dave nailed it. This chase has some rewards, it's called GOLD!
I personally don't know the scale of the kind of chase Dave had. Hey Dave, I can see how Gold could finance expanding the scale of operations quickly. What a rush that must be! I'm small scale and a back packer like 63bkpkr. It's adventure and the skill, and the shiney! I wouldn't mind having to make a decision to go big if I had too! I'm not going overboard just being very honest... It's a personal challenge to find it, it's a natural element that is tricky to collect and even harder to keep. It's all about discipline, perseverance and determination. And, lots of enthusiasm!! My hat's off to you Dave, I hope in the end you also kept enough for yourself and your family!
63bkpkr, I think you said you're in So Cal now. I hope you find spmewhere nearby you can get some gold!

 

[Tahoegold]

I can kind of imagine making a discovery. Deciding to get equipment to make the best of the effort. I had a pan first, got better at panning and bought a few size sluices on craigslist and fitted them with some Hog Mats. I found more gold and got better at it and bought a few more tools to help with the process. I am at a plateau, I have enough gear to do my prospecting and some gear to do some hard work when I find a little streak. But, I haven't recouped my expenses yet. I figure, either I will in the long run, or I'll find a good pocket and recoupe it right then and there. That could happen on a bigger scale. I can see it would take careful planning!
I like to think I'll recoupe sooner! However, I will have the gear to keep searching and finding and that's ok too! I have a couple of days I'm going to scoot out to do some sluicing this week. Then I'll rest up for a few days and run the cons. When I have the finnished product in a tiny bottle, I'm ready to do it again! My wife looked at the clean gold in my bottle and asked me how I got that into the bottle? It's something we do isn't it. Dig lots of dirt and put a little gold in a container. (Ok, some guys, a big container!) I'm not getting tired of doing it. I'm working hard in my "gym"!! And feel stronger and I'm pretty happy as I'm also getting outside with a purpose. I'm not just walking arround looking at the scenery, or sitting around drinking beer. I'm on a mission go get GOLD!

 

[OreCart]

For me it is all about the hunt.

I love history, so geology, old maps and mines play into that.

I suspected gold was here on this farm, and upon finding it after 3 years, was rewarding. Now it is about mapping where it is, and to some extent concentrations.

Ideally I would like to find the trifecta of prospecting; lode, placer and eluvial deposits. I have found Lode and Placer, so soon the hunt will be for an eluvial deposit. I still have more streams to check, and obviously, more quartz veins to assay to get an idea how big of an area this new gold district is.

I am secretive about it though because of the reasons cited. People get gold fever and get absolutely stupid about it. I have enough problems with hunters destroying fences, knocking down gates, rutting up fields and getting into physical alterations, I cannot imagine what would happen if they found out there was gold here.

I do not really think I have gold-fever. If I did I would be out all the time gathering it up. I am retired so I have the time, and I own the land, and I am not doing that, so I do not think I have that issue. I do try and get out, but mostly because I am a doer, and figure instead of talking about it, I should get out and do something about it.

After I determine how much gold is here, I might mine it. I am designing a processing method now, but it will be at a micro-mine scale. I think that hold promise because with no one wanting a major mine in their backyard, I think micro-mining has a future. It is kind of like how in the 1990's farming was big agriculture, but now with "Buy Local", and "Know your Farmer", micro-farms can make a profit.

Sometimes a person needs a chainsaw, and sometimes a person needs a scalpel; just like farming, I see the future of mining as having both large scale mining, and micro-mining. There are differences between farming and mining of course, but by marrying old technology with new, I think the overall cost of mining can come down to where a micro-miner can make a living.

 

[AU79 Prospector]

For me its like a modern day treasure hunt =) I feel like I get to live a childhood dream every time I get out...

Also, every time I see gold in a pan, its just 'feels' really good... I'm not a gambler but I suspect this is what they must experience that makes it so addicting!

~ AJ

 

[Capt Nemo]

Plain and simple...It's money!

 

[Tahoegold]

Plain and simple...It's money!

Aye! It is money! I like that there is no amount of gold that has no value!!

 

[Tahoegold]

My buddy has 3 small boys, 8, 10 & 12 that now ask to go "hunt for gold!" I got them out with their father once and for them, it2s about playing in the river and meeting other people and having a fun time. While we were prospecting and sampling, I told them, gold is real money. And, that any gold has a value. The 10 yr old had a reckoning. He said, " So, all you have to do is dig and you can make money?" Bingo, I told my buddy, "Hey, your son just learned that the harder he works the more money he can make!" What a great life lesson for just having fun "hunting for gold". The 8 year old actually hit the pay streak with the little 5"x16" sluice with motherload mat and small rib mat for visual inspection. He had flour shiney all over on his first time! He got to show up all the big kids, ha! He was happy with that and went off to play in the river. The 10 year old asked if he could dig in that spot, I said, if he doesnt want to, then you can get the gold! We both dug at that spot for over an hour. These boys are learning about working hard and earning money. And, having so much fun. I'm having fun with the whole experience. Then, I put each of their gold in their own little bottle. Now they can see the gold. And, the fruit of their labor. The little one has the most. And he let's us know it!
It's quite a list of why we do prospecting . I really enjoy seeing the boys enjoying learning how to prospect. I'm hoping, in a few years, they'll want to adventure out and go look for burried treasure. After all, it is money AND an adventure!

 

[OreCart]

Aye! It is money! I like that there is no amount of gold that has no value!!

There is more to it than that though, because almost everything has value. The gravel that is classified and discarded is worth money, and the forest a prospector walks through to get to the gold is worth money as well. Whomever said, "Money does not grow on trees", has never owned a woodlot...

I think part of the allure of gold is that it takes so little to equate to a lot of value. An ounce is worth almost as much as an entire truckload of wood, but gold also does not grow back. Neither does gravel, but it is far easier to find, and the specifications are a lot less as well. Just meet federal spec's and start hauling.

But gold is accessible too. Whether by claim, land ownership, or a place with public access, all it takes is an $8 gold panning kit and the potential to make money is there. That beats having to have a chainsaw and a skidder for logging, or a loader, rock crusher, screen, trucks, bulldozer, grader and excavator for gravel! (LOL)

I do think gold is misrepresented in value though. A lot of people quote the spot price, but that is hardly reality. I have never sold gold on the wholesale market, but suspect it is closer to $1000 an ounce if sold to someone to further refine it. It is no different than here in Maine where lobsterman complain and say lobster is less per pound then hot dogs, but they are comparing apples to oranges, they are comparing the wholesale price of lobster to the retail price of hotdogs...the beef farmer sure the heck is not getting $3.50 a pound on the hoof. So it is with gold; people often quote the spot price, and not what they are really going to get for the gold when they sell it.

Keith Bowen has got a program where you can plug in real world figures and get an idea of what a hard rock mine might net, which can be quite sobering. I know, I have used it to run the numbers for my place. Even then, if I was to calculate all the time I have spent chasing gold so far, and assign my time a value on a per hour basis, it would be just like fishing; it would be far cheaper to buy fish at the store then get a truck, trailer, fishing gear, food, gas and beer to go get fish on a lake somewhere. Myself, I have a lot of time invested in this, and I have yet to sell an ounce of gold.

But all this is kind of my point, is it really about the money, or just getting outside? There is a lot of hidden costs in extracting gold.

 

[mike(swWash)]

I do it because I'm too old to star in adult movies anymore

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

OreCart, the price the prospector gets for his gold depends on the character of the gold and the purity.
I wouldn't even consider selling gold at $1K an ounce. It's too difficult to come by.

I don't have pounds to sell though. What you see in my avatar pic and what you get crushing rock are two very different types of gold.

Good thing about hard rock mining is you have the byproducts that can be used/sold.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

The reason why I prospect is to get rich! Ha! The excuse I use is it gets me out of the house and keeps me in shape. Prospecting is hard work and lots of moving around, hiking, digging, adventure, with the possibility of rewards! I met one guy that has sold more gold than I could ever know, but made more on the gravel he supplied from his land. After seeing that, I thought, how can I retire on finding a nice pile of Gold? It would have to be pounds. I've heard of quarts having gold and sliced into pieces going for hundreds of thousands. That was discovered on an existing claim using a professional geologist to map the vein. Still, the guy that owned the claim had so much money already that it was a fraction of his worth. So, what was the allure? Fun, personal conquest? The average prospector is getting a gram if they are lucky in an outing I think, of course, no one in their right mind would admit to more if they really found a pile.
I also know of a guy that found 10 lbs and someone came in and dug his unclaimed spot 10ft across and 15 ft deep. He had gone only 5ft. It was all gone. He never found out how someone discovered his site.
Prospecting is dangerous and attracts the larcenous qualities in people.
In the turn of the century, 1900s, there was a certain kind of miner that only liked gold hard rock mining. In WWII, America hijacked these miners for nickle and other metals for the war effort. It didn't work out well, the miners weren't motivated.
So, those who have claims, mines etc, why do you do it? Is it your way of making a living? If so, is it fun?
What motivates you to do this? How do you prospect? What is your goal?

I enjoy the outdoors and panning for gold is just a fun aspect of that. I know a lot here don't consider prospecting a "hobby" but it is for me, especially since I rarely have time to do it. I'll never strike it rich but if I do I wont complain haha. Any time I can get out and get some gold is just a real nice getaway from the daily grind.

 

[OreCart]

OreCart, the price the prospector gets for his gold depends on the character of the gold and the purity.
I wouldn't even consider selling gold at $1K an ounce. It's too difficult to come by.

I don't have pounds to sell though. What you see in my avatar pic and what you get crushing rock are two very different types of gold.

Good thing about hard rock mining is you have the byproducts that can be used/sold.

Yeah, I do not blame you, or anyone for that matter. I just kind of assumed that many people on here were like my Grandfather, in that he went out and collected gold as he found it, but never once sold it. He kept it in small vials. But when I read that people were doing so for the money, it kind of threw my assumption off.

But value is funny thing really, because for some prospectors I suppose it is enough to have a collection of it, and knowing the weight of it, they can lay claim that it has a certain monetary value. It is not 100% accurate as there is a difference between the wholesale price of gold, and the spot price of gold, but there is no big crime in that by any means. I mean the town gives my home a value of X, an appraiser would assign my home a different value, and certainly an insurance company would assign it a different value; none are wrong, just different.

Naturally I keep an updated net worth sheet on my computer, and I take into account such things as buildings, crops, livestock, equipment, mineral resources, et cetera; but I do not think I will calculate gold or silver resources at this time just because it would be so hard to calculate, not to mention, rather questionable in moral ethics. To me anyway, it would be like saying an old Ford Focus was worth x-amount because it could be parted out and sold on E-Bay rather than stating what its value is as a junk car looking to be scrapped. Placer deposits would be tricky to calculate, and unless I had a working mine for the lode deposits, it would be hard to put a real world number on the lode deposits.

 

[OreCart]

One thing to keep in mind is; whether a "hobby" or more a more serious business venture; the IRS does allow hobbies and business ventures alike, to be tax-deducted. I know I certainly do, and while at the moment I limit myself to deducting the cost of assay's and other direct costs, this is prudent as I am determining just what my farm has for gold/silver/palladium recourses. This is not immoral as farmers are allowed under USDA-NRCS ruling to extract mineral recourses on their farms. At this point, it is more of a gold mining feasibility study in it's early stages. I suspect its findings will be like farming overall, where in order to end up with a million dollars, a person had better start with ten million!

But in terms of taxes, it can also be a two-edged sword because any value gleaned has to be reported as income.

It is in doing the calculations that a person really sees the hidden costs. For most prospectors, I would think the tax deductions would be more of a fiscal benefit than the gold obtained. In other words, by the time the deductions were made on their taxes for equipment, transportation, and other costs, those costs would quickly surpass what was made in terms of gold collected. It would be easy to tell; just put every mining expense on a separate credit card, and then at the end of the year tally up the value of gold collected, and deduct all the expenses made on the credit card for obtaining it. YIKES!

But this gets into a moral dilemma because, just as with my farm, where having livestock puts me in a completely different bracket, and allows me to obtain grants to improve my farm; I have the obligation to society to put lamb back onto the national food chain. So too does the miner who takes the tax breaks; they should be selling their gold...no matter what capacity that is...so society can benefit from it.

 

[placertogo]

Fun, that's it, it's fun.

 

[OreCart]

What does all this have to do with why we prospect?

Well it goes back to TahoeGold's post on his buddies children digging in the dirt. He was not completely accurate; yes the youngest child extracted more gold, but the child did not make any more money than the other's, because until that gold is SOLD, a conversion from value to cold hard cash does not take place. The kids only learned half a lesson, they learned that if they work harder they get more, but failed to learn that putting that gold on a shelf does no one any good but give bragging rights. This is no different than if I go out and bale up a twenty acre field and have 150 round bales. Until I actually sell them, that commodity (hay) does not pay. In fact, all I have is costs to get it to that stage. Hay in the field has the POTENTIAL to make money, because work has been done to convert the product into a sellable form.

But I can still sell standing hay to a farmer, but it just will not make as much money, nor be as marketable as hay that is baled, just as a claim owner might get a percentage of what another person takes off their claim. Because of the costs of excavating that gold might be high, it may be more profitable to do just that, or even flip the claim for a tidy-sum.

As a father with four young daughters, I think it is prudent to take the kids beyond just "work hard", but explain to them fiscal responsibility that school's today just do not show. Working hard to have more certainly means there is potential for greater wealth, but it must be converted, then invested, and even spent properly so as to get the most good out of it. Gold is really good at doing this because so little is worth so much.

Since I have daughters, I explain everything in American Girl Doll currency. Since a much coveted American Girl Doll is worth about $100, I explain to them that an ounce of gold is worth 12 American Girl Dolls...they understand that as that to them is a lot of expensive dolls!

 

[Tahoegold]

Hi Ore cart,
I believe that you have a point when it comes to a market point of view. I think some folks are never going to sell their gold. Just like I'm never going to get a commercial Lic to fish and sell my trout I catch in the streams and lakes. I may stuff one if it is a trophy size. And, sometimes I'm even going to throw one back! I believe some things have a value in memories. I can't sell any of my trophys or ribbons I won for swimming. I never would sell them. That's what I believe most folks have when they have a little bit of gold. It reminds them of the adventures they had. And the gold is hard evidence they completed the goal of finding it! It's more than just the market value. Most folks can only get out once in a while. Some folks have a it in their own back yard so to speak. And although they are possibly supplementing their income, that too is a goal accomplished. Getting enough to sell brings it's own satisfaction. There's really only a small few who are making a living at it. And like I said and you said. The gravel associated with it is actually the real money maker and gold the by product. There's a "gold" mine in Rye Patch that calls itself a silver mine to beat the tax structure. It can do that because it gets more physical silver than gold by weight.
I used to commercial fish with my dad. We started out just having fun fishing in the San Francisco bay and off Stinson Beach. It got to be that we were catching fish so well, we made our limit early each time. So, we decided to get a commercial Lic. because we wanted to keep fishing. We actually started a new market for a fish called a King Fish. A small 1lb gold colored fish. My Dad and I caught our biggest haul one day using two poles, 3 hooks on each pole fishing about 30ft deep. We caught 1,oo6 lbs. We never forgot that day. Do we remember how much that was in dollars? Nope. We only remember the weight and all the improvements we made in our skills to get to that point where we could catch that much and haul it to market in a 16 ft boston whaler full of buckets from front to back and waves occasionally spilling over the bow and going out the back. What a thrill. Oh, yes, we made money. We made quite enough to make our lives better. That was thrill number 2. But, now, when we talk about all that, we revel in the accomplishment, not the money. It started out as fun, then it was even more fun when we made money. THEN, it was the money that spurred us on.
I know that for now the hunt for gold is a sport. But, will I find land worth a claim? Or, will I just find another "Butte" nugget and retire? For now it's the fun and the dream. For me and others, our bottles of gold are our trophys.