Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I have been prospecting in Colorado and here in the Black Hills, SD since about 2010. I also do metal detecting, so maybe it is a treasure-hunting thing. I mostly use metal detectors as a means to find gold. If you are interested in gold prospecting, I have several articles I have written as "How-Tos" as well as a photo album on my personal website. You can find that link in my profile.

In the process of shoveling gravel in a creek, I find some interesting rocks that I bring home with me. I love Rose Quartz. It is the South Dakota State Mineral, and it's PINK! I also hunt for the rare Fairburn Agate, which is the South Dakota State Gemstone. Maybe I have those two backward.

In the winter when creeks are frozen over or the water is about 33 degrees F, I stay indoors and do research. In the summer I am out mining gold or picking up rocks.

I just ordered my second 2-barrel rock tumbler for polishing rocks and I am learning how to do wire wrap jewelry with them. I have found that I enjoy doing this and I can do it indoors with no heavy lifting involved... until I "need" another bucket of rocks.

Here is an example of what I am doing:

Rough Stones to Jewelry (https://imgur.com/a/rX0k4Ho)

@LoriDee
Dear Lori:
Thank you for posting and sharing your experiences with Gold Prospecting and
Rock Hounding. 
The description of your endeavors in those task is very interesting
for sure.  I am looking forward to your future postings regarding these subjects.

I followed the picture link that you had posted....  beautiful work that you
have done turning rocks (rough stones) into very pretty jewelry.
          Click Link-->  Rough Stones to Jewelry (https://imgur.com/a/rX0k4Ho)

Again, thank you for sharing.
HUGS, Danielle

My grandfather taught me lapidary when I was a child and still have a trim saw, a cabbing wheel, and hand tools. My grandfather was a rock hound specializing in fire agate back when the desert was largely open. Unfortunately, where I live today, all the good sites have either been claimed by commercial developers or otherwise closed off to the public. I did have an Afghan supplier of lapis lazuli, but that source is no longer available to me. I've since lost interest in pursuing it anymore.

Wow, very nice work, Lori. I was going to say I really like .... but they are all so beautiful.
Gina

It appears the largest gold pan is in Quesnel, British Columbia.

Chrissy

I think I found Lori's prospecting rig.  ;D

Quote from: Devlyn on August 05, 2025, 12:02:39 PMI think I found Lori's prospecting rig.  ;D

I love it!  :laugh:

Heavy duty machinery.

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on August 05, 2025, 06:49:20 PMHeavy duty machinery.

And is fully capable of dispatching claim-jumpers!

Quote from: Lori Dee on August 05, 2025, 07:05:14 PMAnd is fully capable of dispatching claim-jumpers!

You bet!

Lori,


Have you looked for any gold in the past few weeks?


Chrissy

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on August 05, 2025, 10:25:18 PMLori,


Have you looked for any gold in the past few weeks?


Chrissy

No, I have been unpacking. I am almost settled in. I have a repair tech coming tomorrow to do a warranty repair on my new loveseat. I almost have my workroom finished, but I will need to get some supplies.

Right now, we are under a heat wave. Temps 100 - 103+ this week and could break a record. So I stay indoors as much as possible.

When the weather cools down, I plan to do some scouting. I have four locations that I have researched, but I need to put boots on the ground and look at the river to see how the water is flowing. If it looks good, I will do some sample panning and figure out where to go from there.

I'm from Northern Colorado, so I am not very familiar with the geology down here in the south of the state. There are some places that I want to go back to up north, but that may not happen until next summer. In the meantime, I spend my winters reading geology maps, old mining journals, newspapers, and researching abandoned gold claims. Then I can form a plan for the following summer.

Gosh, brand new furniture with a flaw.  Ugh!  I am glad they are fixing it.

Perhaps an extended warranty may be worth the money on some of your furniture, esp. if an item's price was significant. 

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on August 05, 2025, 11:02:05 PMGosh, brand new furniture with a flaw.  Ugh!  I am glad they are fixing it.

Perhaps an extended warranty may be worth the money on some of your furniture, esp. if an item's price was significant. 

LaZboy came with a one-year warranty. I noticed the problem on Day Two.

I had bought a two-year extended warranty and a five-year protection plan that covers the fabric. That covers rips or tears, seam separations, unusual wear, and even stains. I like that if I spill my coffee and stain the fabric, they will send someone out to clean it.

They gave me a free gift as part of the Extended Warranty. It has a general-purpose cleaner, glass cleaner, upholstery cleaner, and fabric protection spray. When I run out, anytime in the next two years, I just go back to the store with the empty bottle and they will give me a full one to replace it. I think that's a fair deal. ;D

Quote from: Lori Dee on August 05, 2025, 11:10:44 PMLaZboy came with a one-year warranty. I noticed the problem on Day Two.

I had bought a two-year extended warranty and a five-year protection plan that covers the fabric. That covers rips or tears, seam separations, unusual wear, and even stains. I like that if I spill my coffee and stain the fabric, they will send someone out to clean it.

They gave me a free gift as part of the Extended Warranty. It has a general-purpose cleaner, glass cleaner, upholstery cleaner, and fabric protection spray. When I run out, anytime in the next two years, I just go back to the store with the empty bottle and they will give me a full one to replace it. I think that's a fair deal. ;D

Sounds like a practical plan for your furniture.  Better than a free oil changes when you buy a car from a dealer as each time you take it in they seem to find some service related thing they try to sell you.  I datestamp most of my filters and know whenever any expendable was replaced.  I keep my service records in an organized fashion and a spreadsheet.

This woman does not want to be taken advantage of.

A while ago, I did some scouting out at Cache Creek, up near Granite, CO. I brought my Garrett AT Gold Pro metal detector because it allows me to cover a lot of ground quickly. I'm old, so the less unnecessary digging I do, the better.

I focused on areas that were not already being hit hard by local prospectors. There is an area there called "The War Zone" because of all the prospecting pits that look like bomb craters. I wanted to avoid that area.

I found an area that looked good to me. It was quite rocky with a lot of old river rocks. The metal detector sounded on two rocks, so I threw them in my bucket, then dug up about half of a five-gallon bucket worth of rocks and gravel to sample later.

The testing on the rocks, I explained over in the Metal Detecting thread (with pics).
https://www.susans.org/index.php?topic=251912.msg2319794#msg2319794

Today, my job was to screen all the dirt and rocks to eliminate the junk so I can focus on the paydirt. My set of screens goes from 2-mesh down to 100-mesh. #2 mesh means there are two holes per inch in the screen, so each hole is about 1/2" in size. It isn't exact due to the width of the wire, but it is close. Thus, a #4 mesh is 1/4" holes, #8 is 1/8" holes, and so on.

I screened everything through the #2 and #4 to get rid of the biggest rocks, leaving just river gravel. The next job was crushing the rocks. I use a 3-lb "Persuader" (machinist hammer) to break them into small enough pieces that they will fit into my small rock crusher. That took quite some time to go from this:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54981047849_13fc75e254_w.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLuf1R)

To this:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54981047854_3bed181ea6_w.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLuf1W)

Then I continue screening all of the dirt down to 100-mesh size, which is very tiny.
I first check the screen to see if I can see any gold that I can pull out with tweezers. Then I pan that material to be certain that I did not miss any.

I found nothing of value in the #8 mesh screen.

I found a few colors in the #12 mesh screen, and some got past me, but I caught them when I panned that material.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54980802956_22b949df53_w.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLsZdy)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54981047874_8c5805b963_w.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLuf2h)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54981047844_a4f228ae9e_w.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLuf1L)

The same thing happened with the #20 mesh screen.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54980985208_1a69aeca51_w.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLtVoQ)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54981099545_476666401b_w.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLuvoa)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54979921532_b1cd937a8b_w.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLotcA)

The #50 mesh screen is getting pretty small, so I don't bother looking for "pickers". I just dump it in the gold pan and get it that way.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54980802986_7e2a2bf86f_w.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLsZe5)

Then the #100 mesh material.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54980985218_a38368b354_w.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLtVp1)

There was some Minus-100 material (gold that fell through the #100 mesh screen without getting caught), but it is so small, and the water in the pan was too murky to get a pic.

Now the only question is how much is there? Tomorrow, I'll dump it all in the gold pan and clean out the little bit of black sand, dry it out, and weigh it.

Stay tuned.

Awesome photographs and a beautiful description of the prospecting process! The dime was cool, too.

Quote from: Dances With Trees on December 13, 2025, 09:15:41 AMAwesome photographs and a beautiful description of the prospecting process! The dime was cool, too.

Thanks, Dances. It's an Indian head cent, just there for scale.

Thanks for the clarification, Lori. Of course, now that I know it's a penny instead of a dime, you didn't find nearly as much gold as I initially thought.

Quote from: Dances With Trees on December 13, 2025, 09:23:58 AMThanks for the clarification, Lori. Of course, now that I know it's a penny instead of a dime, you didn't find nearly as much gold as I initially thought.

That is true. But I wasn't expecting to find that much since it was just a scouting trip. Now that I have an idea of the potential, I will be back next summer for an extensive dig. It is a three-hour drive to get there, so I will likely make it a camping trip. I may stay for a weekend or possibly longer. The Bureau of Land Management allows 14-day stays. There are no "amenities," so it will be "primitive" camping.

The final clean-up:

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54982443769_dc8be88830_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLBoYr)

The final weigh-in: 1.1 grams!

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54982197586_535f437752_h.jpg?s=eyJpIjo1NDk4MjE5NzU4NiwiZSI6MTc2NTY2OTY0NSwicyI6ImNlY2QyOTQ4NmFmYzg0NWE1YjViZjhiZjNhNDAzNDQzNjMzOWFhNjgiLCJ2IjoxfQ) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLA8MU)

I looked at them under the scope to determine how much came from the river gravels and how much came from the crushed rocks. The stuff from the river is obvious because the flakes are well-rounded and flattened from being smashed by rocks. There are a few with rough edges, so those broke loose from the rock during crushing. You can see one near the top and one near the bottom that are not smooth.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54981312977_e7cdc95efe_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLvAQ2)

Another closer view of two of the rough flakes.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54981312972_4d2e225612_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2rLvAPW)

At least I didn't close out the season at zero.

Today's gold spot price is at $138.21 per gram. Since this is "raw" gold, it is considered to be only 80% pure. Mined gold contains alloys like silver, copper, platinum, and other impurities. So, 80% of spot value = $110.57 x 1.1 grams = $121.62.

Buyers will usually only pay 80% of spot, so the sale value would be 80% of 80% of the spot price = $97.30.

That doesn't seem too bad until you factor in how long it took to get it. It probably took about 30 hours for scouting, digging, screening, panning, and travel time. That works out to around $3.24 per hour.

Flipping burgers pays better, but I don't pay taxes on gold. And the value of gold can go up without me doing any more work. The gold I dug up in 2011 doubled in value before I sold it. Today, it would be worth three times more if I had kept it.

I love that you did the math on earnings!  I'm also amazed that you found anything! The whole process sounds incredibly fun. Anything that gets one outside exploring is perfect.

I am surprised that this is just 1.1 grams. I know that gold is pretty heavy and in the pictures it certainly looks more than just a gram...

For a brief scouting trip, I think it went quite well. It's a popular area which has had a lot of visitors, but there's obviously still some gold there. I think if you have an opportunity to stay for several days and do more testing, you'll probably find some areas that would be worthwhile.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

Quote from: Tess100 on December 14, 2025, 09:02:42 AMI love that you did the math on earnings!  I'm also amazed that you found anything! The whole process sounds incredibly fun. Anything that gets one outside exploring is perfect.

As I point out in the articles I wrote on my website, if you are doing it to get rich, you will be disappointed. My brother says that so much work for so little pay is insanity. I asked him if he enjoys fishing. He said he does. I asked if it is still fun if he catches nothing all day. He said it is. I said it is the same thing except I don't "catch and release". It is the thrill of the hunt.

Over 15 years of doing it, I learned a few things about geology that help me do it more successfully, and I have invested in tools and equipment that help me do it more efficiently. The payoff is in being out in Nature with fresh air, exercise, and learning things about the world we live on. Catching gold is just a bonus that motivates me to get out and do it again.

😀

Quote from: Iztaccihuatl on December 14, 2025, 09:31:48 AMI am surprised that this is just 1.1 grams. I know that gold is pretty heavy and in the pictures it certainly looks more than just a gram...

I thought it would be less, but some good-sized flakes added to the weight. Most of what I usually catch is in the #50 mesh size, so there are more of them for the same weight. I saw this pile as relatively small.

Quote from: Jessica_Rose on December 14, 2025, 10:42:07 AMFor a brief scouting trip, I think it went quite well. It's a popular area which has had a lot of visitors, but there's obviously still some gold there. I think if you have an opportunity to stay for several days and do more testing, you'll probably find some areas that would be worthwhile.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

That is the plan for the summer. I intentionally avoided the "War Zone" as it has been hunted for decades. I found a few areas that had been untouched, so I focused on them. I may invest in another garden wagon to haul my gear. It is a bit of a hike from the parking area to my areas of interest. Another reason the War Zone is so well hunted is that it is close to the parking area, so more people dig there. I always try to capitalize on the laziness or incompetence of other prospectors. Their loss is my gain.

Lori,

I wonder if you went to a thrift store or elsewhere and bought up old PCs and Macs system boards that you could get gold out of the circuits and make a profit.  Can you with the gear you have harvest this gold?  I think that on the motherboards the wire pins that the processor clamps on are at least gold plated.  Those pins it seems can be snipped out from the motherboards.  There may be gold elsewhere in the circuitry also.


Chrissy

You can do that, and I have, but it isn't profitable.

For many years, I collected old PCs, printers, cellphones, big flat screen TVs, and such for that purpose. It takes a lot of time and effort to strip all of the gold parts. My garage was full of junk electronics, and it took me an entire summer to clear it out.

I started by cutting out all of the gold and stripping down old hard drives to get the platinum off of the disks (I still have the disks). Once I had a pile of the good stuff, I got rid of the junk. I started by using a torch to melt the parts, thinking the gold would melt first and pool together to make it easier to extract. But they contain too much copper and lead solder.

So, I bought an ounce of mercury. One ounce of mercury will dissolve an ounce of gold, and I knew I had less than an ounce of gold. Once the mercury did its work, it left an amalgam, which is mercury and pure gold. By straining it through a cloth, I was able to remove the junk, and that left me with just the amalgam.

The next step is the dangerous part. Heating the amalgam to evaporate the mercury. Mercury vapors are deadly poisonous. I rented a campsite for a weekend, dumped the amalgam in an old cast-iron skillet, and roasted it over a campfire. It was winter, so there were no other campers around, and I could keep away and upwind from the fire.

Once that is done, it leaves a chocolate brown, rusty colored dust in the pan. That is 99.999% pure gold. By heating the dust with a torch, it melts into droplets, and their shiny gold color returns. It was very disappointing.

After all of that work and the cost of the mercury ($40 per ounce plus hazardous shipping charge), it wasn't worth it. I have worked less hard to find a flake of gold that was bigger than that.

Can it be done? Yes. Why doesn't everyone do it? It isn't worth it.

I installed a security system at a precious metals recycling plant. That was a huge operation. They took electronic parts like circuit boards and put them in baskets that were lowered into pools of acid. The pools were about the size of small swimming pools. The acid dissolves the gold, and they dispose of the junk. Once the acid becomes saturated, they add a chemical that causes the gold to precipitate out of the acid so they can collect it.

Gold can be extracted from seawater. There are huge amounts of gold dissolved in the oceans. But the process to get it makes it seem futile. You can also make gold, like the ancient alchemists tried to do, but they didn't have access to particle accelerators to get it done.

I prefer to let Mother Earth do the hard work for me, so I can just go pick it up out of the dirt.

😁

I would venture to say that many of us today do not have access to particle accelerators.

Quote from: ChrissyRyan on December 14, 2025, 06:41:24 PMI would venture to say that many of us today do not have access to particle accelerators.

https://tavexbullion.co.uk/lab-made-gold-exists-but-it-wont-shake-the-market/#:~:text=Under%20certain%20conditions%2C%20they%20have,far%20less%20than%20a%20nanogram.&text=The%20process%20costs%20millions%20of,the%20yield%20is%20essentially%20negligible.

Quote from: Lori Dee on December 14, 2025, 07:39:18 PMhttps://tavexbullion.co.uk/lab-made-gold-exists-but-it-wont-shake-the-market/#:~:text=Under%20certain%20conditions%2C%20they%20have,far%20less%20than%20a%20nanogram.&text=The%20process%20costs%20millions%20of,the%20yield%20is%20essentially%20negligible.

It's even worse!

ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the LHC (https://home.cern/news/news/physics/alice-detects-conversion-lead-gold-lhc)

Not only was the yield from the Large Hadron Collider tiny:

...about 86 billion gold nuclei were created at the four major experiments. In terms of mass, this corresponds to just 29 picograms (2.9 ×10-11 g).

but the gold only exists temporarily:

Gold nuclei emerge from the collision with very high energy and hit the LHC beam pipe or collimators at various points downstream, where they immediately fragment into single protons, neutrons and other particles. The gold exists for just a tiny fraction of a second.

This technology has a *long* way to go before it becomes profitable. 😁