To be the most su
ccessful in your endeavor to pan for gold you will need some basic equipment and some practice. The good news is that the equipment is fairly easy to get. As for the practice that is up to you. Here is list of basic equipment for the job.
In the early gold 
rush days the sluice box consisted of a simple wooden trough lined with raised obstructions placed at a ninety-degree angle to the flow of the water. These obstructions are what are known as riffels. When all of the gold carrying gravel is “run” through the sluice the water is shut off and the riffels are removed. The heavy materials containing the gold known as concentrates would be gathered. This run would sometimes consist of processing several tons of gold-bearing gravel through the box. Continue reading
You might be surpr
ised to learn that you can still find gold in the United States. In fact, over 80% of the world’s gold is still yet to be found. I guess once you realize these facts the questions are: Where can I go to find gold? And if I do find gold how can I be sure I get to keep it? Well, there are two likely routes you can go to answer these questions. First, you can join the Gold Prospector’s Association of America (GPAA) then you are entitled to go out and prospect on any of there gold claims or land leases across America. If you are the more adventurous type you can strike out on your own on any of the open public land across the country and try and stake your own claim.
Here is the Idiot’s quick guide on how to find and stake your very own gold claim: Continue reading
When I first started 
looking into how to find gold I assumed that all of the gold that was there to be found already had been. As it turns out, I was wrong. Really wrong. Less than 10% of all of the world’s gold has been extracted from the earth. That is great news for those of us that still want a chance to go out and find our share. Continue reading
There i
s a great difference between wet and dry prospecting.
Wet prospecting is by far the more useful and the one which will provide the most frequent discoveries this is because you get a much better separation rate of gold from gravel when wet and sent through a sluice box and subsequent sieve or series of sieves. However, this separation rate is much, much lower when dry and the likelihood of expelling gold with your sand or gravel is greatly increased. Continue reading
Eureka! In this episode Rich Barna “The Prepared Idiot” takes a look at how to start prospecting for gold! Who doesn’t dream as 
a child of stumbling across a pile of gold, buried deep in your own backyard? Unfortunately, not many pirates have left treasure troves just under the surface in cities and towns, but you may be surprised to learn that gold prospecting still has a vast number of enthusiasts up and down the country. However, you may be sad to learn that the actual financial value of what you find could be very low indeed. It is the thrill of the chase and the wonder of being in the great outdoors that many people find so invigorating, and so why not give it a try?
The Prepared Idiot 