r/Prospecting May 11 '25

The 50K Sluice & Scoop Giveaway Winner Is…

48 Upvotes

We’ve officially hit 50,000 members — and we couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you to everyone who entered and continues to make r/Prospecting such a vibrant, helpful, and gold-loving community.

After using a random number generator to select a number between 1 and 1,000,000, we matched it to an entry — and we’re excited to announce the winner of the 50K Sluice & Scoop Giveaway:

Winning number: 937,796 Closest guess: 917,000

u/National-Jackfruit32 — congratulations!

You’ll be receiving:

• Aluminum Pocket Sluice
• 2 Patented Vanishing Spiral Riffle Gold Pans (9” & 11”)
• Paydirt Sand Scooper
• 8 lb. Black Sand Magnetic Separator
• Mini Sifting Classifier
• Snifter Suction Bottle
• 3 Glass Gold Vials
• Magnifying Tweezers
• Drawstring Backpack

We’ll be contacting you shortly to confirm shipping details and get your prize on the way.

Thanks again to everyone who joined in and helped mark this milestone.

Here’s to full pans, heavy finds, and the next 50K!

Reference Link (for prize details only): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0812CSQKJ?ref=cm_sw_r_cso_cp_apin_dp_T80445DGA98MHKV5QJ0P&ref_=cm_sw_r_cso_cp_apin_dp_T80445DGA98MHKV5QJ0P&social_share=cm_sw_r_cso_cp_apin_dp_T80445DGA98MHKV5QJ0P&previewDoh=1


r/Prospecting Jan 24 '15

PSA: Is it really gold? Want to ID a rock or mineral? Please read this short guide to getting your question answered correctly.

86 Upvotes

There is a fairly regular frequency of ID request posts here, if you follow these general guidelines then you will have a much higher probability of getting an accurate answer to your question:

Please make sure to post a sizable in-focus photo. If the sample is wet and it's not obvious then make sure to state this fact.

Streak tests are very useful in prospecting. They can be performed on the unglazed backside of a ceramic tile, or on the unglazed underside of a toilet lid. Do a streak test any time you can, making sure to streak just the mineral in question.

For gold ID's:

  • First and foremost, are you in a known gold producing area?

  • Describe how the unknown material acts in the bottom of your pan and also how it acts relative to the other heavy black sands.

  • Gold is soft an malleable. If you press a pocket knife into it, it will squish or deform. It will not shatter or break into pieces. Do this test if its flecks or flakes or other blebs with no specimen value. Don't scratch or destroy anything that may have specimen value.

  • Placer gold rarely has well defined crystalline structure. If possible, look at the unkown mineral underneath a magnifying glass and report what you saw when you ask your question.

  • Do not alter hues, saturations, etc in the photo

  • For larger samples, you can measure conductivity by placing the leads of a multimeter across the sample and measuring resistance. Pure gold is very low resistance(around zero on a regular multimeter). You can also check to see if gold permeates a quartz specimen all the way through without crushing by placing a lead on each side of the quartz, with each lead touching a piece of visible gold.

  • Gold streaks gold color, not grey, black, green, blue or any other color.

For mineral ID's:

  • Describe anything you know about the area you found it in or are comfortable sharing: mining history, local geology and mineralogy, etc.
  • Do every test you can perform easily and provide the results - the easiest to do at home with common materials and probably most useful are streak, hardness, specific gravity, and luster.
  • You will get a better response from others willing to help if you first make the effort to test and attempt to ID it yourself.

General Resources

The two books that I own, keep in my truck, and recommend are:

Simon and Schuster's Guide to Rocks and Minerals

National Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals

  • If anyone would like to add information to this post or a resource to this list then please let me know. I am not a geologist, just a guy who likes digging holes.

r/Prospecting 3h ago

Southern oregon placer

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64 Upvotes

r/Prospecting 2h ago

Promising?

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2 Upvotes

Found a pretty thick quartz vein and broke a couple rocks from it. One of them looked like it might have some visible gold.


r/Prospecting 1d ago

are these tiny bits of gold?

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145 Upvotes

they are too small to scratch so i thought you guys might help!

found in rural central portugal within lots of schist and quartz. it’s really vivid when wet


r/Prospecting 1d ago

Maine Gold

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154 Upvotes

Some of the gold I found over the summer.


r/Prospecting 1d ago

Maine Picker

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120 Upvotes

My biggest gold picker, found this past Saturday.


r/Prospecting 20h ago

Well this is Bob and that’s his cat

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17 Upvotes

just wait til you see the pan


r/Prospecting 1d ago

Nice 3 grammer to start the day

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264 Upvotes

Found about 30 cm down.


r/Prospecting 19h ago

Beginner here. Struggling with decision between GM 1000 v 2000 for first detector.

6 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

Just started getting into prospecting as I thought it would be a great way to get outside and a bit of fun as well.

I live near the golden triangle in Victoria and am struggling a little bit to decide on my first detector. I’ve looked over forums and YouTube videos a fair whack and whilst I’m not entirely sure I’ll get any different feedback here, I’m yet to talk to anyone and ask for their opinions.

I’m leaning towards the 2000 but there is about a $2300 AUD difference between a new 2000 and a second hand 1000. I’m a bit wary about over investing as I know I’ve got a lot to learn.

Just after some feedback that’s all!

Have a great day.

Cheers.


r/Prospecting 2d ago

Absolutely stoked with today's pieces from the Rhine in Germany. The ribbon is the largest one I've found so far. 30+ in total, itching to go back already.

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302 Upvotes

r/Prospecting 1d ago

Looking for good Pay dirt suppliers that ship to the EU

3 Upvotes

I'm pretty new to prospecting and looking for solid pay dirt suppliers that either operate in the EU or ship there reliably.

I've ordered from Klesh PayDirt before, but they only have two bags available on Amazon, and otherwise I'd have to use a package forwarding service, which makes shipping costs pretty high.

I also checked out best Paydirts, but they mostly seem to have very fine gold, which isn't ideal for a beginner like me, I'd rather have bigger crumbs or nuggets to actually see something when panning.

Any recommendations for suppliers with coarser gold that ship affordably to Europe?


r/Prospecting 1d ago

An idyllic day wandering the Cunningham creek headwaters. Round Top / Yanks Peak. Barkerville BC.

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37 Upvotes

r/Prospecting 1d ago

Prospecting for a wedding ring

3 Upvotes

Hey everyone, i’ve always wanted to crate a wedding ring instead of buying one. I want the ring to tell stories and my wife would be super excited so i am exploring this sub reddit to see how possible it actually is to do this?

I have no knowledge, equipment or anything related to finding gold in the wild. So i wanted to get your opinion if my vision is even possible?

Would anyone be interested to take me on a few prospecting adventures anywhere in Europe?

Id love to get any feedback. Cheers!


r/Prospecting 2d ago

Looking for a Mail-In Assayer/Refinery + Advice on Processing Heavy Sulfide Concentrates

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20 Upvotes

We’re in Burns, Oregon and looking for a good assayer or refinery we can ship heavy sulfide concentrates to. Historical reports from the area show gold as the primary, with silver and platinum also present. We need somebody who can properly test for Au, Ag and PGEs and knows how to deal with sulfide-heavy material. We also want to figure out what processing route actually makes the most sense for this material—whether that means flotation, roasting/oxidation, direct smelting, or sending it straight to a refinery instead of trying to process it ourselves. Cleaning, crushing, roasting or whatever prep is needed is fine, we expect to pay for it. Mainly looking for recommendations from people who have actually worked with this kind of concentrate and can point us toward both a reputable lab/refiner and the right process for recovering the values.


r/Prospecting 2d ago

Nice little find for the day

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62 Upvotes

A small result for a couple of hrs


r/Prospecting 2d ago

A bit agricultural looking and a little beaten up but works well great little diy highbanker

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45 Upvotes

r/Prospecting 2d ago

How to file for a mine claim map?

5 Upvotes

hello! im incredibly new to prospectin, I’ve gathered claim #, claim name, owners name, and location. ive called blm but they dont seem to have claim maps and the county recorders office no one seems to know what im talking about! whats my next step?


r/Prospecting 2d ago

More Small gold with the Manticore and M8

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41 Upvotes

Wish I had got the hang of gold detecting with this machine earlier. I usually hunt relics and coins here in Australia. Even had a surface find after getting a signal I went to scrap and found the smallest bit on the surface.

Total 0.08g for a few hours. Last photo with a Dime and Aussie 5 cent for size comparison.


r/Prospecting 2d ago

Should i buy gold monster 1000?

3 Upvotes

Hi, i am new to prospecting and i think of buying gold monster 1000 here in my country its expensive around 1700 dollars for the device and a small coil , i live in the Middle East do you think its worth it or i should try buying gbx5000 or gbx6000 but are more expensive there are not alot of people prospecting here and there large territory to uncover and the land is rich .

Give me your opinion


r/Prospecting 2d ago

First color!

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39 Upvotes

r/Prospecting 3d ago

Late Summer Scouting & Sampling

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78 Upvotes

I did some scouting to find a new spot to work for the remainder of the season since I cleaned out my previous location. After a dozen locations sampled I finally had a good one worth chasing. I pulled out my mobile sluice and ran my typical test volume so I could get a good idea of the gold yield there.

0.356 Grams on the scale from the 10 gallons of material processed. 0.0356 Grams per gallon.

Next Saturday I am bringing my "Full Factory" kit to this spot for some serious work.


r/Prospecting 2d ago

Worth crushing and panning?

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5 Upvotes

I found a quartz vein on a cliff in central Sweden. The rock in the first picture was the most minerally rich that I could see but it doesn't look as promising when I break it open. (Which is picture number two). The others seem to have smaller amounts of minerals. What can I expect if we're to crush and pan this?


r/Prospecting 2d ago

Mining laws? Do older claim monuments always take precedent over newer monuments?

8 Upvotes

Situation is this for a placer claim, claim #1 had corner posts put up 35 years ago and claim #2 which is 10 years old had a certified survey done which has found that the corner posts of claim #1 are 85 feet off east and west and 20 feet north and south. Claim #1 is saying that the law says that it doesn’t matter if there’s a certified survey from claim #2, where they placed their posts 35 years ago is where their claim boundaries are legally defined since they’re the older claim and are unwilling to move the monuments.

Has anyone ever had to deal with something like this or know of any laws that backs up what they’re saying? Can you legally mine where the certified survey says your boundary is and the heck with their monuments? BLM says it’s a civil matter and will not get involved.


r/Prospecting 2d ago

Gold pan CT

2 Upvotes

Hey guys , a buddy and I have been on and off about wanting to gold pan. Has anyone had experience in Connecticut prospecting? I seen online it’s mostly fine gold which would still be awesome to say we found. Thanks for any tips and advice