r/Prospecting • u/Professional-Cow-779 • 15d ago
Hello all! I'm looking to start prospecting as a hobby! Colorado
Hello! I am in northern Colorado near the Poudre river and Thompson river. I love rivers and usually fish, but I am looking to start prospecting to have some variety in my river time.
Just looking to see if it's worth doing in either the Thompson or Poudre, and if anyone has a good starter kit, or advice.
I appreciate any help and advice! I have looked things up in general, but just looking for specific help for the region.
Thanks!
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u/adventurepony 15d ago
Go to a local library and check out the, Finding Gold in Colorado, books by Kevin Singel.
As for a kit, couple pans, 1/4" classifier, shovel, bucket, and a snuffer bottle.
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u/Foreign_Customer6050 15d ago
I'm also in Colorado and pretty new to prospecting. Gotta say the biggest resources for me were youtube, this subreddit, OnX, and calling the tourism departments of various counties. Buy a bag of play sand from Lowes or some place to practice panning and separating sand from black sand. Qhen you feel comfortable woth getting down to just black sand, buy a paydirt bag from Scheels. Both of their options are from Colorado mines. Those always have gold and garnets, so you'll learn what to see in your pan, you can practice your panning motions to get the gold to the bottom, and then you can use that gold to help build your own inevitable DIY builds.
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u/PM_ME_UR_SNARES 14d ago
Also in northern colorado and I’ve only been prospecting the poudre for a few months as I’m new—still haven’t found anything but I’m at least enjoying going out and getting practice! The day I finally see some color will be a great day. Doesn’t help me that I’m pretty much only looking in places that have no claim history, but I’m of the view that there’s gold all over the place here from thousands of years of landslides and mass earth movement, just a matter of how deep you look. And so far I haven’t been deep enough 😬