Golden Legends Tales of Buried Treasure

Found a video with an example of a gold transfer tray. Let's see. The first time I transfered gold from one vial to another I dropped about 25% of it. The next time I used a piece of paper with a fold. Trouble is, my hand jerked slightly and everything at the far end flipped up and on the table. So, this may seem like a tool that is not useful, but I say it is. This URL shows what a man makes and sells. He does a nice job with it made from stainless steel. I thought showing the video would give you an idea of what he is doing. I think I could make one out of sheet that is painted or galvanized. Probably a lot of materials that would be satisfactory. http://www.goldtowner.com/store/store/easy-gold-handler.html

I have looked at 100's of sites that are supposedly informing about prospecting supplies. The truth is that everybody is trying to make a living. Once in awhile I come across something that seems genuinely interesting. It isn't a plan, but for someone interested in hand-powered equipment for gold prospecting, this could be useful. I only use hand-powered equipment because of the cost factor. Some of my equipment is built (I have two builds I will soon reveal in photos on this site), and other equipment has been purchased used from an assortment of places, including gold prospecting club friends and members. Add a 12 vold DC pump and who knows what you could do? So without an endorsement, I put up this link?  http://www.gold-n-sand.com/

I have found another fascinating free resource online. It is the website of the National Library of Australia. One can request copies of works, find out where books are, order books for reading in the library, etc. But the feature I like (flying to Australia and smoking my pipe in the reading room is not in the budget) is the online feature. Next to your search term is a box for how you wish to search and the limits to that search. I chose "online". If you click the link below marked with asterisks, you will be taken to a search page for the library. At the top, enter your search terms. I entered "gold prospecting equipment" and found three things "available online". Look to the right of each entry and you will see three colors: yellow, green, and blue. Yellow signifies stuff that can be read online. Enter the search terms of your choice and find more material. I found: 1.  Rise and progress of the Coolgardie Gold Mining and Prospecting Company, Limite...

Here is a site where you can learn how to dry pan for gold. It is an interesting concept that I think a lot of people have thought about (as in, "Why wouldn't that work?"). I haven't had a lot of success with it, but the areas I prospect in have a lot of really fine gold. This video shows a technique that apparently works and it is by a guy who has a lot of good videos on gold prospecting. His inventory of great stuff is at  http://goldschgold.com/gold-videos  . For the dry panning video, see  http://goldschgold.com/gold-videos/how-to-dry-pan-to-find-desert-gold/  .

http://www.blacksandbox.com/rock-crusher.cfm This particular post does not have a plan. But since a lot of you are interested in rock crushers (especially small ones), I thought this great information should be a first read before you try to conjure up one. This article covers: Rock Crushers & Mills Mortar and Pestle,  Dolly or Hand Crusher,  Jaw Crusher,  GyratoryCrusher,  Cone Crusher,  Vertical Shaft Impactor,   Hammer Mil l,  Stamp Mill,  Ball Mill In addition, find 20 + more topics on gold prospecting. Listings invlude from water pumps to miner's moss to gold prospecting books to availability of wire cloth. See the British Geological Survey designed hand- powered shaker table. http://www.blacksandbox.com/equipment-plans.cfm See multi-use sluice here: http://golddredger.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=106&forum=DCForumID9&viewmode=threaded

Here we have an archived post from GeoCities where a guy included good plans for building your own Henry Sluice Box and a regular style sluice box. There is a great photo of a homemade recirculating sluice but no plans. There are also photos of a half finished high banker, but the photos are worth looking at, nevertheless. Click:  http://www.oocities.org/wyo_gold/highbanker.html At the top of the page are these selections: home, maps, news, build, tutor, images. There is a lot of info here. Click on any for more information about gold prospecting for placer. This fellow is from Wyoming and quite an enthusiast. 

Here is a page where you can directly download great pdfs of plans for building your own gold prospecting equipment. Included are: backpack sluice rocker box high banker rock saw trommel leaf blower vacuum mining sluice Sluice combo specific gravity scale rocker box plans 2 rocker box 3 gold catcher gas powered drywasher rock saw combo field classifier http://www.gpex.ca/gold-prospecting-eqipment-plans.html Photo by  lan deng  on  Unsplash  

Here is an article discussing the way to make a classifier with a cake pan. The basic idea is to cut along the bottom of the pan along the circle where the sides begin to move up. Using mesh and rivets, a classifier (store bought are pretty expensive) is made. Get the details at  http://www.ehow.com/how_8050911_make-gold-separator-cake-pan.html                              

Make a  backpack sluice from things laying around. Use a seat belt for a shoulder strap. Use used carpet or a remnant as "prospectors moss". I plan to make one of these. There is nothing like a convenient size and weight when trekking into gold area. You can also click on the five steps to construction. This is a wonderful job and wonderful idea. Panning is fine, but using a sluice lets you process a LOT more material. http://www.instructables.com/id/Gold-Prospecting-Backpack-sluice-from-found-mate/