About the book

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Gold Prospecting: A Practical Field Guide teaches you how to read rivers, recognize productive ground, and recover gold using simple tools and practical field methods.

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Gold prospecting works because rivers move material in predictable ways. When you understand how water sorts gravel, concentrates heavy minerals, and deposits sediment, the patterns prospectors rely on begin to make sense.

Inside this guide, you'll learn how to:

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• Recognize river features that trap gold
• Identify pay streaks and productive ground
• Sample efficiently using professional methods
• Use gold panning and sluice boxes effectively
• Evaluate results and adjust your approach
• Know when to stay and work a site, or move on to another

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The techniques described here come from more than a decade of prospecting, research, and fieldwork—studying geology reports, exploring historic mining districts, testing ground in rivers and benches, and learning what works by doing it.

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This guide brings those lessons together and explains them in clear, practical language so that beginners and experienced prospectors alike can learn to read the ground and let the evidence guide their decisions.

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Illustrated with photographs and diagrams from my fieldwork notes.

Coming soon in paperback on Amazon.