Find Gold Nuggets Underwater
There
was a newspaper story recently about an old prospector in California who
recovered a small fortune in gold with the simple tools shown here. The
first, is simply a PVC tube with clear plastic glued onto one or both
ends. It
allows looking through cloudy, running water to
find gold in the cracks
and crevasses of gold bearing streams. A
handle is necessary to
help control the
buoyancy of the hollow tube and to keep it steady underwater.
The
methods of attaching the handle can vary: sheet metal screws, zip ties,
radiator
hose clamps, epoxy, silicone glue-seal.
To help counteract the buoyancy problem, the top of
the tube could be left
open and the tube filled with clear water from a
calm area of the stream. The water in the tube would also give
a magnifying effect.
PVC
Tube
The
PVC should be no less than four inches in diameter so both eyes can
be
used to look through the tube. The length doesn't matter too much but
a
longer tube gives a more pronounced "tunnel vision" effect and is more
awkward to carry. An eighteen to twenty-four inch tube is a
good all-around size.
Top
View
The other parts of this nugget
finder are the tools
for
cleaning out the cracks
to find the gold
trapped
within. A long handled "cook's spoon" or a garden
trowel will work nicely. A piece of wire coat hanger or
uncoated brass
welding rod with a few bends added helps in cleaning out tiny
areas.
Another
handy item is a screwdriver for cleaning out the narrower crevices
and
for prying nuggets loose. A pry bar is always useful for
opening up
cracks and crevices and loosening rocks to search
for nuggets trapped
underneath.
A turkey baster can be useful for providing a puff of air or a
stream
of water to clean out crevices above the waterline. A metal detector
is a real time saver to locate the nuggets without doing a lot of extra
digging then a person can use these tools to recover them. Metal
detectors made for locating the smallest nuggets are rather expensive, but
finding a few real nice nuggets could make the cost worthwhile. See
Metal Detectors
page.
