And so, rainy days, rainy days, watching my prospecting videos. Fast forwarding, really, YouTube isn't keeping up with my appetite, giving me the same videos again and again even after I've claimed to have watched them. Their AI isn't so good.
An American Prospector, claim to fame that he once extracted 6 lbs of gold from a crevice in a river. Offering an online course, lecture series, OK, he's had a few videos, mixed qualities, give him a chance. Maps, geology, minefile data, lots of gold left in the US....
...Which degenerates into a diatribe on the environmental lobbies, climate change, from someone who might know what he's talking about to just another nut-job, loon, wing-nut, he knows his subject, for sure, but can't keep to it, his politics and conspiracies intervene, and I FFWD through it and give up...there's nothing here, maybe next video...
Look for the Kootenay videos, there are a few, very few, none that inspire great confidence, If you've got a claim on Wild Horse Creek you're set, otherwise good luck...
US Videos, there's a few, US Miner down in Arizona seems to have some luck with his metal detector out in the desert, and has the presence of mind to mine and get value out of the other finds he makes - an exposure of black tourmaline. Good. And while not pitching his equipment he lets you know what he's using. Good.
And there's Mining America, who basically tours the US hitting a bunch of different Fee-Dig sites and extracting whatever's on offer. Topaz, Calcite Filled Clams, Opals and other gems. I don't know how he affords it, although he's taking subscribers, pitching products and recommendations as to which fee-dig sites are best, so, while the information and reviews are good he's not what I'd describe as a prospector - more a hobbyist who's trying to monetize his interest in rock-hounding.
The eastern states are better - forever they're hauling up emeralds and aquamarines and sapphires and giant crystals of quartz and tourmaline, good to watch, but too far to go, and there would be laws, I'm sure, against my going to the states and stealing all their good gold and gems and so these have grown a bit boring. All this is here, somewhere, around the bend, up the mountain, in the creek, I only need the snow to go and the weather to improve and I'll be finding them all myself...
There are countless other videos, America is a selfie-nation, and this super-abundance of videos merely confirms a disturbing trend towards external validation, trying not so much to share information as solicit the admiration of your peers, find like-minded souls, a reaching-out, if you will, into the void of cyberspace and "Likes" and "Subscribers" to connect with people that don't - really - exist.
A plethora of other videos, pitching products, metal detectors, hibankers, sluice-boxes, some just recreational panners, you can tell, FFWD to the end, see what they got in their pan, are their other people in the background (probably hobbyists, not making a living), are they going to great lengths to describe the equipment they're using or begging you to subscribe? There's probably no good information here.
The rules - if you're looking for information, and they can probably be generalized away from prospecting - if they're trying to get you to subscribe, or recommend equipment (by brand name), if they're asking for donations, well, they're probably not doing so well. The old adage: "Those who can, do, those who can't Teach (and those who can't teach, teach phys-ed)" applies here. But look hard, keep looking, and there is good information out there.
Australia. Basically I imagine Australia as a giant gold nugget studded with diamonds. I mean, it's all there, only Aussies are mostly too lazy. Watch the videos. They knock off after a few hours work having collected a few ounces gold only because they're too fucking lazy to pick up the big gold chunks and carry them back to camp. Everyone knows you can't leave your trailer in Australia without stubbing your toe on a giant gold nugget. ...
The Aussie videos, they've fired my imagination. I know it's a case of "The Grass is Always Greener" - and I don't particularly care to immigrate - but the geology - geography, basically scrub and desert, the entire fucking country's a highway, 4WD accessible, temperate weather, only be sure to pack water, well, it's a hell of a lot easier. No forests, glaciation, anything over a two degree slope is considered a hill, if it carries on for a hundred yards you've got a mountain, I mean, really? Really? Don't get me wrong - fuck - there are perils there for sure, open mine shafts dropping hundreds of meters, you've got redback spiders and brown snakes and taipans and duck-billed platypus's trying to kick you with their venomous spurs and rabid koalas and saltwater crocodiles and boxing Kangaroos and those damned dingoes and sneaking Tasmanian Tigers, perils abound, every bush or shrub, but they're out there in shorts for 6 hours a day working the old metal detectors and producing - regularly - a couple of ounces a day.
Again, don't get me wrong - metal detecting is hard work - I mean it - no, stop laughing - try it, it's exhausting, fucking hours without a signal and then you're digging a two foot hole for a rusty boot nail, really, it's not fun. I'd rather be panning. And watching them, I can see where they're going wrong - their not digging out and panning the hole - not "working the hole" as we might say in Canada - we might, we're generally not that vulgar, and all the while I'm thinking how I'd do it better and really - really - a gram would be a pretty "good" day in my books, let alone a 64 gram nugget, and these guys, their hitting it, they don't need my advice (and would do well to ignore it) - riding their dirt bikes into the prospect, you can smell them just watching the video, finishing work to return to the trailer and the barbie, roasting up some bush-tucker, swilling their rum and playing their didgeridoos 'round the campfire...
The Aussies, hate to say it, they're the best, they're finding shit. Gold. Other stuff. Lotsa Shit. And - Aussies - I regard - as a lot more like Canadians than Americans. This is a prejudice, and as such it's probably not true, but that's what I'm thinking.
If you wanna watch these and other good down-under fossicking videos, try these channels:
Goldhounds Nugget Recovery: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCanm0gYhAZNL6-wNKkSXx8Q/videos
Aussie Bloke Prospector: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMullocky/ & https://www.youtube.com/user/19andrew72
"git out there and get into it..."
Liz Kreate: https://www.youtube.com/user/Careneri