Metal Detecting Guides & Reviews

An honest look at how much gold recreational prospectors find in a day, what controls the result, and how to sample a spot before investing more time and money.

A complete gold concentrate cleanup workflow, from labeled buckets to a vial of clean gold, including classifying, magnet work, spiral wheels, drying and weighing.

Classifying material is one of the cheapest ways to recover more gold. Here is what mesh sizes mean and which classifier screen sizes fit each piece of equipment.

Black sand hides fine gold in every pan. Learn how to classify, de-magnetize and finish concentrates so you separate gold from black sand without losing it.

A step-by-step guide to panning for gold: the gear you need, the shake-and-wash technique, where gold settles in a stream, and the rules for recreational panning on public land.

Oregon's gold country runs from the Rogue and Applegate rivers to the Baker City district, and Washington has historic placer creeks in the Cascades. Here is where to look and how salmon-habitat rules limit motorized mining.

America's first major gold rush happened in the Southeast, and north Georgia's Dahlonega gold belt still gives up color. Here is where to look, what the national forest allows and how the Carolinas fit in.

Colorado gold is mostly fine placer gold in mountain creeks below historic mining districts. Here is where prospectors look, which public areas welcome panning, and when you need a permit.

Alaska has dedicated public recreational mining areas, open panning creeks on the Kenai Peninsula and BLM land along the Dalton Highway. Here is where to go, which permits apply to dredges and sluices, and what to pack.