Placers of Northern Nevada?

[silverstateprospector]

Hello fellow prospectors I have a question that I would like to have some help on ok well I am from Reno Nevada the biggest little city in the world and I've been bitten by the gold bug and need to get help hahaha well after doing a good amount of research on placer deposits around northern Nevada but only find very little info. So I was hoping that someone in here might be able to be of some help someone that knows the land and has prospected it before that can help me and direct me to the right place. Any info will be appreciated thank you and God Bless.

 

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[Clay Diggins]

Welcome Silverstate,

There are several known placer regions near you. The Rye Patch or Majuba placers are located to the North of Rye Patch Reservoir on Interstate 80 to your Northeast. This is a popular and easily accessible area for prospecting. To the Southeast of Majuba on the other side of the freeway are the Rabbit placers. There are more even closer to you but I'll let the locals share with you rather than publicly exposing their prospecting patches. ;-)

The best way to get started is to join a local prospecting club. You can learn the techniques and signs of gold while getting your feet wet. You will find your first gold there and discover the beauty of gold fever.

Once you are ready to head out on your own I would strongly suggest you learn the mining laws and the process of determining where you can prospect. You can not just begin prospecting anywhere that looks good to you. Besides the many mining claims you will encounter some public lands are closed to mining. In Nevada in particular you will find yourself in hot water fast if you prospect willy nilly. Learn the land status and claim locations first and then you will find there are many places still open to prospecting with some good chances of discovering your own treasure of placer gold.

There are many many small placers throughout Nevada. The Northern portion of the state is jam packed with small placers scattered throughout that vast area.

A very knowledgeable man, Jim Straight, showed me the key to understanding how to locate these small placers. He offered "Notes on Some Mining Districts in Humboldt County Nevada" USGS Bulletin 414 by Frederick Leslie Ransome. This was published in 1909 before Humboldt County was split to form Pershing County so the report covers a huge area. Get the report and study it to understand where the mineralized areas are that produce placer gold. I treasure my copy for it's information value and for the fact that such an important and generous teacher as Jim would choose to share it with me. Several mining suppliers still carry copies of bulletin 414. If you have difficulty finding it contact me through PM and I will help you find a copy.

Besides bulletin 414 I would strongly suggest two other books for the beginning or advanced prospector.

Jim Straight's book Follow the Drywashers
&
Chris Ralph's book Fists Full of Gold

Both of these authors are lifetime miners and graduates of Nevada's own Mackay school of mines right there in Reno.
Jim Straight is retired now and Chris Ralph is the associate editor of the ICMJ mining journal. You won't find better teachers for the small prospector/miner.

I also suggest for every prospector to have a subscription to the ICMJ magazine, it's the premier publication for small miners in the US. They have been publishing for more than 60 years and the magazine is chock full of useful information written by the most knowledgeable prospectors and miners alive today.

That should get you started Silverstate. If you need more information feel free to ask. There are many knowledgeable prospectors on these forums and I'm sure that you will find a wealth of information here.

Heavy Pans

 

[Fullpan]

Welcome to the forum, ssp - if you draw a 200 mile circle around Reno, you will have premier locations of gold inside. You can choose to drywash or MD the
high desert - or you can hop over the hill to pan/sluice the Mother Lode in ca. This last weekend there was a gold show at the Livestock Events Center - did you attend? Let us know what your general budget, type of vehicle, family situation is, and we can probably steer you in the right direction better.

 

[silverstateprospector]

Thanks for the info Clay Diggins. And Fullpan at the moment I'm trying to keep my trips to about an hour and a half drive because of vehicle conditions and I'm looking for places where I can take my 3 and 4 year old daughters because let me tell you Fullpan my little girls got the fever as much as me last trip we took to union flats campground in Cali they had a blast classifying the material and feeding it to the sluice and it was also the first time we found some of the yellow stuff. And my family and I are also members of the gpaa but they have very little land in Nevada.

 

[Fullpan]

The Pyramid City Panners - a.k.a. GPAA of Northern Nevada meet every month at Spanish Springs Library. Another great place beside Union Flats is the
Bear river campground near Colfax to take the kids. The Feather river bridge just short of Quincy is about an hour and a half from Reno. If you want to
just fool around, the Truckee river has black sand with a little "fly poop" gold occasionally found. A little day-use park at the Lockwood exit is perfect for
that.

 

[silverstateprospector]

The Pyramid City Panners - a.k.a. GPAA of Northern Nevada meet every month at Spanish Springs Library. Another great place beside Union Flats is the
Bear river campground near Colfax to take the kids. The Feather river bridge just short of Quincy is about an hour and a half from Reno. If you want to
just fool around, the Truckee river has black sand with a little "fly poop" gold occasionally found. A little day-use park at the Lockwood exit is perfect for
that.

On the truckee river really I was told by a couple of folks that the truckee didn't have nothing at all.

 

[Fullpan]

On the truckee river really I was told by a couple of folks that the truckee didn't have nothing at all.

That's right, no money to be had - probably a dollars worth in a hundred buckets of material. Only to practice panning, skipping rocks
etc,

 

[silverstateprospector]

I guess I can go check it out since its so close to me. Fullpan have you ever been prospecting around the olinghouse area?

 

[Fullpan]

I guess I can go check it out since its so close to me. Fullpan have you ever been prospecting around the olinghouse area?

Not so much prospecting as "snooping around". Last time out was over 5 years ago. At that time there was a caretaker and lots of warning signs about.
Since Alta Gold went bankrupt, some claims there belong to a local mineral dealer - ck out his website for contact info:

SCOTT WEBsite

I have no idea what his policy is on visitors out there, but may be worth an email.