As someone who went to college for geology i will say that most of what you are taught in undergraduate geology courses is big picture stuff. We did not have classes in undergrad that i would say specifically help with prospecting for gold.
From this I am always trying to formulate ideas on how the gold in my area formed and its relationship to geology of the region which could all be considered big picture stuff. In the end to prove those ideas it still all comes down to sample, sample, sample, sample sample, reformulate my idea from those samples cause my first, second and third hypothesis are usually wrong, then sample sample and sample some more. Very slowly a picture will start to come together on what is going on.
And honestly my best gold finds were found due to luck, and going to where big gold has been found before, and sampling everything. My best honey hole shows almost no gold at the surface, very little under the cobble and ontop of the clay (which a lot of people would stop at cause the assume it acts as a false bedrock). All the gold was under the clay right on top of bedrock.
So basically you dont need a geology degree to be successful, you need to read about the history of gold in your area, sample a lot, perseverance and document everything. It doesnt hurt to read up on the geology of the area as well. I will also say how you sample will depend on the equipment you plan to use, if you are using a dredge then you need to punch sample holes with the dredge and document how long you ran and the amount of gold recovered.
Hope this helps.
