Underwater gold prospecting

[Zolotov]

I am considering to shift my gold prospecting towards the seas. Or more exactly, oceans because I live in central Mexico, I have oceans on both sides. So I would like to ask about success ratio of finding gold underwater vs on land? If I search for gold jewellery on the beaches (3-5 meters deep), and for gold nuggets in river mouth , would I be able to pay my bills doing this kind of work? I am new to gold prospecting this is what I am asking. I went 2 times with geologists to prospect alluvial gold and we haven't found any microscopic gold particle yet. This is my reason to switch to the sea. I don't work so I can dedicate this task full time. But I don't know, maybe I won't find any gold in the ocean either...

 

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[Laz7777]

sounds to me like you're letting disappointment run the way you mine.
better get used to disappointment and keep working!
maybe working in the ocean will yield results..how can anyone tell you?
gold mining is a learning curve with a lot of back work, some research and more than anything else...........
PERSISTANCE

I cannot stress it any louder if I were shouting in your ear right now. if you give up because you can't find anything on land, it will be no different on the ocean.
I tried to give up, but the gold just keeps pulling me back
there have been so many times I wanted to walk away from my gear, let whoever found it have and say <*&^%& it!> and never look back....because I wasn't doing good or more likely, what I was expecting.
to be or not to be a miner, that is the question here....you'll be a perpetual greenhorn if you don't keep trying.

as far as for paying your bills...that question cannot be answered by anyone here. do you live simply? then maybe is my answer, which isn't an answer.

here's a Mexican story of PERSISTANCE:
the "Boot of Cortez", the largest nugget still in existance in the western hemisphere, was found in Sonora by someone with a Radio Shack metal detector. he gridded out an area and kept at it, and didn't give up because he had a POS metal detector and wasn't finding anything.

 

[Zolotov]

sounds to me like you're letting disappointment run the way you mine.
better get used to disappointment and keep working!

Well, not exactly. I have no problems with being persistent and whenever I get tired I just rest and then I can keep moving. But the thing is, I am choosing treasure/gold finding as my primary income. And for this to work out I need to increase my probabilities of finding gold. So , if statistically oceanic coast has more gold than rivers, then I would switch to the oceans. If it is not that way, I will have to go to the mountains or somewhere else. As I have understood, looking for rings on the beach can generate constant cash flow since there will be always a ring after some amount of work hours. This is what I need , a constant cash flow so I could invest time in more advanced searches and get more profits.

 

[Laz7777]

you increase your probabilities of finding gold by looking, searching, looking some more and then finding.
if you choose underwater prospecting, you'll need an investment of a wetsuit, waterproof metal detector, possibly a dredge, whichever way you decide to go in ocean prospecting, you'll likely have more of an investment than on land.
do you want to spend more money just to find out you can't find anything?
on land at least, most gold mining gear costs as little as a pan and a few digging tools.
I do make a small living off of gold in Northern California. my investment in gear is not much more than $200.
my ROI has been many times that.
to me, it sounds like you took a few looks, found nothing, and think that the ocean looks like a better deal. you gave up because you didn't get immediate results.
spend thousands and maybe you'll find out the same.

 

[Laz7777]

instead of an edit, let me add something:

you have to consider that most here are recreational prospectors. you want answers on being able to live off of your work. well, most here couldn't give you an answer.
I'm not putting anyone down, I have no animus against recreational prospectors. I get along with them better than most of my fellow miners.
most here spend more money on gadgets and gizmos, travel expenses and whatnots than what they pull from their efforts.
nothing wrong with that...it's called "having fun".

real mining, making a living off of gold or whatever you're looking for, is brutal.
which is why I'm giving it to you without lube. that's the way it is working for yourself and paying the bills, whatever they may be.
all I'm trying to say is that it ain't easy. if it were, there'd be kids bringing nugs to show and tell in their kindergarten class.
carefully consider how you want to work, then do it!

 

[Zolotov]

you increase your probabilities of finding gold by looking, searching, looking some more and then finding.

Well, that's where I would enter in a discussion. See, what is the probability of finding if you look on land which have been searched over 500 years? I have been told that the rivers where I looked for gold were carefully scraped with machines. How much would be left for me? Only gold accumulated by erosion in the last 50 or 100 years. But gold that have been accumulated during past million years have been collected already by people before me. Metal detectors are only 20 years old (in mass production), so searching on the coast should be more profitable. Simply because the amount of people who have metal detectors is much less than people who have a gold pan, if we consider that almost nobody is looking for jewellery on the beach. Also not everybody is going to submerge to do metal detection simply because there is only 3 metal detectors that can be submerged. This should increase your probabilities. You are saying that to increase probability you have to increase the amount of work. But I think you are not considering that the resource is finite. It is like when you play some card game and you know all the aces are out of the game already because you saw them leaving the game.

to me, it sounds like you took a few looks, found nothing, and think that the ocean looks like a better deal. you gave up because you didn't get immediate results. spend thousands and maybe you'll find out the same.

Well, if you spend thousands and you don't get anything in return this means you are in a bad business. That's why I don't want to invest (my time or money) in something that is of very low profit. If it would be a hobby then , maybe. But I need this activity of gold seeking (on the beach or whatever) to be profitable from the beginning. It doesn't have to be a 1kg nugget, but it has to be greater than zero, but I haven't achieved this yet. This means something is wrong, and right now I think it is the amount of resources left, not so my capacity to search. See, if I prospect gold every day, and in 2 days I get nothing, then I have 28 days (in a month) left to find what I have not found in those 2 days. If you would open a restaurant and for 2 days nobody comes in, would you think there is something wrong? Of course. That's what I think too.

 

[Zolotov]

you have to consider that most here are recreational prospectors. you want answers on being able to live off of your work. well, most here couldn't give you an answer.

You are actually making a good point. And I queried with this text:
treasure "for a living"
and got many answers to my questions. Thanks for the ideas!

real mining, making a living off of gold or whatever you're looking for, is brutal.

Then it is definitely not for me. I prefer to invest my time in somethig that I am passionate about and at the same make a good money. If looking for gold on land is not a good business I will look for metal detecting gold in the oceans. And if it is not good business there too I would probably invest my time in building robots for deep ocean mining. But if you do something "brutal" then it must be a wrong thing to do.

 

[winners58]

to see if there are off shore deposits, try the beaches north and south of a gold producing river
big storms will blow in the gold and the wave action will concentrate the gold and black sands
the investment is small just some ribbed rubber mating and some plywood, skim off the black sand layer & wash it.
check out this thread; this page and the next http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/sluicing/454120-got-out-little-today-22.html#post5297024

 

[Lanny in AB]

I work areas that have been extensively worked by machines, hydraulic-mined, dredged (scraped), wing-dammed, flumed and worked to bedrock, then meticuliously hand-worked by the Chinese after the other miners left having already used the aforementioned methods, etc., and there's still gold left behind. So, even if you're working inland, there's always some gold that was missed; no one gets it all. If you can, get together with some locals that are actually finding gold inland if that's possible and learn everything from them that you can. Every placer area is different and requires some new understanding. Finding gold is hard work, no doubt about it, but it can be done; however, you have to follow the three rules of prospecting ruthlessly: 1. Test, 2. Test, 3. Test

To make things simpler, it really will be better if you can get someone that's been at it a while in your area to show you the ropes, truly. If not, then you'll be blazing the trail by yourself through research, and that can work as well, but you'll need a serious investment of time and research material to figure things out, and you'll need considerable time in the field to locate your paying placer ground.

Beach mining can be done quite simply as stated above in Winner's post, so that might be the way for you to start if through your research you find there are gold beaches in your area.

As for making a living, it really is wide open to interpretation as to what that means to you. If barely surviving, then maybe, but if you find some good placer ground and really get to know what you're doing, then maybe an uptick in living.

I'd hit the placer streams in your area (regardless of how hard they've been hit) until you learn how to recover gold. That will give you some idea of the tenacity required for your initial training.

I don't make my living chasing nuggets; I enrich my overall life-experience chasing nuggets. For me, that's the draw, the chase, the mystery. It's the wonder of trying to interpret where Mother Nature cached her gold, and the surprise and reward that comes from solving her timeless riddles. Plus, I've met some incredible people I never would have met any other way.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[N-Lionberger]

looking for beach gold with a metal detector, thats a new one on me. If the beaches of Mexico are anything like the beaches of California the gold is very small, a surfwashing setup like winners58 mentioned is your best bet, If you can operate powered equipment a small dredge can do quite well as beach sand is really easy to dredge but you still need the big wide sluice with the ribbed rubber. There is tons of gold on the beach its just a pain in the ass to get it out. If you live in a popular touristy coastal area detecting for jewelry may be a possibility but do not underestimate the competition. I don't want to sound like an ******* but you want to quit the streams after two attempts, prospecting a stream is a lot of work, if it doesnt play out you move on in search of the next possibility. Prospecting isn't a profitable activity, it is a long laborious hunt for a deposit that can pay should you choose to mine it. Actually mining is brutal work especially if you are the sole operator. Comparing prospecting to a new eatery's success after two days really puts me off, that kind of success is based on factors you have a bit of control over, if your food is sub par get a new chef, buy better quality ingredients hell improve your advertisement. If there is no gold in the ground there is no gold in the ground, go search new ground.

 

[mike(swWash)]

Unless it's a heavily used tourist beach, you aren't going to get much if any money for your return on time spent trying.
As for looking for natural gold or treasure deposits....you'll have to look into past history of finds and dig, dig, dig to find out.
Last but most important, don't bet your life on making a living at either.
Sorry, but true.

 

[russau]

I hope you find a lot of gold / treasure!! BUT in the mean time ,what are you going to do for cash for food , gas , equipment to do this hunt for enrichment? It all is expensive! BUT good luck in any event! Keep in touch and show us some pictures of your bounty when you do hit it!

 

[russau]

Before you go to far ! check to see if your allowed to search the rivers /streams /ocean with or without a permit from the Mexican government BEFORE you get cash wrapped up in this! Do your research first. and do you have a backup plan and cash to support you while getting geared up and those in between days when your tired or its raining or your to sore or................

 

[Laz7777]

you say you need for your efforts to be profitable from the beginning, Zolotov?
good luck on that, whatever you do.

I see that my practical advice to you was for naught, be prepared to be hungry, because no matter what or how you search for gold or other items of value, you will not get immediate results unless you are extremely lucky.
and, I might add, the luck will not hold out.

and BTW, Mexico is definitely not mined out..I have a friend who regularly makes detecting trips to Baja California and comes back every time with a collection of small nugs.

 

[Bandmenter]

Before you go to far ! check to see if your allowed to search the rivers /streams /ocean with or without a permit from the Mexican government BEFORE you get cash wrapped up in this! Do your research first. and do you have a backup plan and cash to support you while getting geared up and those in between days when your tired or its raining or your to sore or................

Above all, test, test, test your area before investing in major equipment or it is just a hobby.

 

[Frank D.]

As a commercial diver of 18 years, I can tell you that unless you have ALOT of money, knowledge, and a crew to pay, you won't even be able to effectively prospect underwater, and especially offshore.. Way too many factors to even get into mentioning. Stick with prospecting on land.

 

[Zolotov]

As a commercial diver of 18 years, I can tell you that unless you have ALOT of money, knowledge, and a crew to pay, you won't even be able to effectively prospect underwater, and especially offshore.. Way too many factors to even get into mentioning. Stick with prospecting on land.

That doesn't scare me. The most scary part is the absence of gold. Have you found gold nuggets down there? Is there much of it?

 

[ScubaDetector]

I used to live off my finds from finding gold underwater in Michigan. HOWEVER, I had a lot of positives going for me. One when it was lost it was lost period. There are no currents, no tides, no deep sand. The ocean is a different critter. You don't find rings that were lost in the 1800's in 6" of sand on top of clay or hard pan.

I go over the waders with detectors heads. That is where I clean up. Not many divers metal detect in Michigan. I don't know how much competition you have to find gold there

I also never made a killing finding gold. My best year was 27 thousand dollars in 5 months. Last year was a little over 6 grand in gold and another grand in silver. This was working at it full time with 15 scuba tanks and finding different places to play.

You have to keep at it. Remember there will be days and places you won't find much of anything and just keep plugging away. I find places that nobody has ever touched. Where you have tides, waders can get out where there used to be 20' of water. You also need to find places that might have been popular beaches in the past but are not used much anymore. Hopefully you can find where a lot of sand has washed away and get down to the heavier targets like sinkers.

The ocean isn't an easy place at all to find gold. I was in Florida for 3 weeks a few years back. I found 688 coins and one gold ring. If you have to try to make a living off your finds, you had better be living a very meager life style.

 

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Regards
Kenn