What type of features should I look for when determining where to hunt? Obviously old camps, towns, tailings, or mines; but I'm thinking more about gold prospecting in particular. Rocky hills or mountains? Dry streams or creeks? What particular features should I be looking for?
If you're in the Philippines and in a gold rush area, the yellow metal is all over the place-- mountaintops, hillsides, plains, creeks and rivers and on the very spot you're standing on. But you have to elbow your way in among artisanal natives, small-time and bigtime panners and hydraulickers. Notice the bald mountain tops and silted and blacksand ridden waterways. I would not be surprised if all the recovered gold ended up in the blackmarket in Hongkong.
These Google-earth satellite images speak eloquently of environmental degradation. But rehabilitation should not be a difficult option. Historically, these places were thickly forested and in the middle of the jungle and ironically only about 40 km along a beautiful scenic route from a bustling seaport. It's within city limits of the same growing metropolis.
Postscript 1:
Recently a law has been enacted declaring the entire area off-limits to all forms of mining and so far the enforcement of the "No Mining Policy" has been satisfactory. But judging from the turbid, rust-colored water still persistently flowing out into the bay from the mouth of the river draining the area, it is safe to say that some (or a significant number) of individuals are still running a high fever of the auriferous kind that is poorly responsive to aspirin and creates a vicious cycle of remission and relapse; and a when-the-cat-is away-the-mouse-will-play or hit-and-run-guerilla-warfare kind of situation exists.
But looking back, the area has been mined by the natives with their wooden gold pan or "bilingan" for centuries, even long before the Spaniards arrived and the environmental impact has been minimal or nil. Regulated recreational mining in conjunction with reforestration might be a "win-win" solution but for it to work we have to keep the Big Boys like the well-financed undocumented mainland Chinese (shades of gold-rush Ghana) with their out-sized sluices and backhoes, OUT!
My apologies to the Moderator for the somewhat un-TreasureNet tone of the above.
tabu
Postscript 2:
This additional Google-earth image is one of the places mined by an American old timer and adventurer during the late American colonial era or during the period preceding World War II. On actual field inspection, in the vicinity of the pool of water in the center of the picture, one can still appreciate vestiges of old hillside channel cuts running straight down to the river's edge but now heavily covered by debris. There's still an appreciable amount of gold as it has been reworked for some time prior to the imposition of the current mining prohibition by the government. Trivia: This particular spot is approximately 23 kilometers from the City Hall by helicopter!
Update: On top (date: March 14, 2015) is the same place after all illegal mining activities were halted since the previous satellite imagery was posted.
