How to Hunt for Gold Nuggets

Research the area you are interested in finding gold nuggets. Contact the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service to obtain maps of land ownership of the area you are interested in. These maps will show private property, state and federal land open to mineral collecting, patented mining claims, and unpatented mining claims.

Visit old abandoned gold mines. Old prospecting equipment was not 100 percent effective at gold recovery. Use your metal detector to re-work the rock pilings around the site. Metal detect in front of the mine entrance and all trails leading to and from the mine.

Pan, sluice, or dredge placer deposits in rivers every year. Placer deposits are located in gravel bars alongside a river, gravel benches above the river, and the inside bends of rivers. Many people do not realize that each year rains and flash floods replenish these gold pockets throughout river systems on a yearly basis.

Locate the source where the gold is entering the river for bigger nuggets. Follow placer deposits in a river upstream with a gold pan. Keep panning until your pan comes up empty consistently for a couple of miles. You now know you have passed the source of gold. Retrace your steps until you get on the gold again and look for quartz veins that are crossing the river. These quartz veins are a likely source of where the gold is entering the river system; work them hard with your metal detector.