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Big gold nuggets, small gold nuggets, gold prospecting sampling and finding gold. What I am about to share with you about naturally occurring gold placer deposits might surprise you. In the desert where gold placer deposits are found often there is 1 of 3 gold prospecting dynamics at work. In the first dynamic you only find fine gold and no nuggets. In the second dynamic you find both a mix of fine gold and gold nuggets. In the third dynamic you find gold nuggets but little fine gold.
So now maybe you are scratching your head. You might be saying to yourself if there are a lot of gold nuggets there must be a lot of fine gold. In you spend enough time in the field gold prospecting for gold placer deposits you will find in time that I am right. But why is this right? The answer is found in nature and geology. I don't want to just spit it out but rather to let you discover it on your own. Does this mean you must rethink sampling when gold prospecting? Yes and no. If fine gold is your query keep sampling. If nugget gold is your query stop and think. From first hand experience I can tell you many of the gold nuggets and large nugget gold placer bearing areas and washes the old timers missed were due to this fact. So how can you take advantage of this. The best way is a high quality metal detector, the second best way is to dry wash as much of an area you can if you know it contains nugget gold but through your sampling you are finding little if any fine gold, this becomes a gamble but it can pay off.
Gold bearing deposits in the deserts are vastly different than those where the gold is and has been constantly dispersed by water. Next time you are conducting gold prospecting research on placer gold areas think about this and next time your sampling for fine gold does not go as planned see what you can find out about gold nuggets being found in the area. Gold prospecting is a never ending learning experience.