The best thing you can do to ensure your success as a gold prospector is to learn.

 Learning can come from many sources:

1) A club 2) Friends 3) Books 4) Databases 5) Software 6) Online Forums

Lets talk about gold prospecting clubs. A great place for a new prospector to start. Places to legally go and prospect, meetings to ask questions, opportunities to try new prospecting equipment and much more. You should not have any problems getting your money back in gold if the claims are decent and you persist.

Friends can be that extra set of eyes, the objective opinion you need. A partner to go out with and learn with.

Books are full of information. Some good, some not so good. But the more you read the more you learn.

Databases of information can be found online and from various government agencies on CD.

There are a number of companies that make gold prospecting software.

 Online forums are a great place to start, ask questions and get answers from veteran gold prospectors.

Don’t forget to get out  into the gold fields. Nothing beats filed experience.