Pondering some new furnace ideas....

Mining for Gold

My prospector buddy and I have been collecting and assaying different samples from different area's in Utah and Arizona. We have found some good samples, but the problem is that we have to find a mining method to extract the precious metals from the ore. We have came up with an idea of breaking the method in two parts. My prospector buddy is doing the chemistry side where we find simple solutions to disolve and precipitate the various metals from solution, and I am doing to engineering side where we are trying to build a simple backyard furnace to heat and melt the metals into ingots. Gold is at $1,245.00 a troy ounce as of June 27, 2010, and that is really exciting especially when it comes to having Gold fever. We have worked out a good combination for disolving the metal. I have been working on several different models of a furnace and I have had good luck melting metal, but so far I need to build a furnace out of better material so it won't break down with the intense heat. I have been using coal to melt the metals and it works but it burns out to fast, so I have been trying to run a oil line to burn used oil. From what I have gathered from research is that oil has a higher BTU than propane and it runs longer without having to refuel or stoke the furnace. It is also cheaper than propane especially when you get it in a used form. WVO ( waste vegetable oil ) works good too, only you have to keep it in a warm state otherwise it will gel up. I am currently in the process of drawing up new plans and collecting the materials needed to build my new furnace. I hope that I will be able to get it all built in the next couple of months. I will keep you updated here on "Desert Gold Pick" from time to time, thank you for following along with my site.

$1,000.00 ounce Gold!!

When times are tough and unemployment rises, you take desperate measures to do anything you can to keep fed. Watching the Gold prices steadily rise and the dollar fall you can't help to dream of wanting to find gold to survive. I see television ads and newspaper clippings and other sources where you can take in your jewelry stash, or your prized watch from your grandfather, or any other object that has precious metal value and trade it in for cash. Well, don't forget my friend that they only give you "Spot" price which is less than what Gold is actually going for. "Spot" price is determined by how much Gold is in the object plus refineries fee, and other means it take to get the Gold. So....What do you do?? Well, there is a couple of ways to get more than "Spot" when selling Gold. First, you might want to sell it to an individual who collects Gold for various reasons. Second, try selling to a jewelry dealer (if you have Gold nuggets) which pay more than "Spot" price for a nugget that has it's own precious value. Third, if you are selling jewelry, you might want to have it appraised to see if it has value beyond the price of Gold for either rarity, or some other collectible status of the object. There is other ways to sell Gold, but the best thing is is to do your homework and research outfits before you sell. With the econimic downturn and falling of the dollar, having Gold is an envy because of it's stability. Gold has been around from the beginning and has caught the attention of man from generation to generation. Being tangible and solid Gold is scarce and hard to get, and this is the reason why it becomes more valuable. So, I suggest that if you have Gold or want to become a prospector and find some Gold, right now is the time to do it because Gold pushing $1,000.00 an ounce is pretty exciting. I wish you best of luck and hope you can benefit from the great prices of Gold in this time of hardship and turmoil.

Gold Price's

Recently Gold has risen again from the 800 dollar range to the 900 dollar range almost breaking a 1000.00 dollar point. Last year with the oil crises and the beginning stages of the recession gold hit the all time high of 1,013.00 dollars an ounce which has never been that high before.
You can only imagine what people were thinking! Round up all the old jewelry and old coins and any other object that had gold in it and cash it in. Mining companies were re-opening there mines and old and new prospectors were popping up everywhere scouring the hills just to find their fortune. So how do we take the new prices of metals?? Well, for starters, I think by cleaning up old things like soda can's laying around, copper, aluminum anything that you can take in and cash out is best thing to do. Then go for other precious metals such as watches, jewelry, old computers, cell phones other electronics and try to figure out how to get money from them. I for one have been enjoying the hills by just prospecting and sampling ore to find gold.
I go probably 1 to 4 times a month when time allows it and just fine tune myself with the solitude of nature and soak all the peacefullness you gain being outdoors. I take my family out often with me just to enjoy their company and spend time with them. I hope to do more in the near future as in panning and sluicing the nearby rivers to find nuggets and such. Until next time, enjoy and go where gold is known to be found.

Gold Rush

Shoot-me, I am not a very good blogger. The latest news is that we are still in a recession, and everyone has either lost their job, or lost their home, or something tragic. If you have'nt experience any-sort of these consider yourself lucky. So far the headlines are on downsizing, reducing, transforming, or whatever you call it when people are just plain laid-off or fired. Obama is gonna save us all!!, And when?? Well, keep your shirt because you may need it later. I was watching the news last Sunday and one of the topics were that California is going through another Gold Rush. I perked right up and watched, and sure enough, they're people out with all sorts of equipment that finds gold and all ages were out trampling the hills for there next paycheck. Hold the train!! I'll pack my bags and join you out in the hills. To bad California is so far away, or I would definatlely be out there trying my luck.

Gold and the Economic Crisis.....

I found this article very interesting and wanted to relay it to you who may interested in reading it. This is courtesy of http://www.goldprice.org/gold/2008/11/gold.html and if you want to read more I recommend this site highly.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Gold is one of the chemical elements. Gold's chemical symbol is Au and its atomic number is 79. Its chief characteristics are that it is inert and malleable. Inert means gold does not interact with other chemicals or compounds. Gold doesn't tarnish and even the strongest acids have no effect. Thus, gold lasts forever - and stays shiny the whole time! Gold has many industrial uses, but its main historical uses have been for jewellery and money - both are a store of value. Gold has been used as a store of value for at least 5000 years. Gold is measured and prices are quoted in Troy Ounces and Grams. As an example of gold's ability to store value, 2000 years ago one ounce of gold would buy a fine man's outfit. Today one ounce of gold will still buy a good quality man's wool suit with enough left over to buy a few shirts, a tie, some underwear, socks, a pair of shoes and a belt!Gold has been called a "barometer of fear." When people are anxious about the economy - they turn to gold and bid the price up. The two main things that make people anxious are deflation and inflation. Most think that deflation is "falling prices" and inflation is "rising prices." Actually, rising and falling prices are symptoms. The root causes are decreases (deflating) or increasing (inflating) of the money supply. Gold has the remarkable ability to store value in both deflationary and inflationary times.The correct way to think about owning gold is as insurance. Gold is a store of value virtually independent of economic conditions. Unlike shares of a company or government bonds - gold will always retain value. Gold's most important use is insurance against the paper (fiat) currency of the country you live in. Almost every country has had at least one major "currency crisis" over the last one hundred years. Those that had some of their wealth in gold survived. Unfortunately many people saw their saving become worthless - sometimes in a matter of days. So, think of gold as insurance. Do not think of gold as a way to "make money." Do not try and "time the market." It is better to buy gold in small amounts regularly, every month for example, over a period of time. The percentage of your total wealth devoted to gold is a personal decision and depends on your particular situation. A conservative goal would be ten percent. In times of uncertainty the percentage should be much higher. Do not worry about selling gold when that time comes. Gold is recognized and valued everywhere in the world. It is easier to sell gold than to buy gold! Of course gold can be used in barter or trade as it has for thousands of years. To summarize, gold is an insurance policy against economic uncertainty. Gold can protect against both deflation and inflation. Everyone should store some of their wealth in gold if at all possible.

My Brother and I......

Last August I ran out of work so I called a guy in Salt Lake City to see if he had extra work for me to join him for a week. After I got work all squared away I then called my little brother to see if he wouldn't mind putting me up for a week while I came to work. He of course didn't care and was delighted to have me come to visit, and while I did we shot the breeze and went out and had some fun. On one occasion I wanted to go panning for gold since I brought my gold pans and wanted to try my luck panning for gold while I was here, and successfully talked my little brother into coming with me. We took his little Honda because gas was $4.00 or more a gallon during this time and it was very spendy to fill my truck up. I previouly had in mind going to the Spanish Fork Canyon to pan for gold and this was roughly a 40 minute drive from where my brother lives. We loaded up what we thought we would need and I grabbed my gold pans and my metal detector just in case and we went to the service station to fill up with gas and started out around 5 pm. 40 minutes later we were at the entrance of the canyon and we didn't realize that we had to pay an entrance fee, and when we got to the fee house we told the lady what we wanted to do and the lady looked at us and smiled and let us on through with-out paying and told us where we could go pan for gold.
We drove up the canyon about 3/4 of a mile from the fee house and found a spot that looked pretty good, so we grabbed our stuff and headed to the creek to pan for gold. I grabbed my pan and filled it with gravel and dirt from the creek and started to swirl it around to feed off the unwanted rocks and dirt to get to the gold. My brother didn't know how to do this so he watched for a minute and grabbed my other pan and tried to copy what I was doing and before long he had it down pretty good. We didn't find any gold but the black sand concentrate was very rich and I figured that we may have been to far down stream to get anything. By this time the daylight was dimming and it was getting hard to see what we were doing, even though it was plenty light outside the area we were at the Sun was going down on the other side of the mountain. So we packed up our things and headed back to Salt Lake to grab a bite to eat and I told him that I had alot of fun metal detecting when I had the chance. After dinner my bother said lets go metal detecting since we had alittle more daylight in the valley we headed to a spot that was a historical site. It wasn't far from home and we got there in no time and we parked and grabbed my Garrett 150 and started to look for treasure. Right off the back it beeped and we found a quarter 2 inches below the grass and I showed him how to put everything back just the way we found it. We did this for probably 2 hours and we found all kinds of stuff, we found an old key, several coins that added up to 30 some odd cents and hair clips, and other stuff I can't remember. My brother was just bouncing off the walls because of all the things we were finding and it was pushing 10 pm and we were still detecting under the light post that were around. We finally called it a night and headed back home. I had a great time hanging out with my little brother and I wish we had more time to hang out and find more treasure. Hopefully next time I get work in the area I can invite my brother to go treasure hunting with me again.