ARe there any Gold Miners/prospectors in AZ?

[Vincardog]

I have decided There will never be another IT job for me. The next best thing will be to be prospecting for GOLD. Are there any DUers in AZ who might be willing to show me the ropes?

[NMDemDist2]

1. hubby has a crazy old uncle who does that n/t

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. I did some panning many years ago

About 15 years now near Lake Pleasant. Really just as a fun family thing - the bit of dust we collected would not pay for the gas getting there. The part that I found most amusing was seeing tourists stop to take pictures of us.

As for getting serious and earning money - I'm sorry to say I don't have enough knowledge. ProMack in Apache Junction has supplies and advice:

http://www.promackminingsupsouth.com/

[Zorbuddha]

3. Join a club. There are several in Az

Inexpensive and can get you started in the right way.

GPAA
http://www.goldprospectors.org/

It's a ton of fun, but hard, hard work.

[Greyhound]

4. Know what you mean, even the unemployed IT board is gone...

time to move on. Hope you fund the Lost Dutchman, and use it well. :thumbsup:

[Igel]

5. I have a brother-in-law in Tucson that's panned,

he worked for the forestry service doing spotted owl surveys for a while way back when.

But he's a committed aficionado of Little Green Footballs these days, so I don't think you and he would hit it off.

[unrepuke]

6. The guy selling supplies is the one making any money. Scraping for gold

is like searching for spotted owls in Tucson.

I wonder who funded the Lost Dutchman the first time?

[Catshrink]

7. My dad used to do that a lot.

He had some theories about using mercury to extract the gold. I used to play with mercury as a kid.

He has a friend near Wickenberg who get some "color" quite often. The guy has a claim up there somewhere.

I don't think you could make a living -- but it's a fun thing to do.