Cash in on the Gold Rush

Gold does not combine with other elements readily and is primarily found in elemental form or alloyed with other metals. It is one of the most valuable metals in the world and is worth mining even when the concentrations are low. Consequently, many methods have been developed for mining gold. The following steps will outline some of the more well-known methods.

Gold! Well, maybe. Many a gold miner has been fooled into thinking they have found gold when they have actually come across a mineral that resembles gold, referred to as "fool's gold." Another unfortunate occurrence is when someone buys a piece of gold jewelry that was, in fact, only gold-colored -- but how do you tell? This article will help you know when it is gold and when it isn't.

One of the most collected and desirable precious metals, gold is not as elusive as some may believe it to be. As a matter of fact, there are a variety of locales where you may expect to find gold. In some cases you may search for it yourself in the ground while in others you may need to do little more than log on to a Web site and complete a purchase order. Read on and learn how to find gold with a minimum of financial investment.

Put yourself in the shoes of the tens of thousands of forty-niners who traveled west in search of gold during the wild 1849 California gold rush.

Dry sluicing for gold is not only the fastest method for sifting gold from dirt and sand, it is also the most economical, as a dry sluice box can be built easily at home. A dry sluice box is a piece of equipment that is used to separate gold from gravel in areas where water is scarce. First introduced in the early 1920s, the dry sluicing method for gold prospecting has become popular in desert regions. So, don't get wet, go dry sluicing. Read on to learn how to go dry sluicing.

If you want to weigh gold it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. The reason is that gold in the form of coins, bars, or jewelry is almost never 100% pure. A piece of pure gold is soft and damaged easily, so it is combined with other metal to make it hard and durable. However, it’s easy to weigh gold once you know how to calculate the actual amount of gold an object contains.

Gold nuggets are more valuable than the weight of gold they contain. They're valuable because they're rare, collectible and often beautiful. Nuggets are rarely melted down; instead, they're sold as nuggets. With the price of gold increasing, though, there are fake nuggets appearing in markets and online stores. If you plan to find or buy a gold nugget, you need to know how to tell if it's real.

Most gold jewelry is is stamped with a hallmark noting the jewelry's karat weight, such as 10k, 14k, etc. However, not having the hallmark doesn't always mean that the gold is fake. Taking the piece to a reputable jeweler is the only foolproof way to verify whether or not a piece of jewelry is real gold, but there are some tricks you can try at home that can be accurate if done correctly.

Fool's gold, also known as iron pyrites, is a brass or gold-colored mineral that is easily mistaken for real gold. The early miners during the gold rush often thought they had made a fortune, only to discover their finds were not real gold. While real gold holds monetary value, fool's gold is virtually worthless. The most common United States locations for pyrite are in Utah, Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York.

Consumers buying gold jewelry are assured of its karat weight by the handy little stamp imprinted somewhere on the article. Unfortunately, recent investigations into the authenticity of the markings have exposed some less-than-scrupulous people working in the industry, marking products at higher karats than they are in actuality. While there are several methods to determine the actual weight and thus worth of a gold product, the most accurate is assaying or testing gold by fire.