Gold surges upward

Denver Gem and Mineral Show has come and gone, and after 10 days of placer mining and metal detecting, one of packing everything up and getting things ready for the winter, and one to do laundry before spending four days in booths, I had to take a couple of days to catch up on SLEEP and rest. Today was a busy day for me and for my favorite metal GOLD. What with the financial markets tanking again today, there is a lot of fleeing into gold and silver, and gold is up over $100.00……TODAY! $886 as I write.

Christmas is coming in a few months, and while I know you aren’t ready to let go of summer yet, (first day of fall is Tuesday?) I wanted to remind you that we have lots of items for prospector gifts in our gold ‘n’ store, so pop on over and take a look. I have another gallery to put up of jewelry that has more on it than is showing right now, so come back in a day or so and see what else we have on hand. You can also order anything on the extended jewelry pages at about 40 % off the price that may be quoted on a page other than what we have in stock. I work with a company that has been in business for 42 years and takes great pride in their nugget, gold in white quartz, gold in black quartz and silver ore jewelry in 14 K gold or sterling silver. Lots to choose from. Mining scenes, too. Something for every prospector on your list starting at $5.00.

Golden Memorial Day Weekend

Yeah, there's still this much snow in the high country!

How was your weekend? We had fun Bar-B-Queing with friends on Sunday and then took a trip to the mountains for a day of metal detecting on Monday. While we were after gold, we only found bullets, wire, slag, and those cinder things that say they are gold but aren't.

And snow! Wow, is there still a lot of it around! Roads that should be open by now are still snowed closed, and the wind was a bit more than CRISP! The sky threw snow pellets at us off and on all day, too. However, it was WONDERFUL to get out, look for gold, and walk the mountains for the first time this year. Water levels in the rivers are already high and climbing, so be careful if you are out placer mining. It reminded me that I had fogotten to put up the stream levels this last Friday for you. We are still waiting for that spring thaw to come and melt enough snow that we can go and really find some gold.

Website announcements: Apparently the forms page is not working, so until I can get it fixed, you can email me at info@hookedongold.com with your requests. You can put your request or "panning tips" in the subject line and I'll get those out to you ASAP. The web gremlins are out in force as I have had several problems with scripts this past week. Thanks to all of you who have been so patient with me. I sure helps when you are so kind and when you let me know when something isn't working right. Sometimes it is the only way I find out something needs fixing.

Gold had made a nice rally on Monday but is back down this morning. It sits at $905.70 as I write and still above $900, though, so that isn't bad for a start.

Gold Prospecting Labor Day Week with Hooked on Gold

Twin Lakes, Colorado




Wow! What a golden week! We have been back about a day and a half, and you can imagine all that needs to be done with the Denver Gem and Mineral Show starting tomorrow. Where to begin! What to tell you! Since it has been almost two weeks since my last blog, I will need to put on my thinking cap to remember everything you will want to know.

Our first weekend was a BLAST with a total of 10 participants gathering to do some panning and sluicing on the Arkansas to teach the newest member of the group the basics. Everyone found gold who looked for it, and those who came from lower altitudes got a day to acclimated to the altitude. Our "Chuck Wagon Cook", Elkhorn Jack, put on a feed for us that night of a wonderful chili, cowboy bread, and peach cobbler. You can watch for him next year on Cable T.V. putting on his Chuck Wagon cooking show. YEEEEHAAA!

Sunday found us up Flume Creek, west of Cache Creek and south of Twin Lakes, checking out a possible placer claim. Fabulous views were in store for the group, along with a placer mining site worked as late as the depression. The area is overgrown with willows and dificult to navigate, so we will pass on the claim. Access is by foot trail up about 500 feet above the parking area at about 11,000 feet. The old cabin is caved in, but has a marker nearby with an explaination of its' use and last rebuild. After the hike a look about, we headed back down to the BLM Cache Creek open area for an afternoon of finding gold, talking with those mining there, and deciding where to dig. We set up sluices and panned the pleasant afternoon away and decided where to set up the highbanking equipment when we got back. We all pulled out some nice course gold from the area, along with somne nice flakes. All for now. I'll tell you about the metal detecting we did the next day, tomorrow. Good prospecting? You bet cha! Pictures coming, too.

Gold question of the week for March 28, 2007.

Gold is back up above $670 this morning and it looks like it might keep rising. Or not. The picture on the left is of gold taken fron Gains Creek, Alaska, and was sitting in the cases of the Colorado Nugget at the Tucson Show in Feb, 2007.

This week's gold question takes a bit from ancient history and ties it back to today. Much of what the Egyptians knew is still used today, and many of their ingenious ways to extract gold from rock and placer areas are the same today as they were back then. We just use more modern materials. A search on the net for gold in ancient Egypt will give you a wealth of information about ancient techniques that will look and sound very familiar to the prospector. Take a trip down the Nile River in Ancient Egypt for some very interesting information on gold and how to get it.

Hooked On Gold's QUESTION OF THE WEEK: March 28, 2007.

According to the Code of Menes, what was the value of gold to silver. Compare to today.

ANSWER: According to the Code of Menes in ancient Egypt, the value of gold was 2 1/2 times the value of silver. Today it is about 50 to one.