HookedonGold Gazette 2/13/09

Here's another gorgeous piece of gold from the Denver Gem and Mineral Show this past September

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $941.60
· Spot price last Gazette: $911.40
________________

Calendar of Events
FEBRUARY
· 2nd Groundhog Day
· 5th – 13th TUCSON Show (boy do we wish we could be there!)
· 11th GPOC Regular Meeting 7:00 p.m.
· 12th Lincoln’s B.D.
· 14th VALENTINES DAY Remember your honey today!
· 16th PRESIDENTS Day
· 22nd Washington’s B.D.
· 25th Ash Wednesday

MARCH
8th Daylight Savings Time begins
11th GPOC Regular Meeting 7:00p.m.
17th St. Patrick’s Day
20th Spring Equinox
_______________________________________
NEWS

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY to all of you. Make it a golden one.

The spot price of gold sure has had its’ ups and downs this week, but it is steadily trending up each week, and looks like it will continue to do so for the near future. A pull back would be expected as the stimulus package gets approval next week, but all the charts are looking up for at least a quarter. If the markets like what they see next week, I would expect gold to pull back, but if they don’t like what Congress does, I look for gold to continue its’ upward march for a while. This summer could be interesting all the way around.

For those of you who are coin collectors, the new Lincoln Silver Dollar is for sale on the US Mint site now. They have also begun to release this year’s special penny’s, too. You can find more info on the coins at U.S. Mint.gov. (Boy, I hope I got that embedded link right!) If that link doesn’t work just try www.usmint.gov and find the page. The silver dollars are priced at $37.95 each.

Ok, I told you I had a thought or two on mining and green energy, so you have fair warning about what I’m about to write. I was reading about the wind turbine plants that are being built here in Colorado, and though I am pro business and love to see high paying jobs come to my state, it made me think about the process of green energy.

The end result of the turbines is supposedly green, but what about the process of building them? They are not made out of plastic, and if they were that would be a whole ‘nother question, but base metals, and that means those metals have to be mined somewhere. Many times, gold mining includes the mining of base metals, and often it is what sustains a mine if a vein pinches out.

Now, if we close all those gold mines because some think gold is not essential, where do we go for the base metals to build the wind turbines and solar panels that take up so much land surface, and need batteries to store up their energy? If we need so many of these turbines and solar panels in this country, why are we making other countries mine what we need in more toxic conditions? (Of course, if we didn’t, those countries populations would not have as many jobs, either) If we “need” so much here, how green is it to mine our metals somewhere else and import them? I’ve said it before, and I will say it again; if you use metals that are not mined in this country where you can control the environmental conditions within reason, you have no right to go around saying that mining in other countries should be stopped because it is toxic to the environment.

Walk, don’t ride a bike, drive a car, or take a plane anywhere you are going. Petroleum based products are mined just as are metals. It takes some type of energy to “make” those turbines before they can produce energy themselves, and the return is not as great as what it took to produce the product. It is the law of diminishing returns. The same law says that you cannot make enough energy from the sun as what it takes to produce the item that is collecting it. The same is true with ethanol. You cannot get the same amount of fuel out of corn that must be grown and converted.

This is why fossil fuels are so efficient for us right now. Even though we cannot get the same amount of energy out of it that was put into it, it was created billions of years ago from energy spent even more billions of years ago. With green energy, we are trying to use what we have available right now to meet the needs we have RIGHT NOW. The law of diminishing returns says that isn’t possible under the current circumstances. There is no known perpetual motion machine. The answer? I have no idea, but I am certain we are throwing an awful lot of money at a solution that cannot work in the long run. My hope is that through this trial and error, we actually find a solution that can work.

Right now, I do not see us getting away from fossil fuels for quite some time, and green efforts will be expensive and not be able to return what anyone expects. The numbers simply do not add up. My basis for this opinion? My husband has worked in the energy industry for over 30 years. While I am not in that capacity, we do discuss the topic with many people in the field, and so I have a vested interest in finding another solution that is viable and cost effective to the customer.

Remember, YOU are the one who will pay for all of this. Should your government ever decide to nationalize the energy section, you will pay for it, too, and at a MUCH higher price. Fossil fuels and global warming has been pretty much debunked in scientific circles so the new catch phrase has been changed to “Climate Change”. If a singe volcanic eruption can put out more Co2 than all the industrial pollutants put out in every country in the world for one year, how can we blame fossil fuel consumption for climate change or global warming. Climate change has been plotted for centuries. Droughts come and droughts go. But, then I hear they blame colder winters on it, too.

So, now you’re asking what this has to do with prospecting for gold? All of these attitudes keep others who think their “green” concerns are more important than yours, and they have been and are right now effecting how, where and when you can look for gold. Some of these things are just silly and are made to keep you from pursuing prospecting gold or gemstones or anything else, for that matter, but road closures and “studies” keep you out of areas that have been historically open to the public. Public land isn’t so public any more, and more and more special interest groups are gaining “private” access to public lands. When the government closes a public lands area, they aren’t preserving it for you. They are keeping you out. Now, everyone knows I’m blonde, so I’m probably wrong about all of this. However…….

I read an interesting item today about the amount of gold that has been produced, but rarely do I see anything about the current annual production of gold. I saw it today and thought I’d pass it along to you FYI.
Total produced to date approximately 140,000 tons
Worth 4.5 trillion dollars at $1,000 per ounce
75% is in gold coins or jewelry
2,600 new tons produced every year, or we are adding about 2% per year
Worth 83 billion dollars
Doesn’t look like much gold is out there, to me. Our own spending in this country way outstrips how much we find. Now you know why we use paper. LOL!

I suppose that’s enough for today. I’ll have to blog later about the other news, as I’ve probably taken up more of your time than you wanted me to, now. LOL! I twitter daily, so follow me there. It also posts here in the left hand column and on facebook. Prospecting equipment links below and some DIY sites, too.

Panning Kits Here
Monthly Specials HERE
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Here are a few links to DIY projects:
Ratled's Highbanker
http://49ermike.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=181&topic_id=58181&mesg_id=58181&page=
Highbanker
http://www.49ermike.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=181&topic_id=65680&mesg_id=65680&page=
Slick Sluice Info.
http://golddredger.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=106&forum=DCForumID9&viewmode=threaded
DIY Bucket Classifier
http://www.hookedongold.com/gold_panning_tips.html

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Meetings, Metals, and Musings

The Gold Prospectors of Colorado meeting last night in Colorado Springs was well attended and our speaker, Larry Weilnau, spoke on metal detecting for gold in Colorado. Finding gold in Colorado with a metal detector can be tricky, since many of our deposits were in tellurides, silvanites, calaverite, wires, crystals, and small leaf, and there are metal detectors that do a better job of finding this type of gold than others.

A lively discussion followed the talk, with many people coming forward to see the specimens he brought and to see how the detectors would read them. If you are wondering where he detects for gold, he said it was somewhere west of Colorado Springs, east of Grand Junction, south of Blackhawk, and north of Durango. That about covers it. LOL!

You have to have your head in the sand if you aren't hearing anything about the new stimulus package. What would you do if you found out there was a chance that they would be coming back before the end of the year for another 3 trillion dollars? Hang on to your hat, because there is a possibility that might happen. Just remember, the more money Washington prints now, the higher inflation will be when the economy turns around. Funny thing is, the economy always turns around, even after the G.D. Slowly, but it did turn. AND even our President said this past week that this is no depression type scenario.

Anyone who reads my blog for any time, knows that I blog about prospecting for gold in the summer when we are out and about, and I blog about mining concerns in the winter when I have time to access more information. I have a couple of things to delve into tomorrow in the newsletter that came across my mind this morning that have to do with mining and green energy.

Gold slammed through the $950 ceiling this morning to $951 before turning back down, but it is on the rise again here at mid morning. If it continues in this fashion today we could be looking at the spot price reaching the $1,000 mark soon. With the stock market hating the stimulus package's lack of regulation, unemployment figures up, and more businesses closing, metals are due to rise this spring as predicted. One good bit of news today, though. The trade deficit is down again.

Have you been out prospecting yet this year? We have not, but with weekends warming up, we will be venturing out into the near mountains with friends, soon, to look for gold. At the very least, it gets us out of the house and into the sunshine. That's it for me. As always...

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau

HookedonGold Gazette 02/06/09

This is just that big son of a gun from the Denver Gem and Mineral show last September, and I just like it.

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $911.40
· Spot price last Gazette: $927.10
________________

Calendar of Events
FEBRUARY
· 2nd Groundhog Day
· 5th – 13th TUCSON Show (boy do we wish we could be there!)
· 11th GPOC Regular Meeting 7:00 p.m.
· 12th Lincoln’s B.D.
· 14th VALENTINES DAY Remember your honey today!
· 16th PRESIDENTS Day
· 22nd Washington’s B.D.
· 25th Ash Wednesday

MARCH
8th Daylight Savings Time begins
11th GPOC Regular Meeting 7:00p.m.
17th St. Patrick’s Day
20th Spring Equinox
_______________________________________
NEWS

I’ve had a few minutes this past week to actually read some of the back issues of some of magazines we get. One that caught my eye was a report about the Washington State small scale mining regulations that have been fought about for years, now. I won’t go back into the background on this issue, as I have been reporting on it for a long time, but dredgers in Washington State have been hopeful that new regulations would be simplified and that any regulations imposed would be backed by sound science. Their hopes were in vain as a new 92 page regulation booklet will have more restrictions than before, including a ban on dredging in June and July because there “might” be fish eggs still in the gravels after spawning season ends. (Oh, and by the way, they are required to carry this regulation booklet on their person at all times while they are prospecting.)

This goes hand in hand with what I am reading and hearing about governmental opinions on the impacts of small miners and whether their activities have to be tolerated by officials. Your activities are quite likely to come under ever more restrictions, and keeping up with what is going on about regulations is going to be in your own best interest. Those of us who live in states that bear gold will need the cooperation of those who visit, or we could very well lose our rights to prospect for gold, metals or gemstones in the near future.

Another story I have written about here is the ongoing saga of the Odyssey Marine, a treasure seeking vessel that has, again, found another sunken ship with gold treasure, this time off the coast of England. As you remember, the last one they found was off the coast of Spain and they are still in court over who has rights to the gold found onboard.

Now, it seems, they have found HMS Victory, sunk in 1744 with all 1150 hands aboard and over 4 tons of Portuguese gold in its hold. Naturally, Britain claims the ship, Portugal the gold, and the Odyssey is saying “finders keepers”. Should be another fun time in court for them. I wonder how long it will be before any of this gets settled.

Yesterday, Goldman Sachs raised its’ forecast on the price of gold for the next three months. It is expecting the metal to reach $1,000 due to larger than expected demand, $300 higher than its’ previous prediction of $700. Just goes to show you, even the best are sometimes fooled about what is going on. LOL!

Well, my time is up and so I will leave you with an interesting story I found on my tweetdeck this morning. It concerns absolutely everything in your life because it is written about the stimulus package before congress right now. The author made some comments I thought you might like to read about. You can find it at http://www.informationarbitrage.com/2009/02/a-new-bailout-plan-hardly.html if you like, and if not I’ll just bid you Good Prospecting.

Panning Kits Here
Monthly Specials HERE
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Here are a few links to DIY projects:
Home Made Suction Nozzle
http://www.geocities.com/indianagold/home_made_dredge.htm

Battery Powered Mini Highbanker
http://www.geocities.com/indianagold/mini/battery_powered_mini.htm

DIY Equipment Sluice, Hand & Mini Hand Dredge, Classiffer
http://semprfish.com/

DIY Bucket Classifier
http://www.hookedongold.com/gold_panning_tips.html

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Hooked on Gold page Updates

Dashing off a quick note today. The regular newsletter will be published tomorrow, but I wanted to let you know that the pages under "Articles of Interest" were all reworked, organized, and republished this week with one new page added to the group, called Why Learn To Use a Gold Pan?. More updates as the weeks go by, but I only seem to be able to tackle 4 or 5 pages at a time. LOL!

NEWS: Shipwreck may produce 4 tons of gold coins and bars. Read about it here.

Anyone along the Front Range of Colorado who isn't out in this gorgeous weather is missing a day to be remembered. Gold fever has us wishing we were in Arizona prospecting for gold, but on days like today, it's easier to let the day pass pleasantly and think of prospecting we did in the past and will do in the future. New adventures will await us this summer during our regular prospecting season, I am sure! In the mean time, how about a good book to read on prospecting until the Arkansas River opens up to motorized equipment April 1st.

Are you looking for prospecting equipment for this next season. You can find prospecting equipment clearance items at reasonable prices, or metal detectors for sale at the links.

See ya tomorrow,
Shirley

Gold and Poverty in Third World Nations

Well, I'm taking some time out of site updates and rewriting copy to get a blog posting off before I forget! Twitter has me doing things very fast and short, so maybe I'll just be to the point!

National Geographic published a piece about gold and gold prospecting in their January issue. In case you didn't see it, it's the one with the lady's face on the front that is covered in gold leaf. Needless to say, the author attempted to paint a dismal picture of gold and its' extraction, and to be sure, there isn't any among use who would encourage Africa's continued use of mercury by their small miners, but the story about Newmont was certainly not all told.

However, there was one point that was made concerning the mining of gold by the small miners in all third world countries. Without gold prospecting and recovery, many of these people would have no other way to support themselves, and even if a child bruises their hands while digging, they are willing to do it so that they can go to school and better themsleves. Without the world needing and wanting gold, these people would either starve or have to go to some overpoplulated urban area and abandon their ways of life outside the cities. Certainly a new gold strike will bring in too many people and make conditions worse for everyone, but one man's vice is another man's bread. If India did not cling to their way of life and demand the amount of gold jewelry that they do, many others would have no life at all. How would you support the thousands who support themselves now if gold was not important in the world. Would it be better that we have even more people doing without?

I read another good analogy last week by a journalist who had some time on their hands while reporting on the conditions in a third world country and what the sweat shops mean to them. By standards in the U.S., the conditions were apalling, however in this country and many like it, the chance to have one of these so called sweat shop jobs, even by the very young, is a way out of a type of poverty we in the U.S can only imagine. (And quite frankly, I think we cannot imagine it)Think of having to dig through piles of garbage to find enough food, only to be killed by a trash truck when you got too close to its' wheels. I think I would rather work 18 hours a day than do that, and most of them would, too. The gold miners of the third world certainly would rather eke out their own exsistance in the mines and placers of the world, and keep some semblance of freedom for themselves. Placing our standards on a country that has no fast food restaurants and expecting those countries to pay our minimum wages is ridiculous. Those jobs afford whole generations of a family to live much better than they would without it. I don't think there are many people in the U.S. that support three or more generations with one job. If we did not need and want more than we should, others would have no way to make a living at all.

HookedonGold Gazette 1/30/09

Cache Creek Mascot

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $927.10
· Spot price last Gazette: $898.30
________________

Calendar of Events
FEBRUARY
· 2nd Groundhog Day
· 5th – 13th TUCSON Show (boy do we wish we could be there!)
· 12th Lincoln’s B.D.
· 14th VALENTINES DAY Remember your honey today!
· 16th PRESIDENTS Day
· 22nd Washington’s B.D.
· 25th Ash Wednesday
_______________________________________
NEWS

The end of January with only a day to go. Seems like only yesterday it was Christmas, and here it is almost February. LOL! Maybe it’s because my work has piled up around me so much and I have been so busy that the time has flown. Good for me, though, because it will mean that prospecting season will be here sooner and I can be out in the woods. In the mean time I am updating Hooked on Gold, blogging, tweeting, blogging some more and working on a few things for bellahealthsystems. (Regular followers know that BHS is my sons’ business in RFID temperature and identification for cattle).

Monday is Ground Hog day, and we will know if old man winter will stay with us or we will get an early spring. My guess is that with “climate change” being what it is, it could go either way. No matter what, the Arkansas River will reopen for motorized equipment on April 1st…whether is it snowing or not.

There has been a lot of interesting things going on in the news this week. The first thing that comes to mind is the almost eminent eruption of Mount Redoubt in Alaska, near Anchorage. It seems the volcano has been waking up since last Fall , and as of the 23rd of January its’ seismic activity has escalated to the point that residents are being told to stock up on essentials as scientists expect the mountain to blow in the next couple of weeks. Now, this might not have anything to do with gold, but every person who is out prospecting for gold I know of is always interested in what goes on in Alaska!

In the world news today I found an article from Burma about the government having given the mining rights of a gold mining area to a Chinese Company to mine gold. It has forbidden the locals to continue their practice of finding gold in the streams of the area to supplement their families, and many rely solely on it for income. To make sure the locals do not mine the gravels, they are confiscating their mining equipment. The area is too cold to farm and many villagers may have to move from their traditional homes to survive. You have probably heard about the National Geographic piece that was written about gold mining in its’ January issue. I have finally obtained a copy and will give a review of the story this next week in a blog posting. Works right into this report I found from Burma.

The Reuters news wire reported from Japan that there is a local sewage treatment plant that has been pulling more gold per tonne out of the ash of incinerated sewage than the top producing gold mine in the area, the Hishikari Mine. It seems that the sewage carries so much gold due to the high number of high precision manufacturers using gold in the area that dump sewage into the treatment plant. The recently reported amount found was 1890 grammes of gold per tonne in the incinerated sewage ash. Not bad for a sewage plant, eh? Certainly one of the strangest places I've ever heard of to find gold.

There’s more, but I will leave it for another day and another blog posting. Don’t forget to visit the special pages for equipment linked for you below.
Panning Kits Here
Monthly Specials HERE
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Here are a few links to DIY projects:
The quietest dredge in the world
http://www.treasurenet.com/forum/prospecting/messages/1013278.shtml
River Rocker
http://www.goldprospectors.org/pdf/JackRocBox2.pdf
Prospecting Equipment plans
http://www.infowest.com/personal/w/wfletcher/prospecting.html

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Gold Markets, Gold Miners and Gold Jewelry

The gold spot price is back up above $900 today, and a search for some information on the rise gave me some interesting analysis. Calls on the SPDR Gold ETF (GLD is the other one) are up 4 times normal over Friday, and share prices of the miners were up as well.

Analysts are predicting the price of gold to rise for the next few months, too. However, the Indian market wants a lower price, of course, as they go into their marriage season so that brides will have ample dowries going into a marriage. If she doesn't have enough gold going into the marriage, the grooms family can cancel the marriage, or there can be other consequences for the bride. This is why the Indian marriage season is so important to the price of gold and gold jewelry, and gifts to the bride are always in 21 to 24K gold jewelry, not in coins or bars, or raw gold.

On the world scene, Guyana is expecting as much as a 50% drop this year in gold prospecting, after an 18% increase in '08. I have been reading that many of the exploratory companies are also scaling back exploration this year.

As to us, I don't think we will be scaling back our own gold exploration, so you can bet you'll be seeing us around the gold bearing areas in Colorado this summer. Looking forward to a very pleasant and profitable gold season, ourselves.

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau

Hooked on Gold Gazette 1/23/09

Nice picture of one of the old dredges!

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $898.30
· Spot price last Gazette: $853.60
________________

Calendar of Events
JANUARY
· 1st New Years Day
· 15th Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday
· 19th MLK Day observed
· 20th Inauguration Day
FEBRUARY
· 2nd Groundhog Day
· 5th – 13th TUCSON Show (boy do we wish we could be there!)
· 12th Lincoln’s B.D.
· 14th VALENTINES DAY Remember your honey today!
· 16th PRESIDENTS Day
· 22nd Washington’s B.D.
· 25th Ash Wednesday
_______________________________________
NEWS

My search for information this past week has taken me all over the place and back. It’s been hard to focus on just what I want to put into the newsletter this week, so if I get off track, just remember it’s been very nice here in Denver, and it has probably influenced my point of view. If you think that’s possible, then I have no worries. LOL!

Prospecting for gold has gotten a little more profitable this week, with gold up a bit to almost $900, hitting a high today of $903.00. There is more skuttle around that the gold cartel is manipulating the price again, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are. Can’t have gold running away with all that funny money being printed around the world. No body would buy the paper stuff. Good news is that India may be back in a buying mood, however analysts say that even they cannot buy if the price remains above $900. Jewelry makes up a large part of the gold market, and India certainly buys its’ share of it for their brides. Their system might be easier than ours when it comes to supporting wives left behind by death or divorce….at least as long as the gold price is up. Unfortunately, there is nothing to prevent a husband from ever adding to their wife’s retirement plan, either, so what she has when she gets married is often all she ever has. She isn’t allowed to own anything else but jewelry, either. That’s right….no coins, just 21K gold jewelry or better.

While I am updating the website (oh, and there should be some stuff being published soon) I have once again come across many websites that would be of interest to you. Since google frowns on so many outbound links from my main site, I am thinking I will use the “info” domain to publish these on as a kind of catalog of information for you that you can visit to find information not on my site. There is a ton more information out there then there was when I started Hooked on Gold over three years ago. Also, I am splitting up pages and grouping them together, as in page 1, 2, 3 etc., off of their main page. These pages also have their own names so you can, hopefully, find the area you are interested in more quickly. Navigation is a top priority this year, so look for more navigation and deeper linking, and Cache Creek will get its’ own page this year.

I looked up my link to the Leadville Herald and saw an interesting post about the EPA and the proposed cleanup of OU6, the area to the east of town, which includes Stray Horse Gultch, and the upper and lower portions of Evan’s Gultch. It seems the EPA, at the Jan. 15th meeting in Denver, has decided that the present proposed remedy is not sustainable. One proposal is to cap and consolidate mine waste from the Makado, RAM, Pyranees, and Greenback mines, but the solution is unpopular due to the amount of negative effect it would have on the historic mining district. Up to now they have spent 6 years trying to find a viable solution to the area and have decided they must deal with the source to prevent the continued pollution. You can see the entire article at http://www.leadvilleherald.com/.

As many of you know, Leadville was at the center of Colorado mining during the boom days, and the history of those old mines is fascinating. I read a book about some it this last fall that you might like. “Leadville: Colorado’s Magic City” by Edward Blair. It goes over a lot of the politics, strikes, early days, as well as the mining. A great winter read, and some wonderful old pictures. You can find it on Amazon or you could look it up in the search box on the Gold Library page on the website.

Did you know that google ads now have up and down arrows at the bottom of the ad box so you can scroll through all the ads they are presenting on a page? I didn’t until I saw someone do it recently.

I think I’m about done for today. I’ll be blogging this next week, so stay tuned to read what else I find online or in the news that has to do with gold.

Panning Kits Here
Monthly Specials HERE
Basic Prospecting Equipment

Here are a few links to DIY projects:
Puffer Drywasher plans
http://miningold.com/dry.html

Sluice Boxes
http://miningold.com/slu.html

Building a Banjo
http://groups.msn.com/AlluvialGoldProspectors/tipstricks.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=7581&LastModified=4675585268593100901

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: http://www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com/ . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
http://www.hookedongold.com/
http://www.hookedongold2.com/ Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Our Wish for the New Administration and a Prospectors' New Year's Resolution

Wouldn't mind a stack like that, would you?

Gold is up to $856 today and stock market is off 332. No comment!

WOW! I did a good job of getting all my information out last week. I thought I had left one out, but it looks like I got everything said that was on my list. I have lots of other opinions , but they aren't necessarily appropriate for a gold prospecting blog, so I'll spare you my soap box. So many things are interconnected with mining and prospecting for gold, precious metals or gemstones, that it is hard to decide which topics are appropriate for these pages.



As we inaugurate a new President today, may I say that I wish the new administration well, and pray that they all find the wisdom they will need to lead us from here. And as the old administration leaves, may I also say that the choices they made may not have been any different had someone else been at the helm. Hind sight is ALWAYS 20/20, and sometimes the choices are bad and less bad.

We are having record and near record warmth here in Denver, and the nice weather is really welcome. Not to worry, though, we are back to colder temps by Friday and the weekend. January usually gives us a nice warm up just to tease us into thinking it is Spring right before it puts us into the deep freeze one moe time before it starts to warm up seriously. We are all out washing windows and getting things cleaned up in time for the next cold snap that will keep us in or near the house for the rest of the winter.

I have begun my updates to the website, but it will be slow going this year with the size of the site. I'll start posting updates next week, but you might not see much happening as I have eliminated the GPOC companion pages, changed the name of another page and broken that one up into two pages. I AM hoping to get the menu under better control with some roll overs for subpages, but it will be last on my list as it will take quite a bit of time to do it. Site maintinence must come first as well as new information pages.

Here's a good New Years' Resolution for you: I resolve to do more prospecting for gold, precious metals, and gemstones so I can keep my other New Years' Resolutions to get fit and lose weight. Words to live by, don't cha think?

I have a new twitter follower by the handle of keepinitinthepan. You might want to look him up on twitter and follow along.

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau
www.hookedongold.com
info@hookedongold.com

Hooked on Gold Gazette 01/16/09

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $842.40
· Spot price last Gazette: $853.60
________________

Calendar of Events
JANUARY
· 1st New Years Day
· 15th Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday
· 19th MLK Day observed
· 20th Inauguration Day
_______________________________________
NEWS

Well, I didn’t get around to all of the things I wanted to talk about last week, so I’ll have some more posts for you this next week. I’ve been using the tweetdeck to twitter to the twitter home and facebook at the same time. You can follow me by clicking on the link in the sidebar for twitter. You’ll need an account before you can follow, but don’t be intimidated by this little site. You’ll find some very interesting things going on other than just gold in 140 characters or less, in other words it’s all real short. LOL!

If you’ve been watching gold this week, you know it’s up from its’ low of around $815, and in case you missed it, I blogged about where the price might be this year earlier this week. Scroll down the page and you’ll find it. Everyone I know is watching for the “Obama Bounce” in the stock market early next week. Should be an interesting 100 days.

I wanted to take some time to also address the same old stuff we’ve been going over for years now, about how you present yourself as a prospector. In the Federal Registry Vol. 73, No 216, pg 65984, The U.S. Forest Service has published a rule titled, The U.S. Forest service has published a rule in the Federal Registry titled “Clarification for the Appropriate Use of a Criminal or a Civil Citation To Enforce Mineral Regulations”. It seems that the Forest Service is now adding camping to their list of activities that might cause a “significant disturbance of the surface resources” on a mining claim. They have also made it clear that recreational activities are not protected under the 1872 Mining Law, and that recreationalists exceed the scope of those laws. Included in this exclusion are activities such as educational seminars, treasure hunts, hunting camps, or summer homes, and that the main intent of the mining laws is to govern larger operations than “recreational” mining would entail. Should be an interesting summer of finding gold with them out giving warnings and citations to those who are in violation. Their main interest is said to be compliance, and they will try to get compliance where they can, but if not…. Have fun out there!

Panning Kits Here
Monthly Specials HERE

Here are a few links to DIY projects:

The Wee-Washer
http://www.infowest.com/personal/w/wfletcher/wee-washer.html
Prospecting Equipment photo's
http://showcase.netins.net/web/1rowellpage/prospecting.html
Vintage Projects
http://www.vintageprojects.com/misc/dry-washer-prospecting-plans.html
How to Build a Drywasher
http://www.thunting.com/geotech/pages/misc/projects/drywasher1/index.html
Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Global Warming and Prospecting for Gold

Can you smell the fresh air?
Mt. Antero area in Chaffee County, Colorado
Gold at $816

I think I was going back to some comments I’ve been reading concerning global warming this past year. With so much to comment on lately, I’m getting behind. Anyone who follows my blog, though, knows that I think the whole Global Warming thing is just another way to get into your pockets and make you think you like it.


Global Warming? Well, the alternative is an Ice Age, so I guess you could say that we have been in a global warming stage since the last one, but to say that man is to blame is ridiculous. Years ago, I read that all of the CO2 put into the atmosphere by man around the entire world in an entire year is not equal to a single volcanic eruption in the same year. The sun is responsible for somewhere around 96% of all CO2, so how is it that man gets blamed for what nature is doing on a much bigger scale?


Climates change, and have changed on the earth for millennia and are in constant cycles of warming and cooling, but now I have been reading that climatologists around the world are now thinking that we are at the top of the present warming stage and are entering into another mini ice age, like the one we were in when George Washington crossed the Delaware. (That one ended around the mid 1800’s, can anyone say gold rush, and we’ve been warming ever since.)


Living in Colorado, I’ve seen these same type of cycles about every 20 to 25 years, and while the latest drought we’ve been through has been rather long and harsh, it is not by any means as bad or as long as the one that is supposed to have driven the Anastasi from the Four Corners region. I am pretty sure that man didn’t create that one with fossil fuels.


Now, I am reading accounts that some 650 scientists from around the world are backpedaling as fast as they can concerning global warming and the effects man has on it. A U.S. Senate Minority Report published by the Environmental and Public Works Committee on Dec. 21 of ’08, declared these scientists are dissenting the man-made theory on global warming, many who were members of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and supporters of the Kyoto Treaty.


ICMJ (International California Mining Journal http://www.icmj.com/ ) quoted UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, award winning PhD environmental physical chemist as saying, warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history…..When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientist.” I would add that we have also been deceived by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Al Gore, as well. I think my face would be red if I were a member of the Prize committee.


Ok, so what does this have to do with gold prospecting and finding gold? I don’t know, but I do think you should be informed about some of this stuff. Oh, of course, there is the fact that so many people would like to take away your rights to public lands and close roads so you can’t access them, by claiming that mining, fishing, running roads and being outside in a uncontrolled environment isn’t good for the planet. Hey, you could sit in your house and pan some of my panning sand instead to finding your own gold! Well, a least in the winter when you can’t get out. Get out and enjoy the “Wild’s” while you can.


Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau
http://www.hookedongold.com/
info@hookedongold.com

And Just Where Do You Think the Price of Gold Is Going in '09?

So, up, down, sideways, or? Gold prices for this year are being predicted all over the place. $2200 an ounce, $500 an ounce, who do you believe, and what do you do with your gold investments? Miners going forward, or downward? What’s the outlook and how do you interpret all the data? Everyone has to decide for themselves, and of course, no one can say for sure, but reading and listening to everyone might get you on track.

Long term, most analysts remain bullish, but short term is another thing. Like I said, I read between $2200 for a high to $500 for a low. My opinion? I think gold will either hold where it is or drop in the near term, but bounce back by year's end....I'm just not sure how much. With so much money being pumped into economies around the world, more people should be sheltering into gold, but they aren’t, which might mean they are all simply scared to do anything. Gold recently broke below its’ long term moving average, which does not look good for it going up right away, and its’ highs have been lower, and lower.

I’m not sure if gold will start back up after the middle of the year or a little later. In the mean time you can watch for some very good buying opportunities in the near future in gold. If it makes it back to $500 an ounce, I know I’ll be buying. If it gets to the $2200 by the end of the year that others predict, I’ll be selling. I think the highs and lows will more likely be in between somewhere no matter what happens, as things usually are never as bad or as good as the extremes predict. In the future, gold is sure to go up as inflation heats up by sometime in 2010. You cannot crank out all these dollars and not have inflation in your future.

And what about the gold miners? Well, when you are dealing with stocks, you must consider the companys first. If you wish to invest in them, make sure you are buying the COMPANY, and not the movement in the stock. In general, right now, you should be looking for good companies that have lots of cash on hand and are leaders in their sector with an excellent business plan, and a low price for what you are getting.

Another investment venue in gold is gold coins. These are becoming harder and harder to get, and, as most of you know, the U.S. mint ran out of their Buffaloes last Fall. Older gold coins will continue to be a good investment when gold prices are down. They appreciate rather fast when demand for gold goes up, as many people will invest in the coins before anything else.

What does this mean for gold prospectors? Well, the raw gold you find will only go up in value. Your major cost is your equipment and your time and labor. Find more gold and you’ll be worth more, that’s for sure, but remember that you are NOT a hobbyist OR a recreationalist. You need to see your activities as FOR PROFIT. I have another piece coming out later this week about the new things the U.S. Forest Service has to say about these attitudes. Until then...

Good Prospecting to You,

Shirley Weilnau

Gold, Mining and the New Administration

OK, OK, so where do I start with what I've been reading about lately? It was a hard decision on which report I should start with, but, I guess, the one that caught my attention the most was what I am reading about John Leshey, and what he meant to the mining community under the Clinton Administration.

Mr. Leshey, it seems, is head man on the transition team that will oversee the Interior Department. Yup, the same one our own Ken Salazar will be appointed to after the new administration is sworn in. I'm not convinced this is good for Colorado, but then, I suppose it depends of which side of the fence you are on.

In case you aren't familiar with Leshey's role in the Clinton administration, it was as solicitor of the Interior Department, and he authorized the "Mill site Opinion" concerning the size limits of mill sites for mining. His opinion was that they should be restricted to 5 acres for each 20 acre claim. Now, I don't know if you realize it or not, but those old mill sites you drive by are on way more that any 5 acres. Seems to me the U.S. began importing steel around this time, but it probably didn't have anything to do with it.

The majority leader in the Senate at the time, Harry Reid (D-Nevada), said about the paper, that it "could have been written by somebody in the eighth grade, rather than this professor." Now that he is back you can look forward to his "coming up with cockamamie interpretations of the US Mining Law", according to Laura Skaer, executive director of the Northwest Mining Association.

Also, we will probably see more on the Roadless Act as the new administration takes office, as well as the Endangered Species Act affecting how and where mining can take place. An aggressive stance by the new administration in response to "climate change" will seek to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050. A long way off, and since global warming is a farce, they can always say that their efforts were what changed the planet. Next up is the new scientific backpedaling concerning global warming and why Al Gore was always WRONG!

Oh, and to take all of this back to YOU, when there are restrictions placed on mining, remember that it also affects YOU and your ability to access the backcountry, where and when you can prospect for gold, as well as where and when you can camp on U.S. Forest Service land. Yes, I know I didn't cover THAT one here, but that's coming, too. I'll be giving you some information on it in the next week.

P.S. a lot of this information can be found in the International California Mining Journal. If you don't have a subscription you can get one HERE! And, no, I don't get anything for recommending it. Find the subscriptions page and subscribe. They also have announced that subscribers will be able to access the issues ONLINE soon.

Good Prospecting to You,

Shirley Weilnau

http://www.hookedongold.com/

info@hookedongold.com

HookedonGold Gazette 1/09/09

Interesting Specimen I found lurking about the web

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $853.60
· Spot price last Gazette: $837.90 12/19/08
________________

Calendar of Events
JANUARY
· 1st New Years Day
· 15th Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday
· 19th MLK Day observed
· 20th Inauguration Day
_______________________________________
NEWS

Have the past two weeks gone by as fast for you as they have for me? During those weeks we had many things happen, and it was good that I had suspended the Gazette until after the first. We had all the usual things going on, plus my Mother came to spend a few weeks with us, and my Father-in-Law died. Last Friday when the Gazette would have gone out, we were in Longmont helping to make arrangements for a funeral, so there would have been no newsletter for you, anyway.

This week, guests have gone home and we are in recovery mode and looking forward to the weekend and some much needed rest. A secluded beach somewhere is looking really good right now, but I’m afraid we will have to wait until after Larry retires to find the time. If you are following me on facebook.com, you would have known all the other stuff going on, and since this isn’t a social bookmaking site, I’ll spare you the details about the youngest son who got sent home from the Philippines for creating a hostile work environment for coworkers by blogging about his experiences. Oh, so you don’t think that is boring? Well, don’t do it. He got fired over it.

There is TONS of stuff going on in the gold arena, and I’ll be blogging about some of it this next week. Here are the highlights: Remember John Leshy?, Climate change and what scientists are doing now to save their professional reputations, mining terminology and what it means to you and the U.S. Forest Service, and the current price of gold and your government. WAY too much information for this newsletter alone, so I’ll give you some links today, and a conversation about some interesting places to find gold in a stream or river.

Most gold finders will tell you to stay to the large rocks and boulders in a stream or river. If the waterway is depositing large boulders along its’ shores, gold will settle there as well, even if the stream “read” for a gold deposit says it won’t be there. We commonly come across this on the Arkansas River where the original riverbed is not in the usual place, but has been pushed to one side or the other of its’ natural fault line by a glacial moraine.

I particularly like the “triangle” configuration of boulders to find gold in, where three come together with space in the middle. This spot will create a large calm area in the middle of the boulders for gold to drop out into, and usually is more accessible than behind a single rock, which can have a lot of turbulence.

Another area to check out when it isn’t under water, is in a depression in a boulder that collects cobble and the material gets packed into the hole. This drop area will also collect gold in the bottom of it. You may need a whisk broom, vacuum, or something similar to get all of the material out, as you will find the depression will collect gold dust very well.

Schist and shales bedrocks along the sides of a streambed will either contain gold or catch it, as the “seams” in them act like little riffles and is a place where gold collects.

Don’t look for gold at the bottom of a fast falling rapid, but in the sand bar left downstream from it. The water falling over the rapid will scour the area, but leave the gold in the calmer water just downstream of the turbulence, either right below it or to one side or the other. Always look for the bigger rocks that are sometimes submerged under soft sand, and bedrock that runs perpendicular to the stream, like in your sluice box. It catches gold for the same reasons.

Lastly, remember that water speed and slope are everything in looking for a place to find gold, and catching it in your sluice, gold pan, dredge, or highbanker. Your metal detector won’t care about slope or speed, but where you look may.

To get your copy of Ben Parker’s blue book on prospecting for gold, you can click the link HERE.

To look for other books on gold and gold prospecting you can click the link HERE.

Panning Kits Here
Monthly Specials HERE

Here are a few links to DIY projects:

Plans to build your own equipment
http://49ermike.com/plans.shtml
Prospecting Equipment photo's
http://showcase.netins.net/web/1rowellpage/prospecting.html
Vintage Projects
http://www.vintageprojects.com/misc/dry-washer-prospecting-plans.html
How to Build a Drywasher
http://www.thunting.com/geotech/pages/misc/projects/drywasher1/index.html

Until next week…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Where is Gold Going This Year?

So, where do you suppose the price of gold is going this year? It's at 857.60 right now, off its' high of the day, but still not any where near its' low of last year. The pundits are still saying it could reach over $2,000 by years' end, but it usually ends up somewhere lower than its' predicted high.

Last year's predicted high was somewhere between $1,200 and $1,500, and it never did come close to either. I suspect it won't make the $2,200 I read earlier this week. However, the prospect for the metals are better than they have been for a while, and you should watch for oil to start going up from here. I am reading that the natural gas situation in Russia is heating up Europe, too. How long do you suppose the Europeans will wait for gas to be delivered from Russia during the winter?

I have more to report on, but wanted to get out a blog today before the whole day is gone. See you tomorrow. Are you making plans to get your gold prospecting equipment repaired for this next season? Arizona is looking good, but we probably will have to wait the winter out in Colorado. I know, I know, but SOMEBODY has to do it!

One side note here: Larry's Dad's memorial service was yesterday morning. (Seems a long time ago, now) We had a three man honor guard come from Ft. Carson to pay respects to a WWII veteran, and the ceremony was very nice. The family opted for no gun salute, though I have always liked that part. Lawrence William Weilnau will be long remembered. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, three siblings, three children, 5 grandchildren, three great grandchildren with one on the way, and numerous friends.

Gold Blog as Promised

Happy New Year to all of you! I DO hope your New Year will be one of the best you have ever had, and that you find a boat load of gold, too.

Sadly, yesterday's blog had to be postponed as Larry's Dad passed away and we had to hurriedly go to Longmont to see him before he died, and to help his Mother with arrangements. I have some interesting things to report on, but they will have to wait until next week after we have gotten through all that needs to be done in the next few days.

Gold was back down a bit at $874.90, yesterday, but over all it has been staying within about $20 either way for most of the last week. Talk to you next week, and in the mean time you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/ShirleyWeilnau, www.facebook.com, or www.myspace.com . I also run a family and friends oriented blog on myspace that I started a few days ago, so check me out on your favorite social bookmarking site.

Technorati Blog Claim

Technorati Profile

Just another social bookmarking site to follow along on. This post is only to show that I own this blog so technorati will pick it up. Gold is at @ $877.70 right now. Anybody for some golden champaign in a couple of days? We can catch up on some golden memories of prospecting outings from this past summer. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours. LOL!

Pinging my networks. My friends at http://ping.fm/Z0KKe are back hard at work in the office after a much needed Christmas break.

After Christmas Gold

Gold closed today at $868.70

So, how was your Christmas? Golden, I hope. Did Santa bring you a boat load of gold coins and bars? Shucks! Me neither! LOL!

Next week it's back to the grind. New Year's Eve will probably find us fast asleep long before the ball drops in New York. Even if we do something with friends, none of us will most likely be awake by midnight. We all mined for gold too hard all summer!

After the first, there will all that stuff you have to do to get your life back on track, but after that I will begin the long list of updates and closures for the site. Since GPOC has their website back up and running, and I am pretty sure Stacey has everything she needs from my pages for it, I will be taking down the club's pages, and only maintain a calendar for them with some information on Cache Creek, etc.

I have a few new articles to publish, and many of the long ones will get broken up into shorter pages that are linked together. If you have any ideas on what you would like to see published, let me know and I'll try to get it in. Many ideas have come from readers over the years, so don't hesitate to tell me what you want to read about. You have about 4 months that will be relatively free for me to make changes and additions.

By the way, you can also follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ShirleyWeilnau, and facebook, name Shirley Weilnau. Join me by becoming friends or followers and we can create a powerful prospectors network, even better than forums because everyone can become involved and follow everyone else without logging in and logging out. If all of us were on these sites, there could be one stop information on every one's home pages. I will be adding more social bookmarking sites as time goes on to help get the prospecting word out.

That's all I got for now. I'll be blogging some next week, so stay tuned.

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley Weilnau

Christmas Gold

Gold spot is $839.10

Are you tracking Santa tonight? Have you put out your cookies and milk? Did you wrap the gold bars for Dad tomorrow? Does Mom have a gold ring under the tree? How about a gold pan, or a new digging tool?

Are you SOOO excited you can't sleep? Is the Ham thawed and ready to bake? Are you waiting for that HO HO HO to wake you from a sound sleep? Is the tree lit so Santa can find his way? If so, you are ready for Christmas to come. Remember the reasons for the season and hug your family and hold them close.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Hooked on Gold

Larry and Shirley Weilnau

Gold and Winter Solstice

Gold's down this afternoon below $839.

Winter solstice has come and gone, and that means our days are getting longer. What does that have to do with finding gold? Well, that means summer is closer and we can get back to the mountains and get wet and dirty, and do some gold panning, highbanking,dredging and metal detecting in our favorite gold bearing areas.

It also means Christmas is close at hand and we at hookedongold are looking forward to having some much needed time with friends and family this weekend. We hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season and wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year! We will be hearing from our youngest son tomorrow who is in the Philippines, and my Mother is visiting for the Holidays. Chrtismas Day will find us spending time with relatives we have not seen in a while, and visiting with friends. Our Holidays are as busy as our prospecting season! Hopefully your is, too.

You can follow me this next year on facebook and twitter, and I'll get some links up for those so you can find me easier after the holidays are over. I have several new gadgets I will be trying out onsite early next year, so watch for some gadgets you can use to give us some feedback. If they work, we should be able to have some fun with them.

Good Prospecting to You,

Shirley Weilnau

ping.fm, Brand new posting aggregator. Testing, Testing Gold is at $833

HookedonGold Gazette 12/19/08

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $837.90
· Spot price last Gazette: $822.00
________________

Calendar of Events
DECEMBER
· 1st Cyber Monday Don’t forget goldnstore for your prospector gifts
· 10th GPOC General Meeting and Christmas Party don’t forget those Toys for Tots!
· 21st Winter Solstice – Yeah, we start getting longer days tomorrow!!!!!
· 22nd Hanukkah begins
· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
· 26th Kwanzaa and Boxing Day
· 31st New Years Eve
JANUARY
· 1st New Years Day
· 15th Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday
· 19th MLK Day observed
· 20th Inauguration Day

_______________________________________

NEWS

Platinum is finally trading above gold yesterday and today…..but only by about $8.00. My how far it has fallen! If you are looking for gold coins for Christmas, you are probably having a hard time finding them. Most coin dealers can’t get their hands on them, so there are very few around to sell. I read that the World Gold Council says gold jewelry continues to be in the top three items women in the U.S. spend discretionary money on. Now, THAT was a huge shock! I had no idea that women loved gold jewelry that much. ;>) You can read the Market Oracle to find information on what inflation in the coming years will do to the price of gold. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article7811.html

Two more gold coins were found in Salvation Army kettle in Des Moines, Iowa this past week. Maybe we have been looking for gold coins in all the wrong places! Don’t forget the GPAA Stanton dig which is usually the end of December. Not much else is going on in prospecting with the holidays here, and I haven’t had the time to do a lot of research. We are giving an old metal detector to our grandsons for Christmas, and we are sure they will have fun figuring out how to use it and digging up any coins they find. They have been allowed to run Grandpa’s machine a time or two with supervision, and we are sure they will figure out how to get this one to work. Ah, another generation of prospectors in the making!

Do you have all of your Christmas Shopping finished? NO? Unfortunately, most of the gold here in Colorado is covered up with snow and ice right now, so I can’t even give you the suggestion to go and pan some gold out for gifts, thus giving you an excuse to go gold prospecting. Sure would not mind doing that myself, but I’m afraid we simply can’t take off right now and enjoy ourselves. So, I guess we get to stay put and shovel snow, attend Holiday get togethers, and sing Christmas Carols with the rest of you. We are really looking forward to the very nice weather predicted for us Christmas day through at least the weekend.

With the Holidays upon us, I will not be publishing a newsletter for the next two Friday, but I will put up a blog post or two. We have several get togethers planned and guests who are with us now and will be through the middle of January. Merry Christmas to all of you, and have a Happy (Not TOO happy) New Year!

Until next year…….

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)

Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Christmas Wishes for a Golden Holiday

Christmas Cards in your mail! Golden Christmas Wishes from family and friends.

Gold is off its' high from this morning, but still looking at $854.50 right now. Have you gotten those Christmas Cards out yet? Me, I sent out e-Christmas cards to my e-mail friends and family. You would think this would be easier than sending through the mail, but it took about the same amount of time, what with getting addresses into the site, and all. Tried to upload a cvs file, but my program, for whatever reason, would not produce said file. SOOOO, I had to input them all by hand. However, now that they are there, it is a simple check and click to get the address where I want it, find the right card to send, put in my 'special' message and 'click' it gets delivered. A LOT more fun for me and the recipient than the regular mail delivered card. And its 'green'. Nothing to landfill. That should make everyone happy and prove that I'm not out to destroy the planet, right? Actually, I did it because the card selections were so much better than what I could send in the mail and a lot more fun. So far, I have others who like the idea so much, they are also considering sending e-Christmas Cards, too.

We are still in the deep freeze, although we did get into the 30's today for a few hours. More cold and snow on the way, but the long range charts are showing sun and a temp. of around 50 for Christmas Day. The mountains are getting their fill of snow, with up to 36 inches falling today. That could mean lots of snowmelt this next spring to bring more gold out of hiding for us to find. We love finding gold, so the more snow we get in the mountains, the better we like it. Those who get stranded on the highways are not so happy, though.

I panned out all of my gold from the 'vial' of cons and gold I won at the GPOC Christmas Party last week. 11 very nice pieces and a permanent, indestructible gold vial to put stuff in, too. They used the plastic bullets used for making liter bottles when they are blown full of air.

I'm catching up on my reading and I've found some interesting information on gold to share with you later this week. Hope your getting all that Christmas Shopping finished....Larry says he still has to do some more. HMMM. We had our Christmas with our kids last weekend. I wonder what he's up to.

Hug your Loved Ones and have a Merry Christmas,
Shirley Weilnau
www.hookedongold.com
info@hookedongold.com

HookedonGold Gazette 12/12/08

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $822.00
· Spot price last Gazette: $754.30
________________

Calendar of Events
DECEMBER
· 1st Cyber Monday Don’t forget goldnstore for your prospector gifts
· 10th GPOC General Meeting and Christmas Party don’t forget those Toys for Tots!
· 21st Winter Solstice – Yeah, we start getting longer days tomorrow!!!!!
· 22nd Hanukkah begins
· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
· 26th Kwanzaa and Boxing Day
· 31st New Years Eve
JANUARY
· 1st New Years Day
· 15th Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday
· 19th MLK Day observed
· 20th Inauguration Day
_______________________________________
NEWS

Gold’s up, dollars down. Treasury to bail out the auto industry…..temporarily until the new administration can get sworn in. A nice piece to read from Dec. 10th comes from this site http://jsmineset.com/index.php/2008/12/10/hourly-action-in-gold-from-trader-dan-27 .

Everyone must be preoccupied with Christmas, just like me. We are having our family get together tomorrow, ahead of the snow storm coming in on Sunday. I have been in the kitchen all day preparing what needs to get taken to Greeley, and then making sure all the presents are wrapped and tagged. YOU have two more weeks. I get to rest next week while you do your last minute shopping. LOL! Oh, and we found out yesterday that we are going to be grandparents again in August.

Not much new news this week on gold. Even with my google alerts and what I find on the newswires, there isn’t much going on this late in the year. It seems like everyone is just waiting to see what else will happen. Mines continue to scale back and wait for the price of gold to go back up, and plans for new acquisitions are put on hold.

Gold Prospectors of Colorado had their Christmas party this last Wednesday with over 120 in attendance, including three Marines who cam for the good food, the gold draws and the Toys for Tots that members bring in every year. There were two tables full of toys of all kinds, and dinner, of course, was wonderful. We all had a chance to visit about the finds of the last year, and brag a bit about what was and wasn’t found. A very good time with good friends.

Check out www.youtube.com and search for videos on crazy Christmas house lights, or something similar, to find all those postings of houses that have wonderful displays of synchronized lights and music.

Remember, you can get your gold prospecting equipment needs HERE, Clearance HERE, and Monthly Specials HERE.

Your DIY links are below.
Plans to build your own equipment
http://49ermike.com/plans.shtml

Prospecting Equipment photo's
http://showcase.netins.net/web/1rowellpage/prospecting.html

Vintage Projects
http://www.vintageprojects.com/misc/dry-washer-prospecting-plans.html

Have a wonderful Holiday Season!
Until next week……..

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

BRRRR It's Cold "Out There!

It is snowing here in Denver, and we have about 6 inches on the ground. We hear that south of us, they will get a bit more, and the mountains are happy to be getting even MORE snow for the ski areas. Since we have been in a long protracted drought, the snow is GOLDEN for us, so we are not too unhappy about it. We should be out of it by this afternoon with sun and warmth into the 50's returning until Sunday.

Unfortunately for us, we had planned an early Christmas get together with those of us who will not be in Colorado on Christmas, so that is now up in the air. Saturday probably is not doable with all the schedules, so we may have to postpone it. Last year we drove home in near blizzard conditions on Christmas Day from Greeley.

Did you ask Santa for some gold for Christmas? Sure hope so, and I also hope you GET your wish! Now, that does not have to be raw gold, but gold jewelry also makes a very nice gift. I have noticed many jewelry stores with moving or going out of business sales, so make sure you add to your stash this Christmas. I snagged a pair of small diamond studs in gold for my upper ear holes. (Those of you who know me, know that I wear three earrings in each ear, AND I have metal alergies to nickel, so no cheap jewelry for me!). How about some panning sand to play with on those long winter days?

Watch after the first of the year for a return of the gold facts page onsite. Not sure I will start up the contest again, as my supply of Mad Muther gold has gotten pretty low, but I'll address that after the Holidays when things slow back down.

Stay warm today if you are in the grips of winter, and if not what are you doing sitting here reading this?! Get out and FIND SOME GOLD!!!

Good Prospecting to You,

Shirley Weilnau

http://www.hookedongold.com/

info@hookedongold.com

HookedonGold Gazette 12/15/08

Happy Holidays!

· Gold Spot Closing Price for Friday: $754.30
· Spot price last Gazette: $806.10 (Nov. 26th)
________________

Calendar of Events
DECEMBER
· 1st Cyber Monday Don’t forget goldnstore for your prospector gifts
· 10th GPOC General Meeting and Christmas Party don’t forget those toys for Toys for Tots!
· 21st Winter Solstice – Yeah, we start getting longer days tomorrow!!!!!
· 22nd Hanukkah begins
· 24th Christmas Eve
· 25th Christmas Day
· 26th Kwanzaa and Boxing Day
· 31st New Years Eve
_______________________________________
NEWS

Watching gold and platinum prices is kind of heart stopping, isn’t it? What is keeping gold from advancing as the stock market falls? Isn’t it supposed to do well when stocks are not? Confusing questions, but I have been reading some accounts that make a bit of sense as to why gold is not at $1500 as some had predicted. It’s simple, really. As equities have declined, some investors have been forced to sell their gold holdings to raise cash. After all, when everything else is in the dumper, gold DOES still have a cash value.

Russia finally passed a bill to abolish their state monopoly on platinum group metals that have previously been exported through Almazjuvelirexport. It took them 4 years to get it through their parliament. They do produce a large share of the world’s palladium and platinum, but with the prices down, whether they have monopoly or not may not matter.

Did you hear about Freeport McMoRan? They suspended their dividend to their investors and are planning on curtailing much of their mining operations due to the drop in metal prices. I know a few people who might be affected. That’s about it for news since Wednesday. Your DIY links are below.

Does it seem to you like time is speeding along at warp speed? Things are happening in our lives so fast now, it seems like every day has a month’s amount of stuff going on in it. It is hard to stay focused on any one thing for more than a few hours a week, so if I seem like I am pulled in many directions and not focused on gold right now, you would be right. I am still looking at and for information on gold, but it is getting harder to spend enough time to be really effective. Then, it IS the Holiday Season, too, and that is part of it.

We ARE looking at having to be ready for Christmas celebrations early, as we did Thanksgiving, as much of the family will not be in Colorado that week. I am devoting a few hours a week to helping my son’s business with some office work that I can do from home, as there are many things coming together for them VERY quickly, now. Two new companies may be spun off from their parent company, already, to help in distribution and development of products coming out next year. If you don’t think that has anything to do with gold, you would be oh, so, wrong. When this pops, we will have time and money to devote to some very ambitious projects that include finding gold and the public, so think good thoughts for us and you could profit from this as well. It has been the desire of hooked on gold for more than 10 years to do something for the public in gold prospecting here in Colorado, so bear with me while this project goes into the stratosphere and beyond. You’ll get your updates and what we are planning as it all unfolds, and remember: Eat Beef and Drink Milk! LOL!

Remember, you can get your prospecting needs HERE, Clearance HERE, and Monthly Specials HERE.
Gravity Dredging for Placer Gold
http://www.geocities.com/r0n314/?200625

The Wee-Washer
http://www.infowest.com/personal/w/wfletcher/wee-washer.html


Equipment plans for sale Trommel
http://www.infowest.com/personal/w/wfletcher/for-sale.html

Until next week……..

Good Prospecting to You,
Shirley (MQS)
Google has begun running third party ads and is requiring adsense sites to include information about this change on their websites. You can read about this on our Privacy Policy page.

World Open Panning website has this year’s world wide panning competitions listed and they add more all the time. A great site to visit: www.worldopenpanning.homestead.com . If the links do not work, copy and paste them into your browser.

If you find a broken link, please let us know
THE ARKANSAS RIVER is now closed TO MOTORIZED EQUIPMENT until April 1st.
_______________________________________
www.hookedongold.com
www.hookedongold2.com Metal Detectors at Auction
info@hookedongold.com contact us
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Ads that you might find on this blog or on a website using ads, may use cookies or other tracking means to track your movements on the web. Please read our Privacy Policy to see how this affects you and what you might want to do to prevent cookies being used to track you.

Holiday Gold

Did You See the Goose Who Laid this Golden Egg?

Another week has come and gone and we hope you had a very nice Thanksgiving and that your Black Friday produced all the gifts you needed for Christmas JOY.

The Salvation Army across the nation is begining to report the Holiday gold coins and gold rings they have been finding in their kettles for several years. Vermont reports its' first gold coin, and Pennsylvania has found a gold ring donated to one of their bell ringer's kettles.

Two links for your enjoyment include one to a site that has a different perspective on the rise of gold at http://goldandsilverblog.com/analysts-hot-for-gold/ , and one that discusses the conditions that one would expect IF a government was to begin confiscating gold at http://chinaconfidential.blogspot.com/2008/11/will-governments-confiscate-gold.html .

Have fun out there this Holiday Season and hopefully you will find a little GOLD in your own stocking!

Good Prospecting to You,

Shirley Weilnau

http://www.hookedongold.com/