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Meteorite and a small gold nugget found at the outing. I was using a Minelab GP 3000 supported by a HipStick with a Nugget Finder 17” elliptical mono coil.

Nimrod pack showing the proper location for mounting your HipStick

Gold Trivia.

•The Egyptians were the first recorded civilization to use gold to make jewelry.

•In the United States, the demand for gold increases dramatically during the Christmas season gold’s always the perfect gift!

•Gold mines produce gold commercially on every continent except Antarctica.

• The most common bar of gold, the large ‘London Good Delivery Bars,’ weigh approximately 400 Troy ounces, which is equal to 12.5 kilograms or 27 pounds each.

•It has been estimated that the total amount of gold mined, as of 2006, was approximately 158,000 tons. Sixty-five percent of this gold has been mined since 1950.

•If all the gold ever produced was formed into a thin wire of 5 microns diameter - the finest gold wire possible this wire would stretch around the globe around 7.2 million times.

•Most cell phones, computers, calculators, televisions, and many other electronic items contain gold.

•The Minoan civilization of Crete produced the first known gold cable chain.

•The chemical symbol for gold is AU.

•Gold is the only precious metal that is yellow, or gold in color.

•Gold is the only metal that is impervious to rust.

•The melting point of gold is 1,947.97° F.

•Gold medical instruments are often used by surgeons.

•A one-ounce gold nugget is more rare than a five-carat diamond.

•The largest gold nugget ever found in the U.S. weighed 195 pounds and was found in California.

•There are an estimated 10 billion tons of gold in the worlds oceans; however, there is no way to safely and economically extract this gold from the oceans.

•Rose golds pink/red tone is due to the use of copper in the alloy.

•Pure gold is much too soft to be used for jewelry, and must be alloyed with other metals to create a metal strong enough to withstand wear.

•Pyrite, known as fools gold, is not a metal at all it is a mineral.

•The term mother lode comes from the name given to an area of five counties in California where the Gold Rush took place in the 1840s.

•Gold is the most popular precious metal used for wedding rings.

•Gold has been located on 90% of the earths surface, in deserts, mountains, in tropical climates, and in the Arctic.

•The California Gold Rush of the 1800s produced 125 million troy ounces of gold. This gold would be worth more than $50 billion in todays market.

•The coffin of Egypt’s King Tut was created of approximately 2242 pounds of solid gold.

•The U.S. 1933 Double Eagle, one of the worlds rarest gold coins, sold at Sotheby’s auction house in New York in 2002 for $7.59 million, a record for a gold coin.

•Gold is one of the most recycled materials in the world.

•The first real gold coins used as currency were produced during the 6th century BC in Lydia, part of what is now Turkey.

•The most popular gold bullion coin is the U.S. Gold Eagle.

•Gold is one of the densest materials known to man.

•Most gold contains silver, which explains why many silver or gold mines produce gold or silver as a by-product.

•The worlds largest producer of gold is South Africa.

•Pure gold flakes or dust are used as a decorative additive to culinary creations.

•The largest single deposit of gold in the world is held at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. It is housed in the buildings basement.

•During the Gold Rush periods of 1850 to 1875, more gold was discovered and mined than in the previous 350 years.

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