‘Gold Fever’ spreading as the price of the yellow metal surpasses $3,000 per ounce.
TUCSON, Ariz.—Joe Marihugh caught the gold bug years ago while running buckets of sand through a washer to extract flakes of the precious yellow metal.
He and his wife once ran 50 buckets to retrieve two grams of gold, which was worth nearly $200 at the time.
Since then, he has been using his dependable Minelab Gold Monster 1000 metal detector, with high expectations and his eyes fixed on the ground.
“I love searching for gold. It’s what we do,” Marihugh said as he swept the metal detector’s search coil across the hard, dry soil south of Tucson, Arizona, hoping to discover something valuable beneath the surface.
On March 22, Marihugh and more than 20 members of the Desert Gold Diggers set out to make profitable discoveries during the club’s annual spring outing for metal detecting.
Like forensic investigators searching for evidence, the metal detectorists worked with focused determination in a close formation under the bright morning desert sun.
“There are people out here that do find gold nuggets,” said club president Ralph Montano. “I tell everybody: you’re not going to get rich” metal detecting, but, “you might get lucky.”
It’s not just the thrill of the hunt that draws metal detector enthusiasts, like the Desert Gold Diggers, to remote locations in search of hidden treasure.
It’s the attraction of discovering precious metals following gold’s recent surge to more than $3,000 an ounce—marking the first time in U.S. history.
At the same time, silver continues rising and is more than $34 an ounce.
Montano told The Epoch Times that it’s not merely by chance that the club has been receiving more inquiries from individuals interested in metal detecting.
There seems to be a direct connection between gold prices and interest in the hobby.
“We’ve gotten a lot of interest lately. In the last couple of months, we’ve gotten a lot of new members,” Montano said.
“They’re coming out and learning from us about what equipment they will need and what to look for—how to look for the spots that might produce.”
Not since gold reached an all-time high of $1,896 and silver hit $49.52 per ounce in 2011 have precious metals—often considered “barbarous relics” in the financial world—commanded such prices.
By Allan Stein
