In these days when, owing to the high price of gold and silver, it is important to put much attention to the prospect or deposit offered due to in some occasions are added in certain places rich gold bearing minerals which do not belong by nature in the gold deposit. This trick is known as Salting. The objective of this negative attitude is to increase the value of the gold deposit in the eyes of the investor or expert. When some samples are assayed for gold, the values are high.
The expert must look over the exterior and surface signs of the gold deposit, studies the outcrop of the vein on the surface, its probable surface continuity, the advantages and disadvantages of the location of the deposit. Whilst gold dust is the favorite medium for salting a gold deposit, gold chloride is sometimes used. Although a gold placer usually covers a very large are of ground, it is possible to salt it. A miner shows up his placer by opening up pits at convenient intervals, so as to cover the property. Nothing is easier than to slat these pits with gold dust. In this way, whilst an expert will examine these holes and pan the dirt, he should be on his guard and insist where possible on holes being freshly dug in his presence. Generally in a placer by the cutting of a stream, sections are shown sometimes from grass roots to bed rock. From such the expert or examiner must take and pan samples at different levels in the exposure.
In a gold prospect or deposit where the rock is hard, the owner may salt by drilling holes and inserting gold bearing minerals or ore and disguising the hole. In loose ground or one full of cracks, a shot gun loaded with a moderate discharge of gold dust will do the work. In this case the examiner must be extremely careful on how to select a sample. In hard ground the expert may avoid such salting by having the work blasted out in his presence until a purely fresh virgin face is shown and then the sample is taken. These considerations are not necessary under all circumstances, but only in such cases where the expert has suspicion or doubt that there is an attempt to put up a job on him.
After getting the samples and as many as possible, the expert or examiner will sack and seal them. It is important to place these samples in a safe place in order to avoid any possible problem later. Once the samples are taken, the examiner is totally responsible for them.