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Desert Gold Diggers

Tucson gold prospecting club with claims across southern Arizona

Meets
1st Tuesday of the month, 6 pm
Where
Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, 1660 W Ruthrauff Rd, Tucson
Claims
Greaterville, Arivaca, Oro Blanco (Ruby), Las Guijas, Old Hat (Oracle) and Banner districts
Methods
Panning, sluicing, dry washing, metal detecting
New members
Get maps of the claims with directions and road conditions
Visitors
Welcome at meetings
Updates
Posted on the club's Facebook group

Club with mining claims for members

Based in Tucson, Arizona.

The club's claims are for members only: contact the club to join.

desertgolddiggers.com ↗

Prospect on your own near Tucson

64 gold spots on open public land with no claim on record, within 50 miles.

There are more on the map, some of them with a possible mining claim.

Open the gold map around Tucson →

Prospecting and collecting rules in Arizona →

About Desert Gold Diggers

The Desert Gold Diggers are a non-profit prospecting club based in Tucson, devoted to every side of small-scale mining: panning, sluicing, dry washing and metal detecting. Besides going out after gold, members swap information on equipment, techniques and the rules of the game.

The club's strength is its ground. It holds unpatented mining claims in several gold districts of south-eastern Arizona: Greaterville, Arivaca, Oro Blanco around the old town of Ruby, Las Guijas, Old Hat near Oracle and Banner in Pinal County. Members can dig there whenever they like and keep all the gold they find, without the worry of working someone else's ground. New members get a set of claim maps with directions and notes on the roads, and the club keeps looking at new ground to add. In August 2026 it paid the federal maintenance fees to hold its claims in Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties for another year.

Meetings are on the first Tuesday of the month at 6 pm at the Ellie Towne Flowing Wells Community Center, 1660 W Ruthrauff Rd, and visitors are welcome. There is usually a guest speaker on prospecting, mining or the history and environment of the region, followed by club business. During the year the club organizes outings where members dig together, a family picnic and several overnight trips, and it keeps up a dialogue with the Forest Service and the BLM about small-scale prospecting in southern Arizona. Changes and updates go on its Facebook group.

The club is frank about the risks. These are old mining areas, and unmarked shafts can still be open. The summer sun is brutal, so carry plenty of water, wear a hat, tell someone where you are going, stay away from the wildlife and watch for venomous reptiles. And fill in your holes.

Other clubs and places nearby

Where to buy gear nearby

Sources