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GPAA of Northern Nevada, Reno

The GPAA chapter for Reno and northern Nevada, meeting in Sparks

Meets
3rd Monday of the month, 6:00 pm
Where
American Legion Post 30, 730 4th St, Sparks
Organization
Nevada nonprofit, 501(c)(3) public charity
Training
Lectures, demonstrations and hands-on sessions, free for participants
Donations
Accepts donated claims in Nevada and California and working gold recovery gear
Older address
Earlier guides list the Spanish Springs Library: the chapter has moved

Club with mining claims for members

Based in Sparks, Nevada.

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

gpaaofnorthernnevadareno.com ↗facebook.com ↗

Email:

Prospect on your own near Sparks

248 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 Sparks →

Prospecting and collecting rules in the US →

About GPAA of Northern Nevada, Reno

GPAA of Northern Nevada Reno is the local chapter of the Gold Prospectors Association of America for Reno, Sparks and the north of the state. It is run as an educational nonprofit, registered in Nevada and recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity.

Teaching is the chapter's purpose. Through talks, demonstrations and hands-on training at meetings and outings, it shows adults, families and children how to prospect, mine on a small scale and hunt for treasure with methods that are kind to the ground: how to locate and identify minerals, and how to remove them legally without damaging habitat. Participants pay nothing for the training.

Meetings are on the third Monday of the month at 6:00 pm at American Legion Post 30, 730 4th Street in Sparks. The chapter has moved over the years: a 2013 Nevada Magazine feature on prospecting placed it at the Spanish Springs Library on fourth Mondays, so older articles still carry that address and day. The same feature counted two GPAA chapters in Nevada, this one and the one in Las Vegas.

That article also passed on a piece of advice from a member of the Reno chapter: do not buy a metal detector before sitting in on a few meetings and getting some time in the field. Members, it added, take real pleasure in helping newcomers get started.

Outings have included nugget shoots at Rye Patch State Recreation Area, on the Humboldt River north of Lovelock. In 2015 a new member from Winnemucca wrote on the association's forum that he had tried to make it to the chapter's shoot there.

The chapter takes donations of mining claims, in Nevada or California, and of gold recovery equipment in good working order, and the donations are tax deductible. It also keeps an eye on public land bills that could change where people may prospect around Reno, such as the Truckee Meadows lands bill.

Members with a current GPAA claims permit also have access to the association's list of claims and properties around the country.

Other clubs and places nearby

Sources