Welcome William,
I'm not Kevin, but offer my opinion.

That all depends on your definition of profitable.

If you are expecting to find enough gold (assuming) to cover the cost of a claim, maintaining said claim, existing on a claim
Do the research, research, research, drill the claim, know whats there before putting down any monies.
In California, with all the regs and rules, if your on the legit side, in my opinion you wont be profitable, hope you prove me wrong.

Good luck out there,
Bill

Bill did a great job in my absence, Thank you Bill!!
I will add that whoever is selling the claim must be willing to allow you to prospect the claim where you want and not where they want you to test and sample. This is a non starter for me if they do not allow me full access to the claim before consideration.

This next pat is not to discourage you in any way but you have to know exactly what you are getting going in.

If the claim proves out then it is up to you to perform your due diligence to assure that the types of mining you will want to do or have to do on the claim is feasible and within the parameters of the current regulations.
Just because someone provides you with a claim eval and even assay reports does not mean the a claim is viable. Lets say that everything points to 1/4oz per ton average, you need to know to the penny the cost of extracting that 1/4oz. I have seen many operations fail from the start when the payout was $300.00 per ton and it cost $325.00 per ton to extract and pay the bills.
When you are looking at a claim to be profitable the amount of gold per yard matters little when the recovery exceeds the value. At profitability level mining it is truly a business that has to be run as a business.
Go forth and conquer with all of us rooting for your. I know I will be.