Just a tip, never overlook anything, always investigate something that catches your eye. I went through some fine concentrates I had saved from the Delores claim because when I dumped my black sands into a black pan I noticed some red small rocks. So I let the pan dry in the sun and then under the sun myself and my wife picked out the garnets, and it was enough to make a nice pendant for my wife with beautiful color. I didn't find a speck of gold, but I bag and tag my concentrates always to be gone through again.
On another occasion we found a giant green crystal that looks like Wyoming jade and nobody can identify so we are taking it to the BLM Geologist to have examined. We already have people asking to cut it for us and we don't even know what it is.
As my Grandfather told me when out hunting when I was a kid, "You may not always find what you are looking for, but god always provides something, you just have to recognize it." The same applies to prospecting, you go out looking for gold but you never know what you might find if you keep an open mind. He lived through the depression and then fought in WWII, it was his and his brothers job to put food on the table for dinner after they left school each day and it didn't matter what it was as long as it was there. They left school everyday with their .22 rifles and sought game for dinner, back then people didn't freak out about kids using firearms and carrying them to school. Some days it's a rabbit or squirrel but some days it may be bullfrogs or a snake. We still have a lot to learn from the Greatest generation of people that lived through those hard times, unfortunately they have mostly passed away with their knowledge.
