1677 R. Gilpin Dæmonol. Sacra iii. xviii. 144 The Expression..intimates that the way which Satan took, was different from common prospecting or beholding.

1848 W. Colton Jrnl. 18 Oct. in Three Years in Calif. (1850) xxi. 292 Half their time is consumed in what they call prospecting; that is, looking up new deposits [of gold].

1857 J. D. Borthwick Three Years in Calif. vi. 124 We abandoned it [sc. our claim], and went ‘prospecting’.

1872 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 283 Little real mining has been carried on, while much prospecting has taken place.

1922 Woman's World (Chicago) Nov. 15/1 He had really done some prospecting and knew the color of pay dirt when he saw it.

1953 Life 8 June 147/1 The airplane and such sufficient aids to modern prospecting as the..Geiger counter have enormously accelerated exploration of the Shield's two million square miles of waste.

2005 Scotsman (Nexis) 17 Sept. 29 The big oil companies have long since abandoned major prospecting and development in the North Sea.

1859 G. W. Matsell Vocabulum 70 Prospecting, looking for something to steal.

1886 Proc. Royal Geogr. Soc. 8 633 We deemed it wise to anchor the Peace and do some prospecting in the rowing-boat..before we ventured further.

1945 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 75 29/2 I should not have been able to complete this prospecting [for stone tools]..had it not been for much local help.

1971 J. N. Pratt Wine Bibber's Bible 19 Extensive prospecting for new vineyards in California has begun to pay off on a grand scale.

2004 Times Higher Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 5 Nov. 23 Very little prospecting for Palaeolithic or Middle Stone Age sites has been done in the region.

1880 News & Press (Cimarron, New Mexico) 22 July 2/2 New Mexico ought to become one vast prospecting camp for the next five years.

1931 V. Palmer Separate Lives 183 Men..had been trickling in from the prospecting-camps and copper-shows of the dry country.

1997 Observer (Nexis) 23 Nov. 11 Occidental has just dismantled its prospecting camp, set up in the middle of a Secoya community while the company explored the forest for oil.

1849 C. T. Jackson in Executive Documents U.S. House of Representatives (31st Congress, 1st Sess.) No. 5. 457 It is obvious that the shallow pits now sunk on the vein [of copper] show only its surface, and that they can only be regarded..as mere superficial explorations, or ‘prospecting diggings’, as they are called in the west.

1997 Jrnl. Vegetation Sci. 8 165/1 Of 1576 aardvark diggings observed..during a 3-yr period..293 were prospecting diggings.

1852 Times 18 June 8/6 If with the prospecting dish they procure gold in any quantity..they will bring down the cradle, pitch their tent, &c.

1878 Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc. 48 279 The residue is then washed, with exactly the same oscillatory motion as do the Australian miners with their prospecting dishes.

1931 C. B. Smith Austral. Gold Prospectors' Handbk. 19 Should the wash dirt be mixed with clay, it will require ‘puddling’ before washing in either the prospecting dish or the cradle.

2002 R. Van Driesum et al. Outback Austral. (Lonely Planet) (ed. 3) 90/2 The use of a prospecting dish is straight-forward but requires some practice.

1870 Manufacturer & Builder Mar. 73/3 An open-cut or quarry drill..is similar in construction to a No. 2 Prospecting Drill detached from boiler.

1897 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 6 13 The prospecting drill, which enables a sample to be taken of every foot of rock through which it passes.

1995 Mining Jrnl. (Nexis) 1 Dec. 2 Prospecting drills can also be used..for precision drilling in existing concrete structures.

1876 Weekly Nevada State Jrnl. 10 June 3/1 Dr. Bishop has erected a prospecting mill on the ground, consisting of two stamps, two pans and a settler, run by steam, and is demonstrating..how easily the ore can be worked.

1934 Reno (Nevada) Evening Gaz. 6 Jan. 6/4 The prospecting mill will reduce four hundred pounds of ore in twenty-four hours.

1986 R. E. Lingenfelter Death Valley & Amargosa 190 He bought a little one-stamp prospecting mill to set up at Horseshutem Springs.

1851 in Occas. Papers Univ. Sydney Austral. Lang. Res. Centre (1966) No. 9. 19 The sediment which is composed of dirt, small stones and the particles of Gold which appear at and in the different compartments at the bottom are now emptied thro' two plugholes into a..tin dish, called a prospecting pan.

1889 K. Munroe Golden Days of ’49 102 The other mule bore a pack..containing a small tent,..iron prospecting pan [etc.].

1950 Chron. Express (Penn Yan, N.Y.) 23 Feb. 2/1 Such a heavy wet snowfall..like the water in the Forty-niner's prospecting pan, brings into view shining examples of good, thoughtful citizenship.

2003 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 26 Oct. 2 The vast majority who set out in a gold rush with their prospecting pans find pyrite.

1857 W. P. Blake in Rep. Explor. Mississippi to Pacific Ocean V. 272 A ‘prospecting’ shaft is first sunk from the surface of the bed-rock, and the earth tested.

1880 Daily Tel. 3 Dec. Hundreds of men..began to sink what are called ‘prospecting shafts’, and a vast amount of low grade mineral was brought to bank.

1999 Jrnl. Southern Afr. Stud. 25 92 Jobs, which they generally performed on the small mines beyond the Reef, and in prospecting shafts.

1861 Weekly Gaz. & Free Press (Janesville, Wisconsin) 6 Sept. Large numbers of miners are constantly out on prospecting trips.

1883 W. G. Ritch Illustr. New Mexico (ed. 4) 72 Three years ago a miner by the name of Lufkin..started out on a prospecting trip in the foot-hills of the southern extremity of the Black Range.

1948 P. Johnston Lost & Living Cities Calif. Gold Rush 52/2 A number of miners disappeared while on prospecting trips, leaving no trace of their fate.

1997 S. Zanjani Mine of Her Own i. i. 41 Just what prompted Nellie to make a prospecting trip into a remote region of Baja California in the spring of 1883 remains a matter of conjecture.

1862 Weekly Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.) 29 Nov. P. T. Williams..has returned home from a prospecting visit to the Cariboo mines.

1891 Athenæum 23 May 662/2 Nothing could well look less promising..than the first appearances which..greeted Dr. Atkinson on his prospecting visit to Danby.

2002 Lloyd's List (Nexis) 22 Jan. 2 Kvaerner confirmed last week that an Aker delegation had paid another prospecting visit to Warnow.

1869 R. W. Raymond Mines of West v. 46 As the prospecting work advanced eastward, the vein began to carry quartz again.

1883 Science 16 Nov. 662/2 Mr. Schieffelin warns prospectors against coming rashly into the country, unprovided with supplies and tools, as nothing suitable for prospecting work can be had there.

1964 A. Nelson Dict. Mining 109 Costean,..the channel eroded by a flow of water to expose mineral deposits during prospecting work.

1990 T. B. Colman Explor. for Metallif. & Related Minerals (BNC) 9 The Act required companies to deposit information from prospecting work with the BGS.

1867 Edinb. Evening Courant 14 Jan. 4/3 Several claims have been taken up both east and west of the prospecting claim.

c1882 T. F. de C. Browne Miners' Handy Bk. (ed. 2) 18 The auriferous deposit is not less than 150 feet in depth from the surface, as proven by the depth of a prospecting claim.

1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right I. v. 129 This..would be but half the size of the premier or prospecting claim.

1895 G. C. Addison Miners' Man. 7 Any miner shall be entitled to mark off a protection area double the length by four times the width of the prospecting claim.

1997 Financial Post (Canada) (Nexis) 21 May 7 The company planned to quietly buy up additional prospecting claims in the area.

1602 T. Churchyard & R. Robinson tr. E. van Meteren True Disc. Hist. Succeeding Governours Netherlands 25 The Prince of Orange and the States..like prospecting Patriotae for the protection of themselues and their countrie, fortified themselues and the same euery where.

1681 J. Flavell Method of Grace To Rdr. sig. a4 ^v Man being a prudent and prospecting creature, hath the advantage of all other Creatures in his foreseeing faculty.

1848 Literary World (N.Y.) 3 June 342/1 Two or three men with a bucket, a rope, a pick-axe, and a portable windlass... This..is a prospecting party.

1882 H. Lansdell Through Siberia I. 213 There must be a prospecting party made up.

1991 Environment Digest Nov.–Dec. (BNC) In recent years, the tribe has been badly affected by malaria, measles and other diseases brought in by prospecting miners.

2004 Dallas Morning News (Nexis) 30 Oct. b7 He came to Texas to join..one of the first independent prospecting companies to perform seismic exploration for petroleum.