Obviously, the most basic tools one needs for prospecting in the desert are SAFETY ITEMS. Dying of dehydration and exposure is counter productive: one cannot collect gold when one is dead, dying, or seriously injured. There was a time when one could collect enough gold to be worth maimings, loss of fingers, toes, and other injuries; in the modern world, gold is too elusive to find enough to be worth those risks. In other words, one will, almost certainly, never find enough gold to be worth taking risks with one's health and fitness.
	The most basic tool used to collect gold in the desert these days is the same one used for a thousand years: a pan. It may be a plastic pan, a copper pan, steel pan, or even a frying pan. The plastic ones are the most easily used, are cheep, and have riffles in them to help retain the paydirt. I like the medium-size pans since they do not get too heavy. Since there is very little water in the desert, one might need to take one's paydirt home to pan via a garden hose; that is the method I use. (I use a Dry Washer to condense the sand, dirt, and gravel, and then take the result home and pan it.) One will also want a shovel, and perhaps a rock hammer. Another item, here shown in its leather case, is a 10x loupe. I use this to examine the gold flecks to see how polished they are: if they are very smooth, they have been carried far from their source. If the gold is rough, that means the source may be near.
	A bucket is needed to carry your condensed paydirt to a source of water for panning. Since these buckets may be stacked inside each other, one can haul several. If one is using a Dry Washer, one could use the bucket to carry the dirt from the gold deposit to the washer if they are a distance apart (it is not always possible to locate a dry washer right next to a gold deposit).
	A toolbox with all the tools one can think of is a "must" item. I carry a great many tools when I am in the desert, to fix or patch most equipment failures (including automobile problems). I also carry gardening hand tools, a shear, twine, nuts, bolts, cotter pins, retaining clips, wire nuts (for electrical problems), road flares, a parachute flare, engine oil, radiator fluid, brake fluid, a hatchet, several hunting knives, a funnel, flashlight, snow chains, 100 feet of chain, and many (many many many many) other items.

	This is a "dry washer." It is used where there is no water available, and it takes the place of a sluce box. This particular model is hand-cranked and may be fitted with an electric 12vDC motor. It uses air and vibration to shake the sand, dirt, and gravel over the riffle plate where, hopefully, the gold will collect. This image shows the dry washer with the electric motor off. The motor is attached to the side facing the viewer (you and I), and a fan belt is attached to the wheel. The angles of the hopper and the riffle board are adjustible. There are many manufacturers of dry washers. One may also purchase plans on how to make one oneself.
	This is an image showing the loading hopper. The hopper is covered over with a mesh, which prevents rocks from entering the dry washer. The material passes through an aperture and on to the riffle board, where a bellows from below blows air through. The gold, being very heavy, will collect at the base of the riffles, while the dirt, sand, and gravel are blown off and vibrated off the riffle board. After the material has been dry washed, the resulting paydirt should be dumped into a bucket for later panning when one has a source of water.
	This image shows the hand crank wheel, and the optional motor for this model and make of dry washer. Perhaps King Kong can crank a dry washer for six or seven hours a day, but I cannot---- the motor is a very nice item to have!