"Can you imagine the environmental damage as everyone and his...

"Can you imagine the environmental damage as everyone and his dog became fossickers, and miners went full on digging up gold?No way."

good luck to prospectors if they want to give up their day job, it ain't that easy. History is littered with gold and silver rush stories. As far as environmental damage goes, river dredging is already banned in Aus and lots of areas are completely off limits for any type of prospecting for environmental reason. Governments will lock it down and enforce where require, it's a non-issue