History & Geology
Butte, Montana—The Richest Hill on Earth
December 2017 by Chris Ralph
I recently had the opportunity to spend a day exploring around Butte, Montana and was amazed by the amount of mining that has taken place there. The old-timers called Butte “the richest hill on earth” and had pretty good reasons for doing so.
Rare Silver Nuggets And Their Origins
Silver nuggets have been described as “ultra-rare,” “prized” and “unique.” Naturally occurring silver nuggets are rare enough to suggest caution when purchasing. Fakes have reportedly been produced and misrepresented for sale as genuine specimens.
Gold Placers of Southern California
I grew up in Southern California, and found my first nugget there, so I know my way around. Because there is good gold there, I thought it might be helpful to take a look at the many placer gold opportunities found in the southern part of the state.
Critical Minerals: Gold
A few quick calculations show that approximately 11 tons of gold are lost each year just in the manufacture of new cell phones.
Silver Peak, Nevada: A Little of Everything
Silver Peak is a small mining community in Esmeralda County in west-central Nevada, about 30 miles west of Goldfield. Although it’s fairly remote, it’s been an important mining center since the early days.
California: The Land of Big Nuggets—Part I
The nugget sat there in plain sight, though it was covered in dirt, while hundreds of people had passed that way every day.
Fabulous Florence—The Golden Town of Idaho
In September 1861, on a round-about prospecting journey homeward, five California gold miners discovered gold in the area now called Florence. While watering the horses, one of the men noticed a golden color on a piece of slate bedrock in the stream...
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Q: Is there a correlation between fault zones and mineralization of economic metals?
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