Old tailing piles extend for miles. There was still plenty of water flowing here, so WPA members set up highbankers at several settling ponds.

The metal is expensive, not because it is rare but because of the expense to produce and work it. The minerals mined for titanium are all oxides, unlike many base metals that are mostly mined as sulfide minerals.

This same concept is true of many of our modern-day rivers, and we have to find out where their gold originated if we can.

There are a few questions you will need to ask yourself before you apply for a suction dredge permit from the State Water Resources Control Board.