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About Us - Our Writer

Chris Ralph

Chris Ralph

Associate Editor

Chris had been writing articles for us for about four years before officially joining the staff in January 2008.

Chris has worked for precious metal mining companies conducting both surface and underground operations, and has a degree in Mining Engineering from Nevada's Mackay School of Mines.

He is an individual prospector who has been searching the hills of California and Nevada for many years, finding some nice gold and gems on many occasions.

Chris is based in Reno, Nevada, where he lives with his wife and two kids.

He can be reached at PO Box 3104, Reno, Nevada, 89505 or via email.

Email Chris Ralph
Read Articles by Chris Ralph
Time to go Prospecting

Gold Placers of Nevada

Geology of Placer Deposits: Reading a River

Quartz: The Indicator of Gold

Stamp Mills

The Forms of Crystalline Gold

Gold: Is It Everywhere?

Ask The Experts - When do I use detector discrimination?

Underground Mining: Stoping Methods

Digging It Dry

Summertime Gold Panning

The Seven Troughs Mining District

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Ask The Experts: How do I identify gold in hard rock that may be mixed with other metals?

Ask The Experts: Is there a safe DIY alternative to cyanide or mercury for extraction?

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Can You Recognize Valuable Ores?

China Closing More Than 1,000 Mines

The Essence of Gold Prospecting

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The Heavy Minerals in Your Concentrates

Critical Metals: Antimony

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Think You Got It All? Guess Again!

Enrichment of Mineral Deposits by Weathering—Part II

How to Stake Your Own Mining Claims—Part II

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How to Stake Your Own Mining Claims—Part I

Enrichment of Mineral Deposits by Weathering—Part I

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Gold in Quartz

Determining the Amount of Gold in Rich Ores

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Electrum: Gold and Silver Together

Mineralized Faults and Contacts in the Search for Gold

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Researching Mineralized Areas

Using Geologic Maps

All About Minerals

Gold in Tertiary Gravels

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Where Should I Start?

Rock and Formations of the Mother Lode Gold Belt

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Modern Mining Reclamation

Iron Ores and Iron Mining

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Surviving The Boom and Bust Cycle

Prospecting for Silver Deposits

Will El Nino Move Gold for Miners and End California Drought?

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Prospecting for Pegmatites

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The Basics of Froth Flotation

The Montanore Copper and Silver Project

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California's Mother Lode Quartz Veins

Perception of Mining vs. Reality

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The Gold, Silver and Base Metal Mines of Eureka, Nevada

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The Paragenesis of Gold & Silver Deposits

Gold Rush Continues in Africa

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The Silver, Gold and Gemstones of Candelaria, Nevada

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All About Pyrite

The Ely Copper-Gold District of Nevada

Small-Scale Processing of Hard Rock Ores

Uncovering the Find of a Lifetime

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What Can I Do to Save My Mining Rights?

What Equipment Do I Need?

Operation And Application Of Magnetometers

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Designing and Evaluating Placer Gold Recovery Plants

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Conductive Minerals and Your Metal Detector

BLM Raises Location and Claim Fees

Sniping for Drought Gold

Gold Ores of the Delamar District, Nevada

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Swing and a Miss

Gold Recovery with Centrifugal Bowls

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Silver and Base Metal Deposits of the Pioche District

Protecting Our Access to Public Lands

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Critical Metals: Zinc

Round Mountain, Nevada

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Mining for Gold and Sapphires in Montana

Gold Deposits of the Ivory Coast

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Twenty-Five Gold Indicators You Should Know

Natural Gold Alloys

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Eolian Gold Deposits

Critical Metals: Lithium

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Sierra County Gold—Part I

The Amazing Mineral Tourmaline

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Are There Any Good Prospects Left?

Using Sucker Guns to Find Gold

A Few Pointers About Cracks and Crevices

Potential Gold at Old Hydraulic Sites

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Greenstone and Gold

Hunches, Choices and Guesses

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The Essentials of Dry Washing

Lower Prices Bring Layoffs

Buyer Beware! Counterfeit Metal Detectors

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The Birimian Greenstone Belts of West Africa

All About Quartz—Part II

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Gold Deposits of Montana

Buying a Mining Claim: Questions to Ask

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All About Garnets

What is a Valid Mineral Discovery?

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Iron Minerals, Your Detector and Gold

Prospecting for Diamonds

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Detecting at the Sixteen to One Mine

Mineral Deposit Trends: Real and Imaginary

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The Portable XRF Gun

Using Google Earth and Other Maps

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Cold Alaskan Gold—Part II

Cold Alaskan Gold—Part I

The World of the Simple Gold Pan

Ask the Experts: More suggestions for dealing with metallic trash....

Ask the Experts: Something for everyone...

Ask the Experts: VMS ore

Ask the Experts: various mining courses

Small-Scale Miners Rock the Mining World

Prospecting for Copper Ores—Part II

Metallic Trash—Scourge of the Prospector

Mine, Baby, Mine!

Iowa Hill District

Bigger and Better—Gold Prospecting & Mining Summit Recap

Prospecting for Copper Ores—Part I

Ask the Experts: Ionizing mercury

Ask the Experts: gold per ton; improving assay method

Tucson Show Marketing

Critical Metals: Copper

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Today's MSHA

Ask the Experts - ...Worth further investigation?

Ask the Experts - Processing sulfide ore without mercury or cyanide.

4 Keys to Successful Nugget Hunting

A High Price to Pay

The Basics of Geophysical Exploration

Good Assays and Bad

NWMA Show

Ask the Experts—Looking up mining claims on the Internet

Ask The Experts—Iridium

Ask The Experts—Highbanker legal in CA?; Best place to sell raw gold?

Ask The Experts—Using classifiers

Recent Prospecting in Plumas County

Prospecting for Nickel Deposits

Nevada Claim Holders Form Coalition

Drywashing and Detecting for Gold

Prospecting Old Tertiary Channels

California's Rich Pocket Mines

Prospecting for Rare Earth Metals

Picks & Pans: Perseverance Pays Off

Recovering Fine Gold: Getting the Most from Your Sluice Box

Sam, the Tenderfoot Prospector

Where to Prospect for Gold in Colorado

A Modern Gold Rush In Sudan

Understanding Sampling Techniques

Detecting at Old Hydraulic Mines

Prospecting at Moore Creek

The Plumas Eureka District

The Tonopah Gold and Silver District

Dredging Alternative: High Banking

Researching and Staking Mining Claims—Part II

Bucket Line Dredges

Researching and Staking Mining Claims

Basic Sniping: Prospecting With a Pan & Simple Hand Tools

Bum Luck

Mining Stocks—Things to Consider Before You Invest

Platinum Placers and Nuggets

Recovering Values from Black Sands

Gold Deposits of North Carolina

How to Get Started as a Gold Prospector

Finding Gold With Copper and Turquoise

Cashing In Your Gold: Working With A Refiner

Gold Deposits Of South Carolina

Beyond The End of The Road

Finding Paystreak Gold With A Metal Detector

The Trail of ‘98

Detecting Invisible Gold

Ask The Experts—What Should I Do Next With This Quartz Vein?

Prospecting for Commercial-Scale Gold Deposits

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