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Bum Luck
February 2007 by Chris Ralph
Every prospector has streaks of bum luck—times when you can’t seem to find much, if anything. This is less true for folks who dry wash or dredge, but electronic prospecting and detecting is especially prone to dry streaks. It’s just the nature of the beast.
Picks & Pans: George Duffy Jr.—Pocket Miner Extraordinaire
During the Miocene and Pliocene mid-Tertiary Epochs, the Great Basin, Mojave, and Sonoran deserts within parts of California, Nevada, and Arizona became the source—the genesis—of ubiquitous epithermal “precious metal” fissure-gold veins associated with extensive acidic volcanic lava flows that blanketed much of the Cordillera during this time.
Gold in the First Pan
Leon has a reputation of seeing more snakes than most other gold miners. The fire red and yellow concentric rings of the mountain king snake looked especially bright in the morning sun as it lay motionless on black rock. Leon touched it with a stick, but the cold snake moved only a little.
Has Senator Harry Reid Worn Out His Welcome?
Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid, once a staunch supporter of mining and a voice of reason when dealing with public lands issues, seems to have changed his tune.
Looking Back
Excerpts from California Mining Journal, our original title, published 50 years ago this month.
Treasure Hunters Challenge FBI Over Dig for Civil War Gold
The father-son duo spent years combing this bit of Pennsylvania wilderness with high-end metal detectors, drills and other tools to prospect for a fabled cache of Civil War gold.
Benton’s Rich Silver
Prospectors looking for the next Comstock Lode tried mining for silver in the Benton Hot Springs area in California in 1862. On a ridge southeast of the town, they found what they were looking for—rich hornsilver.
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• Doc Livingston
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• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
• Looking Back
