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.

PGMs in the United States

August 1999
Until just recently, platinum-group metals (PGMs), especially palladium, had been holding their own on the market. But, Russia has now resumed shipments and it has brought prices down.

Prospecting for Surface Flood Gold Placers on Low and Intermediate Gradient Streams

February 2015

Sample panning is a very important method used to find the richest parts of a flood gold deposit before setting up equipment and running material.

The Pearce Mineralized Area, Dragoon Mountains, Arizona

July 2013
...I would bet considerably more lode gold and silver remains to be found in this area, and there are possibilities for small placers and nugget shooting.

Alluvial Paystreaks

November 2018

The gravels in contact with the bedrock or false bedrock base are often the richest. The same facts apply to the alluvial paystreaks that are formed on gravel bars; the lowest level of the gold-bearing gravel is normally the richest.

Alaska's Cripple Creek Mining District

November 2011
If developed with metal detecting in mind, this virgin ground could be a bonanza for nugget hunting.

The Birimian Greenstone Belts of West Africa

July 2013
The country we were to visit was Burkina Faso, a small country about the same size of my home state of Nevada with about 10 times more people. The second day I was in Africa, we went out to the goldfields for the first time.

Confluence Placers

June 2013
Confluences of placer streams are well known as concentration sites for heavy minerals. The basic reason is that...

Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill   • Legislative and Regulatory Update   • Ask The Experts - Looking for help smelting gold   • Ask The Experts - Chlorine bleach and vinegar makes a deadly combination   • Ask The Experts - Were there insufficient values to continue mining at this site?   • Watch Out for Split Estates When Filing Your Claim   • Detecting the Fringe Areas   • Conrey Dredge No. 4—Part II   • California: The Land of Big Nuggets—Part I   • Gold Detecting Strategies for Hydraulic Mines and Debris Flows   • New Technology for Extracting Lithium To Be Tested in Nevada   • Melman on Gold & Silver   • Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices

Free: