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.

Fabulous Florence—The Golden Town of Idaho

May 2012
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...

The Beatty Mining District of Nevada

November 2017

The Beatty Mining District in south-central Nevada has been one of the most productive Mining Districts in the state, producing millions of ounces of gold together with silver, fluorite, mercury and other valuable minerals.

Prospecting for Copper Ores—Part II

July 2012
Copper is a critically important metal that we need to run our modern electronic society, and the long term outlook for this metal is for a steady increase in price.

Natural Gold Alloys

March 2014
Natural gold is never 100% pure; all natural nuggets contain at least some impurities. We're going to take a look at just what some of those impurities might be.

The Pedro Gold Dredge

October 2014
The decision was made to move the dredge intact, a massive undertaking indeed. The goal was to move it only one mile to the Busby’s Chicken Gold Camp, but what a mile that was to be.

A New Look at Old Mines

April 2011
Exploration companies are actively looking for properties with profitable potential, even if the ground was once cast off as too low in grade to be economically viable. This is especially true in states that are reasonably friendly toward...

The Many Facets of Iron

March 2013
I’ve been fascinated by iron minerals for many years. So let’s take a look at this very interesting and colorful element.

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