History & Geology
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.
Sierra County Gold—Part II
...we will continue our examination of the rich streams and mining districts, and then take a look at some of the big nuggets that have been found here.
Critical Metals: Copper
From time to time I’ve been doing a series on critical metals and how important they are to our complex and technological society. This month we are going to take a look at copper, and how important that metal is to our modern lives.
Bedrock Gold: When It’s There and When It Isn’t
Has your experience ever led you to wonder why some gold is deposited on bedrock and in crevices, while other gold is not? We’re going take a deeper look at this and see what we can figure it out.
Simple Rules of Gold Geology: Comparing Epithermal and Mesothermal Deposits
Geology is a science of general tendencies with frequent exceptions, not one of hard and fast rules that are always true and never vary. For almost every well-accepted rule of gold deposits, I can point you to a number of important exceptions.
The Potholes—California’s Oldest Known Mining District
Every time we prospected here we found gold, sometimes some really coarse flakes, but no large nuggets (yet).
Heavy Sands Mining
Lately my mind has been involved with group 4 of the transition elements, namely titanium, zirconium, and hafnium. They all have similar chemical properties. Of greatest interest to economic geologists and miners is that these valuable elements often occur together in sands.
Using Favorable Rock Types to Find More Gold
The more experienced prospectors know these lesser known spots are the types of places where big finds are still made.
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• 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
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• New Technology for Extracting Lithium To Be Tested in Nevada
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