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.

Ask the Experts: VMS ore

August 2012
Q: Are there any mills that handle VMS ore?

Know Your District

December 2010
We have to remember that the earliest miners were not geologists, but came from a variety of backgrounds. Their survival depended on finding enough gold so they worked hard and adapted to whatever challenges these new areas presented.

Critical Metals: Antimony

June 2016
I’ve been taking a look at the mining and uses of a number of critical metals in series of articles, and it’s time to take a look at antimony.

Mineralized Faults and Contacts in the Search for Gold

January 2016

Fault zones and rock contacts are important because the vast majority of gold and silver deposits, as well as those of many other metals, are formed by hot, mineralized water solutions.

Alaska: Kodiak Islands Mineral Resources

March 2016

The fresh material is worked and concentrated by the waves on the flat, wide beach platform. The waves wash away the lighter minerals, leaving the heavies near the bluffs and in depressions on the beach.

Prospecting for Diamonds in Kimberlite

January 2014
Kimberlite is very difficult for geologists to find, let alone prospectors and rock hounds. This is because kimberlite is rarely exposed on the surface and few people know how to identify the rock.

A Journey Into the Silver Peak Range

June 2013
The Gold Rush in California called hundreds of thousands of souls to leave their homes to journey to the the far reaches of the West. At first the rich goldfields of the Sierra Nevada beckoned to these adventurous pioneers.

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