History & Geology
California: The Land of Big Nuggets—Part II
January 2018 by Chris Ralph
There are a number of Tertiary river channels in the area, most of which trend south-southwest. They tend to be steep, narrow, and rich with coarse gold.
Butte, Montana—The Richest Hill on Earth
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.
Placer Mining At Chititu Creek, Alaska

Mining Pegmatite Deposits
With successively lower temperatures as the water mixture cools, new sets of minerals are formed and many of those stable at a higher degree of heat became subject to alteration as the temperature progressively moved lower.
The Miner’s Switchback
Common thought is the switchback slows the velocity of the rushing water and gold drops out from the cut bank to a fill gravel bar within or below the switchback. I am not going to disregard that model; however, I hope to improve upon it.
The Heavy Minerals in Your Concentrates

Gold in Tertiary Gravels

The Many Facets of Iron

Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• How to Interpret Assay Values
• Bedrock Nugget Hunting: Tools of the Trade
• A Primer on Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies
• Gold Hunting on Libby Creek
• PLP and MMAC Update
• Man's Best Friend
• An Interview with Minelab Engineer Mark Lawrie
• Third Largest Nugget in Existence Returns to Dallas
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
Free: