Critical Minerals: Tungsten

July 2017 by Chris Ralph

Because tungsten minerals are heavy, exploration can be done using stream sediment samples. Prospectors looking for gold have found scheelite or wolframite in their placer concentrates, and in some cases this has led them to make important tungsten finds.

One Question, Forever Unanswered—Did He Really Find the Gold?

May 2011
This was one of those stories where you have no doubt that the person telling it believes it to be true. But was it?

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.

Nevada's Silver City Gold District—Part I

March 2016

The name Silver City is quite ironic as it doesn’t really fit the area’s metal production. The area encompassing the Silver City district is a great, stand-alone gold district, where the production value of gold has been much more than that of silver. Since the initial discovery of gold-bearing veins in the mid-1850s, the area has been a center of continuous small and large-scale gold production.

Ask The Experts

June 2015
Sulfides and oxides—what's the difference between the two?

Gold Placers of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

January 2014
The biggest obstacle is that like many streams on the Kenai Peninsula, high water during the summer months from snow melt and rain can make dredging nearly impossible. The best dredging is in the colder months of the year.

The Goldfield Mining District, Nevada—Part II

July 2017

The majority of the gold produced in Goldfield has come from ores that are close enough to the surface to be oxidized by the air. This oxidized ore is normally a soft, shattered, earthy material usually stained yellow to brown by oxides of iron.

Gold Deposits of the Ivory Coast

April 2014
Ivory Coast has considerable gold reserves, and this nation has the largest area of greenstone belts prospective for gold in the continent.

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