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.

The Paragenesis of Gold & Silver Deposits

March 2015
…if you are game for digging in and learning more about the intricate details of how gold deposits form, then let’s jump right in.

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.

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...

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...

Exploring Iron Oxide Copper Gold Deposits

November 2017

The excitement over IOCG deposits began with the discovery of a monster deposit at Olympic Dam in Australia in 1976. The discovery was accidental as the operator was searching for strata-bound copper deposits.

The Giant King Mine

July 2014
Most gold-bearing veins in this region are controlled by fractures associated with the Melones Fault, a late Cretaceous structure that is 108 to 127 million years old.

Ask The Experts

March 2015
Q: Is this gold or some other metal?

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