History & Geology
Glaciers and Placer Gold Deposits
November 2016 by Chris Ralph

The Strange History of the Utica Mine

The Forms of Crystalline Gold
The largest and most perfect single gold crystals are nearly always in the form of octahedra. These large octahedral crystals often possess deeply recessed faces.
Weathering, Erosion and Placers

Gold Placers of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Silver and Base Metal Deposits of the Pioche District

Critical Minerals: Tungsten
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.
Sulfides and Intergrain Gold Wire Nuggets
...these nuggets have not traveled far from the lode because the golden wire lattices would have been torn apart or flattened during weathering of rock and deposition by violent stream action.
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