History & Geology
Gold Refining In The Ancient World
March 2015 by Bill Rich
One thing that stood out for me is that Agricola was very specific about the type of metal or wood in the implements and vessels that were to be used.Additional articles that might interest you...
Benches and Fossil Placers
March 2013
Unfortunately for us mortal humans, we have a poor perspective on geologic time. When we look at a landscape such as a stream valley, we see it only in two, or at the most, three dimensions. We have poor comprehension of the valley’s fourth and most important dimension—time.
Unfortunately for us mortal humans, we have a poor perspective on geologic time. When we look at a landscape such as a stream valley, we see it only in two, or at the most, three dimensions. We have poor comprehension of the valley’s fourth and most important dimension—time.
The Long Road to Gold Point, Nevada
September 2013
Apart from the hard rock mines, there are abundant gold-bearing placers, especially in the areas in and around Oriental Wash.

Gold, Quartz & Chalcedony—Part II
November 2011
The specific gravity of chalcedony is 2.58 to 2.64. This is slightly lower than coarsely crystalline quartz because of slight porosity in chalcedony. Being so light, it will easily wash out of a gold pan.

The Birimian Greenstone Belts of West Africa
July 2013
The country we were to visit was Burkina Faso, a small country about the same size of my home state of Nevada with about 10 times more people. The second day I was in Africa, we went out to the goldfields for the first time.

One of the Richest Beaches Ever Mined
April 2015
Everyone has heard of the golden beach at Nome, but Nome did not have the richest beach.

The Verde Copper-Gold-Silver-Zinc District, Jerome, Arizona
October 2012
When I was a student in the College of Mines at the University of Utah, the Verde district was used as an exploration model for “submarine volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits.” So I looked forward to visiting this district and the town of Jerome in central Arizona in the spring of 2012.

The Goldfield Mining District -- Then and Now
March 2017
In 1983, some of the ore yielded more than 2,500 ounces of gold within 30 feet of the surface. The shoot pinched to a narrow vein.

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