History & Geology
Indicator Minerals for Gold & Silver
April 2011 by Chris Ralph
In this article, we’re going to take a look at the minerals that contain gold and silver, and how you as a prospector can identify them in the field.
Picks & Pans: Gold Recovery in Placer Mining Operations
Two of the major factors affecting the profitability of a placer mining enterprise are the relative efficiency of the mining equipment, and the rate and percentage of recovery obtained while conducting mining operations.
Testing Ores for Free Gold
I get a number of questions from people about testing and treating hard rock ores. The simplest way, but also an expensive one, is to just have an assay test done by an independent assay firm. As an alternative...
Strategic Metals—Part II
There are literally thousands of abandoned wasterock and ore dumps that dot the United States that could hold many tones of strategic metals.
It Pays to Know Your Bedrock
On our last trip, we brought ropes and went down the first waterfall forty vertical feet, only to be confronted by a second, sixty-foot-high, overhanging waterfall that emptied into a slot canyon.
Exploring and Mining for Uranium
For a time uranium was more popular with prospectors than gold, but this is no longer true, and it has been decades since it was common to see individuals armed with Geiger counters out in the field.
Gold in Beatty, Nevada
In this case, signs of gold were found at the bottom of the alluvial and then traced in a triangle up the face of the mountain until they stopped—that is where the digging began.
Glaciers and Placer Gold Deposits
It also happens sometimes that glaciers will bury valuable placer deposits. This occurs when the glacier goes over the top of an existing placer deposit.
Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill
• Mining Claims—What to Know Before You File
• Prospecting Underground: Use Caution
• Small-Scale Concentrating and Recovery Methods
• 5th Circuit Ruling May Benefit Miners
• Mud Men: Pocket Miners of Southwest Oregon Part III
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
• Silver Mining Returning to Texas
Free:
A New Look at Old Mines
• Proposed Regulations for California Suction Dredging
