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.
Heavy Sands Mining
Lately my mind has been involved with group 4 of the transition elements, namely titanium, zirconium, and hafnium. They all have similar chemical properties. Of greatest interest to economic geologists and miners is that these valuable elements often occur together in sands.
Jadeite in California
...two jadeite locations in California have been thoroughly researched by geologists. There are no doubt others that lie in wait.
PGMs in the United States
Until just recently, platinum-group metals (PGMs), especially palladium, had been holding their own on the market. But, Russia has now resumed shipments and it has brought prices down.
Ask The Experts
Gold in clastic black shale
The Birimian Greenstone Belts of West Africa
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.
Gold, Quartz & Chalcedony—Part II
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 Golden Days of Julian, California
Some scattered reports say that gold may have been washed from streams here as early as the 1840s, but the undisputed major discovery came in 1870.
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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
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A New Look at Old Mines
• Proposed Regulations for California Suction Dredging
