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Looking Back
February 2009 by Staff
Excerpts from California Mining Journal, our original title, published 50 years ago this month.Detecting: Getting Away From The Heat And Into The Gold
Within a very few minutes, I had my first nice sounding target. It turned out to be a nice earring-size gold piece that was about a half a gram.
Historical Mining Methods
The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848 started the great gold rush to California. The account that drew national and worldwide notice was a small, two-inch item at the bottom of the front page of the March 15, 1848 issue of the “Californian,” published in San Francisco. The article was attributed to B.R. Buckelew, and mentioned quantities of gold just being “gathered.”
Common Operations—Small-Scale Mining and Sharing the "Take"
The “Forty-niners,” known as “Argonauts,” separated the loose gold known as “wet diggin’s” from the river gravels using a wash pan. The pan was made of tin or iron and had a flat bottom and sloping sides.
Diamonds in the Rough in Montana
The bright green rocks jutting through the prairie soil were hard to miss, but Tom Charlton still couldn’t believe his eyes. It was kimberlite, the molten rock in which diamonds are found, and preliminary tests had yielded a microscopic diamond.
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Increase in claim fees
• Impact of recent elections
• Current suction gold dredging status in California
• Parks in Southern California
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The Bawl Mill
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• Oldest Journal Contest - The Winners
• The St. Louis Gold District
• Mining Boom May Be In Store For Upper Michigan
• Mining Gold Near Elk Creek, Oregon
• East Coast Dredger Heads West - Part II
• Lost Canyon
• High Court to Rule on Kensington Tailings
• Prospecting in Tennessee
• A Warning About Mercury
• NovaGold Resources Receives Lifeline
• Jerritt Canyon Mill May Reopen
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes, Mineral & Metal Prices