How rich does a hard rock ore have to be for it to be worthwhile to process and extract the gold?

Most of the commercial mineral deposits are on the south and southwest part of the range between Minersville and Milford, though small amounts of gold and silver have also been found in iron-rich outcrops in the basalt to the south of Milford.

The Robinson is a wooden bucket-line dredge that was built in the early 1900s in New York and shipped in pieces to Nash County in North Carolina by train for reassembly.

Gold specimens that include visible crystal formations are among the rarest, most attractive and most valuable forms of gold to be found.

For the prospector, knowing what oxidized hydrothermal alteration looks like in the field is an important exploration tool.

We descended hunched over, down a long, steep, wooden staircase to the 1,000-level.