The Geology of Diamond Deposits

May 2019 by Chris Ralph

New theories have been developed and they may lead to new discoveries and give prospectors some new insight on where to look for diamonds.

Exploring and Mining for Uranium

August 2011
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.

The Golden Days of Julian, California

October 2011
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.

Gold From Cemented Gravels

November 2011
The truth is that cemented gravels are really not all that complex. There is no mystery of how gold grew there or somehow wormed its way into these solid gravels.

Critical Metals: Copper

May 2012
From time to time I’ve been doing a series on critical metals and how important they are to our complex and technological society. This month we are going to take a look at copper, and how important that metal is to our modern lives.

Conrey Dredge No. 4—Part II

December 2017

These were the men who periodically picked up the gold amalgam from the tables and sluices in the dredge, processed it, and transported the gold ingots to the railroad express office in Alder. Their trustworthiness must have commanded a prominent wage.

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.

Weathering, Erosion and Placers

April 2017
The big interest to prospectors thinking about the effect of erosion is not what might happen long into the future, but what they might find in the rivers later this summer when the water levels go down.

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