History & Geology
The Potholes—California’s Oldest Known Mining District
March 2020 by Dan Stanton
Every time we prospected here we found gold, sometimes some really coarse flakes, but no large nuggets (yet).
Critical Minerals: Gold
A few quick calculations show that approximately 11 tons of gold are lost each year just in the manufacture of new cell phones.
California: The Land of Big Nuggets—Part II
There are a number of Tertiary river channels in the area, most of which trend south-southwest. They tend to be steep, narrow, and rich with coarse gold.
Using Favorable Rock Types to Find More Gold
The more experienced prospectors know these lesser known spots are the types of places where big finds are still made.
All the Gold Ever Mined...
If you have been prospecting for any length of time, then you have probably heard something like, “All the gold ever mined would equal a cube 60 feet on each side.”
The Forms of Crystalline Gold
The largest and most perfect single gold crystals are nearly always in the form of octahedra. These large octahedral crystals often possess deeply recessed faces.
Historic Dredge Uncovered in North Carolina
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.
Eolian Gold Deposits
Prospectors who specialize in electronic detecting for nuggets in desert areas are especially interested in this type of deposit, as it yields nuggets that are close to the surface of the ground...
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The Bawl Mill
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• Ask The Experts -- Is it worth going after these rare earth minerals?
• Ask The Experts -- Will a land mine detector work for gold?
• How to Turn Your Gold Finds Into Cash
• My First Gold Patch
• Caught Between A Hard Rock and A Rare Earth Place
• Sampling for Success—Part I
• Over The Divide: Annie Carol Robinson
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: If the RV’s a Rockin’, Please Come a Knockin’
• The Mid-Winter Nugget
• Gold In The Midwest—Part III: Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas
• Trump Proposes $1.5 Billion to Fund US Uranium Production
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
• Melman on Gold & Silver
