All Articles
Throw-Away Gold: Back to Basics
February 2002 by T.D. LaRune
Placer mining, whether for profit or recreational purposes, involves separation of free gold from the gold-bearing sands (gangue) of alluvial deposits by methods using specific gravity. The free gold can vary from 17 to 19.3 in specific gravity terms, depending on the alloy mix, which is usually silver, but can be copper, lead, sulfur, tellurium, antimony, or mercury.Melman on Gold & Silver
One last subject is the performance of gold and silver themselves—which has been positive for more than two months—and to explain the reasoning behind these rallies.
Looking Back
Excerpts from California Mining Journal, our original title, published 50 years ago this month.
Detecting Basics: Lose the Bad Habits Not the Gold
I will make the assumption that when any of you take a detector in your hand and head out prospecting for gold you are probably anticipating finding some gold. That’s the general idea, right?
An Unusual Death in Downieville's Gold Rush
While women were extremely rare in the early California gold camps, their relative absence did not always guarantee their safety or protection if they happened to be of Mexican nationality. The most memorable, graphic example of this tendency took place in Downieville, seat of Sierra County located on a fork of the Yuba River.
More on Detecting Pocket Gold
What I hope to do here is to give you some information that will help you, the reader, pick out locations that will be better for you to detect and give you a possibility of finding gold.
Underground at Yankee Jim's
In 1849, the story spreading around the Barnes Store (on the North Fork of the American near Colfax, California) was about some rich diggings being found up in the hills going east, and not very far up the ridge according to some accounts.
Adventure at the 420 Level
Beneath the rolling fairways and manicured greens of a sedate golf course community in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, lie the 600-foot deep, water filled, caved workings of the once famous Phoenix Gold Mine.
Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill
• Federal and State Biologists Accused of Planting Evidence
• Placer Gold in New Mexico
• Mining Deaths Drop to New Low in 2001
• Prospecting for Meteorites with a Metal Detector
• Aussie Gold—A Look at Victoria
• The Rand of South Africa
• Picks & Pans: Arizona Desert Drywashing Adventure
• 2001 World Gold Panning Championships
• Placer Gold Near Fairbanks, Alaska
• The "Drumstick"
• Company Notes
• Editorial
• Looking Back
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
