History & Geology
Understanding and Prospecting Benches
September 2011 by Jim Halloran
The most obvious benches are usually near the valley floor, but they can be thousands of feet above the valley floor. Since benches were made by streams, they can contain placer deposits.
One of the Richest Beaches Ever Mined
Everyone has heard of the golden beach at Nome, but Nome did not have the richest beach.
Ask The Experts
Q: Is there a correlation between fault zones and mineralization of economic metals?
Why Did This Silver Mine Close? - Pt III
Narrowing down a closure date will allow you to check the commodity price during that time and possibly confirm that a low price, rather than a lack of ore, was the driving force that closed the operation.
Detecting for Gold in Australia—The Kimberley Trip
The hair stood up on the back of my neck when I saw this, especially the nice patches of wash in the bottoms of the gullies, a sure sign of an auriferous source being nearby.
The Golden Days of Julian, California
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.
The Geology of Diamond Deposits
New theories have been developed and they may lead to new discoveries and give prospectors some new insight on where to look for diamonds.
Gold, Quartz & Chalcedony—Part II
The specific gravity of chalcedony is 2.58 to 2.64. This is slightly lower than coarsely crystalline quartz because of slight porosity in chalcedony. Being so light, it will easily wash out of a gold pan.
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