History & Geology
What Are Those Rocks In My Pan?
June 2011 by Jim Halloran
The placer mineral identification key is designed to answer this question. It attempts to recognize all the minerals in your gold pan concentrates.Yesterday's Gold—Today's Mine
It would seem that we are often indeed destined to repeat history. In terms of gold discovery, even with all the advancements that have been made over the years, it seems we are once again on the cusp of returning to the 1800s world of gold mining. Even as you read this, a new gold rush is taking place in a sleepy little town in South Carolina.
Benches and Fossil Placers
Unfortunately for us mortal humans, we have a poor perspective on geologic time. When we look at a landscape such as a stream valley, we see it only in two, or at the most, three dimensions. We have poor comprehension of the valley’s fourth and most important dimension—time.
California: The Land of Big Nuggets—Part I
The nugget sat there in plain sight, though it was covered in dirt, while hundreds of people had passed that way every day.
Butte, Montana—The Richest Hill on Earth
I recently had the opportunity to spend a day exploring around Butte, Montana and was amazed by the amount of mining that has taken place there. The old-timers called Butte “the richest hill on earth” and had pretty good reasons for doing so.
Gold Deposition and Gradients of Placer Streams—Part I
When placer miners from the gold rush era began experimenting with the slope of their sluices, they must have pondered the ideal slope for trapping gold in a creek bed too. Logic suggests the same is true for streams...
Reese River Silver Mining District, Nevada
The strike and the dip of the veins can be broken down into two categories: veins in the eastern area and along Lander Hill, and the veins in the southwestern portion of the district.
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.
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