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Most gold-bearing quartz veins found in the district were fracture fillings in faults enclosed by crushed quartz zones along their margins. Since the host rocks were often extensively weathered, portions of the veins stood out as positive, resistant outcrops. The gold-bearing veins ranged from a few inches wide to the vein at the Gowan mine that was as much as 12 feet wide. 

The name Silver City is quite ironic as it doesn’t really fit the area’s metal production. The area encompassing the Silver City district is a great, stand-alone gold district, where the production value of gold has been much more than that of silver. Since the initial discovery of gold-bearing veins in the mid-1850s, the area has been a center of continuous small and large-scale gold production.

The exact minerals formed in the concentrated supergene deposits depends much on the type of country rock around the deposit and the chemistry of the deposit itself, but if conditions are right, this process will form some rich patches of bonanza ore, in some places valued at thousands of dollars to the ton.

The fresh material is worked and concentrated by the waves on the flat, wide beach platform. The waves wash away the lighter minerals, leaving the heavies near the bluffs and in depressions on the beach.

Just prior to our press deadline, we learned that a bill had been introduced in the Idaho House of Representatives to redefine suction gold dredging as a preferred use in public waterways in Idaho.

...we may now be witnessing the onset of a major turn toward a period when precious metals investments outperform conventional markets as the Dow and S&P 500 now appear to be turning toward the downside at the same time when gold and silver are showing signs of rallying.

• California suction dredging trial resumes

• USFS tries unique method to restrict gold dredging in Idaho

• Defiant dredgers tell State of Oregon to “drop dead”