Rand, Red Mountain, Atolia Mining Districts of Kern and San Bernardino Counties, California
This area could be re-evaluated for placer scheelite and gold potential in the future along with sand and gravel processing…
How Rich Must My Ore Be?
How rich does a hard rock ore have to be for it to be worthwhile to process and extract the gold?
Gold Circle (Midas) Gold District
Many prospectors thought that Nevada was all prospected out following all the rich discoveries of the 1860s and 1870s, and what was there to be found had already been found.
Placer Gold Deposits in the Western States
…to see the huge differences between the gold production amounts of the Western States, let’s look at the gold production—both hard rock and placer—of these 13 states up to the present.
Colorado Uranium Mining in the 1950s Boom
You can learn a lot from a small mining operation because you have to become proficient in every job. Soon I was preparing fuses, placing powder (dynamite) and learning the ins and outs of drilling and blasting.
Gold Geochemistry: Where Does Gold Come From?
Prospectors often wonder why gold deposits in veins like it does. Why is one vein rich while another is barren, even though they are only a few hundred feet apart?
Understanding Rock Formations: Petrology for Prospectors
There are times when being able to recognize a type of rock can make you a much more successful prospector.
Exploration Rush at Tonopah, Nevada
A few months later, a young, greenhorn lawyer agreed to pay to have it assayed, and the quartz turned out to be rich in both gold and silver.
Ancestral Yuba River Placer Gold Deposits
The small-scale miner has reasonable opportunity to exploit some of these small, rich placer gold deposits.
Jamestown and Our Mother Lode Gold Rush Adventures
There are many other locations in the area where gold has been found, but Woods Creek is the most famous of the creeks and gulches in the area where the 49ers searched for that elusive yellow metal.
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.
The Mysterious Telluride Minerals
…let’s dive in and take a closer look at these rich gold and silver-bearing minerals to find out what they are, where they form, and how to identify them.
The Coolgardie Gold Mining Camp of Southern California
The area was mined intermittently from around 1900 to 1915, but was also mined in the late 1800s, with a total output valued at about $100,000, which is around $9.5 million at the current gold price.
Prospecting for Copper—What to Look for on the Outcrop
For the prospector, knowing what oxidized hydrothermal alteration looks like in the field is an important exploration tool.
Polymetallic Skarn Deposits
Polymetallic skarn deposits are an interesting class of deposits that can contain a number of different types of metals.
All About Lead Minerals, Silver and Gold
Many miners know that lead is very commonly associated with silver values, but the truth is that it is also associated with gold values in many locations as well.
The Potholes—California’s Oldest Known Mining District
Every time we prospected here we found gold, sometimes some really coarse flakes, but no large nuggets (yet).
Sixteen to One Gold Mine: Going Underground - Pt II
We descended hunched over, down a long, steep, wooden staircase to the 1,000-level.
All About Native Silver
Some of the wire forms are strange and fantastic, with wires sticking out in twisted, seemingly random directions. Others have deformed crystals and all of them have significant value to collectors.
Sixteen to One Gold Mine: Unique Challenges and Potential Rewards - Pt I
Many of the Sixteen to One’s challenges arise from its unusual geology and the pocket characteristics of the ore deposits.