History & Geology
Critical Metals: Copper
May 2012 by Chris Ralph
From time to time I’ve been doing a series on critical metals and how important they are to our complex and technological society. This month we are going to take a look at copper, and how important that metal is to our modern lives.
Prospecting Homonyms
Three homonyms come to mind when I think of gemstones, gold and vegetables: carrot, carat and karat. Let’s look at carrot first.
Metamorphic Greenstone Gold
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March 2024How to Recognize Hard Rock Gold Ores
I regularly get inquiries along the line of: “Hey, I found this rock, and I think it might be gold ore. How can I tell?” Prospectors are always on the lookout for gold-bearing rocks that may be the source of any nearby placer gold.
The Oquirrh Mountains, Utah
...we will visit three dormant mining districts that lie in the Oquirrh Range in Utah. Some major activity that transformed the lives of thousands of people occurred here from the mid 1860s to the late 1990s.
How Mesothermal/Orogenic Gold Deposits Form
These deposits are very widespread across the planet. In fact, they are so extensive that something around 75% of all the gold ever mined comes from these types of deposits (if one includes the placer deposits that also formed from them).
What About Palladium?
Palladium may well be an underexplored element and therefore an opportunity for prospectors and geologists. This is because they are often less than obvious and other than the native metals, a chemical analysis of samples is required to identify PGM-enriched rocks.
Gold in the San Francisco District Oatman, Mohave County, Arizona
I suspect detailed geological mapping and prospecting would lead to discovery of one or more overlooked gold deposits in the district even though it has been heavily prospected in the past.
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The Bawl Mill
• Ask the Experts: gold per ton; improving assay method
• Bering Sea Gold—Part II
• Tucson Show Marketing
• Ganes Creek Hits 10 Years—Part I
• Fabulous Florence—The Golden Town of Idaho
• Arizona's Vulture Gold Mine and Lost Dutchman
• Replacing Your 12-Volt Pump
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Ask the Experts: Ionizing mercury
• El Tigre—Unlocking Values in Tailings to Jumpstart a Mine
