History & Geology
The Rush to Treasure Hill
November 2012 by Bill Rich
There were some exceptional times in the far-flung history of the West. Rich finds of minerals that set men’s souls ablaze. From the rich gold fields of California, men who arrived too late to find riches went searching in every direction. The trail that we will follow leads east, past the shining silver district of the Comstock Lode.The Pedro Gold Dredge
The decision was made to move the dredge intact, a massive undertaking indeed. The goal was to move it only one mile to the Busby’s Chicken Gold Camp, but what a mile that was to be.
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.
The Ups and Downs of Geologic Faults
Faults are fractures, breaks and broken zones in the Earth’s crust where one side of the break has moved relative to the other, and they come in many different varieties.
Large Gold Deposit Types
It is not necessary to have a PhD in geology, but you need to know the basics, so that’s what I am going to try to dig into here—the understandable basics of these gigantic gold deposits.
Enrichment of Mineral Deposits by Weathering—Part II
While both zinc and lead deposits also are enriched by the surface weathering process, in part two we will look at the enrichment process for copper and also gold deposits, and at the interpretation of leached outcrops to figure how rich the concentrated deposits below them may be.
How To Identify Minerals
There are a number of characteristics that are used when one identifies a mineral. Each characteristic gives an indication as to what the mineral might be, and the combination of them will point to what it is.
The Tombstone Silver-Lead District, Arizona
In 1877, a prospector named Ed Schieffelin discovered silver in “the middle of nowhere” and staked two claims: “Tumbstone” and “Graveyard.” Soon a town and mining district were organized and acquired the name “Tombstone” after making a spelling correction.
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