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Picks & Pans: George Duffy Jr.—Pocket Miner Extraordinaire
September 2004 by Jim Straight
During the Miocene and Pliocene mid-Tertiary Epochs, the Great Basin, Mojave, and Sonoran deserts within parts of California, Nevada, and Arizona became the source—the genesis—of ubiquitous epithermal “precious metal” fissure-gold veins associated with extensive acidic volcanic lava flows that blanketed much of the Cordillera during this time.Melman on Gold & Silver
Recent reports could be pointing toward a genuinely important change in direction for the American economy and it is a change that could be positive for the precious metals over time.
Company Notes
• CoreMarkets.com
• Canyon Resources Corp.
• X-Cal Resources
• Homestake Mining Company
• Pan American Silver Corp.
How PGMs Affect Assay Beads
Most fire assayers are trained to observe the cupelled beads very carefully, noting any discoloring or surface roughness that might indicate that one or more of the platinum group metals (PGMs) are present. The “clues and tests” I have included in this article stem from several sources, including my 35 years of experience performing torch assays...
Humble Beginnings
Right away I got a target, and it ended up being gold from a nice little bench. With only an hour left of daylight, I continued heading upstream and found five more tiny pieces of gold with my VLF…
Looking Back
Excerpts from California Mining Journal, our original title, published 50 years ago this month.
Prospecting for Iron in Alaska
The solo prospector in his canvas field clothes and skin-thick skiff is still king of the rain forest in southeastern Alaska. Even with all the highly trained field people and their helicopters, it is he who ventures forth across ocean water and in the bush to search for new wealth hidden beneath the green carpet of the vast Tongass Forest.
Picks & Pans: Confessions of a Small Miner—Part II
People always ask me how much gold I'm getting? I remind them that after 27 years digging in that same mountain, I'm still a small miner. But my wife hasn't divorced me—probably because the lawyer wants all the money up front.
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Please Note:
• The Bawl Mill
• Kerry Proposes Large Fees on Miners
• Is a Gold Rush Coming to the Iron Range?
• The Klamath Oldland
• Baker City is Defined by Gold Rush
• Coeur Alaska Hopes to Begin Work on Gold Mine This Fall
• Crater of Diamonds, Arkansas
• Company Plans to Develop Cabinet Mountains Mine
• I-147 Before Montana Supreme Court
• Diamond Exploration and Mining Heating Up in North America
• Gold in Serbia
• Looking Back
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices







