It's weird that you discovered the richest grade gold mine in the world then just went rafting like nothing happened.
Are you looking at pyrite or are you Jed Clampett? What's happening here
Are you looking at pyrite or are you Jed Clampett? What's happening here
I used to do a lot of overlanding in remote parts of Nevada, just to see what was out there (not prospecting). Gold, silver, and copper are ubiquitous in that State and easy to find. We discovered crude oil while exploring an abandoned gold prospect (there is now a company developing that oil field). We found opals and turquoise in abundant quantities.
Last year while hiking around the Cascades, I found the most concentrated copper deposit I have found anywhere in the US. In the same area, I found molybdenite of a scale and quality such that I can’t find pictures of anything comparable on the Internet (I did not know what it was when I found it). Both of these finds, while difficult to get to, were within line of sight of a popular hiking trail.
It is important to understand that economic viability of mineral deposits is a function of scale and value per ton. Concentrated deposits that are not large enough cannot offset the capital overhead of developing the deposit. Big mining operators tend to prospect in areas where the geology is conducive to scale, but small operators occasionally find excellent deposits in unexpected areas that big companies won’t waste their time on.
I am not a prospector and I have never disclosed the locations of where some great mineral samples I possess were collected. It is really just a fun and geeky adjunct to my other outdoorsy activities. The US mountain west is one of the world’s best places to go prospecting for minerals. If you are out there and keep your eyes open, you will find some eventually.
A public recreational mining area in a historical gold mining region is obviously going to be located where they’ve found gold before. If you want you can go buy mineral rights along the Kern river and do your own searching but as a state we’ve been there, done that, and the football team we named after it has already won a bunch of Superbowls.
Basically water trapped under heat and pressure dissolves gold atoms out of the surrounding minerals (along with lots of silica) which then precipitates out as the water turns to quartz over time. Very common in the western US because of the farallan plate sliding under the American plate, pulling in seawater as it does, eventually resulting in hydrothermal vents. Usually the actual amount of gold present isn’t enough to bother with extraction, better to leave it as a cool rock.
A great and thrilling find for anyone who likes to pick up rocks to be sure, but nothing life altering.