The Coquille River may be home to some of Oregon’s most overlooked gold deposits. While nowhere near as rich as some of the surrounding area, people have been sifting gold from the gravels along the river since the early days of the Oregon gold rush. Situated in the Southern Oregon Coast Range, this is a […]
As the legends go, Ethiopia was the origin of the gold treasures of the legendary Queen of Sheba. Ancient Ethiopia or Abyssinia exported gold to Egyptian empires, and today its gold goes to the biggest gold markets in the world. There’s no question that Ethiopia has been the source of gold and precious metals for […]
Taiwan’s gold-mining industry peaked during the period it was under Japanese colonization and was centered in today’s Ruifang District, New Taipei City. Only three kilometers apart, two towns stand out in this district as the epicenter of Taiwan’s gold-mining industry – Jiufen and Jinguashi. Jiufen and Jinguashi may be the only areas with large occurrences […]
Prospectors in southern Idaho are well acquainted with the geological richness of mountains surrounding Boise. After all, Idaho is the Gem State, well known for its natural beauty and bountiful mineral richness. A tributary of the Snake River, the Boise River is 102 miles long and its watershed covers a whopping 4,100 square miles of […]
American poet and photographer Laura Gilpin once said, a river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself. Indeed, the many rivers across the world are mystical and complex, cutting paths across massive tracts of land and bearing bountiful fruits beneath their waters. One such river is the Umpqua […]
Catalina Island, a rocky land mass off the coast of Southern California, was home to a short-lived gold rush in the 1860s, long after the famous California Gold Rush. However, its mining history precedes this rush by thousands of years. Early history Inhabited by the Pimugnans (a native California tribe) as early as […]
It wasn’t long after the start of the California Gold Rush that Shasta County (where Swasey Recreation Area is located) made it to the California Gold map. Pierson B. Reading, an early settler who owned the 26,632-acre Rancho Buena Ventura along the Sacramento River, made that first discovery on Clear Creek, west of present-day Redding, […]
The Iberian Peninsula’s riches and opulence are extolled in Latin Literature, and it was continuously explored for its valuable mineral deposits. Today, abandoned mines from the Roman and pre-Roman eras can be found all across Portugal; most significant are the Tagus valley, Ceira Vally, and other areas of northern Portugal. The region was once the […]
Present-day Austria was the Noricum Kingdom of Celtic people. Noricum remained the center of metallurgy since 500 BC to Middle Ages. The iron and steel from this region were highly prized because of their superior quality. However, in the Middle Ages, gold mining made Austria the biggest mining enterprise in the world. In this article, […]
For centuries Egypt remained the world’s most advanced civilization. One of its hallmarks was an exquisite level of material culture, which included fine artisanship in the working of precious metals particularly gold. The Egyptians exploited gold-bearing quartzite and other minerals in the eastern desert and Nubia. Around 1500 BC, Egypt was the world’s leading gold […]