Tomorrows Fortunes

Fellow prospectors and miners. Gold & silver have been going in a sideways saw-tooth pattern for months. We know that eventually they are going to break out of this pattern and go sky high, we just don't when. The good news is most metals are moving up, especially the metals used in electric cars, lithium, cobalt and manganese to name a few. Zinc, lead, copper, bismuth, antimony, tungsten, molybdenum, rare earths, uranium and numerous others are also holding their own or on the move.

Now honestly, how many of us can recognize these elements in the field? In most cases we need to send off a sample of rock chips to a lab to identify most of the elements mentioned above. Unfortunately, sending rock chip samples can be pricey, especially after you add shipping costs.

Lithium is an example of how mining could make you a millionaire in a very short time. Unfortunately, lithium in large commercial deposits is found in dry lake beds,

mostly in Nevada and California. In Arizona lithium is found in pegmatites and certain clays. I only know of one lithium deposit that was mined on a small scale in pegmatites in Arizona. If I were to prospect here for lithium I would start with large clay deposits.

Cobalt is about $30 per pound currently, about 10x the price of copper. One telltale sign that you may have discovered cobalt is erythrite, commonly called cobalt bloom. Erythrite usually forms as pink earthy crystals or coatings. I have found several occurrences of erythrite here in Arizona. At the time, I was prospecting for gold and cobalt prices were low. A large cobalt deposit today could make you millions just as lithium.

Rare earths and uranium are found by the prospector with a good Geiger counter. There are at least 16 different elements in rare earth deposits, some are highly radioactive. You could easily walk over REE deposits and never know it. Uranium has several ores from carnotite (a yellow streak or layers), pitchblende (black), brannerite often associated with thorium. The color is hard to describe. However, if you get a positive reading of radioactivity I certainly would have it assayed. Again, you could be walking over a fortune.

My intention is to have you continue prospecting your gold claim(s) and to check for other valuable elements that could easily make you a fortune. Please try to remember that if it were easy everyone would be rich or found everything worthwhile. New discoveries are made often and in places where the average prospector or geologists would miss.

Good luck and if you have any questions please contact us. If we can't help you, we won't hurt you.