• Molten gold signals revival in California's mother lode

    Rich Pedroncelli / AP

    In this photo taken Thursday, Dec. 13, Sutter Gold Mining Co. mill superintendent Paul Skinner pours the first thin stream of glowing molten gold into a mold, forming a shiny one-inch pyramid, near Sutter Creek, Calif. The company announced Monday, Dec. 17, that it poured its first gold as it prepared to begin the first large-scale Sierra Nevada underground gold mining operation in a half century.

    By Don Thompson, Associated Press 

    The last of California's great gold mines closed a generation ago. But with the price of the metal near historic highs, hovering around $1,700 an ounce, the first large-scale hard rock gold mining operation in a half-century is coming back to life. 

    Miners are digging again where their forebears once unearthed riches from eight historic mines that honeycomb Sutter Gold Mining Co.'s holdings about 50 miles southeast of Sacramento. 

    Rich Pedroncelli / AP

    Miner Keith Emerald uses a pneumatic drill to drill holes that will be packed with explosives to blast into the sold rock wall at the Sutter Gold Mining Co.'s mines near Sutter Creek, Calif.

    Rich Pedroncelli / AP

    Matt Collins, chief operating officer of the Sutter Gold Mining Co., left, watches as, from left, Allen Smith, Brain Herfel, Ted Chapman and Wayne Murphy calibrate the water flow of a gravity table at the company's newly constructed mill near Sutter Creek, Calif. The gravity table uses technology similar to those used by gold rush-era miners who used pans to separate gold from surrounding materials.

    By spring, the company's 110 employees expect to be removing 150 tons of ore a day from a site immediately north of the old Lincoln Mine, enough to produce nearly 2,000 ounces of gold each month. 

    Rich Pedroncelli / AP

    Sutter Gold Mining Co. mill superintendent Paul Skinner removes a crucible of glowing molten gold that will be poured into a mold.

    Rich Pedroncelli / AP

    Sutter Gold Mining Co. mill superintendent Paul Skinner displays a four-ounce pyramid of gold he has just poured at the new mill.

    Related content:

    Follow @NBCNewsPictures

    Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

     

    Comment

    Show more
    Explore related topics: , , , , , ,

  • Peru seeks help to free 9 trapped miners

    Government Of Ica / EPA

    Two miners looking at the mine where nine miners remain trapped since April 5 in Quilque, Peru. The nine workers talked with a Peruvian radio station and are waiting to be rescued.

    Paul Vallejos / EPA

    View of the camp near the tunnel where nine miners remain trapped in the town of Quilque, in Ica, Peru.

    AP reports: LIMA, Peru —

    Paul Vallejos / EPA

    A Peruvian miner takes a rest from rescue works in the tunnel where nine miners remain trapped.

    Peru's government appealed to mining companies on Sunday for heavy equipment and experts to help free nine miners trapped for four days in an informal copper mine.

    Several dozen rescue workers have been using pickaxes and shovels to try to remove the 26 feet (eight meters) of collapsed earth and rock blocking the entrance of the mine, whose horizontal shaft is dug into a mountainside 175 miles (280 kilometers) southeast of Lima.

     

    •Sign up for the msnbc.com Photos Newsletter

     

    Mariana Bazo / Reuters

    Workers carry mattresses and provisions for rescue workers and relatives of miners that are trapped.

  • Last 45 Chinese miners in cave-in pulled out alive

    By Jim Seida

    According to AP:
    China's coal mines are the deadliest in the world, although the industry's safety record has improved in recent years as smaller, illegal mines have been closed. Annual fatalities are now about one-third of the high of nearly 7,000 in 2002.  Read more...

    AFP - Getty Images

    Chinese rescuers carry out one of the rescued miners from the Qianqiu colliery in Yima, central China's Henan province on Nov. 5. Forty-five miners trapped underground after a rock blast in a Chinese coal mine were brought to the surface in a rare successful rescue.