The article makes a good point that the best place to find gold might be in a gold mine, now that the price has skyrocketed, but will it stay there?
Golden opportunity in Grass Valley?
Thanks to precious metal's big price jump, a foothills town that's rooted in mining sees a push to reopen long-shut shafts.
By Todd Milbourn - tmilbourn@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, January 29, 2008
GRASS VALLEY – Open the rusted door to an abandoned gold mine on the outskirts of this tourist-rich Sierra Nevada town and it's a 3,500-foot drop straight down – and straight back to the days of California's Gold Rush.
This is where David Watkinson wants to start.
Watkinson is a mining engineer whose company wants to revive the historic Idaho-Maryland mine in Grass Valley, once one of California's biggest gold producers, but sealed shut for 52 years.
"The best place to look for gold," Watkinson said, "is an old gold mine."
That notion is spreading throughout the western United States, as prices for the precious metal pass $900 an ounce. From Nevada to Alaska, mining companies are dusting off mining maps and using computers to explore old tunnels in search of fresh scores. The price spike stems from growing worldwide demand for jewelry and a weakening U.S. dollar, which makes gold an appealing investment, said John Dobra, a gold researcher at the University of Nevada, Reno.
