KGO-TV, San Francisco
More than half a century after the state’s big mining operations closed there is renewed interest in California gold. Its value has shot through the roof and so has the momentum to bring back mining operations. The first of them is about ready to start up. In this Assignment 7 report, we take you inside a genuine gold mine.
In the Sierra foothills, there are still reminders of California’s golden past. A stretch of Amador County was called “the mother lode” for a reason — more than 7.5 million ounces of gold were mined there. But by the 1950s gold prices dropped and the last of the big mining operations closed. Towns built by prospectors catered mostly to tourists. Now the miners are coming back.