SUTTER CREEK, Calif. -- The gold miners who made California
famous were the rugged loners trying to shake nuggets loose from
streams or hillsides. The ones who made the state rich were
those who worked for big mining companies that blasted gold from
an underground world of dust and darkness. The last of the
state's great mines closed because mining gold proved
unprofitable after World War II. But with the price of the metal
near historic highs, hovering around $1,700 an ounce, the
California Mother Lode's 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. Earlier this
month, mill superintendent Paul Skinner poured the first thin
stream of glowing molten gold into a mold. "Nothing quite like
it," murmured Skinner, who has been mining for 65 years. It was
just four ounces, culled from more