Huge kml file of past and present gold claims and prospects in California

[sublimages]

The title says it all. You may have trouble loading this on a slower computer, at least i did.

 

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[Goldwasher]

that's what..Welcome to Land Matters is for

 

[Clay Diggins]

That's just the names of the historic mine records for the Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) Goldwasher. There are no claims past or present in that kml. Just the names of mines.

I hope none of the newbies think this shows them where they can prospect. This kml doesn't display any claims.

If you would like to see more than just the names of past California mines you will find all the world's MRDS mines on Land Matters Mines Maps. That includes what minerals were mined, the file status of the mine and a link to more extensive reports on the mine including the geology of the deposit and the minerals found.

The whole MRDS shown on Land Matters is 1.1 Gb. Now that is BIG. More than 305,000 mines!

If you would like to make these basic KMLs for your own area of interest you can custom design one at the USGS MRDS download page. There still won't be any claims on there but you can sort by the minerals and the area you are interested in.

Heavy Pans

 

[sublimages]

You're right it's not claims, but it's not just historic records. Look a little closer, there are plenty of current ones on there as well. I was just sharing something i had found useful, but I've had second thoughts and removed it.

 

[Clay Diggins]

You're right it's not claims, but it's not just historic records. Look a little closer, there are plenty of current ones on there as well. I was just sharing something i had found useful, but I've had second thoughts and removed it.

There may be current active mines on the MRDS but it is an historical record based on the old MILS and MAS databases. It is ONLY historical records - the USGS site you used to create the file clearly explains that:

As of 2011, USGS has ceased systematic updates to MRDS, and is working to create a new database

There are no current records in the database. The last new entry into the database was in 2005, over 98% of the data was last updated prior to 1996. If a mine is still active it's merely a coincidence.

The kml you offered was useful to some here. I don't know why you would take it down? I encourage you to continue to share information you have.

It's important to understand how current the information being used is. At least as important is understanding what the information is about. Your misunderstanding about the information doesn't make the file useless. I just felt it was important not to mislead the potential users of the file into believing the file contained claims information or that there was new information in it.

Heavy Pans

 

[sublimages]

I didn't use the Usgs site to create it. It was extracted from a series of books. It may be the same data, i don't know.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

mind posting the file back up for those of us that want to check it out? or pm it?

 

[sublimages]

Sure

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

thanks and damn you weren't kidding. I have a pretty high end pc and google earth is lagging like crazy with that file open and looking at the whole country lol. I'd suggest zooming in to at least the county you want to look at and then click the kml file to show the mines, should help the slower pc's out there.

 

[sublimages]

I can't even effectively use it on my fairly modern cheap laptop it's just a problem with Google earth i think. I found an android app called mapinr that loads it just fine and shows Google or other providers imagery.

That's a good idea about not activating it til zoomed in,I'm gonna try that.

Another thing you can do is open it in a txt editor that handles large files(notepad+is good), then break it into smaller kmls. The format is pretty self evident.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

I think your right about google earth. I just tried it with a smaller screen so I could watch my ram and cpu usage and they didn't even move but google pretty much froze once i got to around 10 counties in view.

I just downloaded mapinr, thats a pretty cool app thanks

 

[Clay Diggins]

KML isn't designed to handle large datasets. The idea to break it into many smaller files is about the only solution short of converting to a non text format.

Try converting it to a shapefile or a GDB and it's quite a bit faster. I converted this KML to a shapefile and it's really snappy now. 23,466 items are just way too many for a KML if you want any speed.

Heavy Pans

 

[sublimages]

Thanks, I'll check out those formats. Can they be loaded into Google earth? This was my first attempt at creating a file of this type.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Without a server Google Earth only uses KML. If you set up a WMS server GE can consume any geo formats as image overlays.

Heavy Pans

 

[Reed Lukens]

Thanks, I'll check out those formats. Can they be loaded into Google earth? This was my first attempt at creating a file of this type.

I had to buy a new pc last week and your kml file worked great

 

[sublimages]

Nice, glad it works for someone. I think the problem is really something about how Google earth loads the file, cause it works fine on my phone using mapinr.

 

[CA Gold Hunter]

Nice, glad it works for someone. I think the problem is really something about how Google earth loads the file, cause it works fine on my phone using mapinr.

I think because mapinr groups them all together until you zoom in, at least that's what its doing on my phone. It will show 360 or so then as you zoom in they break up and then they will say 20 you zoom more and it shows them individually. Probably a lot less memory needed to do that, I was surprised it didn't use any more memory or cpu on my pc than maybe 1% on each, I would think it would be using a whole lot more with how much google earth lagged but nothing else was lagged so it has to just be that program.

 

[ncclaymaker]

I am guessing that your entire database was created as a google earth kml file as a gargantuate bite that few programs will be able to parse in a reasonable manner. May I suggest that you take the data in useable bites. Create one kml file for placer, another for surface, and also underground. This way, you deal with the data in megabytes, not gigabytes.

Try this link and the following selections to create some reasonably sized files -

Search the Mineral Resources Data System

http://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/package.php

1. Select state - whatever state that you wish, I chose California just for the hell of it.
2. Commodity - gold
3. Operation type - Placer or surface or underground
If you select ANY you will get a file that will include all data types.
4. Click on the Search button.
5. Choose format - select GoogleEarth. My search found 3951 entries. A file size of 4.1 MB for placer sites.

Enjoy data mining for now.

 

[sublimages]

The complete file is only about 4 megabytes. Google earth just chokes on it for some reason.

Again,this data was NOT taken from that site. It may be the same data, I'm not sure. I scanned a series of books and extracted the data from them. If it is the same data i wasted an afternoon reinventing the wheel.

 

[sublimages]

I think because mapinr groups them all together until you zoom in, at least that's what its doing on my phone. It will show 360 or so then as you zoom in they break up and then they will say 20 you zoom more and it shows them individually. Probably a lot less memory needed to do that, I was surprised it didn't use any more memory or cpu on my pc than maybe 1% on each, I would think it would be using a whole lot more with how much google earth lagged but nothing else was lagged so it has to just be that program.

It groups them on my phone too. Makes it a little easier to look at that way. Google earth should take a lesson.