How To
Alternative Gold Leaching Methods
January 2014 by Chris Ralph
The ideal leaching chemical would leave behind what we don't want or need in the ore and take only the valuable metals.
Turning Hobby Mining into Business Mining
The first thing a person should do is seriously consider whether they want to go mining as a hobby or a business, and the tax implications of the choice.
Mining for Gold and Sapphires in Montana
Fascinated by the sapphires—and the gold that occured with them—he was soon buying parcels of property and setting up his own commercial-scale gravel processing plants.
How to Upgrade Your Pocket Plunger
These three simple upgrades, when taken together, will considerably increase a pocket plunger’s magnetic pull and make it less susceptible to breakage.
Lode or Placer: What Difference Does It Make?
This explains the large difference in particle sizes between placers and hydrothermal lode deposits, but also means that while the mining may be similar in some cases, the sampling and recovery techniques are usually quite different.
Attention to Detail - Part II
Ditches almost always started in the high country and contoured the mountainsides, making a long drop, usually many miles away, to the goldfields. There are ditches in Trinity County that originate at seven and eight thousand feet in the Trinity Alps that carried water almost thirty miles.
Pocket Gold
Once a seam is found it can be traced for miles in either direction. While you are tracing a clay line, you are looking for indicators. The indicators that I look for are ironstone, hematite, different color clays intermingled with the clay line, and a very iron-rich, brown gritty soil.
What To Do When Gold Recovery and Assay Values Differ
Before going into an analysis of the ore composition, two other major factors will affect the result. These are the accuracy of the assay and the effectiveness of the mill for the gold recovery.
Subscription Required:
The Bawl Mill
• Ask the Experts: Big rocks or small cobbles?
• Ask the Experts: Quartz rock and the chance of gold in my area of New Hampshire?
• Ask the Experts: Equipment and gold locations in Colorado
• Ask the Experts: Silent partners and mining—is it worth the risk?
• Sierra County Gold—Part II
• The Silver Islet Mountains of Utah
• Gold Placers of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
• Over the Divide
• Prospecting for Diamonds in Kimberlite
• Additional Note Regarding "Strategic Metals—Part II"
• Take a Kid Detecting
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
Free:
Legislative and Regulatory Update
• California Gold Adventure
