Small Mining Operations
Ask the Experts
August 2014 by Randy Smith
Centrifugal bowls versus jigsFrom Iowa to Alaska—How I Became A Gold Miner
May 18, 2019, after 26 years, I had finally saved enough money. I bought my one-way ticket to Fairbanks, Alaska, and I started off by finding a new job…
A Father’s Day to Remember: 24,000 Ounces Gold in Quartz
Father’s Day in Australia was on September 2, and it’s a day a group of miners from “down under” won’t soon forget.
Resurrecting An Old Hard Rock Mine—A Series of Small Victories
…we cheered and high-fived each other as the ore cart slowly crested the top of the headframe, then picked up a bit of speed on the short downhill section and came to an abrupt halt, ejecting its contents of ore…
Ophir—Possibly the Best Kept Secret in Alaska—Part II
I knew the nuggets got into the nugget patch somehow, I just had to figure out how and from what direction they came.
Proper Placer Sample Processing
...your sampling procedures should not be designed to catch gold your mining technique will never recover.
Moore Creek, Alaska—Then and Now
The gold was very chunky and much of it had quartz attached. Even back then I knew that the gold was very close to its source.
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.
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