Small Mining Operations
Ask The Experts
February 2016 by Chris Ralph
Any good books on mineralized faults and contacts?The Challenge of Winter Dredging
![](http://www.icmj.com/userfiles/images/201611/toc-13-challenge-of-winter-dredging.jpg)
Ancestral Yuba River Placer Gold Deposits
The small-scale miner has reasonable opportunity to exploit some of these small, rich placer gold deposits.
Dry Washer, Wet System or Metal Detector?
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Speed Prospecting for Hard Rock Gold
An online video gave me some ideas, and with a lot of trial and error I developed a reliable method of panning free gold particles down below 35 microns quickly and easily.
How to Refine Silver—Pt I
Silver refining has been used from ancient times to change the characteristics of the metal. Early metallurgists refined silver by heating it a couple hundred degrees above its melting point and holding the metal at an elevated temperature for a period of time.
Why Haven't They Mined This Claim?
![](http://icmj.com/userfiles/images/201105/toc-why-have.jpg)
Lessons Learned From Geologists
Not long after this, I was camped out with the geologist beside the Similkameen River where he showed me the evidence that an ancient channel existed on our claim.
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