…the process remains much the same: Drill holes, load explosives, close up the holes, blast and muck out the resulting broken rock.

For simplicity, I will assume that you wish to make enough profit so that you can comfortably pay your bills using just the profits from the mine.

I had a chance to visit the operation in person and talk with Neal. I was very impressed and I think our readers could learn a lot about building up a commercial placer operation from scratch…

Common thought is the switchback slows the velocity of the rushing water and gold drops out from the cut bank to a fill gravel bar within or below the switchback. I am not going to disregard that model; however, I hope to improve upon it.

We descended hunched over, down a long, steep, wooden staircase to the 1,000-level.