Small Mining Operations
Ask The Experts
June 2016 by Chris Ralph
Q: How do I improve my small-scale mining operation’s gold production?Excavator Testing Wet Placer Ground
The excavator or backhoe has become the tool of choice for testing placer ground. These machines are the best way to explore and sample a placer deposit if the ground is not too wet or frozen and bedrock is not beyond the reach of the machine.
All About Hard Rock Drills
There are three basic power sources for rock drills—electricity, gasoline and compressed air. Before we go into big pneumatic drills, we’ll start with a quick rundown of each.
Guinea Africa: Gold, Ebola, and a Monkey Barbecue
With great relief, the equipment I chose worked well, and after shoving into three days what should have been ten days of set-up and testing, we were up and running.
Gold in Guyana—Part II: Process Optimization at Sacre Coeur Minerals' Lower Puruni Alluvial Mining Project
In Part Two of my two-part series I describe the mechanized alluvial gold mining operation on the lower Puruni River launched by Sacre Coeur Minerals in 2011.
Wyoming's Billion Dollar Nugget—The Trilogy Ends
With eight loads processed, a pumpkin-size rock fell into the hopper, stopping the whole operation until I could lift it out.
Scams, Scammers and Schemes
Gold mining has received many black eyes from many scams, scammers and schemes throughout the years. Unscrupulous scammers have swindled naive people for millions of dollars in the past and will, no doubt, continue into the future.
Nice Specimen Gold Recovered in Northern California
Each specimen is carefully examined to determine if it would be beneficial or not to use an acid treatment to reveal more of the gold.
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