Ask The Experts: Equipment to break up heavy clay

January 2017 by Chris Ralph

Q: I am looking for a “trommel machine” that doesn’t separate anything but clay slurry from rock hard clay.

The Fire Assay of Carbon

February 2016
Carbon, activated charcoal, or “char,” as some old timers refer to it, can be an assayer’s nightmare.

Route Planning Using GPS

January 2019

My intention was to end this discussion with waypoints and routes, then I found USGS maps of the Plainfield Quadrangle.

Sniping for Drought Gold

August 2014
There are not a lot of tools needed to get out and take advantage of the situation. Other than my wetsuit, I typically travel light with a gold pan, maybe a pry bar and a few crevice cleaning tools.

Testing Ores for Free Gold

December 2011
I get a number of questions from people about testing and treating hard rock ores. The simplest way, but also an expensive one, is to just have an assay test done by an independent assay firm. As an alternative...

The Basics of Exploration Leases and Contracts—Part II

March 2019

This is the point where you might ask, “What do these types of contracts typically look like and how are they negotiated?” Well, that is the topic of this month’s article.

The PIGMI—a DIY Crevice Tool

April 2017
I’ve had great success using it to gather gold from crevices. I’d like to share the design with all of you gold miners reading this article and hope that you get as much satisfaction building and using it as I did.

The Basics of Crushing and Milling Operations

February 2011
In processing gold, silver and other valuable ores, the minerals containing the values, such as metallic gold, silver-bearing sulfides or other minerals, must be freed from the surrounding host rock before those valuable minerals can be captured.

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