Ask The Experts: Is there a safe DIY alternative to cyanide or mercury for extraction?

September 2016 by Chris Ralph

Q: With safety as a given, what can the average miner, or Joe-blow greenhorn do to identify and extract some metals or minerals with off-the-shelf products or natural ingredients?

How to Melt Your Own Gold

March 2012
There are good and bad ways to melt gold. In this article, we’ll take a look at the right way to melt gold without losing any of the valuable metal.

The Snapshot

November 2015
Once all the numbers from all the samples and water tests are compiled, a snapshot of the performance of each tank in the process circuit can be seen side-by-side.

Proper Placer Sample Processing

November 2013
...your sampling procedures should not be designed to catch gold your mining technique will never recover.

Understanding Skim Bar Placers

September 2018

Perhaps the most notable thing about skim placers is that they form on the top surface of gravel bars, as opposed to coarser gold placers where the weight of the gold particles allows the gold to settle down on or near bedrock.

Attention to Detail - Part II

September 2016
Ditches almost always started in the high country and contoured the mountainsides, making a long drop, usually many miles away, to the goldfields. There are ditches in Trinity County that originate at seven and eight thousand feet in the Trinity Alps that carried water almost thirty miles.

Ask The Experts

April 2015
• Making a noisy dredge more quiet

Hand Panning Micro-Fine Gold

May 2017

Once you get down to the black sands or a few tablespoons of material, the technique changes dramatically.

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