How To
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?
Ask the Experts
• How to find info on a particular mining claim
The Basics of Exploration Leases and Contracts—Part I
Let’s take a look at these important property aspects individually, because they all affect the value of a property and how much mining companies might or might not be interested acquiring it.
How Do I Recover Gold In Black Sands?
Prospectors deal with black sands in lots of different ways. I know that some prospectors worry about getting every speck of gold and save black sands in buckets until they have hundreds of pounds.
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.
Shaker Tables for Processing Hard Rock Ores
Most placer equipment is really made with gold in the 30 and larger mesh sizes in mind, though if carefully used can often get reasonable recovery down to the 50 mesh size.
What Have You Got to Lose?

Tips and Tricks: A Dredging Tip for Clearing the Tailings Pile
After a short time, the tailings pile can get very large, and can actually block the downstream end of the sluice box.
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• Our Readers Say
• Ask The Experts: Should I take my claim access problems to the Desert Advisory Council?
• Ask The Experts: How do I identify gold in hard rock that may be mixed with other metals?
• Ask The Experts
• Ask The Experts
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Pickers and Nuggets
• Modern-Day Claim Jumping
• Oregon's Waldo and Galice Mining Districts Unite
• Attention to Detail - Part II
• The Seven Troughs Mining District
• CA Supreme Court Rules Against Rinehart - But There Is A Solution
• Summertime Gold Panning
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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