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?
Breaking Rock the Old School Way
Prospectors have many reasons why they might want to break rocks. These include dividing up a specimen too large to carry.
Proper Spacing of Placer Sample Sites
The zone of influence of each sample must be carefully considered when deciding how far sample sites should be spaced from each other.
Ask The Experts: How do I identify gold in hard rock that may be mixed with other metals?
Q: Aside from the softness scratch test and other methods of identification, what feedback would you have on identifying gold in hard rock that may be mixed with other metals that affect its color?
Hard Rock 101: Breaking Rock—Part I
What do you do when you’ve located a promising deposit of gold or gemstones, but it’s trapped in solid rock?
Small-Scale Hard Rock Mining With Water Recycling
Once I have established the presence of gold in the sample, I collect five-gallon bucket quantities of the rock material for processing back at my shop.
Using Sucker Guns to Find Gold
...if you have a good, rich spot, hand-operated systems can produce some decent gold.
Hard Rock Milling: A Matter of Scale
Most prospectors understand placer mining a lot better than hard rock mining and don’t realize the amount of work that goes into processing different types of hard rock ore.
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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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