Small Mining Operations
Ask the Experts: Silent partners and mining—is it worth the risk?
January 2014 by Chris Ralph
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.
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.
PLP Update: Back to The 'Swamp' on Behalf of Small Miners
We spent the morning in a meeting with one of the higher-ups at the US Forest Service. I presented him with 412 complaints received from our readers, along with a summary of the complaints to make his job easier.
The Hughes Creek Placers, Montana
Gold discoveries in the Montana territories sparked a frantic stampede to these bonanza destinations in the early 1860s. Hughes Creek is located in Ravalli County, which is located in western Montana, and the gold here is...
Advancements in Non-Toxic Gold and Silver Leaching
The non-toxic thiosulfate is actually the medical antidote given to people for cyanide poisoning. By accomplishing both neutralization and metals recovery, this process creates an economic and environmentally attractive process.
Ophir—Possibly the Best Kept Secret in Alaska—Part II
I knew the nuggets got into the nugget patch somehow, I just had to figure out how and from what direction they came.
Mining Pegmatite Deposits
With successively lower temperatures as the water mixture cools, new sets of minerals are formed and many of those stable at a higher degree of heat became subject to alteration as the temperature progressively moved lower.
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