Small Mining Operations
Ask the Experts: Silent partners and mining—is it worth the risk?
January 2014 by Chris Ralph
Romancing the Rock
With the exception of well-established operators with proven reserves and years of field experience, the high price of gold brought a flood of speculators, con men, and real estate brokers into the mix who were not previously engaged in the gold mining market.
Underground in the Original 16-1 Mine
These days they employ the use of metal detectors and carefully scan the shattered rocks, hoping to hear that sound we detectorists love to hear.
Reality of the Klondike
I saw gold this summer. The kind of gold that I haven’t seen since ‘81. The kind of gold that rattles in the pan. The kind of gold that would start a stampede—even in 1898.
Wyoming's Billion Dollar Nugget—The Trilogy Ends
With eight loads processed, a pumpkin-size rock fell into the hopper, stopping the whole operation until I could lift it out.
Lode or Placer: What Difference Does It Make?
This explains the large difference in particle sizes between placers and hydrothermal lode deposits, but also means that while the mining may be similar in some cases, the sampling and recovery techniques are usually quite different.
Gary It's There
This year was a test. We had never done anything like this before, yet we grossed $30,000 in the short time we had to mine.
Small-Scale Concentrating and Recovery Methods
The first step in my recovery process after milling the ore to the desired size is to table it. On this particular ore, I get good results milling it to minus 100 mesh.
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