Small Mining Operations
Hard Rock 101: Small-Scale Blasting
August 2020 by John Norman
…the process remains much the same: Drill holes, load explosives, close up the holes, blast and muck out the resulting broken rock.
The “Chuck It Out” Nugget
This was no ordinary nugget. It had not traveled very far from its nearby source, and that did mean a lot, as we were searching for the source of several such nuggets found during a gold rush that occurred in 1859.
A New Method for Handling Stubborn Gravity Middlings
The solution focused on the relative difference in malleability between gold and waste, rather than the difference in density exploited by gravity circuits.
Dredging Tips and Tricks: A Measure of Water Pump Efficiency
…as an academic argument, when mated to the appropriate engine, is the pump really moving water at the rate of 400 GPM?
Small-Scale Hard Rock Production
So far this year we have recovered over three pounds of gold and the hard rock veins seem to go on forever. We now have three claims that can produce good enough gold to set up a productive operation.
Simple Mine Surveying With Basic Hand Tools
…there is an easy way to create a reasonably accurate map without any fancy instruments.
Conductive Minerals and Your Metal Detector
...most prospectors don't even think about the conductivity of minerals, but there are some that do conduct electricity to a certain degree, so metal detectors will respond to them.
The Heavy Minerals in Your Concentrates
The fact that mineral deposits can contribute specific types of heavy minerals is why the analysis of the heavy mineral concentrates in the streams of an area can be an important prospecting technique for finding undiscovered mineral deposits.
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• Hard Work Pays Off On Hard Rock
• The Mysterious Telluride Minerals
• Detecting: Getting Away From The Heat And Into The Gold
• The Coolgardie Gold Mining Camp of Southern California
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: How Curiosity Burst My Platinum Bubble
• Prospecting for Copper—What to Look for on the Outcrop
• Dredging Tips and Tricks: A Measure of Water Pump Efficiency
• Melman on Gold & Silver
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