How To
Mining Claims—What to Know Before You File
April 2011 by Chris Ralph
During the initial assessment year (the year of location), the claim maintenance fee must be paid at the time the notice of location is filed with the Bureau of Land Management. Failure to pay the claim maintenance fee will void the claim.Montana’s Rosetta Stone: Discovering Mines In The Treasure State
This is the intelligent way to start modern prospecting. The value of literary research yields challenging outings, specimens, history and geologic research.
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.
Ask The Experts: Equipment to break up heavy clay
Q: I am looking for a “trommel machine” that doesn’t separate anything but clay slurry from rock hard clay.
Ask The Experts: Is there a safe DIY alternative to cyanide or mercury for extraction?
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?
Finding Gold with a VLF Detector—Part I
The very first thing to find out...is if the detector has the ability to be ground balanced.
Cyanide-Free Gold Separation
Some ores—mostly those with a high free gold content—are very amenable to gravity concentration. Well oxidized ores containing coarse gold are usually best for non-cyanide processes. Ores with significant sulfide content may require the...
Using Geologic Publications to Discover Collecting Sites
I understand that a person without geological knowledge could be daunted reading a geological publication. You can pick out the good stuff from a geological publication without a lot of geological knowledge.
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The Bawl Mill
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• Small-Scale Concentrating and Recovery Methods
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• Indicator Minerals for Gold & Silver
• Mud Men: Pocket Miners of Southwest Oregon Part III
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
• Silver Mining Returning to Texas
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A New Look at Old Mines
• Proposed Regulations for California Suction Dredging
