Small Mining Operations
Resurrecting An Old Hard Rock Mine—Gold At Last!
May 2019 by Ron Kliewer
We’ve been busy with a plethora of projects, all aimed at gathering gold into a pile big enough to brag about. We’re not there yet, but I’ll show you some of the interesting projects we’ve completed since we talked last.
Exploring Placers with Auger Drills
Augers can be used effectively for placer exploration with certain limitations.
Wyoming's Billion Dollar Nugget—The Trilogy Ends
Our testing over the past 15 years was to confirm or deny the USGS report completed in 1978. Besides the half acre test dig, we completed many additional test digs by hand and with the backhoe.
Ask the Experts
Centrifugal bowls versus jigs
Proper Assaying of Placer Samples
The whole purpose of sampling mineralized ground is to measure the values in a small volume of material that would be representative of a much larger volume of similar material. The key word is representative. Chemical and fire assaying will not accurately represent placer deposits by themselves.
Underground Mining: Stoping Methods
In an old mine that does not have stopes, you know the old miners did not take much if any ore out of that excavation. On the other hand, if you see large stopes within the mine you know that it is these places where the miners found profitable ore deposits within the vein.
Long-Term Camping Plan at Fortymile Proposed by BLM
A draft environmental assessment of a proposal to allow long-term camping by gold miners along 21 miles of the North Fork of the Fortymile Wild and Scenic River is available from the Bureau of Land Management.
The Basics of Crushing and Milling Operations
In processing gold, silver and other valuable ores, the minerals containing the values, such as metallic gold, silver-bearing sulfides or other minerals, must be freed from the surrounding host rock before those valuable minerals can be captured.
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The Bawl Mill
• Legislative and Regulatory Update
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• The Geology of Diamond Deposits
• Keep Watch for The Unexpected
• Imagining the Ultimate Prospecting Adventure
• Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: Cold Gold
• Gary It's There
• Following the Clues
• A Generous Lesson on Detecting Bedrock
• Melman on Gold & Silver
• Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices
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