The Basics of Permitting and Bonding Your Mining Operation

December 2020 by John Norman

With the recent surge of interest in gold projects, it’s about time to revisit a subject that strikes fear into the hearts of small-scale miners: Permits.

Uncovering the Find of a Lifetime

December 2014
• The 75-ounce Butte County nugget is the largest found in California since the 156-ounce Mojave nugget in the 1970s...

Detecting Basics: Lose the Bad Habits Not the Gold

February 2017
I will make the assumption that when any of you take a detector in your hand and head out prospecting for gold you are probably anticipating finding some gold. That’s the general idea, right?

Endurance Is Golden

September 2011
Feeling through the mud, I felt the weight and shape of what could only be gold. Throwing my hand in the water revealed a sixteen-gram nugget oozing with character.

Lost Sally's Gold

December 2015
She said a few thoughts did cross her mind at the time; she thought maybe she should have looked more thoroughly for that hand-drawn map to the claim that we had given her the previous year.

Piggin' for Gold

May 2015
Take a look at the picture—it’s pretty simple and you can build it yourself.

Gold Too Big to Carry

September 2012
There is a unique anticipation that comes with waking in gold country. The long early morning rays bring warmth after a cold night. Restless nights allow thoughts of gold hidden in the ground for too long.

Detecting Old Pocket Diggings

February 2013
Looking around, I could tell that this was an old hand-digging. As I walked around the perimeter of the digging I could see shovel and pick marks scratched on the clean, hard clay and bedrock.

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The Bawl Mill   • Legislative and Regulatory Update   • Ask The Experts - Is this prospect worth sampling?   • Ask The Experts - Can you recommend resources for southeast Alaska?   • Ask The Experts - Can I pay someone to research a claim for me?   • Ask The Experts - Do larger detector coils see deeper nuggets?   • Reading A River: Understanding Erosion and Gold   • Plotting and Persistence Lead to Big Gold   • Using Countercurrent Material Flow to Improve Gold Recovery Efficiency   • Gold Prospecting for Better or Worse: The First Year Is The Hardest   • Mining In The El Paso Range of Southern California   • Tips and Tricks: A Dredging Tip for Clearing the Tailings Pile   • The Kern River   • Melman on Gold & Silver   • Mining Stock Quotes and Mineral & Metal Prices

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