All things hardrock ...

[gold tramp]

Got a little warm today lot of sun out there, wondnerin if we are gonna have a scorcher year..
Went prospecting today managed to find some decent ore, I found this spot a few years back it was left over from some 1800s miners.
I think they thought it pinched out, a little coaxing I managed to uncover a spot that appears to be bulging.
I got to dig down next to the vein expose the minerlizations see what it does.
Its gonna be jackhammer work I tried get at it like I said few years ago, by hand, made a small trench but it was angled very steep and I ended up sliding down my trench and falling into about a ten foot shaft was filled with snakes .scratched myself up pretty good so I decided let it simmer
Being it such slim Pickens out in the hills these days I return to see if I can have some success.
Gonna dig out a trench about 2 ft x 8 long next to the vein see how deep the ore remnants go. the old timer dig is about 12 ft deep total.
I'm already down about 3ft or so I hope it goes deep would be nice to score some decent weight to add to my stock pile.
We see...

We will be getting started millin again here in the next month or so, getting everything cleaned out lubed and ready to fire up...
got a bunch of cake we milled n stacked last summer before the heat got to me.
So just have to fill the arrastra with the cake rehydrate run for a few get the sulphides off the values and start tabling.

Everything has been idle here at Claudette mill for a few months as I was off placer minin pulling boulders looking for those hot rock pockets and finding crumbs..
Anyways I try get some pics of the operation both millin and mining...
Gt....

 

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[traveller777]

Got a little warm today lot of sun out there, wondnerin if we are gonna have a scorcher year..
Went prospecting today managed to find some decent ore, I found this spot a few years back it was left over from some 1800s miners.
I think they thought it pinched out, a little coaxing I managed to uncover a spot that appears to be bulging.
I got to dig down next to the vein expose the minerlizations see what it does.
Its gonna be jackhammer work I tried get at it like I said few years ago, by hand, made a small trench but it was angled very steep and I ended up sliding down my trench and falling into about a ten foot shaft was filled with snakes .scratched myself up pretty good so I decided let it simmer
Being it such slim Pickens out in the hills these days I return to see if I can have some success.
Gonna dig out a trench about 2 ft x 8 long next to the vein see how deep the ore remnants go. the old timer dig is about 12 ft deep total.
I'm already down about 3ft or so I hope it goes deep would be nice to score some decent weight to add to my stock pile.
We see...

We will be getting started millin again here in the next month or so, getting everything cleaned out lubed and ready to fire up...
got a bunch of cake we milled n stacked last summer before the heat got to me.
So just have to fill the arrastra with the cake rehydrate run for a few get the sulphides off the values and start tabling.

Everything has been idle here at Claudette mill for a few months as I was off placer minin pulling boulders looking for those hot rock pockets and finding crumbs..
Anyways I try get some pics of the operation both millin and mining...
Gt....

Yes. Please post pictures. Great post.

 

[gold tramp]

Go gettem Herb. I agree, let’s hear about actual mining.

Suppose to be hot today here in NorCal as well. 75 on the north coast.

Mike

Got up to 80s today Mike, was still covering my seedlings in the green house a couple days back, as it was 30s at night. Spring time in one week, gosh it seems like it gettin warm early maybe it's a fluke and we get some more winter...
Gt...

 

[gold tramp]

Years ago I had purchased a large version of this hammer drill from Hydro surplus.

Since CFC's were banned from aerosol paint cans, propane and butane have since replaced the propellant.

The stinky in propane is added to alert of any leaks otherwise the gas would be odder less.

View attachment 2009324

View attachment 2009323

Gas powered tools although convenient not really a good idea around holes even in the shallow trench you get gassed out if there's no breeze.
I tried using but it made me sick so now I use electric with Xtra long cord keep that stink at the truck...
Wearin a respirator to uncomfortable in the heat for me, others it might not bother them...
Gt....

 

[traveller777]

Gas powered tools although convenient not really a good idea around holes even in the shallow trench you get gassed out if there's no breeze.
I tried using but it made me sick so now I use electric with Xtra long cord keep that stink at the truck...
Wearin a respirator to uncomfortable in the heat for me, others it might not bother them...
Gt....

makes sense.

 

[BlasterJ]

I have herd the same information about putting in the wedges tight and even smacking it with a sledgehammer to get a good crack going.

I like to go through one at a time and tighten them up in stages. You will hear the ring of your singlejack get higher and higher pitched as they get tighter. It also seems to help if you get them tight and then let it sit for a while before doing another round.

Also, greasing the wedge isn't a bad idea either.

 

[BlasterJ]

Gas powered tools although convenient not really a good idea around holes even in the shallow trench you get gassed out if there's no breeze.
I tried using but it made me sick so now I use electric with Xtra long cord keep that stink at the truck...
Wearin a respirator to uncomfortable in the heat for me, others it might not bother them...
Gt....

A lot of commercial blasters use a heavy-duty vacuum attached to a collar the drill steel goes through to control the dust. It's a lot less messy than wet drilling and pretty effective. It's starting to be a requirement for operations under OSHA in some places.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Wearin a respirator to uncomfortable in the heat for me, others it might not bother them...
Gt....

Got up to 80s today

A respirator when it's in the 80's....oh hell no. I might last a few minutes before I passed out..

And here I was thinkin' maybe I needed to take a long drive once again, and you go and tell me it's already in the 80's down there. This time of year, everything out in that desert wants to bite, stick, sting or scratch you..I know you ain't no tinhorn, but watch yourself out there.

Still freezing here at night, but the daytime temps are supposed to
be near 60 later this week. This time of year, anything above the mid-50's is t-shirt weather.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Got a question I've been meaning to ask; I honestly don't know diddly
about hard rock mining..

What determines a good spot to open an adit? Would there be some
obvious ore vein or sign that it was a good place to start smacking
solid stone with a pick?

Do you dig the entrance on one side or the other of the presumed vein,
or right down the middle?

 

[traveller777]

Got a question I've been meaning to ask; I honestly don't know diddly
about hard rock mining..View attachment 2009364

What determines a good spot to open an adit? Would there be some
obvious ore vein or sign that it was a good place to start smacking stone with
a pick?

Do you dig the entrance on one side or the other of the presumed vein,
or right down the middle?

The guys on this thread are sharp. You can learn here.

 

[gold tramp]

Got a question I've been meaning to ask; I honestly don't know diddly
about hard rock mining..View attachment 2009364

What determines a good spot to open an adit? Would there be some
obvious ore vein or sign that it was a good place to start smacking
solid stone with a pick?

Do you dig the entrance on one side or the other of the presumed vein,
or right down the middle?

Good question Dizz.
First you gotta find a vein.
Sometimes you find a vein it will be solid Rock with mineralized quarzt ect..running through it hard on both sides these type you would require blasting to loosen up the surrounding rock so it can be dug out. I forget what they are called a seam I think..
The type I like to find and the easiest to dig will have heavy minerlizations effecting the wall rock and Makin it soft or changing it to a different type material.
Lot times it will be white chalky material I call slip this will be on one side of the vein while the vein will be stuck on the other side of the country rock Which most times seems to be uneffected by the minerlizations I call it the hangin wall and the vein is stuck tight to it.

These veins one can dig the slip side without much heavy blasting thats not going to be disturbing the hangin wall. the goods will stay in place. you can dig a sizable hole before you need to trim off the pay, its like a manicure job if you get lucky this way you end up with an undiluted ore....
If you digging an adit it would be basically the same you just follow the vein tryin to keep it hangin on one side. This way you don't dilute you ore. If it was me I would keep my blasting to the slip side of the vein if it has one.
So one side of a vein system always seems to be more mineralized and one can dig this way Makin it easy to stay on the pay if this makes sense ...
Hope my way of explaining is understandable. I see if I can get some pics of different dig where one can see what I'm trying to explain..
Gt....

 

[gold tramp]

I like to go through one at a time and tighten them up in stages. You will hear the ring of your singlejack get higher and higher pitched as they get tighter. It also seems to help if you get them tight and then let it sit for a while before doing another round.

Also, greasing the wedge isn't a bad idea either.

I'm still an apprentice mason but your right the steel will sing as it gets tighter takes a few years of working different rock types before you get a real knack for breakin rock in straight lines.
You can actually hear the difference in the rock when it gets ready to break.
Gt.....

 

[traveller777]

Keep an eye open for minerals such as those below then seek out the source of the float.

This is not a full list of mineral associated with gold silver and platinum.

A decent inverted microscope with polarizing filters will help identify metals in your sample.

Preparing a specimen requires some preparation, a slice from the sample removed with a diamond blade.

The slice is then highly polished before excamining under the scope.

Another method is to grind a small sample into powder, then using a round mold about the size of paper toilet paper tube.

The powder is mixed with a clear resin then poured into the paper tube. The tube only has to be about half an once in height.

Once the resin has set firmly bring it to a high polish, then see what if any valuable metals you have.

OK, so you found the source of the outcrop, your next step would be to do a series of core drill samples.

The drill cores will provide you with a road map, which direction and the depth or even follow an overhead slope.

I've seen some under ground mines with caverns mined out larger than football stadiums..

Perhaps locating a probable mine site would be considered the easy part, bringing the site into operation not so easy.

As a matter of record your drill core samples should be kept a recorded with all pertinent data.

Top image, core samples.

View attachment 2009367

View attachment 2009366

Very informative.

 

[russau]

I can only think of all the precious metals and gems that are under our rivers and especially in the oceans depths from where all rivers dump into ! Fine gold is being found in the shallows of the Mississippi and the Misery River's so why not on the River's bed's ........The big dredge's are only sucking up sand's and gravels to maintain a open channel of a certain depth and getting fine gold. what about nugget's down at bedrock depth's . Kinda gives a person something to think about! Sand & gravel permit's are the EZest permit's for a claim there is to get. I could see a person getting a 10 or 12 inch dredge like has been seen on Bering Sea Gold going up the river's and making a killing !

 

[gold tramp]

Next thing you should learn is about assay reports, the one shown below is one of mine.

How parts per million relate to an assay, the assay ton is broken down in metric so 1 ppm ( part per million ) weighs one gram.

The data below shows the weight for one cubic yard of gravel, and I'll use it for demonstration purposes only as highly mineralized ore could weigh much more than a yard of gravel.

Back to my assay below, the platinum is not visible to the naked human eye but an XRF reveals 17 ppm platinum.

AS you can also see FE ( Iron ) is given in percentage of assay ton.

Unfortunately I only have a 60% interest in this claim and the only way to recover the platinum is by setting up a flotation cell.

The assay shows many other elements of interest.

View attachment 2009368

If you're like me on limited funds one needs to learn to use ones miners lens or to just pan assay .
Crush n pan your own samples,
My first tool is my trusty hand lens it will yield a wealth of knowledge as one can just observe his samples on the spot..
Second is my mortar pestle, screen n pan this tool will absolutely let you know what's in you rock.
3rd my trusty gold bug metal detector it's fool proof and has put me on to more than a couple good digs..
It would be nice to have a drill rig for coring, that's much dollars in time n equipment, for me I just find small left over spots the old timer found unworthy to explore. It not that hard to just dig these out.
Pick n shovel maybe if blue n hand chisel if it's real hard I can drill n blast use my jack hammer but it rairley comes to that.
At the end of the day my only interest is putting more ore on my stock pile, without $$$ coming out of my pocket.

My district is known mostly for small surface pockets not alot of other minerals maybe sheelite Which I save that ore, not much silver.
Anyways I'm just into the gold, assays are for big mining co, it keeps assayers in buissness if ones willing to send samples off.
Gt ...
I've shown this before, my assay kit, stuff in pan was my samples yesterday ... Samples are showing values with hand lens..

 

[Assembler]

Assays:
The upside: Will tell you just about everything in the test sample rock and the amounts. Can give you some idea how much values per ton of ore rock.

Downside: Can be time / cost consuming and will not tell you what you can get out of a rock sample with your process, resources, equipment that you can afford or have at hand and the amount of time / energy to get all that a assay indicates you should get from the ore rock. Can slow you down if you have a trained eye for what to look for out in the field. You may have to wait a month to get the assay results back each time.

You make the decision for when and when not to use it.

 

[Assembler]

Page's two and three, this assay was from a clay sample surface grab.

A neighbor was having a water well drilled I could have grabbed a subterranean sample.

Cost of the assay $30.00 with one week turn around.

View attachment 2009445

View attachment 2009443

Yes under magnification you can spot these crystalized minerals in both rock and powdered samples. The assay is a good way to tell you the amounts if it is chemically combined with other elements. Anyone can compare known good samples with rocks out in the field with some simple tools.

The assay will not tell you what you will be able to get from the rock unless you may be using heat and chemicals as the base of your process and that is up to you to decide. Logistically moving the rock to a place where you can carry out this process is a question that will effect the cost per ton of ore that is processed.

If one is mining on a 40-60 degree slope this is a big factor on moving and processing a given ore rock. Trying to extract every mineral of value may or may not be possible or realistic. Looking for minerals that others have over looked is also a factor and should always be checked out with a simple fire assay. If the ore is rich enough then any mineral of value is on the table for processing.

To repeat the fire assay is useful and good tool it will not tell you with the methods that you may using how much can be extracted per ton of ore processed because each ton of ore should be graded if possible. The assay will give you a good idea on that given "assay ton" sample.

Failing to take these factors into consideration you will be wasting time, equipment, resources, energy all costing you at the end of the day.

 

[Assembler]

I have not set up the powered magnification that is up to 65 times power on a large monitor. No computer needed as it hooks up directly to the monitor. This can really help in grading rocks by eye if one is grading for hours at a time. This will really speed up the process time by not reducing / crushing more rock than is necessary saving large amounts of time. This only works for better grades of rocks and not lower grade where you can not see the minerals. The eye is still useful in looking at ore rock if you can see it.

 

[Assembler]

Your claim is baseless, the assay report will inform you wither to proceed or abandon the current location.

Should you want to proceed with setting up a mill your assay will encourage investors to purchase shares.

Just don't end up like the guy who fell from the helicopter once it became known the assays being sent in where salted.

View attachment 2009485

The assay is only a tool. One should decide when this tool no longer useful with the ore rock you are after.

If you can see with your eyes the crystallization you are after then you decide what tools / process is in line for production / extraction.

If one is interested in selling the fire assay is very useful.

 

[Assembler]

Quote by Isaac Newton: "What goes up must come down.".

The Britannia Mine was an important source of copper ore for almost 70 years and during the 1920s and 1930s

it constituted one of the largest mining operations in Canada. The gravity-fed concentrator was highly innovative, as, for example, in the use of bulk froth flotation.

Video is the old Mascot Mine at Hedley BC,

View attachment 2009489

The examples you point out did not get to this stage without the blocking out work first and major roads put into place first.