Blasting with black powder?

utahvikingr

Jr. Member
Nov 3, 2020
26
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Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hey folks, I’ve been looking for any laws online that can point me in the right direction, but the only place I see mention of black powder in any laws is related to mining COAL, where it is strictly prohibited. I have a silver mine (Utah), and the quartzite is hard as hell. If anyone has any insight on it, I’d be very appreciative!

This is not a business, it’s all just me mining solo.**
 

Ty mate, been lookin at it pretty heavily lately
 

Ty mate, been lookin at it pretty heavily lately

If you want to use real explosives, you need to get some training and an ATF license at minimum. There are other requirements depending on your state and if you mine is on private land or a claim on BLM/USFS land.

Black powder does work, but I don't really recommend it. It's very sensitive to sparks, and setting it off without getting a misfire or a premature detonation is a bit challenging. You're technically supposed to have an ATF license and a magazine if you use black or smokeless powder for blasting, even though anyone can buy them.

AEG has a commercial blaster class in January if you really want to look into this. It's a great class:

https://americanexplosivesgroup.com/commerial-blasting-class-schedule/
 

That’s too much bs to go through though. Plus I really don’t wanna have to get the permits and all that. I can pull out plenty of ore with just a pick, couple tons a day would be fine. I plan on processing off site, just concentrating it all via shaker table. There’s not a TON of gold in it, I’m betting sub-5ppm. But I can still concentrate all the galena/smithsonite, and either smelt it into bricks to be sent off, or just send off my cons (or sell them to the smelter)
 

You can try it, but more than likely the BP would just blow out of the borehole like the muzzle of shotgun if that rock is as hard as you say. Also keep in mind that BP could potentially ignite by just the static generated from your wool socks and takes for ever for the smoke to clear. Good Luck.
 

I’ll end up goin with the Sierra blaster. No atf stuff necessary, and I’m sure it’s quiet enough to not attract attention to my mine
 

I’ll end up goin with the Sierra blaster. No atf stuff necessary, and I’m sure it’s quiet enough to not attract attention to my mine

It's pretty quiet and you can plausibly call it a "Powder actuated tool." They're prices are going up soon, so I'd order if you are on the fence:

We must raise our prices to keep up with the rising costs of raw materials, components, legal compliance, labor, and machining. These costs have all increased. We are sending out this notification because several people have asked for a warning notification for price increases. This price adjustment will include Systems (size 3-10 heads) along with Cartridges, Boosters and Drill Bits. We have not raised our prices in over two years.

The price change will go into effect for the SierraBlaster web-store on November 12th 2020 (10pm PST).
Any purchase made before 10pm PST on 11-12-2020 will be at the current prices. We have a few low stock items; therefore if our stock sells out anyone who places themselves on the waiting list prior to 11-12-2020 (10pm PST) will be locked in at the current price for up to one week after the product becomes available again. Those on the waiting list will be notified when product is back in stock.

Purchases through SierraBlaster Distributors will continue at the old prices for an additional week until 11-19-2020.


We will also be sending out a few more newsletters alerting to the availability of new product accessories that many have been asking and waiting for.
 

Well crap man, I don’t have too much cash right now. Do you know how much these will be going up by?
 

Well crap man, I don’t have too much cash right now. Do you know how much these will be going up by?

You shouldn't worry about the prices, they're not going up enough to worry about. We have an 8 head system and it works great.
 

Lots of folks here have good luck with the Sierra Blaster.

https://www.sierrablaster.com/

Here's my article on using it:

https://www.icmj.com/resources/sample/

I read the article, good job it is very complete. GoldRush WhiteWater TV show is using it this year. They have a new 7 min trailer and most of the first 2 minutes is them using a SierraBlaster to blow a big boulder on the bottom of Rockfall Ravine pool that prevented them from getting to the bottom. Looks like they got a bunch of gold nuggets, great video. Here it is: https://go.discovery.com/tv-shows/g...ium=cpc&utm_campaign=tunein-dsc&utm_term=grww
 

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