full time small scale miner, endangered species ?

You are the only hard rock desert prospector on this board that I know of, Dave Wiseman is in the Motherload but I don't know if he is a full time miner. Certainly smart enough after reading his posts. Seems like this state is squeezing us out much of a chance of making a go of it full time. My hats off to anyone who can make a living at it full time, I couldn't but will give it a go the day that my last kid gets out of college. Which right now seems like a week from never....
 

Oakview2,believe there are quite a few small scale hardrock miners in California still.The thing is they do not post on any gold forums and draw attention to themselves.With federal,state,county rules and regs,enviro freaks,marijuana growers,speed freaks,outlaws and thieves it's imperative to not divulge any info and keep a very low profile.I've lost much yellow quartz gold species and tools to so called gold prospectors who unfortunately were all metal detector chaps....and my prospecting and gold adventures these days involves panning out and evaluating quartz vein samples for my partner when and if he brings samples to my house.Occasionaly I do this for friends at no charge and once in awhile I teach people quartz vein sampling and techniques for a fee on their property or claim.My body is too messed up to do the field work anymore,but if access is easy and walking distance is flat and close by I can still sample or instruct.Not much competition in this gold game fellows.
 

Dave

Sorry to hear of your health issues, I hope that you can recover and return to the field. I always enjoy your posts, as you said there are few
who have done this successfully, and post about it. I do some beeping, but mostly on club claims or open property and I would never think of messing with anyones ore pile or mess with someone's tools. The longer I live, the more I am amazed the the lack of a moral compass by the general population. Good Health and good hunting....
 

So the Wife and I agree..no to many people can afford to do it full time. She's quitting her job to help me do this full time but...(i do mean but). We can only afford to do this because of my Army retirement.. And as Oakview2 pointed out we have 6 kids and a grandson between us, if the 3 Eldest hadn't moved out (haha Moved with extreme help from my foot! 24 19 and 18, and none of them wanted to go anywhere!) We wouldn't be able to do this.Of course since the Vein widened were now going at the whole thing from the "Break a Leg" stance and will be doing this 40 hours a week from now on..lol P.S. Tramp, Love the rocks! Keep it up and have you considered Amazon? They have very little Rock/Specimen wise, and most of it is junk. easy to start a shop there too! Anyhoo GL all and whatever you do POUND That ROCK!
 

Its realy hard to make a living at this gig, unless you are one lucky few bs that hit those monster pockets the first time they turn on there new detector !
ive been working my butt off for the last 6 months found maybe 1/2 ounce in pocket gold. and im embarassed to even talk about the free gold i havnt found!

But as long as the sun comes up for me tommorow i will be back on that mnt pitching stones, making my hopper and dare i say it, crankin my dry washer, and toten buckets till i cant lift another, then i will
drag my con bucket, and my dusty butt the 1/2 mile down the trail to the truck and drive the aprox 18 miles on a wash board road, that i can only get up 10 mph on or my ole truck will rattle apart,then
pan my daily take kick stones because im drywashing and not hardrock mining, Thank the good lord for what he did give me, and do it all over again tommorow.

Good Luck.
 

I agree.. after 2 weeks of hard work I "Lost " the oz of pure Aqua regia gold precipatate... gorgeous... gone! (please dont ask ) any hoo a bad day and im still gonna keep going!
 

I can't imagine having to do what we've been doing occasionally full time, its kicken my ass breaking bedrock, pitching rocks, laying in cold water sucking up endless dirt into a barrel, my body aches after each day and ,my painting business I have guys doing for me what I have trouble doing myself, just so i don't get the way i do looking for gold, but its almost worth the labor , not quite, but theres something very alluring about finding gold that a man will suffer great lengths , even very little gold...

Good luck guys hope your pans get full!
 

I found a quartz vein once and tried to attack it with my rock hammer and rock chisel. Holy hell was that stuff hard. My 3lb sludge hardly made any difference. The only thing that worked was that chisel finding a weak point. Hard rock mining is brutal, but if I could make a living doing it I would trade my business for it.
 

vini said:
I can't imagine having to do what we've been doing occasionally full time, its kicken my ass breaking bedrock, pitching rocks, laying in cold water sucking up endless dirt into a barrel, my body aches after each day and ,my painting business I have guys doing for me what I have trouble doing myself, just so i don't get the way i do looking for gold, but its almost worth the labor , not quite, but theres something very alluring about finding gold that a man will suffer great lengths , even very little gold...

Good luck guys hope your pans get full!
Click to expand...

I geuss one would have had to of found a sizable pocket to want do that much work. and those that have, know what im talking about.
I was ruined with my first decent pocket, i call it the gold curse. most folks arent effected by the bug in the way that they would give it all up to go chase crumbs of gold, dig monster holes, beat foot trails
into mnts, or pound on a chisell till ya cant move.

but most folks dont know what its likes to find a pocket. I can find crumbs all day long, thats not what im after, its my next big pocket that keeps me walking over that mnt ridge, i gotta see what or
whos been there before me. In hopes that i will find a pocket that got passed up by the old timers.

Ive never been a dredger butt i would suspect seeing a true pocket of gold, nice and shiny sitting in its bedrock nest. that it would be unforegetable expieriance, I have had
mine with hardrock
drywashing, and bleepin and will never forget digging golden rocks out of the ground.
Thats what keeps me digging and walking over as much of this ole desert that i can before the ole body gives out.

Hope you all have the luck of a pocket, just dont get the curse.

Good luck.
 

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I am trying to get into hard rock mining. the question I have is how do you get the gold once you crush the ore into powder? I am from the U.S. but I am currently living in Nicaragua. I have heard that nearby my house there are some good veins so I want to start mining.

Mercury is legal here so I believe that is my best option. The process I am not sure is what to to with the powder, I believe I make a slurry but not sure of the next process.

I am also wondering about what percentage of gold extraction you get with mercury compared to mechanical means like using a shaker table.

Thank you all for your help and if anybody wants to come to my part of the world you are more than welcome.
 

camoga said:
I am trying to get into hard rock mining. the question I have is how do you get the gold once you crush the ore into powder? I am from the U.S. but I am currently living in Nicaragua. I have heard that nearby my house there are some good veins so I want to start mining.

Mercury is legal here so I believe that is my best option. The process I am not sure is what to to with the powder, I believe I make a slurry but not sure of the next process.

I am also wondering about what percentage of gold extraction you get with mercury compared to mechanical means like using a shaker table.

Thank you all for your help and if anybody wants to come to my part of the world you are more than welcome.
Click to expand...

unless you have a fat bank account, good ole m is the way to doit. you could try leaching (action mining ) can help ya there or maybe someone else in here knows a company that can help.
the best way ive found for concentrating that fine gold is a wave table im sure others have ways but the wave works with the ore i get. your best recovery method with highest % of recovery is
leaching.

goodluck.
 

Thanks for your quick reply, if you do not mind I have several more questions.
When you crush your ore how fine do you get it? IMG_0606.JPGIMG_0609.JPG
Which method do you use? (mortar and pestle, rod mill, or rock crusher like rjcrusher)
If you know about the Gold Cube do you believe it can handle finely crushed ore to form my concentrate?
I posted some sample ore from my site, was wondering if you could tell me anything about them.

Congratulations on serving in the Armed Forces my brother is currently an Ensign.

Thanks once again
Sam
 

My preffered and best method ive found for achieving the finest grind is a ball mill, i used a rod mill for many years and it was ok we had a hard time controlling our grind with the rod and had to constantly adjust our feed, it did the job but i lost a lot of gold out the tailings.
ive tryed impacts there ok, but wear quickly.

You just cant beat a ball i think, it will grind as fine as you need. Your final recover should be wave as it will save your sulfides also, for the most part they are worthless, you can get some ores with sulfides that have excellent values.

just like i said your best bet of all is leaching, if possibly hook up with an old timer willing to share hands on, leaching is a little costly and you dont want to do trial and error.

fineness of your grind all depends on what kinda ore you are dealing with. your samples ? when in doubt crush and pan. every vein is differant i would actualy have to hold your rocks to tell you anything.
my expierances are on a little larger scale so i hope my reply is helpfull, i dont know what a gold cube is sorry.

Never served, Folks just call me cpt
Goodluck
 

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Well I don't do it full time (yet). Me and a buddy of mine got a lode claim in NV going out in July can't wait. Hopefully if turns out like it looks like it will it will be a ft thing. Man gettin all the tools and equip is spendy. But the return is worth the investment I hope lol.

Good thing is the second trip will only cost has and food instead of thousands on crusher generator detector pans picks sluice pan machine. Man the list seems endless.
Hoping to have a good report when we get back for u guys/gals on here.
Still tryin to learn all I can before we go.
Good luck to ya and I'd like to pick yer brain in future :)
Bill
 

It can get costly, if i can give advice that can help let me know. i woulndt mind talking hardrock.
 

gold tramp said:
My preffered and best method ive found for achieving the finest grind is a ball mill, i used a rod mill for many years and it was ok we had a hard time controlling our grind with the rod and had to constantly adjust our feed, it did the job but i lost a lot of gold out the tailings.
ive tryed impacts there ok, but wear quickly.

You just cant beat a ball i think, it will grind as fine as you need. Your final recover should be wave as it will save your sulfides also, for the most part they are worthless, you can get some ores with sulfides that have excellent values.


just like i said your best bet of all is leaching, if possibly hook up with an old timer willing to share hands on, leaching is a little costly and you dont want to do trial and error.

fineness of your grind all depends on what kinda ore you are dealing with. your samples ? when in doubt crush and pan. every vein is differant i would actualy have to hold your rocks to tell you anything.
my expierances are on a little larger scale so i hope my reply is helpfull, i dont know what a gold cube is sorry.

Never served, Folks just call me cpt
Goodluck
Click to expand...

After talking to several people and with your opinion, I believe I will go with jaw crusher and then ball mill. When you say that the wave will save sulfides what does that mean? I know it's not the best for the environment but I plan on using mercury to recover, where I plan on mining it is legal.

Thanks
 

when i say sulfides i mean all the other heavys that you get along with the gold, the table can be tuned to save just about all these heavys some can be worth $$$
If you have sulfide ore i think you might try some other method i really dont know??, i only go after ore that has visible gold so im not sure how to treat sulfides.

I know its usally extremly fine and locked up in the pyrites, i think you could just grind the stuff in a ball that might get the sulfide off so you can amalgamate ?
the old timers roasted it before the grind ?

most of the time if i see pyrites in my ore my gold is no more. i use it as my indacator where not dig.

amalgamation is easyist way i have found to get that powder fine gold, as that course gold is a rare these days, be care full with Hg dont spill it,burn or eat it.
hope your getting good gold.
 

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