The rebirth and rise of the small scale miner

[jair]

We work on drills for blasting , but don't have as many articulating points as those .
They drill 20' to 160 ' only at 15 degree side angle and can drill horizontal or vertical .

 

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[Mad Machinist]

The Rebirth and rise of the Small Scale Miner: Part II Equipment.

Now that I am done with the research into this side of the equation, I am able to write a little about it. The fact of the matter remains that there is very little equipment available for the small scale miner. There is a very large gap in equipment, either your hand loading like the old pony mines of yesteryear or you are running with millions of dollars of equipment.

While hand loading would be a viable option in the very rich mines, it is also very detrimental to work the human body that way. The lack of proper equipment also leads to unnecessary injury, and, quite often, to the death of miners.

I initially started into this by looking at the smaller mining equipment available from the current manufacturers, such as Joy and Atlas Copco. They do make equipment for narrow drifts and veins. A lot of this equipment is capable of operating in widths of 3 meters or less. However, the cost of this equipment is out of the reach of all but the most well funded small miner. The cheapest options available are either used equipment, with an unknown live expectancy or building something ad hoc to do the job.

The ad hoc equipment is quite often substandard and, all to often, becomes more dangerous than the mining process itself. Youtube is full of videos from the third world countries of children diving underwater with just a tube in their mouths for breathing air. The diving compressor is just a motor and a compressor that pulls in the motor exhaust and sends it done the tube to be breathed in by the diver.

I also looked at using construction equipment such as a skid steer underground. This brings up it's own set of problems and costs. I am not a big fan if using internal combustion engines underground due to carbon monoxide poisoning. With the IC engines, there is also the added cost of increased ventilation to dilute the carbon monoxide to safe levels. Battery powered equipment would be better, however, there are very few of those types of equipment available. Those that are available are considered specialty equipment thus having an additional cost to purchase.

Also with construction equipment underground, the life expectancy will be short as that equipment was not designed to handle the rigors of mining. There are many issues such as weight of the equipment to stresses being placed on the equipment it was not designed for.

So what are we, as small miners, to do? Do we sit around and dream of mining? Or do we learn and build what we need to maintain a safe and productive environment? I will keep researching and using my experience to tackle this problem.

 

[Hard Prospector]

It too has been a dream to make a living as a small scale miner and have asked plenty of people in the industry just how realistic this may be. Their opinions were almost all on parity; Full time venture "no" because of cost and overbearing regulation. However, part time to augment existing sources of income, is very do able for most. So a while back I took 8 days of leave (from my real job) and gave it a try. Loaded the jeep with food, water, gas, tools, drywasher and took off for the Mojave desert to live in the diggs. At the end of the week I had about 17 grams of gold drywashing 10-12 hours each day. The amount of $ in gold was around $700. (about $40/gram) and after expenses net in pocket was closer to $500 for a week of digging my ass off.
Interestingly the money came close to the federal minimum wage and yet even though I made very little, I never slept better or felt more free in my entire life.

 

[jair]

Mining should be a hobby unless you find something good .
Then figure out how to retrieve it ,

 

[Mad Machinist]

My wife and I had a long talk about this last night. She understands that a big part of me is missing without the small scale mining. She still has her reservations with my heart problems and all, but has agreed to let me put a 24'x32' addition onto our existing garage to have my "playpen". She also agreed to let me go back to small scale mining if I can go heavily mechanized to remove the strain from my body. Construction on the addition should start here in about 60 days if all goes well.

I have to meet a few other stipulations like not using any money from the business account and as cheaply as possible so it should all be done by the end of summer.

 

[Hard Prospector]

Mining should be a hobby unless you find something good .
Then figure out how to retrieve it ,

Agreed........although I prefer the term "vocation" over hobby

 

[jair]

I was ask if I would like a Case skid steer the other day , it was bought at an auction but never picked up from 2 years ago . Needs work but could be cheep , sort of speaking , probably for the storage fee , hard tires for concrete , but hay any thing that lifts for you may be worth it , was going to see if Mad Machinist would be interested before I have to give an answer .

 

[Mad Machinist]

jair,
I am waiting for this guy to get back to me to see of he is still in operation. Maybe this equipment could be modified during construction to better handle the stresses placed on it. Untitled 1 Maybe built out of heavier plate.

And one of my favorite places to buy things. Surplus Center

 

[Mad Machinist]

Forgot to add, let me know about that skid steer.

 

[jair]

I have no place for it , event though I would take it in a second if I did ,

 

[Mad Machinist]

I heard back form the gentleman at www.cdp-backhoe.com and he is still working on the plans and laser cut parts kits.

 

[jair]

Checked out your web you posted . Looks good .

 

[Mad Machinist]

I have a rough design for a set of dozer tracks using a CA550K1 conveyor chain. Track pads would bolt on so they could be changed easily. At around $100 for 10 foot it isn't that bad of a price. I am thinking that the track could be built for around a $1000. If one used the hydrostatic transmissions from a zero turn mower, it would give the ability to literally turn on a dime.

I can't believe I am going to say this, but the best and cheapest option may just be to mount the tracks to a garden tractor and go from there. May just have to get Solidworks back so I can model the forces that will be placed on the frame.

 

[tamrock]

I'll sell ya this thing I've got in the garage. It's got maybe 3500 liner feet drilled on it over the coarse of 12 days of 12 hour shifts. I tore it down and inspected it all for a report on the wear of the components and cleaned and resealed it. It's broke in good and runs even better then when it was new now. The leg didn't fair as well in the end of the test as they always get beat to hell by those who operate em, but don't have to spend the money on em, but hey! that's all the better for me in the sale of parts and pieces, which add up pretty quick on an average of $350 to $400 a month to keep just this thing in good operating condition and allot more if your miners are inexperienced and care not to lean anything form those who've been around. Seems I've seen an increase of those types in recent years and believe that's one of the reasons a mine will fail. The old miners who taught me how to run things were also left waist gunners on B17's in previous job titles. They'd say you be good to the mine and it'll be good to you "son" or should I call you cutie-pie with that pretty long hair there, cooch!... Can a small operation work? I'd say absolutely yes it can and I wish there were hundreds of them to call on, but this is the good ole USA and most believe we can't have that here.

 

[distribuidorUSA]

I think big Oil Money is being diverted to Gold...right now Gold is the thing to own and sell later...

 

[rivets]

The Jesuits/papal-black nobility/club of Rome etc with their masonic affiliates ( eg: Knights of Malta who established the fed/world reserve currency etc ) have bean swopping currency/paper { credit/debt } for money/gold for centuries ... in effect stealing the fruit of our labor and why 85% + of the worlds population own nothing of value .... ( do you know that WW1 and WW11 were orchestrated to plunder wealth/gold to finance the FED pyramid/Ponzi system which has funneled everything of value ( including knowledge ) into the vaults/libraries of a few who's Iranian bloodlines go all the way back to Babylon )


I researched this in great depth but found it to be nothing but a distraction in ones quest for Truth ....

 

[Mad Machinist]

Everybody thought I was out of my mind, but this is happening right now.

Congo gold mine innovates to solve illegal mining dilemma | Reuters

Coming soon to an area near you. Kinda happening like I thought it would. Using the small scale miners to go after deposits that are otherwise uneconomical and sending the ores to a central processing area. Everybody wins.

 

[barrelroll]

How's your project coming?

I was driving one of the kubota tractor based buggies at work the other day and got to thinking could a compact tractor do it all? They are relatively narrow, you can get a backhoe attachment to mount your drill to, muck with a loader attachment, and pull ore carts with it. They are relatively cheap and durable though they do ride like crap and we've started phasing them out for diesel Polaris Rangers.

Have you started any of the permitting aspects for your operation? Are you planning on dealing with msha, the epa, which ever agency manages your land or trying to fly under the radar? I'm curious how they plan on dealing with small scale miners. I could just see someone from the EPA taking a water sample and before you know it they've destroyed your life.

 

[russau]

My brother just got a "FREE" Bobcat delivered that has a hole in the block. Now all he needs is a donor engine for it! He also got +7 10KW generators as a lot. the company didn't want to spend the $$$$ on repairs and he got 1 heck of a deal for them all. He now has 6 of them up-n-running from the extra parts. So there is a way to get some needed equipment reasonable. BUT again MM mineing is rough on equipment and people just don't have the time and or the money to keep fixing this equipment. GOODLUCK on your adventure!

 

[Mad Machinist]

How's your project coming?

I was driving one of the kubota tractor based buggies at work the other day and got to thinking could a compact tractor do it all? They are relatively narrow, you can get a backhoe attachment to mount your drill to, muck with a loader attachment, and pull ore carts with it. They are relatively cheap and durable though they do ride like crap and we've started phasing them out for diesel Polaris Rangers.

Have you started any of the permitting aspects for your operation? Are you planning on dealing with msha, the epa, which ever agency manages your land or trying to fly under the radar? I'm curious how they plan on dealing with small scale miners. I could just see someone from the EPA taking a water sample and before you know it they've destroyed your life.

My project is on hold right now until I get a few things straightened out. I recently picked up a part time gig thats going to last awhile.