Anyone Want To Refine My Ore?

[gold tramp]

With 3 - 4 detectors ready to go with different abilities / coils you can find what some will pass over to the tailing pile and find pockets when there is pockets to be found.
For example I have a vein that was around 28" - 32" wide that was fairly low grade. Even I did not want to crush that rock type as it looked poor yet you could see a speck here and there all the way through it.. The rock I did break loose was then placed on wood so that a detector could be used away from the mineral back ground to find small pockets on a regular time frame almost like clock work speeding up the process by not processing all of the 32" wide vein. Focusing on the zone or mineral flare edge where one could find small pockets that I could not see as a general rule yet the detectors could within the limits of the coils used. This is very handy when you can't get the equipment to the rock itself. Packing out the rock is not the answer in that type of case as you would waste a lot of fuel to move the excess rock.

If you are mining wide veins you can figure out what the hot stuff looks like fairly quick and just take the better stuff, bleepin low grade is probably a big waste of time, I usually find on the wider veins the hot spots will tend to be in or on the contact zone, down here it would be the purple vuggy stuff, like I said in the contact zone, it's why you'll see the big tail piles of waste that looks like low grade ore, the old timers learned fast to keep you eyes on that contact zone .
Gt..

 

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[Assembler]

If you are mining wide veins you can figure out what the hot stuff looks like fairly quick and just take the better stuff, bleepin low grade is probably a big waste of time, I usually find on the wider veins the hot spots will tend to be in or on the contact zone, down here it would be the purple vuggy stuff, like I said in the contact zone, it's why you'll see the big tail piles of waste that looks like low grade ore, the old timers learned fast to keep you eyes on that contact zone .
Gt..

Correct as I did not want to waste time on the low grade yet the contact zone had greater surface area due to the fact of the wider vein. There is no way one can pack out very much of the rock at all on some slopes. I'm thinking that the vein will change as one travels down it. I have found high grade and will chase it no matter what.

 

[gold tramp]

Correct as I did not want to waste time on the low grade yet the contact zone had greater surface area due to the fact of the wider vein. There is no way one can pack out very much of the rock at all on some slopes. I'm thinking that the vein will change as one travels down it. I have found high grade and will chase it no matter what.

If you want it bad enough you'll pack it out, I've hauled many 20 lb gunny sacks, two at a time full of ore, I use a leap frog technique, haul them up the mnt wee bit at a time stack in pile, then haul them to the next stop go back get more do the same, till I get it all to the truck, I've moved a few ton this way it's hard Rock gold mining not for the weak in body or mind.
Like I said if you want it bad enough you'll figure a way...
Gt...

 

[Assembler]

If you want it bad enough you'll pack it out, I've hauled many 20 lb gunny sacks, two at a time full of ore, I use a leap frog technique, haul them up the mnt wee bit at a time stack in pile, then haul them to the next stop go back get more do the same, till I get it all to the truck, I've moved a few ton this way it's hard Rock gold mining not for the weak in body or mind.
Like I said if you want it bad enough you'll figure a way...
Gt...

Yea I would want it. That is why I bought a 300' x 3/8" steel cable with a pully trolley to move it. I did pack some out by foot about a 3/4 mile half through the raw woods and half on a skid road abandon very dangerous and a good way to break your legs.

The higher grades have a better return and the low grade is not worth packing out. I will process some of the lower grade at the rock location. Best to move some equipment to the rock itself. The fires / closed roads have stopped this process.

 

[Assembler]

There is a number of different rock flows and they can all be different. Processing a lot of waste rock is a quick way of spending energy, time and other resources with little returns. This is why one should sort the rock to reduce this fact if possible for a small scale mine.

 

[gold tramp]

There is a number of different rock flows and they can all be different. Processing a lot of waste rock is a quick way of spending energy, time and other resources with little returns. This is why one should sort the rock to reduce this fact if possible for a small scale mine.

You don't process the waste rock, you run ore if you got a mill its no big deal to toss all you ore in the mix, might get some dilution but that's to be expected and not a real big deal unless you equipment is trash and won't hold up to the millings... Its all the stuff one deals with in hardrock ore processing, you take the good with the bad ..
Sure it's nice to always have highgrade ore but that usually isn't the way it is in real life..
If you are worrying about a few hours time hand sorting your ore you are probably not serious about the hardrock mining.. and should just find another type of mining to do or talk about..
Gt....

 

[Assembler]

You don't process the waste rock, you run ore if you got a mill its no big deal to toss all you ore in the mix, might get some dilution but that's to be expected and not a real big deal unless you equipment is trash and won't hold up to the millings... Its all the stuff one deals with in hardrock ore processing, you take the good with the bad ..
Sure it's nice to always have highgrade ore but that usually isn't the way it is in real life..
If you are worrying about a few hours time hand sorting your ore you are probably not serious about the hardrock mining.. and should just find another type of mining to do or talk about..
Gt....

You make good points about not crushing waste rock. Others have run into failure due to that and moving rock around at the surface.
Depending on the mineral deposit sorting rock can be useful or a waste of one's time and the miner needs to make that choice. The factors of not being able to move the rock at the surface and energy spent is choice one needs to make. The surface terrain in the area that I'm working will dictate a lot. Once one decides to go underground then that is a different ball game.

Remember this one choses to not go beyond very small scale and heavy equipment is not in the mix. Plus it is almost impossible in both time and energy to get heavy equipment to some of the rock that is still out at or near the surface such as 50+Hp air compressors or rock trucks etc. Think only small scale.

Yes high grade is hard to find thus forcing one to be willing to sort low grade. Sorting pays off by giving a better return on your time and efforts where others will fail or give up due to these facts. One can even keep track of this and will help one to decide when to stop processing and look for better materials.

Being serious can go in a number of directions not just inside the conventional "Box". Thinking inside the "Box" can fail a lot of people and it can work well for some. Getting serious is very important when one starts to go underground for sure as the costs can go through the roof any way you look at it not to mention it can kill you.

 

[Assembler]

Not everyone will have ore that can be easily sorted so then just pass it through the crushing equipment you have and see what you end up with. The point here is if you can sort in any fashion your small amounts of rock (1 - 3 tons) then the less processing time there will be and wear and tear etc. this should give better returns on your efforts. Especially on difficult surface terrains. No two areas are the same and one needs to make there own decisions.

 

[SnowdogAk20]

Whats the reason behind not smelting cons high in zinc ? seems to me it would smelt off, maybe I'm wrong, I think the flux takes care of stuff like that. How would floatation separate impurities combined in the gold ,silver , copper?
I'm a little confused...
Gt....

Can't you boil off zinc at around 1750 f anyway'?