It would make it a pain to change screens and would destroy the powder coat on the outside. The original nuts were like nylocks. I was using lock washers, the bolt / screw heads wear down with use and come loose/break. Factory parts in the mail.
Correct this is part of the design. You may find out that the powder coat will decay or wear.
Ok. The mill is working good for you with few issues.
Either charged mercury and a retort or flux and smelt... the choice is yours.
Gold in Graphite deposits sure are difficult to detect!
A lot of nature's graphite is easy to sound off with a metal detector. Hard to figure out with the metal detector when the values pinch off though.
Just running small samples off the mine waste piles about a 1/4 bucket at a time. Trying to find the best pile for my small-scale operation. The claim ground dried enough to get the old pickup in close makes filling buckets easier. Trying to carry loaded buckets across quartz heaps is not fun.
If you can sink posts or use trees for a light zip line for moving loaded buckets.
Yes, but you will probably agree that this hybrid “hard rock mining” pays much better than placer mining. They cast aside quite a bit of values and were happy doing it. I try to keep the same mindset and not wring my hands about losing minimal values that don’t move the scale. I’ve seen a real nice recirculating shaker table set up that was fed by a two stage jaw crusher/roller set up. Was pretty neat. Drop a softball size piece of ore in and walk over and watch the gold dribble into the vial. They found that the “hot rocks” ended up being loaded with gold. Made it easy to sort buckets of ore. Guy ended up dying from roasting sulfides carelessly too many times.
That's quite a nice rock. Maybe someday I'll discover something others have missed, and have a great time working it. Hope your Son and friend keep finding those paying rocks. Seems the gold you find at least pays for the groceries. :-)
