Interesting Reading

[dashriprock]

Went through some old boxes of books and magazines I've saved over the years and found a few issues of Popular Mining (A Miners How-to-do-it Magazine) from 1984. I forgot all about those magazines. Forgot about the different ways they were coming up with in the mid '80's to recover small gold and micron gold like building furnaces out of 5 gal. cans or building your own ball mill.

Some of the ads from that time are cool to look at. The classified ad section has a couple 20 acre placer claims for sale for $2000. I would pick up a few of them if they were that price now.

Also started to re-read Hunting for Gold by Major William Downie. Tough times those guys went through but man were they finding some good gold.

 

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[killroy]

I found some lost treasure mags from the early 90's and they are interesting to read again!!!

 

[bakergeol]

Yes I remember receiving those Popular mining issues so long ago. Sad to see them be discontinued.
The first centrifugal concentrator I built was from plans in an early issue(did not work). Articles in PM
were a combination of the good and the bad. Some innovative ideas and some very poor ones. They
were always desperate for articles and would print anything that was submitted(Heck they even published
one of my articles LOL). I remember one time they published an article about a South American mill. The
guy who wrote it offered plans for sale. No one received any plans as the guy did this scam from his jail cell.

Still interesting to go back and see the advertising from long out of business companies.

George

 

[Hoser John]

Action Mining was still selling old issues awhile back. Great how to mags also had some real nice articles from customers on my PESCO dredges. I made a bakpak 6" that ran with a small single 8hp briggs. J/F 1987 Size Wise and they also did some stories on highbankers/drywashers too. Sure was a different world then as 1/100 of the political bs-John

 

[dashriprock]

Yes some of the plans that they put in the magazine were kind of out there. I never did try any of them. I did however go to the library and found Sam Raddings plans and built a rocker box (my first very own piece of mining equipment) besides a gold pan an old guy gave me years before. I learned pretty quick that, that wasn't the way I wanted to spend my days. I was alot younger then and my back didn't hurt but as I look back now..I can't help but think that maybe that's why it hurts so bad these days. lol

Old Action Mining ads are pretty neat.

I re-read an article on the "chacras de oro" or "gold farms" of the Inambari River district in Peru. Interesting and always thought about it but never found the right place to try it.

It said...Along the banks of the Inambari, between the high and low water marks were hundreds of acres of "gold farms". These consist of riffles formed by placing flat slate stones on edge and normal to the flow of the river. The riffles are held securely between rows of large stones placed 6 feet apart and wedged securely on a bed of fine sand. During the rainy season the "farms" are covered with water and fine particles of gold are caught in the riffles. When the river subsides, the riffles are taken out and the fine sand is panned in wooden bateas.

It says the actual yeild of gold per square yard had not been determined but the fact that the work continued year after year shows it must have been profitable. A team of 8 men working on a bar near the power plant of Inca Mining & Development during the dry season of 1930, averaged an ounce of gold per day. Most of the chacras were inherited.

Just amazing what people from long ago came up with to try and capture the yellow stuff.

 

[Lanny in AB]

Yes some of the plans that they put in the magazine were kind of out there. I never did try any of them. I did however go to the library and found Sam Raddings plans and built a rocker box (my first very own piece of mining equipment) besides a gold pan an old guy gave me years before. I learned pretty quick that, that wasn't the way I wanted to spend my days. I was alot younger then and my back didn't hurt but as I look back now..I can't help but think that maybe that's why it hurts so bad these days. lol

Old Action Mining ads are pretty neat.

I re-read an article on the "chacras de oro" or "gold farms" of the Inambari River district in Peru. Interesting and always thought about it but never found the right place to try it.

It said...Along the banks of the Inambari, between the high and low water marks were hundreds of acres of "gold farms". These consist of riffles formed by placing flat slate stones on edge and normal to the flow of the river. The riffles are held securely between rows of large stones placed 6 feet apart and wedged securely on a bed of fine sand. During the rainy season the "farms" are covered with water and fine particles of gold are caught in the riffles. When the river subsides, the riffles are taken out and the fine sand is panned in wooden bateas.

It says the actual yeild of gold per square yard had not been determined but the fact that the work continued year after year shows it must have been profitable. A team of 8 men working on a bar near the power plant of Inca Mining & Development during the dry season of 1930, averaged an ounce of gold per day. Most of the chacras were inherited.

Just amazing what people from long ago came up with to try and capture the yellow stuff.

Interesting technique!

Thanks for the read, and all the best,

Lanny