I do not know anything about BLM Land and Mining Claims because I own my own land, but you guys also know me and my love of equipment.
I have a mini-backhoe on my log trailer, and I use it A LOT. It just makes sense/cents because it is not just fuel consumption, but wear and tear on the excavator. Do I really want to be tearing into the pumps and rebuilding them because my septic system backed up and I need to change a broken pipe? My little backhoe can do the job with more finesse and less cost. It is the same thing with my little bulldozer, my John Deere 350 cannot push anywhere near what the John Deere 850 can, but tracks for my 350 is only $4500.
My little backhoe is pretty tough. I have busted into frozen soil, and have never found anything it could not dig, it is just slow. The little 6.5 HP engine just does not move enough flow for it to be fast, but it does not matter because I am digging just as fast in the first five minutes as I am at the end of a ten hour day. That does not happen when you are shoveling. And the $5 in gasoline it takes to run it all day is nothing, not to mention the $99 it would cost to replace the engine.
If I get into gold mining, my plan is to use my mini-backhoe adapting it as needs arise. Most likely I will build a trammel and wash plant and directly load into it so that I do not have to shovel; a self-propelled wash plant if you will. But that is for gravel. For hard rock mining, I could put a jackhammer on the end of it, lift the ore into the crusher by the grapple or bucket with thumb.
But that is the thing; when you buy equipment, you do so thinking about one specific task, but after you buy it, you use it for all kinds of things you never thought of, then go, "how did I ever get along without it?"
I have big equipment as a backup, but I use my little equipment as much as I can because it has the least cost. It has really surprised me over the years how much can be done with small equipment.
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.
