In the section that immediately follows, specific cost data for dredge operations considered representative in the industry have been updated and listed. Following this is a section on general cost data that correlates operating costs to annual production according to bucket size. These costs cover dredge operations in the Western States. Cost of dredging in … Read more
Determining Suitable Dredge Size: After the placer deposit is properly prospected the miner has a reasonable knowledge of the volume and grade of the placer together with information on its geometry, formation, and the distribution of values by size and location as well as information on bedrock topography, surface topography, water supply, and a host of … Read more
Once aboard the dredge, the dredged material is classified, its valuable portion recovered, and its waste portion disposed in a coordinated recovery disposal system designed to handle the capacity of the digging system. Also on board are the dredging-support equipment of the spuds, winches, and controls, and the water-supply systems. The recovery equipment consists of … Read more
At present dredge mining in this country is at a low level. The last gold dredge in California stopped operating in October 1968. Gold dredging in the adjacent States had already ceased because of increasing operating costs, decreasing placer values, and the fixed price of gold. Two gold dredges and one platinum dredge were still … Read more
The design and specifications submitted in this paper are not offered as satisfying all conditions of gold dredging. Many rich stream-beds would not give “ elbow-room ” for such a dredge: many otherwise favorable gold-bearing areas are too small to warrant the cost of its installation; and, in some localities, as I have already remarked, … Read more
The working of gold alluvial deposits by dredging has from all times been a popular form of mining, not only from the simplicity of its operations, but also, in its more primitive stages, from the possibility of carrying it on without large capital, without skilled labour, expensive plant, long terms of preparatory work, or, in fact, any … Read more
The centrifugal elevator invented and patented by the writer is designed for the purpose of conveying the tailings of a gold dredge to such a distance that they shall not impede the dredging operations. Formerly this was usually accomplished by means of a belt of buckets travelling round a ladder set at an angle of … Read more