Limestone Crushing Process

Government land status is critical to initiating mine activity. Many valuable mineral areas are closed to mineral entry (location). For example, the wide galena surface vein concentrate near Curia Dome in San Bernardino County, California, assays 1,200 opt (ounces per ton) silver, but the land is withdrawn for recreation. Only a few people know about either the rich silver vein or the impossible recreation site. Struggles to rescind the withdrawal have been fruitless, par for the course all over the West and Alaska. Other off-limits areas cover the western U. S. and Alaska like giant shades drawn by blind wall painters. Where the land is not withdrawn there may be ridiculous restrictions on what you can do on it, or public officials so adamant against free enterprise on those claims that life becomes one big headache. Mining claim operators who file a Plan of Operations with Interior or Agriculture on valid claims and are denied approval must respectfully request reconsideration. Rejections must be politely refused where the creation of new wealth is sought under our free enterprise system. Don't roll over! That didn't used to be the toughest part of this business. Now it is. The first requirement for a successful mine operation is a market for the product, metallic or nonmetallic. The second requirement is to deliver a quality salable product to that market for payment in an amount exceeding the cost of the operation. There are a vast number of mineral products, literally from A to Z, and there are an infinite number of ways to get them out of the ground and delivered in a form acceptable at the marketplace. One may start by looking at what a particular industry needs, such as silica for glass or cement manufacture. Low-iron silica is desperately needed for making glass, and at least one California cement company would dearly love to see a prospector walk in the front door with samples from his nearby silica claims. Another example, also nonmetallic, is bentonite clay, the water impervious material commonly mandated to line the floors, walls, and caps of landfill disposal sites. This material, which swells when wet, is extensively used in oil drilling mud. Bentonite frequently occurs along earthquake faults and it was along the Garlock Fault in Kern County that Joe Mathewson, a Los Angeles area resident, searched for the commodity in the 1980s. He found a suitable deposit on land next to Red Rock Canyon State Park east of Mojave. The swelling-type calcium bentonite clay was tested by independent laboratories and was determined to meet the low permeability specifications for landfill use.