Ore mining and processing

[Bitter Ashes]

Of all my batshit ideas, this may take the prize.

I've been thinking about the possibility of mining and processing our own metals from scratch. You know, digging a hole, pulling out the ore and smelting it and then machining it to something that can be further processed into products.

I've been poking around the history of my local area and discovered that the Romans used to have Galena mines for lead and silver production. I kind of wish I was living in Cornwall where there was Copper and Tin ores about, but, oh well, you get what the terrain gives you.

While I've got a fair idea and confident in my abilities to process the ore, finding and extracting needs more though.

So, the sort of things I'm wondering is where to dig, how deep to go and if this is possible on a small operation of up to four, currently, unskilled, workers operating in a co-operative fashion. I mean, can we just go out to the un-inhabited parts of the nearby Pennines, dig a small mine and set up a bloomery, or something similar, safely and ideally, without detection? None of us has the cash to buy lands for mineral rights, but maybe we can come to some kind of a deal with a sheep farmer, or something.

I'm hoping to aim to produce up to a tonne of lead a month, although if it's costing us next to nowt to start with and we just fiddle with it a little then that's fine too. Main thing is knowing how to go about this.

[Bitter Ashes]

Can we call this "Guerrilla mining" too? :P

[Sasha]

Your such an romantic, but I'm afraid collecting copper and aluminum from the trash and sell it for scrap will be a thousand times more profitable.

[Bitter Ashes]

Your such an romantic, but I'm afraid collecting copper and aluminum from the trash and sell it for scrap will be a thousand times more profitable.
I know I am :P

And yeah, that's always a possibility. Just trying to look at sustainability long term atm :)

[Kamos]

I could imagine this scenario in a time in the far future when capitalism is imploding and society is collapsing, the ruling class is desparately trying to hold on to its power, chaos reigns supreme throughout the world and there is urban warfare in every major city. (You know, like in various dystopian novels.) Other than that... what Psycho said.

[Bitter Ashes]

Well, isn't the fact of the matter that we didn't stop mining this stuff in the UK because we ran out, but because the capitalists didn't want to pay anything near a fair share to those who deal with it?

So, if the stuff's there and we're not fussing about trying to fund the lavish lifestyle of the boss, why shouldn't we dig it up? It's a natural resource. It belongs to everybody.

[Smyg]

As, to put it mildly, unrealistic as this is (:D) I'd advise you to take a look at how it used to be done historically, before the industrialisation and such.

[ellipsis]

you could start smelting pete to make iron.

[Bitter Ashes]

Well, I've looked into it and I'd need 67,114, 14.9g cans to get a tonne of aluminium which is worth about £1k (an ok month's wages for one person). I don't think we could find16,000 cans per person, per week.

Galena seems to be local ore. If we can find, mine and process a measily 1.5 tonne Galena seam and make the same cash. Silver is commonly with Galena, which would be a nice bonus to find on top. Reckon if we could find out where to mine, four of us could get 6 tonne ore out in less than a month?

What's pete, TRS?

[gendoikari]

Your such an romantic, but I'm afraid collecting copper and aluminum from the trash and sell it for scrap will be a thousand times more profitable.

alluminum cannot be refined in your basement, unless you know a few physicists. AND have a butload of electricity.

[syndicat]

lead is extremely toxic, causes cancer and also stunts development of kids' brains. you don't want a lead smelter.

silver is also extremely toxic to smelt, requires all sorts of nasty chemicals.

smelting copper is no easy pastime either. the largest copper mining operation in the USA was the Anaconda Copper company operation in and around Butte, MT. that is now one of the largest EPA Superfund sites in the country.

there are very few metal smelters left in the USA or other "first world" countries. that's for a reason. they can't pass current enviromental regulations.

[Sasha]

alluminum cannot be refined in your basement, unless you know a few physicists. AND have a butload of electricity.

i know, that where you have scrap merchants for, you only need to strip the stuff out of the trash (not only aluminum and copper btw, computers and tv and such also have other very worthwhile materials) and you get cash without having to do any processing. but again, the idea of ore processing is way more romantic, just a lot less profitable and a lot more dangerous...

[Susurrus]

I know it's possible to get iron out of ore by using a kiln, but IDK how. To Google!

[Susurrus]

Aha!

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[gendoikari]

lead is extremely toxic, causes cancer and also stunts development of kids' brains. you don't want a lead smelter.

silver is also extremely toxic to smelt, requires all sorts of nasty chemicals.

smelting copper is no easy pastime either. the largest copper mining operation in the USA was the Anaconda Copper company operation in and around Butte, MT. that is now one of the largest EPA Superfund sites in the country.

there are very few metal smelters left in the USA or other "first world" countries. that's for a reason. they can't pass current enviromental regulations.

what, smelting lead isn't dangerous I do it all the time, it's called wear a mask, it's drinking or eating off of stuff that it's contaminated with it that you run in to problems like the romans.

and as for not many smelters being around, hogwash, there are hundreds of thousands of lead smelters left. It may not be from rocks but we reuse a great bulk of lead.

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