Categories: Experiences and daily life
Word count/read time: 327 words; 1-1/2 minutes
Sitting in front of the faucet holding a dish with various alloys of silver and gold is
eerily reminiscent of a past life as the foreman of a mine.
Maybe not the foreman as they wouldn't be panning for gold...forget about the past life thing, too.
But I did experience an earlier time when people earned their
gold from the waters and chunks of Gaia.
Precious metals can be extracted from their ores in various ways.
In the case of scrap silver, a chunk of silver-impregnated slag gets stranded in my crucible.
The stuff is hard. It shatters and scatters despite any effort to contain the carnage,
leaving hammers and anvils with mars and scratches and gouges, OH MY!
While mining is something few of us do, it doesn't mean we can't relive a moment.
Large bowl, running water, fragmented borax/metal mixture, and patience.
Any time shot is made there is panning involved.
Some silver remained married to the glass-like beads regardless.
Any waste particles are money incognito. The better way is to throw it into the next melt.
Other times a bowl or plate
needs to be cleaned or polished. Unavoidably, some of the polish will get stuck
in the repoussé or engraving so it needs to be washed out.
The water dissolves the baking soda grime to reveal the shimmering silver surface.
If the act of panning spontaneously
produced gold I'd grab an adult diaper and camp out at the spigot! The difference between what I do
and what a prospector does is there
is silver or gold in my pan already. There is no fooling around
because it's money down the drain otherwise.
Many states have rivers with gold deposits. You probably won't get rich but there is something to be said about
acquiring raw materials organically. My prospecting involves a computer and internet connection.
Buying an item is like discovering a mother lode or tendril
but Fool's Gold comes disguised in many ways.
Posted by M: April 18, 2018
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