2 ms·

It's a lot of hard work and a lot of adventuring. Most of my time is spent just researching and using a ton of GIS data to figure out where I wish to go, and ad

It's a lot of hard work and a lot of adventuring. Most of my time is spent just researching and using a ton of GIS data to figure out where I wish to go, and adventuring around the area and looking for stuff to acquire. Very little actual time is spent digging, and what digging I do is almost entirely bare-handed or with small hand tools (not even a full-length shovel is in my loadout, my largest tool is a wrecking bar.) It is not uncommon to see me walking out with some 150+ pounds of rock in my hands and on my back, though, as once I get an area picked, it is usually highly-productive and I'm going for my body weight in material every single change I can get.

CapricornNoble 3y ago
Oh wow, that's much more manual than I expected! Researching GIS data I expected but what you do after that is totally different from what I had in my head. I was thinking it was more like the experience of owning a single rental property; once you get past any unique "mining" paperwork that it would be an income stream that is largely passive.
- lightedman 3y ago
  It is anything but passive income! Extracting a resource can be simple or it can be complicated. You've gotta deal with all kinds of expenses, tooling, travel, maybe greasing a few palms for choice tidbits of information (usually a nice rock or a split of the found haul works as payment amongst us small miners) maintenance and paperwork. When you want to sell some of this stuff, in my typical case as lapidary stone, you spend a good bit of time taking GOOD pictures, as at that specific market, you aren't selling the stone, you're selling the picture of the stone in order to make that stone move. Crappy pictures = no sales. Make it look as best as you can without any sort of doctoring, that's the trick. If you're ever in SoCal, I'll show you the full experience. It is a hell of a busy hobby, one that takes up most of my free time outside of my normal job. It's addictive. I have a 400 square mile playground that I constantly explore. https://i.imgur.com/CxEnUF5.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/CxEnUF5.mp4 https://imgur.com/sKyVuyX https://imgur.com/sKyVuyX https://imgur.com/EA2QXMe https://imgur.com/EA2QXMe It's an adventure!
  - CapricornNoble 3y ago
    Very cool, thanks for sharing! When I was at 29 Palms I had a friend who was a geology major and he built a contraption that fit in the back of his pickup to enable him to rapidly pan for gold in the streams of Joshua Tree. When we first arrived in Okinawa we were brainstorming how to leach platinum out of catalytic converters using chemical baths, but the automotive centers on base wouldn't sell us cats so that idea died. I think he went back to get a Masters in Petroleum Engineering and then wanted to move into undersea robotic mining. I can see how it can become an addictive yet rewarding hobby.

CapricornNoble 3y ago

Oh wow, that's much more manual than I expected! Researching GIS data I expected but what you do after that is totally different from what I had in my head. I was thinking it was more like the experience of owning a single rental property; once you get past any unique "mining" paperwork that it would be an income stream that is largely passive.

lightedman 3y ago
It is anything but passive income! Extracting a resource can be simple or it can be complicated. You've gotta deal with all kinds of expenses, tooling, travel, maybe greasing a few palms for choice tidbits of information (usually a nice rock or a split of the found haul works as payment amongst us small miners) maintenance and paperwork. When you want to sell some of this stuff, in my typical case as lapidary stone, you spend a good bit of time taking GOOD pictures, as at that specific market, you aren't selling the stone, you're selling the picture of the stone in order to make that stone move. Crappy pictures = no sales. Make it look as best as you can without any sort of doctoring, that's the trick. If you're ever in SoCal, I'll show you the full experience. It is a hell of a busy hobby, one that takes up most of my free time outside of my normal job. It's addictive. I have a 400 square mile playground that I constantly explore. https://i.imgur.com/CxEnUF5.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/CxEnUF5.mp4 https://imgur.com/sKyVuyX https://imgur.com/sKyVuyX https://imgur.com/EA2QXMe https://imgur.com/EA2QXMe It's an adventure!
- CapricornNoble 3y ago
  Very cool, thanks for sharing! When I was at 29 Palms I had a friend who was a geology major and he built a contraption that fit in the back of his pickup to enable him to rapidly pan for gold in the streams of Joshua Tree. When we first arrived in Okinawa we were brainstorming how to leach platinum out of catalytic converters using chemical baths, but the automotive centers on base wouldn't sell us cats so that idea died. I think he went back to get a Masters in Petroleum Engineering and then wanted to move into undersea robotic mining. I can see how it can become an addictive yet rewarding hobby.