Apprentice Mounting Metal Parts on Pickaxes for “Start Your Own Gold Mine” Program

The quality of pickaxes in East Africa is terrible. They are sold as parts, with metal picks separate from wooden handles. Neither the metal part nor the wooden handles match perfectly; they must be prepared and mounted together before any small-scale mining work begins.

An apprentice in the Start Your Own Gold Mine program learns how to prepare these handles so that they can easily attach them to the pickaxe’s metal parts.

Without this important step, which took even two days for us, we wouldn’t have been able to dig all those alluvial mining pits using exactly these assembled pickaxes.

Important Terms in Gold Prospecting:

1. Alluvial Mining: The process of extracting gold from riverbeds or stream sediments where it has accumulated over time.

2. Pickaxe (or Pick): A tool used for breaking up rock and soil to uncover alluvium containing small amounts of placer gold.

3. Metal Part/Wooden Handles: Components that make up a pickaxe, often sold separately in some regions due to variability or quality issues with local manufacturing standards.

4. Mounting/Assembly: The process of fitting together the separate parts (metal and wooden) into one functional tool necessary for mining activities like digging pits.

5. Alluvial Mining Pits: Excavations made by miners at alluvium deposits where gold is washed from soil or rock, typically in riverbeds or stream beds.

These terms are central to understanding the process of small-scale manual prospecting and preparation work involved before actual mining operations can commence effectively without using mercury for extraction purposes.