What the general public thinks of as a gold mine is actually more complicated then that. Mineral mines are usually not sold in the traditional real estate sense where one buys the land and everything contained within. When it comes to mining purchases are often through mineral rights rather then outright purchase. This is an agreement between the land or claim owner and the miner in which the
. miner is given the right to mine the land for specific resources in exchange for lease payments and/or a percentage of the resources mined. Gold mines in general are often open, rather then the old concept of a tunnel dug deep into the ground. Heavy equipment is often used to rip up the land, which is then processed through a variety of equipment and methods to separate out the gold from the rocks and dirt. In the United States gold metal tends to be found in the western, north western and Alaskan regions. The majority of the claims tend to be found around the mountains of the west and the waterways of Alaska. These tend to be areas where the environment can be quite harsh and equipment wear and breakdown is much more common. When buying the rights to mine a gold claim it is important to be prepared for the expenses involved. There is a extremely large initial investment, as well as the cost of preparing the land and finally the processing of that land. Even with the best testing it is possible to make disastrous mistakes that will destroy the entire investment in the claim. There are many sources online available for searching for gold claims and mineral rights for sale. Websites such as http://www.goldandsilvermines.com and http://www.icmj.com/properties.php offer classified ads that can give the shopper a lot of information about what is for sale and what can be expected of the site in question. http://www.goldandsilvermines.com/ or http://www.icmj.com/properties.php
