  We combine extensive precision measurements of the optically detected spin
dynamics and magneto-transport measurements in a contiguous set of n-doped bulk
GaAs structures in order to unambiguously unravel the intriguing but complex
contributions to the spin relaxation at the metal-to-insulator transition
(MIT). Just below the MIT, the interplay between hopping induced loss of spin
coherence and hyperfine interaction yields a maximum spin lifetime exceeding
800~ns. At slightly higher doping concentrations, however, the spin relaxation
deviates from the expected Dyakonov-Perel mechanism which is consistently
explained by a reduction of the effective motional narrowing with increasing
doping concentration. The reduction is attributed to the change of the dominant
momentum scattering mechanism in the metallic impurity band where scattering by
local conductivity domain boundaries due to the intrinsic random distribution
of donors becomes significant. Here, we fully identify and model all intricate
contributions of the relevant microscopic scattering mechanisms which allows
the complete quantitative modeling of the electron spin relaxation in the
entire regime from weakly interacting up to fully delocalized electrons.
