California to Allow Suction Dredging in 2019?

chlsbrns

Bronze Member
Mar 30, 2013
1,636
656
Detector(s) used
Excalibur II
Primary Interest:
Other
yep like I said considered a mineral so your whole dredging scheme is not legal..

thanks for clarifying that

Wow! That's a scary interpretation of my last post! :dontknow:
 

winners58

Bronze Member
Apr 4, 2013
1,729
4,058
Oregon
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
because its a metal it is classified as an uncommon mineral for the purposes of mining
you can dredge mercury as remediation all it requires is a two page form, they have to do a EIS
if you have the right credentials they will give you a finding of no significant impact for your project.
otherwise its illegal to have a suction dredge within 100 yards of a closed waterway in Californian period...
 

Last edited:

Goldwasher

Gold Member
May 26, 2009
6,077
13,225
Sailor Flat, Ca.
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
SDC2300, Gold Bug 2 Burlap, fish oil, .35 gallons of water per minute.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
No loophole to dredging period!!
 

chlsbrns

Bronze Member
Mar 30, 2013
1,636
656
Detector(s) used
Excalibur II
Primary Interest:
Other
because its a metal it is classified as an uncommon mineral for the purposes of mining
you can dredge mercury as remediation all it requires is a two page form, they have to do a EIS
if you have the right credentials they will give you a finding of no significant impact for your project.
otherwise its illegal to have a suction dredge within 100 yards of a closed waterway in Californian period...

Steel, stainless steel ECT are metals are they minerals too?

Can you back up your statements? Any of them? Provide the two page form?

What is the legal definition of a suction dredge?

Under new state law effective January 1, 2016, the use of vacuum or suction dredge equipment is defined to mean the use of a mechanized or motorized system for removing or assisting in the removal of, or the processing of, material from the bed, bank, or channel of a river, stream, or lake in order to recover minerals.

Again mercury is not a mineral! You could also be recovering broken bottles, pull tabs, trash and a multitude of other things that aren't minerals.
 

Last edited:

winners58

Bronze Member
Apr 4, 2013
1,729
4,058
Oregon
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
that's only a definition from a larger set of regulation might, look under Section 228, Title 14, California Code of Regulations
people that get busted usually get two charges one for using a suction dredge and one for having a suction dredge near a closed waterway
they don't have to prove intent, in fact what they have been doing is confiscating dredges then saying it is evidence
then saying they have up to a year to actually file charges, it's mainly F&G wardens some other LEO's and sheriffs they know the laws are wrong
and will not bother with miners or just pass the info to the F&G, lots of people are dredging in California.
So you got away with dredging in California, good for you...
 

chlsbrns

Bronze Member
Mar 30, 2013
1,636
656
Detector(s) used
Excalibur II
Primary Interest:
Other
that's only a definition from a larger set of regulation might, look under Section 228, Title 14, California Code of Regulations
people that get busted usually get two charges one for using a suction dredge and one for having a suction dredge near a closed waterway
they don't have to prove intent, in fact what they have been doing is confiscating dredges then saying it is evidence
then saying they have up to a year to actually file charges, it's mainly F&G wardens some other LEO's and sheriffs they know the laws are wrong
and will not bother with miners or just pass the info to the F&G, lots of people are dredging in California.
So you got away with dredging in California, good for you...

I read Section 228. They wrote intent into their definition so they have to prove intent. If they left out the last 5 words of their definition (in order to recover minerals) they would not have to prove intent.
 

chlsbrns

Bronze Member
Mar 30, 2013
1,636
656
Detector(s) used
Excalibur II
Primary Interest:
Other
Does your dredge have fish oil and burlap in it?

Nope not in California but locally it is close by. The pic is a FEW of the bars made from SOME of my share of last years gold obtained solely from fish oil, burlap and a grease table.
 

Attachments

  • 20180318_142709.jpg
    20180318_142709.jpg
    344.2 KB · Views: 220
Last edited:

Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,429
54,807
Florida
Detector(s) used
Minelab_Equinox_ 800 Minelab_CTX-3030 Minelab_Excal_1000 Minelab_Sovereign_GT Minelab_Safari Minelab_ETrac Whites_Beach_Hunter_ID Fisher_1235_X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Posts deleted, if you don't want to lose posting rights please post by our rules.
 

cosmetal

Jr. Member
Aug 22, 2017
33
16
Sacramento CA
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Nope not in California but locally it is close by. The pic is a FEW of the bars made from SOME of my share of last years gold obtained solely from fish oil, burlap and a grease table.

I'll bite.

I'm not a stranger to dredging in Cali. I worked 4 placer claims from 1979 to 1985.

But, I admit, I am a stranger to "gold obtained solely from fish oil, burlap and a grease table."

I this a joke? :icon_scratch:

Thanks,
James
 

cosmetal

Jr. Member
Aug 22, 2017
33
16
Sacramento CA
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Nope not in California but locally it is close by. The pic is a FEW of the bars made from SOME of my share of last years gold obtained solely from fish oil, burlap and a grease table.

BTW, very nice cast bars!

Have you ever had them XRF scanned? It would be interesting to know their Au, Ag, Pt and Pd content.

Most of the larger pawn shops and larger scrap yards may have XRF capabilities. Either handheld or desktop.

Peace,
James
 

arizau

Bronze Member
May 2, 2014
2,485
3,869
AZ
Detector(s) used
Beach High Banker, Sweep Jig, Whippet Dry Washer, Lobo ST, 1/2 width 2 tray Gold Cube, numerous pans, rocker box, and home made fluid bed and stream sluices.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
I'll bite.

I'm not a stranger to dredging in Cali. I worked 4 placer claims from 1979 to 1985.

But, I admit, I am a stranger to "gold obtained solely from fish oil, burlap and a grease table."

I this a joke? :icon_scratch:

Thanks,
James

Gold is oleophilic. It sticks to oil or grease. The controversy with fishoil and burlap is that a strip was soaked with fish oil, strung across a river and used to catch microscopic gold that was floating suspended with the silt load in the current. Many naysayers for the subject. You can catch up on the subject by searching the latter part of this thread. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/508071-found-gold-dust-3-minutes-11.html

You probably have some black sand concentrates containing 100 mesh or smaller gold. With that you can demo for yourself how gold sticks to grease. Thinly coat a shallow container or gold pan with vaseline or some other grease. Add black sand and water and gently swirl. Wash out the pan and examine the material that is still stuck to the grease. You will see some gold if the black sand had any to begin with.
 

Last edited:

chlsbrns

Bronze Member
Mar 30, 2013
1,636
656
Detector(s) used
Excalibur II
Primary Interest:
Other
I'll bite.

I'm not a stranger to dredging in Cali. I worked 4 placer claims from 1979 to 1985.

But, I admit, I am a stranger to "gold obtained solely from fish oil, burlap and a grease table."

I this a joke? :icon_scratch:

Thanks,
James

It's not a joke. I'm not going to get into it here again there are a few who do nothing but disrupt when they could easily try it instead. Try it in a frying pan. Put a very thin coat of crisco on the pan, put water in the pan, put black sands or classified cons in the water, stratify by swirling and shaking the pan, dump the cons! Any gold will stick to the crisco. To get the gold heat up the water with a few drops of dish soap, stir it until the crisco dissolves and pour it thru a coffee filter. You can do the same with a miller table type of setup.
 

Last edited:

chlsbrns

Bronze Member
Mar 30, 2013
1,636
656
Detector(s) used
Excalibur II
Primary Interest:
Other
BTW, very nice cast bars!

Have you ever had them XRF scanned? It would be interesting to know their Au, Ag, Pt and Pd content.

Most of the larger pawn shops and larger scrap yards may have XRF capabilities. Either handheld or desktop.

Peace,
James

We haven't scanned any bars but we do smelt to remove base metals, silver copper, ECT then we recover the silver from the the slag.
 

Attachments

  • 20180215_141431.jpg
    20180215_141431.jpg
    329.3 KB · Views: 194
  • 20180201_183955.jpg
    20180201_183955.jpg
    794.6 KB · Views: 186

cosmetal

Jr. Member
Aug 22, 2017
33
16
Sacramento CA
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Gold is oleophilic. It sticks to oil or grease. The controversy with fishoil and burlap is that a strip was soaked with fish oil, strung across a river and used to catch microscopic gold that was floating suspended with the silt load in the current. Many naysayers for the subject. You can catch up on the subject by searching the latter part of this thread. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/508071-found-gold-dust-3-minutes-11.html

You probably have some black sand concentrates containing 100 mesh or smaller gold. With that you can demo for yourself how gold sticks to grease. Thinly coat a shallow container or gold pan with vaseline or some other grease. Add black sand and water and gently swirl. Wash out the pan and examine the material that is still stuck to the grease. You will see some gold if the black sand had any to begin with.

This is too cool!

I built a Miller type cons table and ran all my cons over it in the winter. Black slate paint on the front run - 6" riffle section - 18" x 24" copper plate with a very heavy nickel then silver plating - coated plate with mercury (yes I knew/know how to handle) - 6" riffle section to catch any pregnant mercury - final discharge into a cons collection box that was suspended in the water stream - water catch basin - recirculate.

The plate would load up with micro/super fine gold. I scraped the amalgam into a wet chamois then processed the ball in a cast iron mercury retort.

Today, I do not recommend this process due to safety issues. But. I'm still alive and kicking!

Peace.
James
 

cosmetal

Jr. Member
Aug 22, 2017
33
16
Sacramento CA
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
It's not a joke. I'm not going to get into it here again there are a few who do nothing but disrupt when they could easily try it instead. Try it in a frying pan. Put a very thin coat of crisco on the pan, put water in the pan, put black sands or classified cons in the water, stratify by swirling and shaking the pan, dump the cons! Any gold will stick to the crisco. To get the gold heat up the water with a few drops of dish soap, stir it until the crisco dissolves and pour it thru a coffee filter. You can do the same with a miller table type of setup.

Ditto . . . as above answer to arizau.

Certainly safer than Hg!

Peace,
James
 

chlsbrns

Bronze Member
Mar 30, 2013
1,636
656
Detector(s) used
Excalibur II
Primary Interest:
Other
It also helps to soak your black sands in peroxide aka Sodium percarbonate aka oxiclean to remove any sulfide and manganese dioxide coating on the gold. Both or either coating will stop the gold from sticking to the grease. They also stop gold from sticking to mercury.

You probably heard numerous times about people dumping hot black sands into water to release gold from black sands. Its a perpetual myth! Gold is not trapped in black sands but can contain a black sulfide or manganese dioxide coating. The heat itself burns off the sulfide coating.
 

Last edited:

Brivic1

Jr. Member
Feb 20, 2013
55
66
Magalia, Nor Calif. formaly Vic. Australia
Detector(s) used
A2b groundhog/ whites GM3/ Vsat, and TDI.
13hp 5" jawcrusher, Dryblower, recirc. HB.
F md-20............ Goldbug Pro / 5"and 10" coils
Whites TDI several coils............... My own dowsing tools


..
Primary Interest:
Other
As I recall: you cannot have a motorized suction device within 100 feet, or was it yards of any body of water, stream lake or pond.
Private land included , also,patented land.
After about 2016 when they had re written the thing several times to cover our loopholes, they just seemed to have covered everything and I gave up looking for a way around it all,,,,,, but now have my hopes up again since Mr Poe has been so aggressive with them. Praise him. BV Magalia Ca
 

Last edited:

jsurddy

Jr. Member
Feb 12, 2016
76
54
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Anyone know if the ruling against SB50 might result in dredges being allowed in California again?
 

Last edited:

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top