Classifiers

[jojo21]

Hello everyone,

I am new to gold prospecting, and I need a little bit of help. I found a prospecting kit that I thought might be a good deal as it comes with 2 classifiers, to pans both 14 and 10 inch sizes, tweezers, a sniffer bottle, 5 various size vials, and a black sand magnet for 40 bucks. The classifiers comes in sizes 1/4 and 1/8, but can also get in others sizes if I want to change that. I was wondering what would be the best sizes for classifiers to use? I would be thankful for any suggestions you can give.

 

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[Jeff95531]

Welcome to the Forum jojo21. What part of the country do you live in? I have pretty much the same equipment you have and it serves me well for placer gold. Depending on what you're working with, I would add a 1/2" to the pair.

 

[jojo21]

Welcome to the Forum jojo21. What part of the country do you live in? I have pretty much the same equipment you have and it serves me well for placer gold. Depending on what you're working with, I would add a 1/2" to the pair.

Thanks Jeff, I live in Georgia, Savannah to be exact. I am not sure if I will have much luck around here, but I thought I would try learning the techniques so when I am able to go some place that is good for panning I will know what to do. Thanks for the advice. The person selling the kit will allow you to switch classifiers, so which one would you recommend keeping and which one would you change?

 

[Jeff95531]

Stick with the 1/4 and 1/8. IMHO, you don't want to be picking rocks out of your pan when you'd rather be panning
Also, find Gold Hog's profile and posts. He's in GA too! GL&HH!

 

[jojo21]

Stick with the 1/4 and 1/8. IMHO, you don't want to be picking rocks out of your pan when you'd rather be panning
Also, find Gold Hog's profile and posts. He's in GA too! GL&HH!

Awesome maybe he will know some spots close by that I can practice at. Thanks Jeff!!

 

[KevinInColorado]

Save up the heavy material from your finish panning until you get better at panning. Then get a 20 mesh (or a kitchen strainer which is usually about an 18 mesh) and a 50 mesh. Reclassify your saved up heavy materials and re-pan the separate materials. You'll find more gold for sure!

 

[jojo21]

Save up the heavy material from your finish panning until you get better at panning. Then get a 20 mesh (or a kitchen strainer which is usually about an 18 mesh) and a 50 mesh. Reclassify your saved up heavy materials and re-pan the separate materials. You'll find more gold for sure!

Well, from reading posts here and watching videos, I have learned that you should take samples of different areas to see which ones will produce and which ones won't. Also, keep heavy materials as you never know what you might have in it, and it is better to run cons several times to make sure that there is not any gold that escaped. I am trying right now to research some areas in or around the Savannah area to see if there is any places worth spending time at.

 

[Jimmydolittle]

You want to classify to whatever size the gold is your finding, to keep the gold the heaviest thing in your pan. my classifiers are: 12, 20, 30, 50, 70, and 100. whenever I have the patience to use them (hardly ever) I'll use them to keep the sand, and gold the same size, then pan out the sand. Hope this helps, good luck. Lately I just use the two pan method, using my 10" pan with my dirt from my highbanker in it, and pan into my 16" pan. Sometime this winter, I'll heed my own advice, and classify my material.

 

[jojo21]

You want to classify to whatever size the gold is your finding, to keep the gold the heaviest thing in your pan. my classifiers are: 12, 20, 30, 50, 70, and 100. whenever I have the patience to use them (hardly ever) I'll use them to keep the sand, and gold the same size, then pan out the sand. Hope this helps, good luck. Lately I just use the two pan method, using my 10" pan with my dirt from my highbanker in it, and pan into my 16" pan. Sometime this winter, I'll heed my own advice, and classify my material.

So should I use the largest classifier first to see what type of gold is in the dirt first then adjust the classifier according to what I am finding?
Also, since I am a city guy I have a question. From what I have read most gold is usually found close to mountains, so what is your views on checking banks on rivers near me? I have a few around this area and was curious if there could be possible fine or flour gold on the banks

 

[KevinInColorado]

Smart questions. Yes and yes. Generally you can learn enough from others about gold size to know what your largest classifier should be for the area. And yes, there could be fine gold if those waterways are coming out of gold bearing areas to the west of you. There certainly is gold in GA so I really encourage you to do some sampling. I did the same in the creeks nearest me and was pleasantly surprised!

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

As far as I know, there's not much/ no gold in southern Ga... But there's damn good gold and lots of it in the northern half of the state. You need to close to or north of I-20. The ga gold belt looks a bit like a backwards L.... From north near Tennessee,N Carolina, down thru Atlanta then turns west toward Alabama. I hear there is good gold near villa rica, and I have found good gold in Cherokee county. All the creeks on the south and east side of lake alatoona contain gold, and most are corp of engineers property which allows you to pan, just no sluicing.

 

[omnicron]

It's easiest to have the stackable classifiers, two $6 concrete mixing pans from home depot and water. You just dump in your material in to your stacked classifiers, rock back and forth and lift up and down to get it to separate by size.

Take the second mixing pan with water and the material from the biggest classifier and pan it out. Follow for each size your classifying to.
IMO skip the 1/4 classifier and get the 1/8 and 20 mesh or 20 and 30. My reason behind that is you will visually inspect your oversized material any way as panning it will take more time. Any gold about 1/8 will stick out like a sore thumb.

 

[jojo21]

It's easiest to have the stackable classifiers, two $6 concrete mixing pans from home depot and water. You just dump in your material in to your stacked classifiers, rock back and forth and lift up and down to get it to separate by size.

Take the second mixing pan with water and the material from the biggest classifier and pan it out. Follow for each size your classifying to.
IMO skip the 1/4 classifier and get the 1/8 and 20 mesh or 20 and 30. My reason behind that is you will visually inspect your oversized material any way as panning it will take more time. Any gold about 1/8 will stick out like a sore thumb.

I am still learning about the sizes of classifiers, and I am not too sure about mesh. Would a 20 mesh be a 1/20 classifier?

 

[omnicron]

Easy way to remember, 20 mesh is 20 holes per inch, 30 mesh is 30 holes per inch. As you can see the bigger the mesh the smaller the opening of the hole and more holes. Most of the gold left along creeks and rivers are going to fall in the -20 mesh size.
When you see numbers like +20 and -20, people are referring to what wont fall through a 20 mesh screen (+20) and what falls through a 20 mesh (-20)(+30). Don't be confused by the numbers -20 and +30 as they are basically the same.
Hopefully you are not to confused.
Feel free to ask for clarification.

 

[jojo21]

Easy way to remember, 20 mesh is 20 holes per inch, 30 mesh is 30 holes per inch. As you can see the bigger the mesh the smaller the opening of the hole and more holes. Most of the gold left along creeks and rivers are going to fall in the -20 mesh size.
When you see numbers like +20 and -20, people are referring to what wont fall through a 20 mesh screen (+20) and what falls through a 20 mesh (-20)(+30). Don't be confused by the numbers -20 and +30 as they are basically the same.
Hopefully you are not to confused.
Feel free to ask for clarification.

I think I might understand. +20 means it would be larger than a 20 mesh and -20 +30 means that it ranges smaller than a mesh 20 but larger than a mesh 30. Am I following right?

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

Sounds like you got it

 

[jojo21]

Sounds like you got it

Does black sand always indicate there is gold there or nearby?

 

[Jimmydolittle]

No it does not always.

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

You will almost always find black sands with gold, but not always gold with black sand.
Sample sample sample

 

[jojo21]

You will almost always find black sands with gold, but not always gold with black sand.
Sample sample sample

Thanks Dry, I just wanted to make sure. I didn't want to pan and find black sand and think that gold would be around and end up wasting time on a place that could be empty.