goldenIrishman
Silver Member
- Feb 28, 2013
- 3,465
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How much processing of your materials is to much to you? Where does you draw the line? Lately I've gotten some PMs form others wanting me to detail out my full process for running materials and I figured that it would be easier to answer them all with a post instead of replying to everyone individually. (That post is currently being worked on off line)
While I have no problem with sharing my recovery method with others, these questions brought a new question to my mind. That being "How much is too much?" I'm sure that everyone here wants to get all the gold they can out of the materials that they've sweated to unearth and that those of us that do this for a living have learned on where to draw the line on processing so they can keep moving materials instead of spending more time on getting every last bit of gold out of those materials.
Here is my take on this and I'd like to hear from others just where they draw the line.
1. Dig, classify and sluice the materials down to concentrates.
2. Initial clean up of cons. Panning and removing magnetic sands and gold.
3. Grind then Shake N bake black sands but only when I have nothing else to dig or run in the sluice or pan.
4. Save B.Sands for amalgamation at a later date.
I feel that this is a reasonable amount of processing for a small timer like myself and the only time I get really obsessive with getting EVERYTHING out is during testing so I know just what to expect as well as figure out the best way to work an area. If I was to obsess about getting everything out of the materials I'd spend more time processing than doing actual mining. The black sands will still be there for more processing later like when the weather is rotten, but when the weather is good I spend most of my time digging and processing materials.
Where is YOUR line at and why?
While I have no problem with sharing my recovery method with others, these questions brought a new question to my mind. That being "How much is too much?" I'm sure that everyone here wants to get all the gold they can out of the materials that they've sweated to unearth and that those of us that do this for a living have learned on where to draw the line on processing so they can keep moving materials instead of spending more time on getting every last bit of gold out of those materials.
Here is my take on this and I'd like to hear from others just where they draw the line.
1. Dig, classify and sluice the materials down to concentrates.
2. Initial clean up of cons. Panning and removing magnetic sands and gold.
3. Grind then Shake N bake black sands but only when I have nothing else to dig or run in the sluice or pan.
4. Save B.Sands for amalgamation at a later date.
I feel that this is a reasonable amount of processing for a small timer like myself and the only time I get really obsessive with getting EVERYTHING out is during testing so I know just what to expect as well as figure out the best way to work an area. If I was to obsess about getting everything out of the materials I'd spend more time processing than doing actual mining. The black sands will still be there for more processing later like when the weather is rotten, but when the weather is good I spend most of my time digging and processing materials.
Where is YOUR line at and why?
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so how come there was good 200+ gold in there in the first place? I would rather spend my time at the creek feeding material than checking to se what I got. sucker off the easy stuff and save the rest for a rainy day, this policy will leave you with more gold at the end of the year, than nit picking your pan at the river.
