A Real BEAR... to fix... kind of that "Gold Rush" problem.

[goldhog]

A while back i mentioned an op I was working with in Africa.
Said I would update so here it is.

Great group of guys from the US on a LARGE claim and op with a BUNCH of money invested.
Their struggle was long and hard but thankfully they documented everything with video and
VERY detailed testing data sheets. Some amazing work went into their capture vs. loss tests.
They spent a year running various configs, pitches, materials, etc.
Nothing really helped.
I ended up putting a LOT of time into figuring out the problem and coming up
with a viable solution I felt would be best.

It was nice to get some feedback from them and figured I would share.

 

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[Prospector70]

Nice Doc! Thanks for sharing.
Are their video's on youtube or anything yet?

Best,
P70

 

[goldhog]

Nice Doc! Thanks for sharing.
Are their video's on youtube or anything yet?

Best,
P70

No, we have agreed to keep their info private.
Not smart to give out too much info from down there.
This is the only one I posted.

 

[Prospector70]

Awesome! That's some pretty muddy water! Glad you could help them out!
How is your Gold Cyclone doing? I was just checking that out yesterday and it looks pretty dang interesting!

 

[ALewis]

Very cool, thanks Doc....

 

[omnicron]

Awesome deal! Doc, you and your crew ROCK!

 

[goldhog]

Awesome! That's some pretty muddy water! Glad you could help them out!
How is your Gold Cyclone doing? I was just checking that out yesterday and it looks pretty dang interesting!

Cyclone is doing well.
It's big hit with those that are more serious into prospecting, doing it for a living, or run commercial ops.
It's a life saver time wise on the fine stuff.
At some point... that process becomes a pain and "work" not an enjoyable time.

 

[Goldwasher]

Good Job Doc !

 

[goldhog]

The funny part is that they didn't want to wait on the mats and the Viper arriving by container.
That can take 2 months.
They drove all night and picked up the matting.
Then put it in duffle bags and took it as luggage via the plane.
I wanted to be a fly on wall during check in at the airport.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Hard to hijack a plane with scrubber mat but I bet there were some funny looks on TSA faces, LoL!

 

[goldhog]

Hard to hijack a plane with scrubber mat but I bet there were some funny looks on TSA faces, LoL!

I can just see the faces as the unzipped all the bags.

Smart guys though.
They had them down there and installed in days.

 

[Goodyguy]

Good fix Doc

Exact reason why I don't like miners moss without deep V under it for fine gold. Fine gold will migrate right on out of it.
Other than that once it's packed solid, gold will just wash right over the top of it.

Plus miners moss will pack solid every time the water gets shut down, making clean up mandatory at that point. If not done before restart then good bye gold from then on.

The other reason I don't like miners moss is that unlike Gold Hog mats it holds too much worthless material making final clean up that much more of a chore.

Oh.... and did I mention that I'm not a big fan of miners moss

Keep up the good work Doc!




GG~

 

[goldhog]

Their main problem came from two issues.

1) Very high viscosity due to the yellow / white fine silt / clay that is predominant in that area.
If you've seen Gold Rush in Africa this year it's the same slurry. ANY.... turbulence creates a scrubbing action
and keeps the fine gold in the sediment load vs. the bed load.

2) High slurry sediment values / %'s vs. rated dump / feeds.
Meaning... when you dump a scoop of "dirt" in the trommel in Alaska, 60 - 80% of the volume will discharge
and never see the slurry / sluice. (Rocks and gravels larger than 1/2") Down there, more than 50% will
become part of the slurry. Lot's of sand and fine gravels smaller than 1/2"

This means that the BED LOAD is constantly full and fine gold is struggling to even make it to the capture zones.

The key was to remove ALL turbulence but still have good exchange.
Then finely tune in the flows and pitch.
Just takes a lot of watching and testing.

 

[Goodyguy]

Makes sense due to the shear factors of the Newtonian materials involved in the slurry. At least the ambient temperatures are high enough to help thin the viscosity to a sleight degree. Just think if they had to run that material in near freezing temps like those encountered in Alaska or the Yukon.

If they could've achieved a higher inviscid fluid to solids ratio it would have made it a lot easier.

GG~

 

[Goodyguy]

In a high temperature area,Doesn't loss due to evaporation effect this too?

Seriously, is that why their box is wide with partitions, in the video? Or is that normal for a CO? Or doesn't that have any effect on it.

That's a typical size sluice for a medium to large size commercial wash plant. (I'm guessing 6'x 20'?) I would also guess that the extra partitions were added to accommodate the width of the mats. Doc could answer that best.

Humidity, temp, flow speed, wind velocity, as well as surface area would all factor in as far as evaporation rates would be concerned which could have an adverse effect upon viscosity which would in turn contribute some to a lack of propensity for heavy particles to drop out of suspension. However, not so much of a concern when compared to the fluid viscosity itself combined with the viscosity and shear factors of the materials that make up the slurry which have the greater capability to hinder the heavy particles from dropping out of suspension and staying out.

In other words......

Given enough time gold will eventually settle out of a thick slurry. The trick is, getting it to settle out before it gets to the end of the sluice.
Then it has to stay put and not be scrubbed away by the friction/attraction of the slurry moving over it.

That's where Doc comes in.


GG~

 

[rockygulchJoe]

I see a new show in the making
"Gold Hog Rush Alaska" - The Tailings Bonanza.

Just think everything is aleady dug and classified.

 

[goldhog]

I see a new show in the making
"Gold Hog Rush Alaska" - The Tailings Bonanza.

Just think everything is aleady dug and classified.

There are a LOT of ops that just run for larger gold still.
Some have transitioned into a "total recovery" system.
I've worked with ops that have +20 mesh in the last 12" of the sluice,
So yes....... tailings work can be very profitable if the the right system is set up.
We work with one op outside the US that pulls close to 2 grams per yard
on tailings. That's nice waste.

 

[goldhog]

GoodGuy is correct.
Evaporation is not really a concern.
It is the fluid viscosity that is the killer in Africa as well as many parts of South America, Indonesia, Honduras, etc.
That is why the locals can do fairly well running slurry over plain carpet.
The trick is to run 50 - 100 yards an hour for 10 straight hours and keep recovery rates acceptable.
Their current sluice is 6 feet wide and 30 feet long.
Yes, with all commercial ops that have 36" wide sluices we have them divide the sluice.
Doc

 

[goldhog]

Gotcha..........
However the mats sitting in the sun dry can reach over 150 degrees easy.
So you're not far off about the heat issue.
Our mats really can't be made 36" wide so it only makes sense to divide in half.
That way you also have close to zero waste.