What is the point expanded metal in highbankers?

[Goldkid55]

So in the process of building my own highbanker last night got all the metal bent and the legs cut YAY. So now I am on to the process of my riffle system. I have seen tons of people using expanded metal in there high bankers. What is the point behind this? I am trying to decide be tween riffles and miners moss or gold hog mating im just trying to get the info because there is a good cost difference.

 

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[Hoser John]

Expanded metal goes under hungarian riffles as L shaped and theyseal to retain gold. Not in modified hungarian minus the lip as then no seal as it stands knife edged on top of it. Take a flashlight and shine on any highbanker with MH riffles and see for yourself-adios the gold from riffle to riffle and adios, all that work for nothing--John

 

[Goldkid55]

Now if im using miners moss it would be riffles expaned then moss?

 

[CApicker]

If you get a chance to use Gold Hog matting I highly recommend it! I like the High velocity Razorback and I think they have a new stream mat out this year as well but not sure. My razorback trapped everything from superfines to chunkies.

 

[goldgit'r]

I would advise using the riffles over the moss with no expanded.
The expanded compresses the moss and limits the amount of material the moss can proses.
Also do not put ribbed matting under the moss. The ribbed matting will pack up quickly and not allow the moss to process material.

Wes

 

[Hoser John]

Personally I'd never use moss as it loads up hard as cement when flow is interupted and I hate constant tear downs. Time lost mining is irreplaceable,like gold lost. To each their own-John

 

[silver821]

I also would suggest using gold hog mats, they are a easier clean out and also act as expanded metal. You also do not collect as much black sand which makes for a quicker clean out

 

[bakergeol]

So in the process of building my own highbanker last night got all the metal bent and the legs cut YAY. So now I am on to the process of my riffle system. I have seen tons of people using expanded metal in there high bankers. What is the point behind this? I am trying to decide be tween riffles and miners moss or gold hog mating im just trying to get the info because there is a good cost difference.

To answer your original question- Why expanded metal versus dredge riffles? Back in the 80's a scientific sluicing study by Hamilton and Polings determined that expanded metal is superior to dredge riffles for fine gold. This simply confirmed what everyone already knew.

George

 

[Goldkid55]

Ok so in a nut shell expanded for fine gold and riffles for bigger gold.

 

[bakergeol]

Ok so in a nut shell expanded for fine gold and riffles for bigger gold.

Basically yes

 

[goldgit'r]

Personally I'd never use moss as it loads up hard as cement when flow is interupted and I hate constant tear downs. Time lost mining is irreplaceable,like gold lost. To each their own-John

John, You have many years more experience than I and I have learned a lot from your posts but on the East Coast miners moss is almost a must.
I have been using it unbacked under 4lb raised expanded in my trommel sluice and am very happy with my recovery.
I try to run non stop all day but when I did have to shut down during a run I did not experience the packing I hear people speak about.

Wes

 

[Doug Watson]

Why would MM be a must on the East coast? Gold doesn't change from coast to coast.

 

[goldgit'r]

Doug, the gold doesn't change but the size sure does.
A piece of gold the size of a bb is a nugget here! lol
We do find a larger piece from time to time but most of what we find is fine to super fine.

Wes

 

[Doug Watson]

Try our beaches here!

 

[Doug Watson]

Sorry, I didn't mean to be sarcastic in my response. We've got tons of fine gold here also as do most places. I'm not knocking MM if a person wants to use it but It's been my experience that I've got better fine gold recovery with carpet than with MM. I didn't believe it packed up either when Hoser said it did a long time ago. After doing a lot of testing behind my dredge after starting and stopping, low and behold he was right. Duh! (He does have a little experience!) After stopping and starting up again I was losing gold. The only time I don't use carpet is when I'm working our beach where we're dealing with solid black sand and no blonds at all, then we've found that deep v ribbed matting out preformed any other matting, carpet, MM, or any combination of them we could come up with. So like John said, to each his own.

 

[goldgit'r]

I would guess if you asked 10 miners the same question you would get 10 different answers.
I have used everything from v mat to GH mats and keep going back to un backed moss.
It would be a boring world if we all thought the same way! lol

Wes