This is the first time I saw gold this small in my pan

[Bill_saf]

I have a Question for the guys or gals that have been panning out your cons longer then I have been going after gold. Here is my delamma I like to wear 175 reading glass's when I pan my cons so I can see all of the small stuff and a 10x lop. I came across some small and I mean small gold in with some white sand in the last part of my panning it was so small that I could see it but could not ge it out of the white sand. What do you do at this point?

Thanks

Bill

 

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[Prospector70]

I hear ya. I use hobby magnifiers.
Like such:

The white sand is most likely zircon, it's heavier than normal sand. What you need is a 70 or 100 mesh classifier, make all the debris in your pan the same size and the gold will be easier to get at.

Hope this helps!
Post pics!
P70

 

[Bill_saf]

P70

Its smaller then -100 I cant see it just wearing my reading glass's its that small I may just have to dig out my crucible furnace and some flux when I get enough if that will work. we'll see

 

[Gold Cube]

Classification will always give you the best results.


[SIZE=+1]The very first thing I do is dry and classify.
Dry is always best when classification is going below 50 mesh.
When you are classifying, never go more than 2X the mesh size. I start with 8 mesh then 16, 20, 30, 50, 70, 100, 200, and 400 mesh.
Then I remove the magnetics from each size.
I get a little anal about the black sands, I store them all in their individual sizes. Someday I'll figure out why. I do have a video out there that shows my black sand removal technique. www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAulZdFW3x8 Works well with totally dry or totally under water wet, If it is just damp it is sticky and is like a claw grabbing everything. After I get all the non-magnetics out, it's time to pan.
[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]My favorite pan style:
[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]The pan I like best is the black or green 10" with the bottom 1/4" dropped straight down. An angled bottom to side conversion can't stop the gold from climbing. The 1/4" 90º wall at the bottom will stop it dead in it's tracks. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Then I start the panning process:[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]
Now all you have to do is start by normal panning to minimize your material, get as much light stuff out as you can over a catch pan. [/SIZE][SIZE=+1]I'll take care of the easy stuff first, 100 and above. Nothing special here, The Golden Rule is, if everything in your pan is the same size, Gold RULES! [/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] This is the rub your belly pat your head part.
I back wash in the pan with water moving from front-to-back not round and round. I hold the pan, as a clock at 11:30 with my left hand on top, then I put my pocket knife or a rock in my right hand for tapping.
When back washing you are looking for the water to move up both sides and collide at 12:00, just like waves on a beach. This way, if there is any gold trying to get away from the edges, the wash current will send it back and center it.
When you are ready to clean the gold, settle it all at 12:00. With the left hand, grab the pan at 11:30 and grab the rock with the right. Start the wave motion, adjust the angle until the material just starts to move.
It's kind of a rhythm now. Tap the pan at 12:30 at a rate of about 3 taps per second. At the same time keep the wave action going at a pace of 1 second per cycle, front to back. Now if you think you can keep it straight, hesitate while the water is over the material at the far end of the pan, 12:00, for 2 taps then back wash. That little hesitation will really concentrate the gold in a smiley face. As the face shows up, you can stop tapping and just wash, then tap as needed to keep control of the gold. It's the sharp tap that persuades the little stuff to climb. Panning that little stuff is a real joy, but It does take some practice.

We made a 12 part video series on the Gold Cube site have a look. [SIZE=+1]www.goldcube.net/#/fine-gold-challenge/4586029192[/SIZE]

Mike[/SIZE]

 

[mike(swWash)]

I hear you my friend.
When I take my Cube to the beach I come back with cons full of frustratingly small powder. I usually do a quick pan to get the larger -100 visible gold using my 1.50 readers, then switch to the 2.50 glasses and really take my time to get the rest. Back panning it slowly and just teasing the sand away, a few grains at a time, from the super extra fine flour gold, much of which I can't see until I scrape it into a pile.

Patience and more patience is the required key.

Then it's to the miller table to see what I missed. The table is easier but by panning out the cons I've gotten a great deal of satisfaction learning to trust my abilities to get even the smallest of small by pan alone.

Did I mention it take major patience?

 

[triple d]

I usually can get most of the fine gold. With a blue bowl. Running it at a lower flow. Then use suction tweezers. To suck it out of the blue bowl. Then I put what I get with the tweezers. Into a green dish. And using the lope and wet the end of the tooth pick. I can put the gold in a vial. I usually run the content"s of the blue bowl two or three times. Its hard to get the gold out of the garnet and black sands. When its real fine. Mostly what i find and very hard to pan.

 

[meMiner]

My eyes are not what they used to be either. Glasses and natural light help quite a lot. For the really fine stuff (or for admiring large gold), a jewelers loop is great.

Classifying and removing the magnetic black sands is especially helpful, but be careful that the black sands don't trap micro gold as they stack up on the magnet. You will see the gold with a jewelers optic in the separated sand.

If dealing with small amounts of concentrate, I find the most effective thing to do is work with bone dry material and put a little bit on a table and use a straw and my breath to blow away the lighter sands. This however does not work well on micro gold.

One observation about panning micro gold is the darn stuff really tends to float. When I put it dry into a wet pan, I have to break the surface tension (eg. Jet Dry) and also leave it siting for a long while, so it settles out on the bottom. Any little bubbles in the water are also thieves. While micro gold is still gold, it takes quite a lot of it to add up to anything, so one solution is to pack it away with your black sands for another day. Later, if you have quite a lot, take it to somebody with a miller table. Otherwise, your idea of crucible and furnace is a great way of handling it. I don't use anything stronger than vinegar or CLR in the final cleanup, as I don't feel the cost/risk/reward is worth it.

 

[Bill_saf]

thanks every one,

I kept all of my cons from this year I have about a 55 gal drum to go back at this winter. Its not that I don't know how to pan I just never saw gold this small in my pan before but then I really wasn't looking as hard as I looked at his pan ether. I need to build some more things I had a miller table that I built but I also have two large dogs and you know how some dogs like to play and my miller table hit the floor. Mike Pung thanks for your url I look forward to watching the videos. Placer gold that is one thing that I did not think of doing with the vinegar or clr which one do you like the best.

Thanks again
Bill