Surfs Up!

[Capt Nemo]

Went up to Lake Superior again.

Last night I went walking the beach looking for new black sand deposits. I dug a test hole by the grass line where I had set up before. About 6" down I hit a layer of black mixed with coarse sand and pea gravel. 4" further down I hit cobble in solid black sand. So I thought , if anything, I'll hit that if I don't come across anything better. Further down the beach where I'd seen a layer of black in the bank, I found a slick exposed about 1/2-2" thick, 10-15' wide, and 100 yds long. Access was even easier than my other spot, but I couldn't overnight there. About the time I found this patch, a big wave came way up the beach, then another. These were about 2 1/2-3' in height and were hitting at about 30 degrees to the beach. I did see a thunderhead on the horizon and I figured that was the cause.

This morning, the waves increased to up to 5' breaks over the outer bar (nice for surfing, but a short ride to the beach), a wicked 10-15 MPH alongshore current between the outer bar and the beach. The waves hitting the beach were churning and dragging 8" rocks with lots of clacking noises. NO WAY AM I GOING TO SET FOOT IN THAT WATER TO FILL BUCKETS!!! Later I heard that beach warnings were up for dangerous surf. Would love to put a concrete trough from the beach to the outer bar to let those waves move all that material over!

I filled every bucket with black sand to take home. I also thought about filling the tub, but that might be too heavy for the vehicle. I skimmed the layer up near the bank, figuring that the black sand moving towards the water would leave the gold higher up. Bagged about 3 cubic feet of 80% black sand.

Pics when I get done processing.

 

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[Silversurfer79]

You on the Minnesota side of things or up on the UP? Either way good luck to ya!!

 

[BagLady]

Sounds pretty exciting! Keep us posted.

 

[Capt Nemo]

You on the Minnesota side of things or up on the UP? Either way good luck to ya!!

UP side.

Ran the buckets and did about 5 cleanouts through the model 4 fluid bed. Then ran the cons again. Just miller tabled 5 oz of the supercons and bottled ~40 specks, with one nice one at around #50. Averaging about 3 specks per application. Hope it stays that way through the rest of the cons. Looks like I guessed right on where the gold was hiding. Just hope it doesn't wash out before I get up there again. Seeing some nice deep red garnets, too bad they're sand sized.

Next will be the tailings from the cons run to see if that bed's loosing anything. Probably not, as the smallest specks are barely visible. (still pretty at 30X)

Then the fun of separating the magnetite for sale to the blacksmith. Should easily bag 150-200 lbs. (2 gal buckets are 50 lbs)

 

[Capt Nemo]

Some very little gold porn on the miller table! Good indication of how well the model 4 fluid bed is working on the beach sands.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Some more gold porn. This is a good idea of the size range seen on the beaches up there. All found in 1 tablespoon of the cons.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Final gold porn for the trip. Multiply by 9 for what's in a cubic yard of that sand.

 

[mike(swWash)]

That looks about the same quantity/quality I get from the ocean beach sand I play in a few times a year.

It definitely/defiantly tests my panning skills for final cleanup since I don't use a miller table anymore. I just sit on the front porch swing and gently rock and tickle away the sand while sipping on adult beverages.

 

[Capt Nemo]

I really need to build a better cleanup fluid bed. Something that will take things down to about 8-12 oz before hitting the table. Also need to build a magnetic separator sluice for pulling out the magnetite.