Best way to recover fine flour gold

[thepooch39]

Hey all,

I'm pretty new to prospecting, but am really enjoying this! I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and just about everywhere I look I can find gold, but in small amounts, and its super fine. I've been looking into the best way to recover this gold. I've been researching blue bowls vs. miller table vs. mini sluice boxes ect. What is the best way to recover this super fine gold? Advice please!! Also if anyone has any experience prospecting in this part of the country, I would love to pick your brain!!

Thank you everyone!

 

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[arizau]

Your exact question is not clear to me but........Have you looked at the Gold Cube?* With one you can run volumes** of gold bearing sand/minus 1/8" feed material and, after each cleanup, end up with just a cupful or so of concentrates to deal with and extract the gold from. The best way to deal with those concentrates (actually any concentrates from any concentration process where the expectation is that they contain very small particles of gold) is to first screen them to produce batches of only like sized material of smaller and smaller mesh sizes such as minus 30 plus 50, minus 50 plus 100, etc. When gold is the same size as all other material in a batch it is much easier to pan or otherwise process (miller table, blue bowl, etc.) because it is at least 3 times heavier than anything else its size.

*Originally developed to concentrate Great Lakes gold bearing beach sands.

**The more material you run the more gold you are likely to accumulate in the form of concentrates.

 

[Capt Nemo]

I run beach sand up there!

First you need something that will process tons of material to get the gold concentrated. A fluid bed, trommel, or sluice system is needed here. While the Gold Cube is made for these sands, it's not a high throughput machine.

Next you need a concentrator for the large amount of cons. Gold Cube or Multi Sluice will work here.

Then you can either use a miller table, pan, or both to clean the gold. Miller tables work well for the flat gold found up there, but won't catch it all. Expect about 80% capture with the table. Panning is slow, and you'll have to do it a couple of times to catch it all. I normally pan everything as is to get the bulk of the gold out. Magnetite removal comes next. The magnetite up there is loadstone grade, and if it gets magnetized, it stays magnetized and will clump possibly grabbing gold in the process. After removal, finish pan out the garnet, and then pan the hematite left for the gold.

 

[KevinInColorado]

The gold cube will handle 1000 pounds per hour. Seems like enough to me right??

 

[Capt Nemo]

With my model 5 bed in open circuit, I could come close to a yard an hour, as I'd only have to worry about shoveling. That would be more than the Cube could handle.

In recirc mode, it's a LOT slower. Have to worry about pump clogs, changing tailings buckets, getting replacement water, and filling the tank. I spend more time messing with everything than shoveling. The best was being right near the waterline, and very little organics present, could do 15-20 buckets before cleanout. Last summer, it ran about 6-7 buckets between cleanouts.

 

[Bonaro]

If you are new to prospecting, the first thing you must do is to perfect your hand panning abilities. No matter what kind of gear you upgrade to (sluice, table, cube) your final recovery will be with a pan. The next logical step for you is a good large sluice. I highly recommend the plastic drop riffle sluices... Le Trap or Angus McKirk

 

[Mick88]

For a beginner, a blue bowl and a set of classifiers is a great way to recover very fine gold. I'm a professional, and my cleanup room still includes a blue bowl. It's simple and inexpensive. But, you must classify your material first!

 

[ghostminer]

You might want to try a baking sheet or pan coated in sheep tallow.

 

[KevinInColorado]

http://findinggoldincolorado.com/recommended-products/ May help. Also hit the links there for finish processing your cons AND using a gold cube.

 

[Bonaro]

You might want to try a baking sheet or pan coated in sheep tallow.

Now that sounds like a mess to clean up

 

[Duckshot]

Did you catch that Pooch39?

I run beach sand up there!

First you need something that will process tons of material to get the gold concentrated. A fluid bed, trommel, or sluice system is needed here. While the Gold Cube is made for these sands, it's not a high throughput machine.

Next you need a concentrator for the large amount of cons. Gold Cube or Multi Sluice will work here.

Then you can either use a miller table, pan, or both to clean the gold. Miller tables work well for the flat gold found up there, but won't catch it all. Expect about 80% capture with the table. Panning is slow, and you'll have to do it a couple of times to catch it all. I normally pan everything as is to get the bulk of the gold out. Magnetite removal comes next. The magnetite up there is loadstone grade, and if it gets magnetized, it stays magnetized and will clump possibly grabbing gold in the process. After removal, finish pan out the garnet, and then pan the hematite left for the gold.

Did you see what Capt. Nemo wrote there...?

He said that you dont need a miller table.

Panning is the subjectively "best" manner to collect fine gold, IMO. Short of using mercury which might prevent you from having normal kids, or cyanide which might kill you all together, panning is the "best" method for flour gold.

I don't have much experience, but i have panned creeks at the Rock Elm Disturbance in northwest WI where most of the gold is the size of a grain of black sand or smaller, and though I have never tried a blue bowl or miller table myself from what I have seen they are not nessessary. Unless you are doing it commercially, which you cannot in the area specified, as far as I know, then the expensive labor saving machines are just that- expensive.

 

[Capt Nemo]

The miller table is still good for cleaning up the bulk of the gold up there. You will have to pan to completely finish the tailings though.

That Rock Elm Disturbance gold runs about 50% capture on a miller table due to it being round and or wires. A lot of sub #200 gold there. A grease table with Vaseline will work to bring the capture rate of that gold up to better than a miller table...BUT you will still have to pan the tailings. The grease will only capture down to maybe #150-200 at best. Then you have to scrape the table, melt the Vaseline, pour it off, melt again with hot Dawn solution, pour that off, and pan the result. It's messy but does work. Now fish oil and burlap for catching all that #400 gold......BS!

There's a lot of folks damming that spot for stream sluices when they're not supposed to be. You cannot build any form of dam on a Wisconsin river or stream. Just hope the DNR doesn't stop in and shut everything down! It is a good place to learn to pan fine gold.

And that blond wispy sand at the bottom of your pan there is reidite, the compressed (diamond) form of zircon.

 

[Duckshot]

Never had to build a sluice dam for my drop riffle sluices.

I always wondered about that dense blonde sand. Thanks Capt. Nemo!

 

[Goldwasher]

Now that sounds like a mess to clean up

Yea lets not start into that crap again

 

[RTR]

Flour gold recovery....

 

[RTR]

Some -200 flour gold http://gpex.ca/image-sharing/images/minus200mesh1.jpg

 

[jsulateskee]

Some -200 flour gold http://gpex.ca/image-sharing/images/minus200mesh1.jpg

Wow!

 

[mydogisscout]

I'm in Michigan as well and I spend a lot of time prospecting in the UP with Mike Pung one of the inventors of the Gold Cube. The Gold Cube was invented SPECIFICALLY for Michigan flour gold, I can tell you when and where to meet up with us, Mike gives an awesome class on fine gold recovery.