Small gold, flour gold, which do you think is best?

[OneStudPuppy]

I’ll tell ya I should use my YouTube channel and review prospecting tools and devices.
So I bought some new paydirt. It’s been impressive! So far average per table spoon 4 color!
I have also noticed a good amount of flour gold!
I have a magic gold wheel, it’s impressed me but I am also watching a lot of YouTube videos.
Seen other methods and tools for small gold. And I’ll be the first to admit I would love to test every tool possible.
I’ve been wanting a blue bowl to play with, but I also don’t have a endless budget more minimal budget haha!
I’ve also noticed miller tables (smaller scale)even home brew ones but I don’t have the time to build one my self. These seem amazing and do great with micro gold etc. but don’t seem much on the flour gold.
I have seen so far the most about flour gold mentioned with a micro sluice like the GPAA micro one and have seen people showing shots with the mat holding the flour gold.


Do you have any of the above?
Have you tried any or all the above?
Your thoughts on all thee?
Thanks all.

 

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[ghostminer]

I have a blue bowl. It works great for sub 60 mesh. Will pull lots of microscopic gold out of your black sands. You will need to run lot's to pay for the bowl but it's fun to use. I give it an A Rating.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Since you have a minimal budget, I'd suggest building a miller table for about $120. That's about what mine would cost if I didn't have all the acrylic beforehand. Since I had the acrylic and hardware, I shelled about $60-70 for the pump, hose, humidifier belt, cutting board, and tote bin. It runs on a 180 GPH AC fountain pump.

 

[Freetrapper]

What do you use to glue the acrylic together capt. Nemo. Silicone?

 

[Bandmenter]

My best recommendation would be to stay away from the blue bowl, over rated but an underperformer. I will always recommend vortex matting for slicing and Maverick pan from snakeriverproducts.com for finishing. They have put together some videos on their channel on YouTube. Simple to use and it won't cost you a fortune. If you go to the sluicing pages in the forums, I started a thread on how to build an inexpensive recirculating sluice using vortex matting, I would say that I may have $60 wrapped up if I were to build and buy everything.

Dig deep, keep the color.

 

[ghostminer]

I have to disagree with your assessment of the blue bowl. For minus 100 & down it captures most everything. Very easy to use.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Use methylene chloride solvent to weld the plastic.

 

[placertogo]

Whatever method you use, I suggest using warm water and a surface tension reducer such as Jet Dry.

 

[OneStudPuppy]

Whatever method you use, I suggest using warm water and a surface tension reducer such as Jet Dry.

I thought jet dry was the funniest things I heard until one YouTube video explained why.
I bought a bottle the next day haha! Warm water hadn’t thought of that one. Does it really make a difference in the way gold acts? Sure as heck would be more comfortable haha!

 

[Capt Nemo]

In ozone treated water, warm water will offgas much faster than cold. If those microbubbles attach or grow on the gold it will become neutrally buoyant and float above the black sand like mica. Doesn't matter if you use Jet Dry, it will still happen. Draw hot water, and if it's cloudy, give it a few minutes to offgas before adding any gold to it. If you see a flake moving like a mica flake, suck it up with an eyedropper and set it back down in the pan. If it doesn't move after that, it's gold that had microbubbles stuck to it.

This is the same reason why divers have to add cold water variation to their dive times to avoid the bends.

 

[OneStudPuppy]

In ozone treated water, warm water will offgas much faster than cold. If those microbubbles attach or grow on the gold it will become neutrally buoyant and float above the black sand like mica. Doesn't matter if you use Jet Dry, it will still happen. Draw hot water, and if it's cloudy, give it a few minutes to offgas before adding any gold to it. If you see a flake moving like a mica flake, suck it up with an eyedropper and set it back down in the pan. If it doesn't move after that, it's gold that had microbubbles stuck to it.

This is the same reason why divers have to add cold water variation to their dive times to avoid the bends.

Good to know cause even at work today processing I did see some floaters and wondered and suspected was gold.
I’ll have to bring some jugs out to the cooler I’m using as a work panning tub.
I haven’t tossed anything so far everything I have worked is going into a bucket.
Once I have a miller table I’ll classify it down and run it. I know there is some that has been micro.
Pretty sure I’ve seen some flour gold in this latest batch of paydirt..
fun getting all this practice in until I get to a live claim.

My initial 40 lbs of paydirt which has been pretty horrible is infested with mica !!
I’ve learned to not be a fan of it very quickly haha!

 

[Capt Nemo]

That Gold Rush paydirt has a lot of mica. It's playground sand with a little gold salted in.

 

[OneStudPuppy]

That Gold Rush paydirt has a lot of mica. It's playground sand with a little gold salted in.

Maybe the newer production. Mine was 2012 bagged. True dirt and nice gold.
Now what your describing is EXACTLY what I feel about my 40 pounds of “paydirt”
From a ebay vendor. And their gold salt shaker must have been really plugged when packing.
I have seen more mica than I even thought was possible. I did one pan alone 4 good handfuls of dirt
At one shot, I saw one piece of gold for a fully loaded pan.
Glad I didn’t have the kids learn the panning with it, would have been disappointment and discouraging.
My latest buy of a 5 lb bag(from a different vendor) has my interest and it’s crazy 3 udon spoons and 3 different times panning out. 5 4 And 5 pieces very impressive from a table spoon worth