Equipment to catch your 'super fines'?

[Wint]

Good morning everyone,

I wanted to reach out and get some opinions on equipment I should invest in to collect very fine flower gold. (Or equipment specifically designed to catch the micro stuff)

I’m just a hobbyist right now, so I am not looking for any kind of large-scale piece of equipment.

I’ve got a set of 5 classifiers coming in (Down to 20 mesh), and I plan on making my *Ore* (I’m probably just crushing rocks) crusher this weekend.

I know a very popular item is the Blue Bowl, but I was also looking at the Fine Gold Recovery Mini Sluice Box with 110V Recirculating Pump, V Mat & Gold Stop Mat from Martin Prospecting. (Looking to keep the price tag under $200) I would love to be able to just feed the equipment my concentrates and let it do the work.

Does anyone have any other suggestions, or have another piece of equipment they like to use for collecting their super fines?

As always, any thoughts, ideas and opinions are welcomed and encouraged!

 

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[Goodyguy]

Hi Wint,

Welcome to the club

First of all you will need more classifiers, 50mesh 100mesh and 200mesh for starters (the more classifications the better) They can be the smaller cheaper ones. Then get a blue bowl to do the rest. It's a slow process so be advised. I spend days running crushed ore, so be patient.

The slurry from crushing rocks is messy stuff but classification is the key. The blue bowl only works well from 50 mesh on down. The more classification the better, otherwise it is very hard to keep the smaller gold particles from getting washed over the lip and down the hole. The more you can keep the particles being run the same size the better.

Also be sure and get some jet-dri dishwasher spot remover. It is a water surfactant and will keep the flour gold from floating due to the surface tension of water.
Just be sure not to over do the jet dry, a few drops go a long way. If you see bubbles in the water you used way too much.

There are a lot of tips and tricks on you tube for setting up and running the bowl. It is best to have a 12v motor speed regulator to regulate the flow from the pump.
It is very hard to control the flow with the stock ball valve. (near impossible) A gate valve is better if you dont get the speed controller.

Go for the Gold
GG~

 

[Wint]

Slowly but surely I will collect all the things needed, should have all winter to do it haha!

Definitely considering going with the Blue Bowl and getting the 12v controller. It's a tried and true piece of equipment with tons of information available online about it. I think I would potentially be shooting myself in the foot going with some random off brand piece of equipment, being so new to this and all.

Appreciate the tips GG!

 

[Capt Nemo]

While it's rather messy, and won't touch -250#, you might think about a grease table. It's like a miller table, only the active surface is a bed of grease. In testing with miller table tails, it caught 80% of what came off the miller table, so it does work better than a miller table. It also works faster than a miller table. Once you run, you scrape the grease off the table, melt the grease and pour it off, then degrease with a hot Dawn solution, and pan the result.



The table starts with a water/slick plate that then drops 1/4" onto the grease section. I did not experiment with drop height. The grease used was Vaseline. Prepping the grease section by melting and then cooling should produce better results than trying to smear it on. Grease depth was .030".

My guess as to why it stops working on the barely visible stuff is, that the gold just does not have enough weight to break the surface tension of the water and get embedded into the grease. Anything that would sit on a miller table is heavy enough to embed.

 

[Reed Lukens]

While it's rather messy, and won't touch -250#, you might think about a grease table. It's like a miller table, only the active surface is a bed of grease. In testing with miller table tails, it caught 80% of what came off the miller table, so it does work better than a miller table. It also works faster than a miller table. Once you run, you scrape the grease off the table, melt the grease and pour it off, then degrease with a hot Dawn solution, and pan the result.

View attachment 1874220

The table starts with a water/slick plate that then drops 1/4" onto the grease section. I did not experiment with drop height. The grease used was Vaseline. Prepping the grease section by melting and then cooling should produce better results than trying to smear it on. Grease depth was .030".

My guess as to why it stops working on the barely visible stuff is, that the gold just does not have enough weight to break the surface tension of the water and get embedded into the grease. Anything that would sit on a miller table is heavy enough to embed.

Very Cool

 

[Bonaro]

While it's rather messy, and won't touch -250#, you might think about a grease table. It's like a miller table, only the active surface is a bed of grease. In testing with miller table tails, it caught 80% of what came off the miller table, so it does work better than a miller table. It also works faster than a miller table. Once you run, you scrape the grease off the table, melt the grease and pour it off, then degrease with a hot Dawn solution, and pan the result.

View attachment 1874220

The table starts with a water/slick plate that then drops 1/4" onto the grease section. I did not experiment with drop height. The grease used was Vaseline. Prepping the grease section by melting and then cooling should produce better results than trying to smear it on. Grease depth was .030".

My guess as to why it stops working on the barely visible stuff is, that the gold just does not have enough weight to break the surface tension of the water and get embedded into the grease. Anything that would sit on a miller table is heavy enough to embed.

A grease table works much like a flotation cell...grease and oil will easily stick to gold (or gold to it) If you introduce oile to your process it will stick to the gold and cause it to float. Grease is thick and sticky and glued to the bottom but if you have a lot of turbulence in your process it can be worn away, taking your gold with it.
The process is a bit messy.

I think I would crush and screen to -50 then re-crush or grind the oversize to make everything pass 50. The run all of this across a shaker table. You can make a shaker fairly easy if you can make a crusher. You will have a lot of mud to deal with in the tailings. Dont run this in the bathtub unless you're single or want to be

 

[Capt Nemo]

This is the gold that came out of the miller table tails in the grease table experiment. That's a Garrett 10" pan.

 

[TMLonggun]

I think the Devin Gold vortex drop riffle (VDR) tech is the best for fine gold recovery. I own a lot of different recovery equipment but it is has all been in storage since we upgraded. I don't recommend the blue bowl because it is finicky, takes a very long time, and will always leave flour gold in the tailings. Compared to a super easy process in a cleanup sluice it isn't really comparable and the difference in demos is stark. I convert lots from BBs to minis but I've never heard of it going the other way.

The mini cleanup sluice is incredibly effective and cut down the time to do our difficult flour gold pans by about 85% and replaced far more expensive gear. We routinely recover 500 mesh or smaller gold and are usually able to dial in our highbanker so that there is no noticeable gold in the tailings. Once the tech was proven it seemed common sense to use it in both production and cleanup units. We used to struggle but after upgrading the hobby became much easier and a lot more enjoyable.

For about $150 US I estimate the sluice has saved me several hundred hours of tedious panning.

Several other YouTubers have also done tests:



Including the Flour Gold Wizard (who knows a bit about flour gold :P)





I'd say the mini is a must for anyone with some black sand kicking around and even more important if you are into fine gold particles. The VDR tech is widely endorsed, proven, and tested so I think it is more than worthy of consideration.

You can get a cleanup sluice or VDR mat here if you are interested (10% off Christmas sale currently running): www.infinityprospecting.com

Good luck!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

TMlonggun, our rules require you to be a paying supporting vendor to advertise your business, signature was edited.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Good morning everyone,

I wanted to reach out and get some opinions on equipment I should invest in to collect very fine flower gold. (Or equipment specifically designed to catch the micro stuff)

I’m just a hobbyist right now, so I am not looking for any kind of large-scale piece of equipment.

I’ve got a set of 5 classifiers coming in (Down to 20 mesh), and I plan on making my *Ore* (I’m probably just crushing rocks) crusher this weekend.

I know a very popular item is the Blue Bowl, but I was also looking at the Fine Gold Recovery Mini Sluice Box with 110V Recirculating Pump, V Mat & Gold Stop Mat from Martin Prospecting. (Looking to keep the price tag under $200) I would love to be able to just feed the equipment my concentrates and let it do the work.

Does anyone have any other suggestions, or have another piece of equipment they like to use for collecting their super fines?

As always, any thoughts, ideas and opinions are welcomed and encouraged!

Welcome to your newest obsession. Lol

As mentioned classification is the key. It will save you lots of heart ache in the long run.

A small clean up sluice and a blue bowl would be my suggestion. Crush your ore, pan off the light stuff, run your heavies through a clean up sluice, then finish in the blue bowl. I found my blue bowl a lot easier to use once I put a silicone mat into it. Of course they work without one but the silicone just helps keep the gold stuck once it comes in contact.

My suggestion is start with less expensive stuff. The fancy mats, or power sluices are nice but really not needed to get the job done. Haha! I have a pile of very nice expensive equipment sitting in my garage. It all works well, just turns out what I prefer could have been had for 400.00 for the whole lot of it.

 

[Bonaro]

A lot of folks get hung up on catching every spec of gold and gear up to catch the superfine. When you classify you have to run every classification separate and when you get to the the really fine gold it becomes extremely time consuming...the finer the gold the slower you have to go.
If catching every spec is what interests you then go ahead and get all the gear you need to classify and process every batch and you will be able to spend a entire day on 2 buckets of dirt. The problem is, the superfine gold usually doesn't add up to much and it's hard to justify the time and effort required to catch it.
If filling the vial is the goal then you need to work on production and volume. Simply stated, a little gold is usually mixed with a lot of worthless gravel, the more gravel you wash, the more gold you get.

Get a decent drop riffle sluice like a LeTrap or Angus McKirk and a 1/4" classifier. Shovel hard then clean up. Classify the cons to 8 mesh. Re run the oversize for larger gold. Remove the magnetics from the smaller and hand pan.
May your vial be filled...

 

[Reed Lukens]

The vdr's are the Gold Well copied Canadian rip off's that broke Bernie. You're just as well off with Dream Mat and you won't be supporting any Canadian ripped off American patents. Dave Peterson stands by his Dream Mat and it has paid for itself on my machines. Before that Gold Hog worked fine and Miners Moss with expanded metal still works great, it just takes a higher water flow. I'm into production, run it once, pan the gold and toss the rest. Forget trying to get all of the small stuff, go for quantity by moving a lot of material that you know has gold in it. If some fly poop flows out of the box, let it go, it doesn't help the paycheck.
https://prospectorsdream.com/collections/dream-mat

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

The vdr's are the Gold Well copied Canadian rip off's that broke Bernie. You're just as well off with Dream Mat and you won't be supporting any Canadian ripped off American patents. Dave Peterson stands by his Dream Mat and it has paid for itself on my machines. Before that Gold Hog worked fine and Miners Moss with expanded metal still works great, it just takes a higher water flow. I'm into production, run it once, pan the gold and toss the rest. Forget trying to get all of the small stuff, go for quantity by moving a lot of material that you know has gold in it. If some fly poop flows out of the box, let it go, it doesn't help the paycheck.
https://prospectorsdream.com/collections/dream-mat

I noticed the resemblance between those two and wandered how that worked out. That’s a shame.

As a person who is only a hobbiest and frankly we’re I am big gold is a rarity. I’m stuck with catching the fine stuff or nothing. I do love my Angus, and just built a high banker from a couple le trap sluices. The drop riffle is the way to go IMO.

 

[johnedoe]

First and foremost to capture fine gold classify your material to a size that is close to that of the gold you will be recovering....
Then take a look at what beach miners are doing to capture fine gold..... We deal with 100 mesh and smaller the occasional 50 mesh is a nugget to us....lol