? for the experienced.

[desert-rat]

So I took a sample rock home that was about the size of a regular candy bar and crushed it. No really expecting anything. When I panned it out it had about 10 colors in it that are just visible with the naked eye. Im wanting to know if I crush this down to -50 and sluice it will my gold hog mats catch it or is there a better way to go about recovery? Any advice is appreciated!

 

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[Sheldon J]

with no photos to view, and not being able to physically see the rock. it costs nothing to try, so other than your time you have basically nothing to loose. Go for it!

 

[desert-rat]

I just got it all panned out and cleaned up and the results are about 30 visble pieces of gold. there are quite a few pieces I have to have a lens to see. ill attach a photo of a couple. Im just wondering how fine my gold hog mats will capture. its not the most accessible place in the world so I don't feel like wasting my time luggin buckets of rocks if I don't have a capture method that's going to get the better part of it.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Most any sluice should be fine set up with low water, it really depends on the crusher. You can run straight from a good crusher into a gold cube also.

 

[desert-rat]

that's about the smallest piece I could find in this sample that's still visible. It came out to .012". Can anyone tell me what mesh size this is and is it going to catch in a gold cube?

 

[bobw53]

.012" is a monster...

Mesh size... Works fantastic at lower #'s, but really falls apart when you get tiny... The wire size really messes with the theoretical hole size...

https://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-mesh-filters/=14u4wmi
click top left, 304 wire cloth, it will give you mesh, hole sizes and wire sizes.

.012" would be somewhere in the 50 range.. Not really all that small..

Here are some pics of what a gold cube will catch.. Can't even really see the -250, its in the crease of the pan, I just couldn't get a good pic of it.

 

[arizau]

As to your original post.....Goldhog mats should have no problem trapping what you are indicating since they capture minus 100 mesh gold in my stream sluice which I use almost exclusively for Oregon beach mining where gold above 100 mesh is a rarity. I use a combo of razorback and downdraft. A couple of years ago, Doc suggested on another forum that I should use them for my purposes since I use a stream sluice due to no motor restrictions on the beaches.

This link shows the various mesh designation vs. opening size. Understanding Mesh Sizes
0.012" indicates around 50 mesh as bobw53 said in his post. 50 mesh is big in my book too considering most of what I find is more than twice as small.

Good luck.

 

[jair]

I have a gold cube to get my gold after I crush my rock down to approx 200 mesh . So I would say yes it should

 

[desert-rat]

my crusher is getting everything down to -50. that's the finest screen I have so I don't know what its actually doing I would say its at least -70 if not finer. is it going to roll the gold up or is it going to get smeared on the inside of the drum? I CANNOT WAIT until I get a few days off next week to go back. How does a guy go about marking it off to claim it? do I have to post anything in writing on the post and is there a discovery monument that has to be put up at the sight of the find?

 

[desert-rat]

Can anyone tell me what that stuff is?

 

[dave wiseman]

Chalcopyrite....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcopyrite

 

[desert-rat]

so I finally crushed up 2 of the 3 sample buckets I brought home from this latest find and it seems to be ok. I panned a 4 oz scoop and it has 8 or 10 pieces of color in it. my gold cube will arrive on Monday so ill just wait like a kid for Christmas until I get to run this material. My next trip home to Texas im going to try and build a jaw crusher with the help of my old man to help down size the bigger chucks before I run them in the flail mill.

 

[desert-rat]

MY GOLD CUBE ARRIVED TODAY!!!!!!!!!! I wish I would have known about this thing sooner. ive wasted a lot of money on equipment that wont find the size of gold that's there. My first bucket of crushed material produce way more than I was expecting! I absolutely cannot believe how fine of gold the cube captures. Also I got a surprise out of finding some "wire" in my pan. im not sure as to exactly what it is. it looks to be copper.

This is from the first 5 gallon bucket of crushed rock.



Any guesses on the wire?
Is this amount of gold from one bucket enough to keep messing with the source?

 

[Reed Lukens]

Looks like copper but I've found pounds of wire gold that looked just like that when it came out of the rock. We had a big soccer ball size roll of the stuff when growing up and my dad would take a hatchet and cut some off every now and again when they needed some extra money. That's the one thing that I never had a picture of but it was a roll of wire gold that was like a big ball of yarn. It kept getting smaller and smaller as he sold off more over time until he had sold it all or given it away

 

[desert-rat]

What is this silver looking stuff? I cleaned it in a weak nitric acid solution and it shined up and got a rough look. Lord how I wish I had went to school for geology......

 

[arizau]

What is the source of the silvery material? It is unclear, to me at least since you speak of crushing, if you are processing cemented placer material or if you are crushing hard rock.

 

[desert-rat]

I am crushing some tailings from an abandoned mine.

 

[Kenmitch]

Images make it look like gold covered in mercury. Not an expert but do have about 10 or so small pieces of gold contaminated with mercury. Might be worth having it looked at by a noligible source.

 

[arizau]

According to what I have read (no hands on experience here)...... if it is amalgam then a longer soak in a nitric acid solution should dissolve the mercury. If the material you are processing is pretty finely milled tailings, and not just waste dump rocks, then there is a good chance that it is amalgam that escaped from a mill recovery system eg. an amalgamation table.

 

[desert-rat]

Im crushing rock from the dump. I haven't noticed any milled tailings at the site. The mercury may be my fault. I tried to capture some super fines with it a couple months ago and it looks like its still hanging round in the tailings tub. Don't really know how it go there it is now but its contained in my tubs. I did find a few bb's of mercury in my gold cube that must have come out of those rocks because I haven't contaminated the containers the rocks are in or the crusher. Thanks for the input guys, back to the lab........