What's the best machine for dredging flour gold?

[ColoradoMike]

Looking for a real good machine to dredge here in Colorado. Tons of flour gold. Is there a unit made primarily for fine gold?

Thanks
ColoradoMike

[Hoser John]

Keene 3 way classification system is about the best out there on the market.Floats good in faster water.Some others like to play submarine as not enough floatation.Tons a au 2 u 2-John

[Greg in BC]

ATR is right, flour gold retention definitely requires specific measures and in a usual sluicing system you will only recover percentages of the super small sizes. Extensions and settling zones are a great way to up your percentages in most cases.

Just to clarify what ATR mentions regarding mercury. Mercury should NOT be used in an OPEN system (ie. before teh extension in your on the creek sluicing system). Only in a closed cleanup type system where you are being very carful using all the information that you have researched regarding proper handling.

In an open system no matter how careful you are, mercury will get away from you and out of the box into the environment. The minerals and water will slowly carry off the mercury bit by bit.

No matter what you or I believe about mercury - there is a whole bunch of people that will jump on you and mining in general real hard if they find you operating a sluice at the creeek with mercury in it.

In the right circumstances mercury can be very helpful if the gold is first cleaned to allow the mercury to contact and adhere to it.
Greg in BC

[Hardpan]

You can convert any size or make of dredge to catch flour gold. First. with a long bolt, a spacer, and some washers, instal quarter inch punch plate above your header box. Next, throw out your matting, and use "Miner's Moss held down with expanded metel for the entire length of your box, beneath the riffles. Lastly, cut a 10-12 inch length of rubber matting (flexible) and bolt it to the exterior of the header box so that it "squashes the incoming water and gravel flat" BEFORE it goes over the riffles. This will trap the flour gold. Also, don't run at high throttle, don't hog the gravel, and learn to regulate intake volume with your hand, so that your box can clear before it starts loading up. Some like to welda piece of quarter inch metal bent at 90 degrees to the top and bottom lips of the suction nozzle. This will slow things down, and help regulate your intake. Check it out. Nuff said, Hardpan

[Hardrock]

Mike: Hardpan is right on the"miners moss" except the market name for it is "Nomad" manufactured by 3M co. It was actually put out as carpet to trap
dirt and that it does,when working with any fine or flour gold another point to consider is flow rate on whatever unit you use.
Another point is there is two kinds of Nomad,open and closed bottom, they both work well but in fine gold the real trick is flow. That takes some practice and testing of your tailings to see what you miss. Good luck. Hardrock

[Ken/CO]

Hi CO Mike,
I know what you mean about the small gold here in Colorado, I've been collecting it for some time
now from Clear Creek, Fairplay and other areas.
What I think works best is the Keene concentrating bowl, or the spiral wheel, such as the Desert
Fox or Gold Miner, for the small stuff.
Don't give up hope on the nuggets though, they do exist in Colorado, and sometimes they're whoppers.
HH
Ken/CO