how far to classify before panning

[steveh2112]

i was watching this

which is a great video.
BUT
it seems to me he could have classified down to say 1/4" before dragging it down to the river. then he could be more efficient, moved more pay and panned faster. am i wrong?

 

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[steveh2112]

Efficiency is about not wasting motion or momentum. Doesn't necessarily apply to time, unless you're referring to time efficiency.

Efficiency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Efficiency is the extent to which time, effort, or cost is well-used for the intended task or function

Efficiency | Define Efficiency at Dictionary.com
1.
the state or quality of being efficient, or able to accomplish something with the least waste of time and effort; competency in performance.
2.
accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort:
The assembly line increased industry's efficiency.
3.
the ratio of the work done or energy developed by a machine, engine, etc., to the energy supplied to it, usually expressed as a percentage.

most people use the word in the non Newtonian mechanics sense i think

 

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[KevinInColorado]

Ok folks, with that settled lets get back to talking about gold!

 

[Mitch Dickson]

Write this down You NEVER classify if you are using a gold pan when you are at the creek. Only classify if you are cleaning concentrates. Get a super sluice and a shovel and a peanut butter jar to put the concentrates, that's it! Classifying slows you down. You need the big and the little to quickly stratify. If you classify you slow down like molasses in winter. You have to get over the "you tube wiggle" LOL!

Put a #2 shovel in that super sluice, wet it, shake back and forth, then side to side, then swirl counter clockwise for 4 seconds, then clockwise for 4 seconds, stop, set the gold against the riffles and sweep everything you can out of the pan with your left hand! Repeat, you should now be down to black sand, put the concentrate in the peanut butter jar and do it again. A #2 shovel of gravel should take less than 20 seconds to reduce to black sand with a super sluice pan. 100 of those a day will fill your vials with fine and super fine gold. Your piddling too much and wishing for big color and nuggets. Just fill your peanut butter jar full of fine and microfine gold and go home. Leave the nugget hunting to the newbies

There is another way that does involve classifying to either 1/4 or 1/8. While this step does slow you down, a 24 inch batea will reduce 3 #2 shovels of 1/4 or 1/8 inch material to black sand in less than 12 seconds which speeds you back up.

With either method you will outrun any sluice box, highbanker, or dredge (up to 5 inch) but you got to stay at it and work. You will also take home much more gold as all forms of sluice boxes loose 80% of the gold that goes threw them. Don't let anyone kid you, they are all but useless to catch gold.

The pan or batea catches it all! Down to 400 mesh, every day, every time. My last clean up for 6 hours work with the batea method resulted in 10.1 grams of Gold and 4.35 grams of Platinum. Now I didn't doddle, I worked like a borrowed mule. How did you do with your high banker or sluice? Did you even break a whole gram? Did you loose the Platinum? I rest my case.

You got to quit thinking that junk they are selling will catch you gold. The old timers did NOT use that stuff. They used amalgum boxes. Their boxes had a 20 inch sheet copper slick plate coated in quicksilver followed by at least 2 and usually 3 one inch mercury wells below that. They didn't miss any, they caught it all! Want to try going to a creek today with an old time amalgum box? They will put you under the jail!

The gold pan is all that is available to you that will catch all the gold you shovel into it. I suggest you learn how to use it as a production machine.

 

[bobw53]

all forms of sluice boxes loose 80% of the gold that goes threw them. Don't let anyone kid you, they are all but useless to catch gold.

I find that very hard to believe, I actually don't believe that.. I want some data on this...

And I'm not picking on you, I've done it typing fast, and I make LOTS of typos, and sometimes that auto correct thing just kicks you in the nuts... But lose, and loose are
2 totally different things. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people type "You're a lOOser".... AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! So if I agree with the guy, I'm a "tighter".

Did you loose the Platinum? I rest my case.

How can you lose platinum, its heavier(denser) than gold... Unless its alloyed with something or has a light rock attached to it... I was at a prospecting shop this past winter, and we got
talking, actually the guy liked to talk, and I appreciated the expertise and experience he gave me. Anyways as he was showing me stuff, he asked if I noticed all the silver colored stuff
in the gold vials in his display cabinet... Platinum... He said he was a little PO'd at himself.. He had been separating out all that really heavy non-gold stuff and tossing it, and only
recently figured out what it was.... [/QUOTE]

Want to try going to a creek today with an old time amalgum box? They will put you under the jail!

That made me laugh..

I don't agree with you on a sluice losing 80%... Though I semi sort of agree with a pan being able to process a lot of material, and quickly... If you have water..
The dry panning thing is a little shaky... And if you are willing or able to use the pan as a concentrator, not a finishing device... I apparently don't have that
ability.... When the pan is in my hand, I have to run it down to see whats in it, then I have to use all of my panning skills to get the gold perfectly clean, then I suck it
up...

The pushing off the top of the pan... A quick story... Doing a cleanup from the gold cube.. I don't even remember what I had classified to... TOO much black sand
for the pan. So I dumped the water and literally just wiped off 3/4+ of black sand into another pan... I had 27 pieces in that first pan, and when I went back to pan
the rest of that black sand... 3-4 more pans... 3 pieces total... And I made absolutely no effort to stratify the pan before pushing off the excess... Goes to prove how
HEAVY/dense gold is... It GOES to the BOTTOM.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Mitch's method sound very effective to me[emoji2] I'm impressed and plan to try his method of collecting cons and much of the processing ideas.