arizau
Bronze Member
- May 2, 2014
- 2,485
- 3,870
- Detector(s) used
- Beach High Banker, Sweep Jig, Whippet Dry Washer, Lobo ST, 1/2 width 2 tray Gold Cube, numerous pans, rocker box, and home made fluid bed and stream sluices.
- Primary Interest:
- Prospecting
That's all I think you need to quickly super concentrate those small mesh black sands that you have sitting around that you know or suspect contains gold.
The procedure:
1. Tightly plug the spout of a round flexible plastic funnel. You may need to shorten the spout section so that the diameter of the opening is about an inch in diameter and an inch or so below the main cone of the funnel. That area is where the heavies will settle and also gives the vortex a better shot at reaching it's bottom to keep all the material in suspension when it is swirling. A funnel with a vertical wall around the top is probably best...See #3 below.
2. Fill the funnel, probably no more than one third full, with tightly classified black sands* and add water.
3. While holding the funnel level, swirl it to a vortex for a while then stop and hold it still until the swirling stops. Do this over a pan just in case you slop!
4. From the top, bore down through the concentrates with a handled plug (round or kind of sharpen the end to make it easier to penetrate the black sands) sized to fit tightly in the neck of the funnel. IMPORTANT NOTE: A couple of grooves along the side of the plug should let water escape when you plug it and alleviate the possibility of hydraulic pressure uncorking the spout. Note: Do this procedure over a pan just in case it does come uncorked!
5. Dump and save the tails.......what remains in the top of the funnel.**
6. At this point you can either uncork the spout and rinse out the contents of the neck or, preferred method, add more concentrate and water and repeat above steps. If you see gold while peering down the neck then save and start over.
7. That's it. The material that remains in the neck is super concentrated and will contain almost all, if not all of the gold that was contained in the concentrates to
begin with. The volume of the super concentrates will probably be on the order of a table spoon or so and you can regulate the total amount depending on the
spacing between the two plugs.
Happy panning and heavy pans!
PS a disclaimer: I just thought this up a few hours ago and have not tried the procedure myself...yet...it's 105 in the shade.
I'm pretty confident the technique will work to my expectations though.
* If every thing is more or less the same size then the gold will settle first. If the feed is not tightly classified then mixed oversize will settle first and may fill the sweet spot below where the plug seats. In other words gold may not settle to a point below where the plug is inserted.
** Either reprocess these with the funnel method or pan if you are worried about losses.
The procedure:
1. Tightly plug the spout of a round flexible plastic funnel. You may need to shorten the spout section so that the diameter of the opening is about an inch in diameter and an inch or so below the main cone of the funnel. That area is where the heavies will settle and also gives the vortex a better shot at reaching it's bottom to keep all the material in suspension when it is swirling. A funnel with a vertical wall around the top is probably best...See #3 below.
2. Fill the funnel, probably no more than one third full, with tightly classified black sands* and add water.
3. While holding the funnel level, swirl it to a vortex for a while then stop and hold it still until the swirling stops. Do this over a pan just in case you slop!
4. From the top, bore down through the concentrates with a handled plug (round or kind of sharpen the end to make it easier to penetrate the black sands) sized to fit tightly in the neck of the funnel. IMPORTANT NOTE: A couple of grooves along the side of the plug should let water escape when you plug it and alleviate the possibility of hydraulic pressure uncorking the spout. Note: Do this procedure over a pan just in case it does come uncorked!
5. Dump and save the tails.......what remains in the top of the funnel.**
6. At this point you can either uncork the spout and rinse out the contents of the neck or, preferred method, add more concentrate and water and repeat above steps. If you see gold while peering down the neck then save and start over.
7. That's it. The material that remains in the neck is super concentrated and will contain almost all, if not all of the gold that was contained in the concentrates to
begin with. The volume of the super concentrates will probably be on the order of a table spoon or so and you can regulate the total amount depending on the
spacing between the two plugs.
Happy panning and heavy pans!
PS a disclaimer: I just thought this up a few hours ago and have not tried the procedure myself...yet...it's 105 in the shade.
I'm pretty confident the technique will work to my expectations though.* If every thing is more or less the same size then the gold will settle first. If the feed is not tightly classified then mixed oversize will settle first and may fill the sweet spot below where the plug seats. In other words gold may not settle to a point below where the plug is inserted.
** Either reprocess these with the funnel method or pan if you are worried about losses.
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