Utah gold prospecting and rockhounding

[utah mason]

Figured it was time just to start a journal instead of just posting trips in the sluicing and prospecting threads.
This is my second year of prospecting. My son is the main reason for us getting into prospecting and rockhounding. Ever since he could walk he has been picking up rocks and putting them in his pockets. I could see his fascination with geology wasn't going away. So I figured it was time to get a Little more serious.
Last year we did a hand full of rockhounding trips. Mainly the more popular ones around my area. Dugway geodes, wonder stone, calcite onyx, Birdseye marble, quartz crystals and one trip to crystal park in Montana. We made half a dozen gold prospecting trips up to American fork canyon and one trip out to Amasa valley. I probably did another dozen solo trips up there. Half of which involved strapping on the snowshoes. I think it's safe to say my son's obsession has become mine as well.
I had high hopes for plenty of trips this year. But as some may remember from one of my other post, my business partners son was diagnosed with leukemia(things are going really well, half way thru treatments with positive results). Which of course means he can't be at work as much, so I need to be there more. But I've still been able to take a few early days and hit the river for a few hours on the way home. Have only been able to get the boy up there twice. But have managed to get him out on a few day trips to maxfields mines to do some quartz crystal hunting and a trip to mammoth mines for azurite, malachite, pyrite, and of course quartz crystals.
Here's a video from a trip I did in mid July, Had unexpected day off. I've had a few trips since but haven't had a chance to clean up the cons yet. I'll post them as soon as I do. It's a little longer then the last one, hope you enjoy
https://youtu.be/5UGXXtkc6gs

 

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[Terry Soloman]

You are having fun and getting gold - God Bless Brother!

 

[KevinInColorado]

You are having fun and getting gold - God Bless Brother!

And being a real stand-up guy by covering for your business partner in his time of need. You have my deepest respect for that as well as for being focused on supporting your son's passions! I can tell a good man from 500 miles away and hope we have a chance to dig together sometime

 

[KevinInColorado]

BTW great to see you start a prospectors journal, I look forward to riding along as you progress.

After watching the video, my tips for today:
- feed it faster! Just dump those partial shovelfuls on and go back for more. Move more dirt, get a better workout, get more gold!
- you only have to clear the grizzly after every few shovels with the sort of material you are running so...shovel more!
- you don't really have to stick your fingers in the trap, you'll know if the fluid bed locks up because it'll stop eating sand and the sand will back up under and before the Grizzlies. If that happens, just get more steep or more flow of course...worry less.
- as for the famous "V", you're right the gold in the trap doesn't care what the flow looks like on the top deck! As long as the sand is getting eaten and the sluice is roughly level from side to side you are good to dig!

PS I love seeing that AF gold!

 

[utah mason]

I made it out for half a day several weekends ago. I decided to go up to where I had a really good test pan in the last video. I couldn't get the bazooka set up next to where I was working, the water was just to darn fast. I was able to get it about 10 feet away, so I didn't have carry my bucket too far. The material was much harder to gather, therefore I ran less material😞. But on the plus side I was not as tired for the long walk out. I forgot the phone in the truck, so no video this time. Here is the picture of my clean out. Sorry for the crappy pics.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Nice clean gold...looks good!

 

[utah mason]

Nice clean gold...looks good!

The tip on using the pipette and a ceramic soap dish made all the difference! Much easier then using regular snuffer bottle to suck up and transfer gold to vial.

 

[BagLady]

Lookin Good Utah! Keep em coming!

 

[utah mason]

Had a chance to clean out the cons from a short trip. Yes, up to the same canyon.
Finished up a job around noon and just didn't feel like starting the next one that day. Decided to take a drive up snake creek canyon and come over the top of American fork. It's a slow going dirt road that way, not too rough that it beats you to death, but not that smooth where you can drive above 7 mph. But great views. Ended up with about 2 hrs of dig time. Had some bigger pieces (well bigger for me �&#56841 and of course lots of - 70 mesh pieces. Huge Boulder still needs to be moved. Hoping that I can get up there this Friday and move it. Thinking, (or maybe hoping is a better word) that there's more bigger pieces under it. Here is another short video with clean out at end.
https://youtu.be/PIjkxyomIpU

 

[utah mason]

Made a trip to Dinosaur National Monument followed by a trip to horse shoe bend. Kids had a blast looking at the dinosaur wall and other bones, fossils and petroglyphs. Although my little girl wasn't a fan of the life sized models they had at the museum. The next day we made it down to the river for a few hours. They really enjoyed feeding the material through the sluice and playing in the water. Was a really nice spot on the river. Plenty of cobble to classify, and a nice sandy area to set up and play on. A BIG thanks to William for putting us on to the spot. It was a huge help and time saver not having to drive around scouting out spots. Power sluiced using my a51, it has been forever since I have used it. I ran it at 4% or 1/2" per foot drop. Seemed to be running pretty good, but I don't have a lot of experience running it as a power sluice. Take a look and tell me what you think. Definitely going to plan another trip out there. About a 3 hour drive for me so not to far, short enough that I could do a day but a over nighter would be preferable. Next time I will make sure to have a full day set aside for time on river. And will definitely be turning my a51 into a high banker. After running the bazooka so much it was a big change having to classify. And not a good change��.
https://youtu.be/cV0VRzx0uOY

 

[HardHatMatt]

Looks like you guys had a great trip! You sure put me to shame with your tent and all...heck, I'm sometimes too lazy to even remember my hat.

 

[utah mason]

I was able to take a day to get out on the river with my son. Had a chance to run his mini and I ran my prospector. Worked a gravel bar that I had found several weeks earlier. A little under a mile from where we parked, so nice and close for my boy. Made sure to get there semi early. Last time I was up there I walked past this spot early in the morning and tested it on the way down. No bee's in the morning but a ton of them in the afternoon. Sure enough as soon as the sun hit the area the bee's came out. I usually don't worry about bees, wasp yes bees no. But I had made a appointment for a tour at Timpanogos cave for noon. So the timing worked out just right. If you haven't been to Timpanogos cave you should put it on your list if your in the area. It's definitely one place that deserves to be a national Monument. One of my son's and my favorites.
Great time with my son and some pretty decent gold for a few hours to add to my son's vial. Definitely going back to that spot when I can free up a day.
View attachment 1366979
View attachment 1366982
View attachment 1366983
https://youtu.be/bwCxOytjPYE
Had some other pictures of trip and clean up but couldn't get them to download : (

 

[utah mason]

Managed to get back out on the river for a few hours. I decided to run my a-51 in tandem with my prospector. When I first started with the Keene I quickly got tired of classifying and made a attempt to make a rack to set in sluice for a self classifier. I quickly figured it wasn't going to work very well. It spent the next year in the corner of the garage. I figured i would try it behind the bazooka and see how it ran. I flipped the bars around so they are angling up instead of down. They actually hit right at top of trap without any adjustments. I went back to the same hole I've been working on for the last 4-5 trips. It was definitely tricky to get set up. Had the bgt running a tad steep for my liking. I could have reset it but figured it would be a good test to run at Sub optimal performance. I didn't wash rocks as well as normally do, I just dumped the material on and let it wash down. I managed to get about 3 or so hours of dig time.
View attachment 1371083
Keene on left bazooka on right.
Going to try and get the bazooka running more efficient next time and see how much difference there is.
Let me know how you think both the sluices are running and what adjustments would you make.
Thanks
https://youtu.be/bcumCftwjIg

 

[KevinInColorado]

I don't hear any audio

 

[utah mason]

I don't hear any audio

That's strange, I can hear the audio when I click on link. That's a long video without any sound.

 

[Jeff95531]

I got audio and video. Beautiful spot BTW.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Now I get the audio too...weird.

Great video and very interesting test. The A51 caught some really fine gold that escaped the Bazooka...interesting. We know the Bazooka only catches "some" of the -100 gold and we know the American Fork Canyon gold includes lots of -100 gold right?

I'd love to know what you find is most efficient for the bazooka. I'd think:
- relatively flat
- plenty of water on the top deck so the diverter is functioning properly to direct the fine gold downward
...it's that simple?

This still leaves the question of whether the Bazooka is the right tool for the gold you are trying to catch. You may find that a combo setup like you have in the video is the smart way to go.

 

[utah mason]

I definitely think flatter is the way to go, even if you have to clear the rocks.
I like to make sure there is water flowing over the trap. I've noticed the couple of the times I've ran it to steep or water not quite running over the top cleanly, the clean ups weren't was I was expecting based off the test pans I did.
I still think the bgt is the right tool for me, especially if it's running efficient. I'm thinking of either some punch plate instead of the bars. It might help it not pack up. Or making a small plastic sluice that hooks on the end of trap. Maybe 18"-24" to accommodate 3-4 sections of gold hog matting. It would definitely be lighter packing in then the good old Keene.

 

[AMP_kbell]

Utah -

Watched the video - That A51 was severely choked up and had been blowing gold for most of your material processing - It obviously caught it's gold early in the dig. Just a question: It looked like the BGT was running pretty well - Do you normally run it flatter than that?

An 18 or 24" plastic sluice with a classifier? hmmm...

 

[arizau]

Just a couple of thoughts and analysis from a NON BAZOOKA OWNER.

I think that a punch plate section over the grizzly opening would, in effect, choke the flow into the trap since the total area of openings is probably less than the area of the original openings through the grizzly bars. If I were to design a punch plate system then I would make it so that it would be a longer ramp than the grizzly itself and extends out further on the slick plate area from the top of the grizzly area. That way the total water/material flow to the trap should not be effected since there would be more openings for the water and material to flow through. There would still probably be some clearing necessary but...this is just an alternative idea that may be more effective than covering the grizzly itself without effecting overall performance of the sluice as originally designed. The holes should be no larger or smaller than the width of the grizzly opening and that way there should be no stones that get stuck in it that actually restrict the flow and still allow a proper mix of particle sizes in the trap itself. That said, reports are that clearing the sluice is not a big issue providing there is sufficient speed in the flow.

A more or less flat set up pretty much insures a fully active fluid bed in the trap. When tilted there is less volume for the material that is in the trap, the back of the trap (just below the grizzly) is not as deep (may expose some of the injection holes or just render them less effective) and the front wall kind of turns into a ramp that may encourage the gold to escape.

Good Luck.