Material to take home and how best to work it.

[425jesse]

With the rivers on the rise I want to get some materials before it's too late for mid winter working. I know the spot, as I have had success there before, but best method to run once I'm home is my query...I classify all materials to 1/4 at rivers edge, then bucket it up an take it home. Once home I think I should set up my 48" river sluice on recirc to concentrate the material and then finish in my finishing sluice and pan. Any other thoughts on getting material down to cons once I'm home?

 

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[Capricorn]

How much are you going to bring home and how long do you want it to last you? I'll bring home a bucket or two when I can (classified like yours), then just pan it a pan or two at a time when I get the urge. That way the bucket lasts a while. If I just ran it through a sluice it'd be over in an hour and then how would I scratch that itch? Good luck

 

[425jesse]

I would likely make 3 trips for 4-5 buckets per trip. I always keep the tailings, and when the itch really needs a scratch, I pan thru some of that. I guess my concern is null, because as you said, if it's all gone in a few hours of work, what to do then!.

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

I have a similar situation, where as I have no water in my seasonal creek right now, so no water to process material. Although it makes digging the gravel easier. We have been bringing out two 5 gallon buckets at a time. I have been panning it all out at home till now, but I am about to make a small recirculating sluice. My plan is a mini long tom. 6" wide x 4' long with just rubber V mat for 36" of it. I figure a 500 gph pump will be more than enough. I too plan to run material classified down. I'm thinking +8 then -8, and again with +12,-12. Then I can go smaller if wanted or needed.

 

[Sick4gold]

I remember when I first started I used to transport buckets home too.
After a little while I realized that it's a lot of work and very inefficient with not much return.
I didn't know any better at the time but a few trips and very little gold quickly opened my eyes.
I realized that the more material I processed the more gold I got and the "bucket game" just wasn't cutting it.

I understand some situations such as dry beds but my advise is try and process as much as possible at the creek. Bring home gold not the whole creek. Whether it mean getting or building a sluice or dredge or whatever. The only thing I try and bring home nowadays is CONCENTRATE. Less work, more fun, more GOLD!

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

I know a lot of seasoned prospectors, who process at the creek and still take home raw dirt to play with at a later date.

 

[DizzyDigger]

I know a lot of seasoned prospectors, who process at the creek and
still take home raw dirt to play with at a later date.

This time of year (when it's nasty out) I'll bring home a bucket or two given the
chance. Classify down to 1/2" (wife likes to look at the rocks for gemstones)
and then re-classify smaller at home before I pan it down. Rainy season's here,
so I never know when the next chance to get out will be.

 

[goldenIrishman]

We are just starting our main season here now that the temps are dropping. Like some nut case I've been working all summer despite the heat. My usual M.O. has been to run as much material as I can through the re-circ sluice while I'm out there and to classify enough extra to bring back anywhere from 40 to 75 gallons of materials to work here at the house. While I'm working out in the field, I don't wash out mats as I have 14 sets of them made up for my sluice. When they're full I just roll them up and then replace them with a fresh one. Saves me a lot of time in the field. I MIGHT wash the first and last ones out to check that we're on the gold but that's about it.

Once the snow starts falling (yes... It does snow here in S.E. Arizona) I will start bringing even more materials home with me since I'll be getting a bit less time on site. At least here at the house I can fill the sluice system with hot water to keep my hands from loosing feeling!

When running materials here at the house I sluice them first, pan the cons down from the mats, remove the magnetic sands, remove all VISIBLE gold, crack the sands by heating them to about 450 deg. and then dumping them into ice water, then pan them a second time to remove the gold that has been liberated by the cracking. Once I'm sure I've gotten all the gold out of that stage, the sands go into a bucket while they wait for amalgamation to remove the flour and micron gold. Materials run out in the field get the same treatment, they're just sluiced out there is all. So if I run 20 buckets in the field and total the cons with what I bring home to do I'm running up to 175 gallons of materials from start to finish.