At what point do I stop washing black sand out of my pan?

[geolover]

I ran material through my sluce and then I started panning. After a while I realized that there was a lot of black sand (more than a cup). Am I supposed to keep washing it away until I get it down to a small amount? Or should I have kept the sand for any reason? I guess I'm afraid that I could lose super fine gold by washing it out.

I'm new

 

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[KevinInColorado]

Once you get down to the black sand, stop. As you guessed there is likely to be gold mixed in with the black sand. Classify it, pull the magnetics up thru water to a magnet and then pan a modest amount at a time. Lots of good videos on this process. I like the ones on the Gold Cube website.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Depending on how far you want to take it, you can pan over a safety tub and save the black sands including the magnetic sands. Make yourself a little rod mill as detailed here... http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/panning-gold/456622-simple-solution-fine-gold-recovery.html and with a little more effort you can recover even a lot of the micro-fine Gold out of them.

Recovery after sluicing can be as simple or as hard as you want it to be. You can stop after you've gotten the visible gold like many others do, or you can work the sands for everything they've got. The later choice isn't that much harder, but it will take more time. For years I tossed out a lot of gold because I was only going for the visible stuff. Now I save all the black sands (both magnetic and non magnetic) until I have enough to warrant going through them again. This will also give you something to do when the weather sucks for going out to dig in the winter months. A small investment in some fine classifiers will also make panning easier and more effective. Like sized materials separate the heavies easier than when you've got a bunch of different sizes in the pan.

Get some empty coffee cans or some other closeable containers and save your magnetic sands in one and your non magnetic sand in another. Even the magnetic sands can still have gold in them so don't just toss them out. There are other recovery methods that can be used but I won't go into them now because they require a working knowledge of lab techniques as well as some special equipment and materials that can be dangerous to work with if mishandled.

 

[geolover]

Once you get down to the black sand, stop. As you guessed there is likely to be gold mixed in with the black sand. Classify it, pull the magnetics up thru water to a magnet and then pan a modest amount at a time. Lots of good videos on this process. I like the ones on the Gold Cube website.

Thanks, i'll check those videos out. Pulling up through water sounds interesting.

 

[geolover]

Depending on how far you want to take it, you can pan over a safety tub and save the black sands including the magnetic sands. Make yourself a little rod mill as detailed here... http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/panning-gold/456622-simple-solution-fine-gold-recovery.html and with a little more effort you can recover even a lot of the micro-fine Gold out of them.

Recovery after sluicing can be as simple or as hard as you want it to be. You can stop after you've gotten the visible gold like many others do, or you can work the sands for everything they've got. The later choice isn't that much harder, but it will take more time. For years I tossed out a lot of gold because I was only going for the visible stuff. Now I save all the black sands (both magnetic and non magnetic) until I have enough to warrant going through them again. This will also give you something to do when the weather sucks for going out to dig in the winter months. A small investment in some fine classifiers will also make panning easier and more effective. Like sized materials separate the heavies easier than when you've got a bunch of different sizes in the pan.

Get some empty coffee cans or some other closeable containers and save your magnetic sands in one and your non magnetic sand in another. Even the magnetic sands can still have gold in them so don't just toss them out. There are other recovery methods that can be used but I won't go into them now because they require a working knowledge of lab techniques as well as some special equipment and materials that can be dangerous to work with if mishandled.

thanks

 

[Tuolumne]

once I get down to the back sands I keep rocking the pan from belly to my toes up and down while tapping the gold pan on top to encourage the gold to keep at the top of the pan, then you will reveal the gold and have black sand in the mix, I then take my snuffer bottle and gently blow the black sand away from the gold with a fine stream of water while everything is under water tilted down, moving from right to left. With some practice you can separate the sand from gold while not losing any of either.

I use rare earth magnet to do final clean out once it is dry before putting it in bottle, Ive experimented with masking tape a few rare earth magnets on the bottom underside of my gold pan and this works a bit, but if the material is wet some fine gold always gets carried along to the magnet with the magnetics.....

having a mortar and pestle to grind the black sands down is fun to do while sitting around the camp fire too.....

 

[arizau]

I ran material through my sluce and then I started panning. After a while I realized that there was a lot of black sand (more than a cup). Am I supposed to keep washing it away until I get it down to a small amount? Or should I have kept the sand for any reason? I guess I'm afraid that I could lose super fine gold by washing it out.

I'm new

It has rightly been suggested that you classify and use a magnet in processing/panning your sluiced concentrates. I like to classify all of the concentrates (pebbles, sand and black sands, etc.) to like sizes prior to doing any panning of sluice concentrates. I usually do this at home or at least at the end of the day.

If I am just streamside panning, I like to pan to about the same level of concentration as that of a sluice (not all the way down to just black sands) and save those cons for future classifying prior to doing any cleanup panning. When mixed sized material is panned there is a risk of small or flour gold being unknowingly bullyed out of the pan by larger pieces of non gold material and this can be minimized if you classify.

Good luck.

 

[mytimetoshine]

"Hiding" in 5 tablespoons of black sand. I personally carry as much home as reasonably possible. Some harder to access places I don't bother though.

 

[geolover]

From what I take, I'll try to separate any visible gold from the sands, then I will go through the black sand at a more convenient time.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Now your cooking with peanut oil!

Some times when your panning in a large stable pay streak it is more efficient just to pan down to that last 2 tablespoons of black sand and gold and then just dump it into a bucket to take home. Then you can separate the visible gold at night while watching TV and drinking beer.

Then you save the leftover material/ sands for later rod mill proccesing.
Last night while it was 35 degrees and dark I was getting gold in my living room sitting in front of the fire watching movies. You want to be efficient on the field and off. Just my 2 cents

People will say it's a waste of time and it is if you compare it with time spent at the dig site..... but you can't be at the dig site 24/7 365. This is for when your stuck at home. Slow and steady wins the race jus like an old timer bucket line dredge

 

[russau]

How can you pan and watch a movie at the same time?? the movie (to me) would be a MAJOR DISTRACTION to what I was doing! Id be to excited panning and seeing gold to even watch the show!

 

[Jason in Enid]

Separating fine gold from black sand is a time consuming task. With practice and a few tricks you can reduce the total time, but it's still not something I would ever attempt at the river. You should only try that when prospecting to see if there is gold there worth working. Once you find gold, you need to pan until you have mostly black sand left and then dump it in a bucket to take home to finish.

 

[mytimetoshine]

How can you pan and watch a movie at the same time?? the movie (to me) would be a MAJOR DISTRACTION to what I was doing! Id be to excited panning and seeing gold to even watch the show!

I multi task..believe it or not I can even chew gum and walk at the very exact same time!

 

[Capt Nemo]

On location I always pan down till I have most of the blonde sand out, then bucket the rest for final cleanup at home.

 

[OwenT]

Yep just depends on how much you care about what's in the pan. If you just want to get down to the gold for a sample or something, just keep on panning it down but you'll probably have to put a little more work into stratifying to make sure the gold stays in the bottom, also might have to not wash as much out at a time.

 

[russau]

Myself being a F.O.G., when I went out id always screen the big stuff off and try to pan off most of the blonds at the creek side. I did this at the end of every day to keep from possibly leaveing anything in my sluice. this keeps anyone from takeing /dumping my days work! And I don't end up with a big load to carry back to my truck when done. I used to go out for 2 weeks at a time...... Maybe this Summer ill be able to get back with it!

 

[spillercanyon]

If I'm prospecting an area, the super fines are not worth the effort, I snuffer bottle the visible gold, take notes and move on. If I'm actually working an area, I try to spend as little time in the field separating my gold from my cons as possible so I can move as much material in the field as possible. If it is not too far of a hike, I'll hike all the cons out, otherwise I reduce them to the largest manageable amount and hike them out. If I'm working an area with just a pan (which means there is not enough water to sluice and it is not dry enough to dry wash), I stop a little before I have all black sand, I put it in a container and start panning the next pan, it's all about moving as much ore in the field as possible. After that, I process the cons at home and keep my black sands for future processing.

 

[geolover]

Myself being a F.O.G., when I went out id always screen the big stuff off and try to pan off most of the blonds at the creek side. I did this at the end of every day to keep from possibly leaveing anything in my sluice. this keeps anyone from takeing /dumping my days work! And I don't end up with a big load to carry back to my truck when done. I used to go out for 2 weeks at a time...... Maybe this Summer ill be able to get back with it!

Okay, Ill bite, What's a F.O.G.?

 

[geolover]

If I'm prospecting an area, the super fines are not worth the effort, I snuffer bottle the visible gold, take notes and move on. If I'm actually working an area, I try to spend as little time in the field separating my gold from my cons as possible so I can move as much material in the field as possible. If it is not too far of a hike, I'll hike all the cons out, otherwise I reduce them to the largest manageable amount and hike them out. If I'm working an area with just a pan (which means there is not enough water to sluice and it is not dry enough to dry wash), I stop a little before I have all black sand, I put it in a container and start panning the next pan, it's all about moving as much ore in the field as possible. After that, I process the cons at home and keep my black sands for future processing.

I see you read/understood my question. So while prospecting an area you do pan a little different than when you're working an area. I think that's what I have to do, spend less time trying to process my super fine material in the field. However, since I'm systematically testing this area, I need to keep my black sands separate with notes. It would be just my luck that I would put all of my black sands together, process later and find gold. I need to know where it is, which is different than just accumulating it. Thanks, I think I'll be able to process more material during the day.

 

[KevinInColorado]

F##king Old Guy!