Finally, After Some Seven or so Years

[63bkpkr]

desertgolddigger,
Thank you for posting your adventures! Since I also enjoy adventures it is a pleasure to read about finding 'any size gold', thoughts about rebuilding trailers into mobile hotels, etc., etc. One thing to remember about tents is that if they are not held down properly they will blow away in a heavy wind. Since you are out in sandy country tie down's of a buckets (pails, bottles, etc. all plastic) of dirt buried in the ground work well. I do not know what the roads are like but having a good jack with some 6x6x3/4" pieces of plywood to keep the jack from sinking as it try's to lift the car to help lift a tire out of a rut is good equipment to have along - depends on now outback you go. I've been on an outback excursion where I had two flat tires with only one spare.

Currently I've just arrived in San Diego and plan on getting out into the hills out of Jullian, once work allows me some time off. From the sound of it you enjoy being 'out there' as do I so have plenty of fun while prospecting! Best of success with enjoying yourself.....................63bkpkr

 

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[desertgolddigger]

63bkpkr, Hope you are, or did have a great time prospecting.

I came back two days early because of my gold mining curse. If I even think of gold mining, something always happens to my car, and this time was the same, though not that bad, other than a $70 fee to have my car unlocked. Yes, I got stupid and locked my keys in the car, and had to call out the locksmith. So I just figured that someone was telling me to get out while the getting was good, and I just came home.

But I did have a great time. It started out at 3am Thursday morning with my drive from 29Palms to Coolgardie outside of Barstow, California. The trip seemed much shorter than the first time I made the trip. I guess that you get used to the travel, which makes things seem easier.

I found one other club member out prospecting, and he took the time to attempt to help me set up my camp. Minutes into unpacking the tent he said to put things away, as the tent was not going to go up. The hold down rings and straps had rotted off. That will teach me to check things a week or so before heading out.

So I opted to dig for about five hours, and then traveled to the Motel 6 to set up a five day stay, which of course turned into four. My problems didn't all happen with the car or the tent. I got flooded out in the room, as the tub drain was leaking. I sometimes wonder if I am jinxed.

Anyway, the first day I dug out at the claim, I decided to dig near the camping ground. I did a 5 gallon test, and with help from the kind gentleman who tried to help set up my tent, he pointed out that I probably should keep digging in the same hole. I had just scratched the surface of an old timer tailing pile, and found four specks of gold. By the end of the day, the gentleman was looking at my pans, and telling me I was doing very well, and keep digging in that spot. What I did was try to follow where the flow of water went from the higher ground, and then picked what I thought was a channel in the lower area.

On the second day I was getting lots of small gold, but I was still not down to bedrock, caliche, or clay, whatever you are supposed to look for.

On day 3 I hit clay, and some caliche. There were lots of rocks embedded in the clay type soil, so I chipped those out, and screened everything down the best I could. Jackpot!!!!!. Apparently some of the gold was in the cracks of some of these rocks, and apparently lying under some of those same rocks. I started getting larger flakes, and in larger quantity.

I also discovered to my chagrin that I had been tossing gold away that had leaked out of my dry washer when I put the equipment into the big blue roller tub that contains all my gear. I just thought it was dirt. But on day three I decided just to see if there was anything in it, and panned it out, discovering there was almost as much gold in that little amount of dirt that fell into the bottom of the dry washer, than I found in all of my pans. So I am guessing that on my previous outing and the other few days of this outing, I had thrown away several tenths of a gram of gold. Sigh! At least I have learned that you do not toss anything until you check it. And I am telling you and other newbies not to trust your dry washer to keep everything on the pad and riffles. There's a good chance some of it made its way down under the tray and riffles and into the bottom of your dry washer.

Day four was even better with larger, and more numerous pieces of gold. When I say larger, I don't mean heavy, just larger thin flakes. The largest I think was just under 3/16 inch diameter, but very thin.

And of course, day five, I came home fearing the jinx could end up causing more than just getting locked out of my car. I always fear breaking something while off road, and in the boonies.

I will post the mandatory picture when I process my concentrates. Right now I am drying out the concentrates so I can use a magnet to remove the majority of the magnetite, and other magnetic materials before panning. Do not worry. I will keep that magnetite, and look through it again, but this way I get most of the gold removed from the extraneous material quickly. I was taught this method by the kind gentleman who I met the first day. He has a big magnet he runs though his concentrates before he pans things. He says that doing it this way ensures that the gold does not get sucked up with the concentrates like it might if you used a magnet in wet concentrates. I need to get one of those big magnets. All I have is a tiny plunger type that doesn't always get all the magnetic material.

The weekend was the club outing to Coolgardie. We had about 10 vehicles at the peak of activity, which was a pretty good showing.

I think I talked earlier about our wonderful Senator (name left unspoken) trying to remove the Coolgardie area from recreational mining, and turning it into a National Monument. So far our efforts seem to be delaying things. But a new tactic is aimed at us now, particularly if the Monument thing fails. The BLM apparently is targeting our area for increased claim fees. As far as I know, they are only targeting the Coolgardie area for these increased fees. I was told that they are trying to make it so expensive to file or refile a claim that it will be impossible for most individuals and clubs. Once you lose the claim, they (BLM) will close off the area to further mining, or so I have been told. Needless to say, I am not happy with my government continuing to remove all gold mining areas from public access. I get the feeling they will get these removed, then sell the mineral rights to private companies for a large fee, something they cannot seem to extract from the clubs and individuals

But enough of this ranting and raving. I sure hope that anyone experiencing the same problems will write your Congress people/Senators to complain. both federal and state. It seems the off road people had a similar experience a while back, and they, numbering much more than recreational miners, won. We all need to ban together and fight the government attempts to keep taking from us. I believe our constitution prohibits the government from land grabs like they are attempting.

Thanks for listening. Caley

 

[rodoconnor]

Hang in there Caley , your luck is bound to change.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Still haven't gotten a picture of my gatherings, though I really don't know if it is necessary. I'll try to take a picture and post when I get the camera going.

I finally reduced my concentrates down to the gold, and the results are a record for me at 1.419 grams. Most of it was made up of very tiny grains, over 1000 pieces by my guesstimate. What I need is to find a way to concentrate the gold. Right now I am picking each piece up with tweezers, which is time consuming and tedious.

It was suggested I purchase something called a "Miller's Table". From what I hear, the gold sticks to the surface of the table while the other stuff flows off into a catch bucket for rechecking. Right now I still have -50 and -100 concentrates that I cannot get the gold out of. The pieces are just too small for tweezers. Hopefully this table, which is advertised to separate as small as -400 gold really does work. Anyway, if I get this, I am going to try selling my blue bowl concentrator which never worked for me, and sell it real cheap.

I had set a goal of 1 gram, so I am quite pleased. If my outing hadn't been turned into the typical car jinx, I believe I might have gotten 2 grams.

Maybe some day I will hit what I dream of, 1/10 ounce in a weekend.

With the heat starting to pick up, I doubt I will be doing as well. I cannot handle the heat like so many of you guys, but hopefully I can get a little digging real early in the morning. Caley

 

[KevinInColorado]

Desertgolddigger, you really don't need a miller-type table to get that fine gold. Go read my blog entry on finish processing your concentrates. Tweezers are great for +30 mesh gold, below that you need a suction pipette, which you can find at any prospecting shop for less than a buck. If we were closer I'd just give you one!

PS blog is at www.findinggoldincolorado.com

 

[desertgolddigger]

Kevin, I read about how you do your concentrates from the link provided.

I do have the Three classifiers, 30, 50 and 100. They come as a set. Got them years ago.

I also have plastic pipettes.

What I do is make sure everything is dry. I then classify the concentrates using the three classifier screens that are stacked. I then put each into its own separate jar.

Next I use an old plastic container and pour my concentrate into it. I use a Keene magnet to remove the black sand. I keep using the magnet until all I have left is the white material. I usually have to redo the black sand because some of the white material gets sucked up with the black sand.

Then I just pour the white concentrates into my black pan, and try to remove as much as I can. I usually can get 90 percent of the stuff removed from the pan. From that point on I have difficulty getting to the gold unless I use the tweezers. I've tried the pipette, but I tend to suck up more junk than gold.

When it comes to the super fine material, I just cannot pan things properly. That is one reason why a "Miller's Table" might be best, if it actually works as advertised.

I never do anything out in the field other than pan my concentrates to ensure I am still getting gold. I take my concentrates home to work on them. Funny thing is that I seem to be alone in not panning out my gold while in the field. I'd rather spend my time digging than panning.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate for next months get together in Coolgardie. Now, if I can only convert my Snow Bear trailer into an imitation pickup truck bed so that I can erect my camper tent inside its bed. That way I don't have to leave the mining area. It took me an hour to and an hour from the site when I stayed at the Motel 6, and on top of it all, I didn't get much of a chance to visit with the others in the club. I still dream of finding one of those tiny motorized RV's for a price I can afford. Would be nicer to drive that instead of pulling a trailer behind my old Honda CRV. Caley

 

[arizau]

To this point you have done two important steps to recovering fine gold; closely classified all of the concentrates and removed the heavy magnetic material. If you add the following two steps I think you will be satisfied with the results. First; carefully pan what you have in small (no more than a tablespoon and even less if you are still having problems with separation) quantities and sucker bottle or pipette up the gold. Second; dry what you have sucked up and transfer it to your vial. I sun dry mine in a gold pan then transfer the dried gold to a sheet of creased paper and then pour it through a funnel or just pour it directly into a vial.

Heavy pans.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Yes, I did try to pan the white concentrates, but unfortunately, at a certain point, it becomes impossible to remove any more of the fine sand without losing gold. Like I said, I can get down to about 10 percent left, and can reduce things no farther.

I had someone try to teach me how to tap the pan while swishing the water around to get the gold to climb in the pan, while the rest of the material falls away. All I managed was to get all the material to rise in the pan, and mix. Basically it was a waste of effort for me. I guess I don't have the right technique. Seems everyone but myself can do this type of separation.

I do dry my gold. I just put the pan with the gold in the oven on "Warm" for a few minutes to dry things out.

And I do use a creased piece of thick paper to funnel the gold into a bottle.

As you can see, my difficulty comes with the final panning, and the use of the pipette. Maybe I will eventually figure out how to separate the whitish material from the gold without losing gold. Caley

 

[arizau]

It is possible that part of your problem is incomplete classification where smaller mesh gold and other particles are mixed in with the next mesh size up. This can and does happen to me if I overload the screen when classifying and that is not hard to do since max classification occurs when only a thin layer of material is added to the screens and they are cleared often. It might be worth a try to rescreen. The minus 100 mesh is a whole different problem and may require getting even lesser sized classifier screen.

Yep, panning to recover small mesh gold has a learning curve and requires patience and practice.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Since my classification system is pretty small, three round five inch screens that stack together, they cannot take a lot of material at a time. It took me four rounds to classify what concentrates I had. Each time I had to dump the 30 and 50 mesh out into their containers because I thought they held too much for the next round of screening. So I probably didn't clog things up. I've found that the more you try to screen at one time, the longer it takes to classify it down, so I tend to go with less at a time.

I have looked for a mesh 200 screen, but never found one advertised on the internet or for that matter at any gold mining supply store. I get the feeling such a size may only be found for scientific use. Maybe you know a source, which I have been unable to find.

You are correct, While I am a very slow and meticulous panner, usually losing nothing, I am still learning what I lost after my long layoff. I did redo my materials I dry washed from two days, which amounted to about 80 five gallon buckets that went through my dry washer. I ended up finding 10 small specks of gold I had lost on the first panning. Further panning failed to produce any more gold, and I felt it probably was a waste of my time to continue trying to extract anything more when I could be digging. So I am slow, but fairly good with the pan. I just do not have that technique that allows me to separate the gold from the remaining concentrates by the tapping method. I was told I had too small a gold pan, and the wrong type. Mine is black, light weight and just has little bump riffles. I chose this type because I have arthritis in both hands, and have difficulty holding a heavy, large pan without dropping it.

I failed to mention, or did I, that it was suggested I get a larger magnet to run through my concentrates before I pan them out in the field. He said that trying to figure out what I am digging up will be easier without so much black sand to remove. I wondered what I did with the black sand, and was told to keep it because a small amount of gold might still reside in my black concentrates. So I will expend some money for a larger magnet for use while out in the field. I will be holding off on the "Miller's Table" for the time being. I may already have most of the materials I need for one anyway, out in the shed. Probably only need a table about the size of a legal size piece of paper. I never come home with more than a cup of concentrates anyway.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. I will give them a go next month, IF the weather allows dry washing, and hopefully I can continue in my own "GLORY HOLE". Caley

 

[arizau]

I don't use this particular one but it has been mentioned as a good clean up pan in one or more of the threads on this forum. I especially like it's broad base. Only 11" diameter overall. https://www.google.com/webhp?source...=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=falcon clean up gold pan

A made up 200 mesh classifier is pretty expensive but here is a source for screen material of virtually all mesh sizes that you can make work. Click on the top left item. http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-mesh-filters/=11o4qk8

Good luck.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Thanks a lot. I think that is the way to go when someone wants to get into the very small mesh sizes. The company has a wire cloth assortment from 70-500 mesh in 6 inch square sheets. That would be perfect for someone with the skill to use 4 inch PVC or similar pipe to create their own set of sifters. They are rather pricey at $68 just for those screens. It's something for me to think about for the future.

Right now I will just have to save my sub 100 mesh findings for later when I can somehow deal with them. Will also have to save the stuff less than 50 mesh, as this is also too small for me to get to.

I do have a question about black sand. I have been visually checking the black sands to make sure I didn't miss anything. I've been told that just because I don't see any gold, there could still be gold in it, and not to throw it away. Is this true? Or is it a waste of time? I've just been tossing it over my chain link fence when finished. I've plenty of open area to throw this stuff away. Caley

 

[KevinInColorado]

Good additional conversation. Given your arthritis, a miller-type table might be a better choice vs trying to learn the shake and tap method of finish panning.

PS I wouldn't bother with a magnet for field use. Especially since it doesn't really reduce the amount of cons you carry home anyway. Spend your field time digging!

PPS don't worry about a 200 mesh classifier until you have 20 pounds of -100 material saved up. Even then it probably won't pay for itself in your lifetime...that's why they aren't sold commonly.

 

[arizau]

Thanks a lot. I think that is the way to go when someone wants to get into the very small mesh sizes. The company has a wire cloth assortment from 70-500 mesh in 6 inch square sheets. That would be perfect for someone with the skill to use 4 inch PVC or similar pipe to create their own set of sifters. They are rather pricey at $68 just for those screens. It's something for me to think about for the future.

Right now I will just have to save my sub 100 mesh findings for later when I can somehow deal with them. Will also have to save the stuff less than 50 mesh, as this is also too small for me to get to.

I do have a question about black sand. I have been visually checking the black sands to make sure I didn't miss anything. I've been told that just because I don't see any gold, there could still be gold in it, and not to throw it away. Is this true? Or is it a waste of time? I've just been tossing it over my chain link fence when finished. I've plenty of open area to throw this stuff away. Caley

If you are discarding magnetically separated and, importantly, classfied black sands after separately panning them to check and see if there is some gold mixed in then you are probably not missing much if any reasonably recoverable gold. Be aware that gold can be disguised and wear a coat of black so if the black sand acts like gold it may be gold. This is particularly the case when panning equal sized (classified) particles of "black sand" and some act differently than the majority. Many save their black sands and, through various processes, attempt to crack them to possibly free gold that may be attached or contained within. They usually have large amounts saved up before beginning. There are several discussions about the methods used to free up "hidden gold" in different threads on this forum.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Arizau, thanks for talking about the black sands. Yes, I have found that occasionally something that looks like black sand just will not move to a magnet. I think I need to give those the crush test with my little prospecting hammer. If it shatters, then it is rock, but if it flattens, then it is some kind of metal, not necessarily gold, though it might be.

Guess I will have to store a bucket of those micro sands for future analysis. Right now I am just starting back, so I don't have much. I am assuming you are talking about several gallons of this material before you bother spending the time trying to remove any minus 50 and smaller gold.

I did some more research on the "Miller's Table". Right now it doesn't look like it is right for me, just at the moment. One person who is quite knowledgeable mentioned that it is very good for flatter pieces of gold, but those pieces that are round in shape will tend to migrate into the tailing bucket at the end of the table. I guess the table would be useful for getting most of the gold out of the concentrates, but you would still need to pan things the old fashioned way to get the micro nugget gold. Caley

 

[desertgolddigger]

One last thing before I move on to other things. I hadn't remembered that I had tried the sucker bottle with the blue bowl initially, and sucked up some stuff. I thought most of what I had gotten was black sand, but again, I was wrong. I dried out these findings, and then used a ferrite magnet to pick up the micro black sands. Seems that the fine black sand comes up easier when dry. I got 99 percent of the junk out of the gold. I measured what I had in gold and had another .108 grams, which brings my total up to a little over 1.5 grams. I am just floored at my luck on this trip.

I imagine that most of you would not devote over 20 hours to digging, only to get such a small amount, but where we dig was worked over during the Depression Era, where the Old Timers extracted just about everything over 1/8 inch in diameter. They stripped mined square miles of the Coolgardie area, but their tailings are producing that fine gold they either ignored, or were unable to capture due to technology differences between then and now. So, the only thing you can do is survey the flow of the land, and try to determine how the water has flowed, and find the low spots where this fine gold accumulates in denser amounts. I got lucky, and so far where I am digging has produced almost 4 times what I got my previous outing, which netted about .4 grams for three 10 hour days. In other words, I spent about 30 hours to get .4 grams, and this time about 22 or so hours for 1.5 grams, a significant difference.

And Coolgardie is better than anything I managed in the Gold crown District near 29Palms. There I only managed a few 100ths of a gram for 4 hours of work per day. My largest nugget was .2 grams which sent me yipping in excitement. I doubt I will discover something that size in Coolgardie, but you never know if one of those Old Time miners goofed, and left an area untouched. I can only hope I find one of those mistakes, if they did make one.

So, my trip is finally complete, and I am totally elated. Looking forward to our next club outing. Caley

 

[desertgolddigger]

Ah!, the trial and tibbleations of gold prospecting, and all its associated tasks. I keep watching videos, particularly the ones Dan Hurd has created while teaching his students. One of these videos is about the "Blue Bowl". From what I can see, I need to work the water valve more often while I watch the water levels and what is happening with the material in the bowl. I had been setting the water until it just trickled over the center hole lip, and left it. I wasn't seeing much separation when doing this. The video Dan Hurd created ( ) shows a much more aggressive approach as compared to what I have been doing. I think I just need more time working with this device to learn the finer things required to get good results.

So it looks like, based on Mr Hurd's comments, I need a few more small classifiers to fill in the gaps in my set. One key is getting the concentrates uniform, which apparently my limited classifier set is not doing. I doubt I will need a 200 mesh classifier for many, many years. Eventually I might have enough concentrates of that fineness where I will need one, but not at nearly $100 for one classifier unit. Hopefully this thread is not only helpful to myself, but others who may stumble onto it. I am learning a lot. I am learning that I have thrown a lot of micro gold out because I figured none existed in this fine material.

Basically, for those who are learning like myself, "DO NOT" toss those black and white sands away until you are absolutely certain you have processed them. If you don't have the equipment to do so, but have a friend who does have the equipment, ask him or her if you can use their equipment. In the process, you will learn how to use it, even if you don't own it yet. Caley

 

[desertgolddigger]

I continue trying to learn about the cleanup portion of gold mining. Most are watching others in videos. This time I was watching the series of videos on the Keene Super Gold Concentrator. I paid particular attention to the gentleman when he was panning what he got out of the concentrates. He ran the concentrates multiple times in his pan. What I mean by this is that he swirled the water, and tapped the edge of the pan to accumulate gold along the top edge of the pan. He would stop when he got a line of clean gold, then push it into a pile and use a sucker bottle to suck up that pile of gold. He would then repeat the process until he had gotten everything he could.

What was left was black sands and other materials which he said he would put into a container for the next cleanup. In other words, he did not toss the remaining concentrates because there is still super fine gold in those sands that can be recovered. So, again, don't do what I have consistently done, due to ignorance, and that is thinking you have all the gold out of your concentrates, and then throwing it over the fence. Keep those concentrates you had in your pan that you could not see any gold in. Chances are the gold is just too fine, but can be extracted on your next cleanup.

I hope this is helping others understand the problems that I have experienced, and what to do and not to do. As I learn, I will continue to write about my experience. Thanks again for listening, and all the suggestions. This certainly has been fun. CaleyAnn

 

[desertgolddigger]

Nothing new going on with me. I was wanting to go out and do some more digging this month, but we have had some horrendous winds blow through, as well as some flash flooding in areas. Not sure what the dig site looks like. If it got hit with the heavy rains, then dry washing is a wash.

I finally got all my camping gear, so I am prepared to camp for a few nights, whenever weather permits. I get the feeling that like many other hobbies, if you spend money on equipment you need, then the weather interferes with your ability to use it. Anyway, I definitely need to spend at least two days digging to justify the 300 mile round trip. Maybe this weekend. CaleyAnn

 

[Hard Prospector]

Glad to see your getting out there and having fun Caley