Help with bench placers with a lot of clay

[burtonridr]

Hey Everyone, long time lurker here, first post.

I found a location where there is a fair amount of fine gold, by "fine" I'm not sure what I have in terms of classification size, but judging by pictures I've seen, maybe 50 to 100 mesh. The site has a highway between the bench placer and a river, so no way to pump water to the site. I've dug out two buckets worth of material and started worked through it with a small pan in a tub, here is what I've been doing.

Breaking up the clay with my hand, panning out all the light stuff(about 15-20 min). The material I've worked in the past, doesn’t contain clay and so mush black sand, so I can usually work through it faster. But this stuff seems to just take forever and the heavy stuff doesn’t seem to fall to the bottom as easily, it's like I have to work it down a layer at a time. This is the area I would really like to improve and I need help figuring out a way to work through more material. Any suggestions?

Then I've been taking the heavies(lots of black sand) and put them in a soup bowl under a running faucet to further remove material(20-30 min). This part I think I will try building a miller table or something, I think I can cut this time in half.

Then back in the pan before sucking them up into a bottle(10-15min).

This has been working great, I've been getting a great amount of the fine gold in each pan. Problem is the amount of time it takes, and I know I'm losing some of the gold in the process(probably during panning and separating the heavies). I'm only processing 1 pan(small pan) every hour start to finish. I can get 2 pans every 1.5 hours if I don’t watch the black sand in the soup bowl and start a new pan at the same time. I'm looking for ideas to improve the efficiency of my processing a little. My goal is to be able to work through 2 buckets of classified material in a hour or two.

What can I do to remove panning from the process without losing gold or maybe make the process go a little faster? I was hoping to do a recirculating sluice, but I read on here that with the clay it needs a few settling vessels to help keep the water from getting to thick and not allowing the gold to settle out. I don’t know if this is what other have experienced? But, I really don’t want to build the large of a set up to run a few buckets of material. Any thoughts or ideas to look into?

Thanks in advance for the help

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[russau]

Use or rent a cement mixer to bust up the clay and itll wash out of the barrel from the water comeing in. Then you can pan whats left.

 

[bcfromfl]

Use or rent a cement mixer to bust up the clay and itll wash out of the barrel from the water comeing in. Then you can pan whats left.

I was just going to say the same thing, but you beat me to it!

If you're handy, and have some spare parts laying around, you can make a "poor-man's" mixer using a five-gallon bucket and poking bolts through to the inside to grab and lift rocks as you turn it. Rig up a stand of some sort to hold it, and just turn with your hands.

 

[arizau]

I've heard of people using a paint stirrer in a bucket and this might work for you too. If I were to do it I would keep a hose slowly running in the bucket to float off the fine silty material. Other than that, drying the material then smashing up the clods is probably the best way. Either way it is a time consuming process.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[Kenmitch]

Don't remember which thread....They sale something like clay be gone? In whatever thread it was somebody posted a recipe to make your own. Maybe use TN search option to find it?

Maybe this thread has some tips?

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/203016-dealing-clay-material-home-problems.html

 

[burtonridr]

Thanks for all the replies,

sounds like I need a better process to efficiently 1. break up the clay, 2. remove the clay by washing it out

I like the cement mixer idea, but I doubt my neighbors would all enjoy the noise...

I don't really like the idea of buying chemicals to break up the clay...

I might give the bucket mortar mixer a try, maybe build a hose attachment out of pvc to create almost like a fluid bed inside the bucket. I could try filling the bucket with water, hit it with the mixer to bust things up, then let the hose and attachment churn things and float the clay out of the bucket.... Heck I could even build a manifold to do a few buckets at a time.

Has anyone ever done something like this? Was it successful?

If I could remove most of the clay, I could classify the material down and probably pan through it pretty fast at that point... Or even run it through a recirc sluice, then pan or put the heavies through a bowl or miller table.

Hmm, I like where this is going.

Thanks for the help!!

 

[H-2 CHARLIE]

Pics of the fines

 

[Underburden]

I dealt with a sticky clay while working glacial till. The material consisted of crushed quarts, decomposed granite, larger quartz rocks, black sand and of course, the clay that stuck to everything.
I dealt with it by dumping one bucket of material into a wheel barrow. I added enough water to cover the material and then used a steel rake to work the material back and forth for several minutes. I would then decant the water and repeat the process until the decant water started looking cleaner. Next step was to add water again and then rock the wheel barrow violently from side to side, sloshing the material left and right without spilling over the sides. Repeat until the material looked like the picture below.
I would then pull up a seat and classify the material and spray water onto the classifier with a high pressure nozzle just to be sure everything was clean. The material was then clay free and ready to run through my home based clean up sluice.
This is a pic when I'm half way through the process.

Here's a couple links from 2012 & 2013 showing my method.
Dealing with clay
Dealing with clay 2

 

[njcommercialdiver]

where are you located? maybe a close member can help you out

 

[burtonridr]

I dealt with a sticky clay while working glacial till. The material consisted of crushed quarts, decomposed granite, larger quartz rocks, black sand and of course, the clay that stuck to everything.

This is pretty much what I'm dealing with, but throw in some basalt and garnets. I like your wheel barrow idea, I will have to give that a shot tonight.

where are you located? maybe a close member can help you out

I'm in southern Idaho.

 

[enamel7]

I just lay the clay out in the sun till it's good and dry. Crushes right to a powder and can be panned.

 

[utah mason]

Thanks for all the replies,

sounds like I need a better process to efficiently 1. break up the clay, 2. remove the clay by washing it out

I like the cement mixer idea, but I doubt my neighbors would all enjoy the noise...

I don't really like the idea of buying chemicals to break up the clay...

I might give the bucket mortar mixer a try, maybe build a hose attachment out of pvc to create almost like a fluid bed inside the bucket. I could try filling the bucket with water, hit it with the mixer to bust things up, then let the hose and attachment churn things and float the clay out of the bucket.... Heck I could even build a manifold to do a few buckets at a time.

Has anyone ever done something like this? Was it successful?

If I could remove most of the clay, I could classify the material down and probably pan through it pretty fast at that point... Or even run it through a recirc sluice, then pan or put the heavies through a bowl or miller table.

Hmm, I like where this is going.

Thanks for the help!!

If your worried about the noise of the mixer, they do make electric ones.

 

[Johnnybravo300]

The best gold is usually on top of the clay, not actually inside. Rarely is it worth messing with clay.
Clay is a false bedrock so clean off just the top inch and see what that sample looks like. There's no easy way to deal with clay and it's not usually worth the work for the little amount that will penetrate.

 

[goldhog]

Just a thought...........

Instead of spending hours and hours and hours working the clay... why not do more "prospecting" and find the actual pay deposits in the area?
May be just a short way off and contain gravels and other deposits with MORE gold and larger gold.
Clay is basically formed via a FINE NATURAL SCREENING PROCESS that allows the silica and other stuff in clay to filter down and settle.
Look for the gravel wash areas and sediment deposits left by water many years ago.

I'm lazy... so that's how I try and work.

Doc

 

[Hoser John]

EZ pz-just get that mixer and add 1 cup of NON SUDSING AMMONIA and the clay melts fast and look ma no bubbles to float away your fines either. Sod Buster a garden shop product does it along with Clay-B-Gone---get ya some and have a ball-John

 

[burtonridr]

The best gold is usually on top of the clay, not actually inside. Rarely is it worth messing with clay.
Clay is a false bedrock so clean off just the top inch and see what that sample looks like. There's no easy way to deal with clay and it's not usually worth the work for the little amount that will penetrate.

I'm not sure if this applies to the location I'm at or not, the level of sediment I'm digging out contains river cobble and boulders throughout what I can see. There isnt a defined layer of clay, we don’t really have clay deposits here, except in areas where the granite has decomposed. I believe what I'm dealing with is the decomposing granite type of clay, as in it has started decomposing within the placer deposit, a lot of the granite can be crushed with my fingers. Also, I noticed last night there is a lot of rust clumps as well. The term "rusticle" comes to mind, I saw it on a discover channel documentary about sunken ships, it is similar to that. The granite here contains A LOT of iron, one local spot I prospected was nothing but black sand concentrates with ZERO gold.


I'm pretty new to all this, so please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm just going off what I have studied in the geological surveys about the area and I don’t have a whole lot of field experience. I will pay more attention to the layering though on my next trip and see if I can spot defined layers of clay to try and sample above the layer though. On the last trip I mostly tried to dig the areas showing signs of rust from the iron deposits.

Just a thought...........

Instead of spending hours and hours and hours working the clay... why not do more "prospecting" and find the actual pay deposits in the area?
May be just a short way off and contain gravels and other deposits with MORE gold and larger gold.
Clay is basically formed via a FINE NATURAL SCREENING PROCESS that allows the silica and other stuff in clay to filter down and settle.
Look for the gravel wash areas and sediment deposits left by water many years ago.

I'm lazy... so that's how I try and work.

Doc

Lol lazy could easily be replaced with the word efficient

That would be nice, I will scout around and see what I can find.

A little off subject, but how well does that fluid bed you made work for material like this that contains a lot of heavies and fine gold? The material behaves like you suggested in your panning video(tried the technique last night, it works awesome btw) where the gold is locked up in the bland sand slurry. In your experience does would the fluid bed work to help remove some of the black sand without losing fine gold?

It would be awesome if I could reduce the material to a couple of pans of concentrate instead of working though 10 to 15 pans per bucket. I will probably end up with 1/3 of a quart size mason jar filled with black sand by the time I finish this bucket of material, and that is with panning a lot of it out.

 

[goldhog]

Lol lazy could easily be replaced with the word efficient

That would be nice, I will scout around and see what I can find.

A little off subject, but how well does that fluid bed you made work for material like this that contains a lot of heavies and fine gold? The material behaves like you suggested in your panning video(tried the technique last night, it works awesome btw) where the gold is locked up in the bland sand slurry. In your experience does would the fluid bed work to help remove some of the black sand without losing fine gold?

It would be awesome if I could reduce the material to a couple of pans of concentrate instead of working though 10 to 15 pans per bucket. I will probably end up with 1/3 of a quart size mason jar filled with black sand by the time I finish this bucket of material, and that is with panning a lot of it out.

Fluid beds suffer from impaction (over time) as well and are subject to the rules of hydraulic equivalence just like any other water based system.
So they work well for SMALL amounts of material / runs but will also load up just like anything else over time.
Then you have to "turn up" the power / exchange / flow and risk the very fine gold moving out to keep the system fluidized.
One way to help this is to classify very small. But again, you get into the TIME thing.
I would just break up the clay, turn it into a slurry, then run it over a small recir sluice.
Doc

 

[burtonridr]

Hmm, that's a bummer about the fluid bed.... I thought it was going to be the silver bullet.

I've got a 1100 GPH pump on order from amazon, and I can classify the material down to 1/4" pretty easily after washing in the wheel borrow, also I might be able to easily classify it further pretty easy. After washing in the wheel borrow, I can put it through a few classifiers pretty quick using a hose.

So having material that is pretty well washed of clay and classified, what would be a good style of recirculating sluice to build knowing it is full of heavies and fine gold? Poop tube? Rain splash plate? Miller table? I'm not sure which is going to work best and really move material without spending a fortune.

 

[Jeff95531]

Got a Home Depot near by? For $2.10, I sure would try this on the end of my cordless drill.

Warner 1-3/4 in. Spiral Mixer for 1-5-gal. Epoxy-205322 - The Home Depot

Don't forget the Jet Dry!

 

[nadavis]

The best thing I have used is a hydroforce nozzle feeding into a crashbox style dredge. Works way better than my trommel. Need a supply or water for recirculating, a small pond built with visqueen works. there will be a small loss with really dirty water, but processing on site is so much faster it should make up the difference and then some.