Improving a small gold operation! Looking for all ideas! Ck out videos!

[musher169]

Hello Everyone

I am looking for all ideas to improve my small gold operation for a trip I am going to make in May 2014. I have plenty of time to use all the great ideas here to come up with a sweet little wash plant by then. My plans are to feed the hopper with a small trac hoe.

I prospect and mine the mountains of Idaho with great success. I have a keene sluice box which works great for prospecting deep in the mountains, I then have built a highbanker/dredge combo with the same sluice box. A homemade crusher for hard rock mining was made. I lined my sluice box bottom with chalk board paint for final clean up. My background in mining is this. I have spent 99$ on a keene sluice box and built the rest of my equipment for next to nothing and that is my goal at this forum. To gather all your great ideas to improve my mining operation for minimal $$. Then use those ideas and go grab a few OZ. in may. It is always a good feeling to find more gold with a few hundred $ in equipment than those using 100,000$ of equipment.

First check out this video. This is the operation working last summer. This weekend we used shovels but we have worked this with a small tractor with good success.



I know the system seem crude but most of the gold is caught in the edelbrock mud flap and I believe we are catching most of the gold.

I have mounted the system on a snowmobile trailor to be portable. I am refining the sluice box system. I am thinking of in going threw the half 55 gallon barrel with improved matts, then to the keene box and finally to a le trap sluice I just picked up. What are your thoughts. Keep $ signs in mind. I have tried to make the table be self feeding with a vibrating table. Does anyone know where to find appropriate vibrating motors. A concrete vibrator mounted underneath did not work. The self feeding vibrating table is my biggest challenge.

Check out this video. I am trying to make something similar to this

I appreciate all of your thoughts and ideas and look forward to using them.

One more video of a test pan from the sluice.

Lets hear from you miners. Please post your photos, drawings, sketches! Thanks and good mining.

 

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[panningjack]

Looks like if you add at least twice the spray and give it just a little more angle it will self feed fine

 

[AzViper]

I have to agree. Lots more water flow as gold is being trapped in your main hopper until you do a final rise of the hopper.

 

[Goodyguy]

I would suggest that you look into vortex mat (roughtop conveyor belt) easy to do a clean up, will catch even micro gold, wont load up or pack solid like carpets and miners moss. Stays "active" which means it continues to exchange light material for heavy material and will reduce the amount of junk concentrates that you have to process.

Exclusively used in the Gold Cube. Great for use in any sluice that uses a collection medium, from stream sluices, highbankers, trommels, wash plants, and dredges. Will definitely increase your fine gold recovery percentages. Some have reported as much as double and tripple the fine gold recovery over carpet or miners moss. I have used it in my equipment for years and love it!

GG~

 

[musher169]

Okay, Double of the water is a easy enough. What size of pipe do you suggest at the wash plant with the increase in water supply? Do you have a favorite supplier of the the vortex matting? Any thoughts on the the different profiles of the boss hog matting.

 

[Goodyguy]

Okay, Double of the water is a easy enough. What size of pipe do you suggest at the wash plant with the increase in water supply? Do you have a favorite supplier of the the vortex matting? Any thoughts on the the different profiles of the boss hog matting.

I like your set up


I would set the hopper at a little steeper angle and make sure that the big cobbles cant spill into the sluice box. That is a big gold robber to let a rock sit in the sluice because it creates a high pressure flow area around it which can blow out gold. (see video)

I would also add more holes into the spray bar that goes around the hopper 1 every 2-3 inches.
That over head spray bar is also working against self feeding due to the direction of the spray. If anything put one at the back of the hopper spraying down toward the grizzly unless it would be in the way of feeding the hopper. Pointing the spray straight down on the overhead would be better than it is now.

If you go with any of the hog mats you will need a higher water flow, especially with all but the UR mat.

What is the length and width of your sluice? I may have some vortex for you cheap.
With the vortex the flow you have now is fine.

GG~

 

[musher169]

Lets consider that I am going to double the angle of the hopper and double the water flow, what is the best mat to use. I do not know the specifics of all the different mats on the market and all suggestions are welcome. This area has fine placer gold and there is a lot of small gold. platinum also. The mat is going to go in a custom made sluice based on recomendations for length width and length., then into my keene sluice, and then drop into a le trap sluice and finally into a henry henry. I would be open to building one big sluice box based on ideas here to catch everything. Also, any ideas on small little conveyor belts.

 

[Goodyguy]

Lets consider that I am going to double the angle of the hopper and double the water flow, what is the best mat to use. I do not know the specifics of all the different mats on the market and all suggestions are welcome. This area has fine placer gold and there is a lot of small gold. platinum also. The mat is going to go in a custom made sluice based on recomendations for length width and length., then into my keene sluice, and then drop into a le trap sluice and finally into a henry henry. I would be open to building one big sluice box based on ideas here to catch everything. Also, any ideas on small little conveyor belts.

If you are going to double your water flow then I would recommend you go with the gold hog mats. Check out their website first and e-mail them to get their advice on which of their mats would be best for your situation plus tips on the proper setup for their use.

If your first sluice is setup properly there should really be no gold found in all that other equipment. But It is nice to have some back up in case of an accidental surge causing gold blowout such as when restarting after a shutdown and forgetting to gently ease the water flow back on.

Here is a link to their website: http://www.goldhog.com/

GG~

 

[panningjack]

For the size of your plant I would think you'd want at least 1 1/4 inch pipe. I agree with GG, holes every 3 inches. I would keep the spray bar right before the screen. In fact I would have 2. Just make sure they are pointed straight down or at least slightly toward the grizzly. The purpose of the spray along the side of the hopper is to break apart the clumps of dirt and clay. You need those spray bars just before the grizzly need to give the rocks a good rinse before being discarded.

I'm just starting to use the vortex matting in my 4" dredge. I can't testify to its brilliance yet, but everyone seems to think its great. I seem to get a lot of little pebbles stuck in many of the pockets which takes away from spots for gold to sit. I'm thinking I might just need a little more water flow on that section of the sluice.

Gold hog mats look great and I'd love to get some. They're just expensive.

I believe that several different types of recovery areas in a sluice has to be beneficial. As long as each section is of high quality and sealed tightly. So having a few different sluices chained together should help with recovery. The draw backs would be longer set up time, getting the angles right on each sluice, and extended cleanup time.

Can't wait to see your final product

 

[musher169]

Thanks for the good ideas. Fine tuning this little wash plant are going to make getting the gold a little easier. These are the changes that are going to be made. If you disagree, please give a shout out!
1. Doubling water supply w/ 2" pump
2. Change tubing on separator to accommodate more water
3. Add more holes to surrounding bar
4. Incorporate 2 spray bars angled down to help with self feeding
5.increase angle on separating table to make it self feeding. Forget about vibrating table? More stuff to break? Suggestion?
6. Build a nicer sluice set up for upper end. I am thinking about making a 18"X6' sluice and using GG suggestions on mats and just run one sluice for convenience. Would like some ideas on a stop all system that can be built in the shop. What is a fluid bed separator?

I will post some more photos of progress soon.

 

[Goodyguy]

* Note: The standard vortex mat is only going to capture 1/8" and smaller gold. (which is great if you classify everything to 1/8") However, to capture larger sized gold you will need to add raised expanded metal over the vortex mat or else modify the mat itself. Pm me for the mod.

Otherwise, add a section of riffles with mat underneath to your setup. The more varied your setup is to capture gold the better, instead of running all the same.

Let me know the size vortex mat you want and I may be able to supply it with the mods already in place that allow it to recover the larger gold. We can do an even trade out for some of the gold that it captures if you like.

Dont give up on the vibrating hopper idea, it would make a huge improvement on the self feed.

GG~

 

[musher169]

Thanks for all of the ideas. Construction is coming along quite well. I slipped up the valley and got some good looking lode material to smash and try out the set up.

I am going to have a sluice box drop into an another sluice box and while doing that will be graded down to 1/8 - in a separate grizzly. My question is. With 8 feet of sluice and proper set up is the second grizzly beneficial because it is helping the sluice work more efficiently or is it a big waste of time?. I will also be putting one of the Good guys Fluid beds at the end of the second sluice.

 

[Goodyguy]

Thanks for all of the ideas. Construction is coming along quite well. I slipped up the valley and got some good looking lode material to smash and try out the set up.

I am going to have a sluice box drop into an another sluice box and while doing that will be graded down to 1/8 - in a separate grizzly. My question is. With 8 feet of sluice and proper set up is the second grizzly beneficial because it is helping the sluice work more efficiently or is it a big waste of time?. I will also be putting one of the Good guys Fluid beds at the end of the second sluice.

Most likely the second grizzly will cause more problems than it's worth. But I like the way you think.
It's great to throw in more places and varied ways for the gold to settle out of the flow but that doesn't necessarily mean it cant be overdone.

Just try not to end up with a gold to concentrate ratio that is way more time consuming to process than the additional specks are worth.
The trick to efficient production is to get fine tuned for capturing the most gold in the least total amount of time and effort for the size operation you are running.

An exaggerated example of overkill would be to have a washplant like Parkers Big Red and only feed it by hand shoveling with a #2 shovel.
Maintaining a solids to liquids feed and sluicing ratio of 4:1 is considered to be ideal.


GG~

 

[B H Prospector]

I like your set up. Like what has been suggested, more water flow, more angle etc, I think your feed table is too wide. In the first video you see alot of material just sitting in the center. More spray holes will help but still won't hit the center. If you look at the video you use as an example of what you want you will see it is much narrower than what you now have. A car starter can be used for a vibrator on the table You may need to off balance it. I know they make them for dump trucks and silos and places that need material vibrated.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

 

[musher169]

This is the new stand I built for my sluice set up with some oak I had laying around. I cut 5/16" slot in the middle of a 2" x 3/4" piece. To give the pieces some structure, I glued some 5/16" pieces of cherry within the slot. I admit the cherry was to give the legs some good looks.
The cross pieces have a bolt which was cut off, reversed and glued to except wing nuts.



I had to cure the winter gold bug, so I slipped up to some natural bedrock traps I check every 6 months or so and this is what I found.

 

[delnorter]

Nice Musher, I bet you made that bent willow chair too. ??

Mike

 

[specksandflecks]

I had to cure the winter gold bug, so I slipped up to some natural bedrock traps I check every 6 months or so and this is what I found.

That is some nice gold for sure. If that bedrock is getting replenished every 6 months with gold like that, you must have some pretty good ground.

Those LeTraps are good little sluices, but they are kind of sensitive to surging and might have some volume limitations if used directly with your wash plant, probably more so if you increase the slope and water on that table and get it feeding like you want, it looks like it's really going to process a lot of material quickly with a little modification you are definitely on the right track imo .

Not saying the LeTrap won't be useful, it just needs some help like maybe the 3/16"- 1/8" screen you mentioned and some kind of flap/damper, if you intend for it to catch the smaller stuff anyway.

There might be other processing options also, if the material is fairly close to fresh/clear water. Looks like you are working a bench maybe with that material placed there by some kind of equipment?

You might try to get a hold of Reed Lukens here. I haven't seen him post much here lately, hes probably still around though. Last I remember he was up to something gold related in that state anyway.

Anyway nice operation there, looking forward to more updates.