MESH SIZE QUESTION.....

[mattisdell1983]

hey guys just a quick question. I have a royal 30" stream sluice box and I went to my local shop today to buy a classifier screen for a 5 gallon bucket. The guy said to just classify to 8 mesh. Is this about right? or should I clasify down smaller? Up here in northern california(Almost in oregon) we seem to have alot of fine gold. thanks alot in advance, Matt

 

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[walldo]

My sluice seems to handle 1/2 to 1/4 just fine, 1/8 would be a lot of extra work. If you classify that small you lose a lot of time processing.
I new to this , but have found the more raw material you run the more chances of finding the yellow stuff.

 

[blynch35]

if you have good water flow just do 1/2'' you can fill a bucket pretty fast.

 

[Goodyguy]

Using the 8 mesh you will have a better chance at retaining the fine gold than if you use 4 mesh. Larger gravels require faster flow and knock smaller gold loose in the sluice.
If the gold in the paydirt is less than 8 mesh then run 8 mesh. If the gold is smaller than 16 mesh then use 16 mesh. The closer to the gold size the better.

GG~

 

[TerryC]

GG makes a good point, which is remove as much gravel as possible but remember, as you go down to and below #8, you must be able to look the gravel over for the occassional nugget that may be thrown out. TTC