Pan or Sluice

[sidvail]

The local spot I frequent is just a gravel bar with flour gold and very very small flakes No chunkies or nuggets. A lot of black sand. Color runs maybe 6 to 12 or more specks per pan. Definitely not enough to spend a lot of time panning down to just the gold there at the river. So my idea was to pan down to the black sand, bag it and take it home to run through a miller's table.

With that in mind, I took my angus mackirk 'Adventurer' this morning figuring to process as much material as possible, bag it and take it home. I classified to 1/4" and ran the sluice.

After about 2 hours, I put the sluice away and went back to panning. I found that I could pan down to the black sand quicker than I could classifying, feeding the sluice, clean out, pan to black sand, etc.

After putting the sluice away, i collected twice as much black sand in 2 hours than I did with the sluice. True, it may not be as concentrated - but I'm taking it home to clean up anyway.

One reason I can pan down that quickly is I'm not looking for chunkies - so it's just sluffing off the blondes and keeping the black. Quick work really.

Any thoughts on this?

 

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[Dustedyou]

yup i use a dual Gold Cube/Sluice.. and now a vibrating concentrator.. then pan look in Hardrock for the links!

GL and get the GOLD!

 

[omnicron]

The sluice is the better way to go. If you figure your time up once done panning everything including taking home and panning verses classifying and running, your way ahead running the sluice. Just based on the fact that gold will displace lighter material so even though you will have less black sand, your concentrates will have a higher volume of gold. I'm fairly quick with my gold pan, can pan down a load of material to just bs and gold in 30 seconds but there is no way I can pan a bucket of material faster then classifying and running through a sluice.

 

[GrizzlyGremlin]

Agreed i have put this to the test many times. Most recently last week. I hit a spot with very high water. No sluicing spots to be had. My partner and i classified and panned 5 five gallon buckets by 330. With the keene a51 we can run 15 buckets no problem. With hard packed material and big rocks it can take longer filling buckets than running them through the sluice.

 

[2020hindsite]

Your question depends, do you want some gold ( pan ) or more gold ( sluice )?
A sluice will always process more material then a pan.
It sounds like you need to streamline your sluice methods.
If you KNOW there is no gold in the blonde sand then dont even run it but you need to be sure so test it a few times.
Also mabe build a grizzly or some way to classify faster.
Also to save time dont pan what your getting out of the sluice until you get home or quick pan off the top layer if you want.
plain and simple whatever you can do to run more material in the time you have, do it, more material is more gold.

 

[Hoser John]

What is the size of that hypothetical sluicebox Must be tiny to be beat by a lousy pan?? A normal sized sluice can easily run 15-20 X the volume with superior recovery.John

 

[sidvail]

I'm using the Adventurer - 23 inches long, 9 inches wide.

The reason I put the sluice away is that the first riffle filled with black sand, but the following riffles would not. All blondes from there down. Black sand washing out the end of the sluice. I panned the tailings and found gold.

I changed the flow and angle several times trying to find a sweet spot - no luck. One inch rock rolled through fairly easy.

Do I need to get the end of the sluice out of the water?

Do I need to have more faith?

 

[Sample Pan Dan]

The adventurer from MacKirk is not a big sluice. Meant for small streams, and as a clean up sluice. I like the MacKirk stuff, but for my tiny creek, I think I'll go with the mini long Tom, or the Grubsteak

 

[WildWill]

The am explorer was the first sluice I bought 3 years later and I still find flour in the tailings, tried just about every angle and setting possible, that the river/streams allowed. Copied Astros diy 3 chamber fluid bed, and have never looked back. Might turn the adventurer to a miller table

 

[sidvail]

Yeah, i'm kind of disappointed in it so far. And I think I've got an older model also - it does not have the double riffle pattern as in the diagrams on Angus's website.

I built a nice miller table and have been using it to process my black sands. Now THAT piece of equipment I do like. Works like a charm.

 

[omnicron]

Hmm, try this the next time you are out. Set your adventurer at just over 1" of slope, water level at about 1/4 to 1/2" above the "riffle" and slowly drop the tail end down 'till a 1" rock will walk down the sluice. When I say walk, it should move about 1/4 of the speed of the water.

Are you positive that no other riffles have black sand under the blonds? Just last week I called AM and had a discussion with the owner about the sidekick I own that I use for clean ups. I noticed that the first riffle would have bs and gold but the other riffles would have a layer of blonds with bs under. I too was losing gold but what the owner told me was you need to start with 1" of slope and adjust the angle till a rock will just walk down the sluice. I discovered that happens with the "waves" over the riffles disappear (between 1/4 and 1/2 of water)
Granted the sidekick uses a pump but according the him, most of the AM products act the same way.

 

[sidvail]

I'll give that a try. Maybe I have the water too high in the sluice. My rock does move slowly down, so I feel I have the right flow. I have noticed waves over the riffles though. I adjust for one and it moves to another. I think I need more slope, as my spot is pretty level.

Thanks all.

I think it's a trust issue. I know what I can do with a pan - but with a sluice I can't see what's happening. I see the blonds dancing, but I don't see BS replacing them. Trial and error, right?