Sheet in stream to catch gold

[reptwar1]

Anyone ever heard the stories about old timers stretching sheets across streams to catch fine gold dust? I have read it on several sites but now cant find any of them. Reason Im asking....just got off the phone with a guy that did something similar and caught just over an ounce of gold in 2 weeks. The guy then told me that his contact with USGS informed him that every 24 hours, $16,000 in suspended flour gold flows past the town that we live in. That price was in the 60's when gold was $30 an ounce. Allow me to adjust for current gold prices... Ready?...$541,560 EVERY 24 HOURS!! Now you see why I'm interested lol

 

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[chlsbrns]

I would have to check cause I dont remember but I think the ash/carbon may affect the flux.

Line a bucket with vaseline, add water, put the ashes in and swirl it around into a vortex for a couple minutes would be one way.

A flocculant for metals could also be swirled in a bucket of water.

 

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[reptwar1]

I will try that this weekend for sure

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

since the end is smelting, I rather imagine that like charcoal.zinc.etc the materiel is burned off duing the smelting process. Course there are other methods of recovery but they may be more expensive and complicated.

Yas I know, there are ways of strippin the Zinc, charcoal

 

[reptwar1]

Thats what I suspected

 

[Reed Lukens]

It's not his plant but no reason why he can't do both if he chooses too.

He can buy equipment and shovel like a mad man going after tiny tiny gold that is measured in parts per billion and can also get gold with little effort using OLEOPHILIC ADHESION while carrying on with his usual life.

You don't shovel into a rag plant either... It sits there as all of the gravel separates and the sand goes through it. Then once a year or more depending on your gold amounts, you clean it out. I'm just talking about a lot more gold that I can sit around and wait up to a year for.

 

[reptwar1]

That makes sense. I wish I did own a sand/gravel plant. Ive heard that plants in gold bearing areas do just as good with gold as they do selling sand

 

[chlsbrns]

You don't shovel into a rag plant either... It sits there as all of the gravel separates and the sand goes through it. Then once a year or more depending on your gold amounts, you clean it out. I'm just talking about a lot more gold that I can sit around and wait up to a year for.

I was thinking more conventional equipment not a rag plant because he already implied that he didnt own the sand/gravel plant. Even at 400ppb it would be over 2,000,000 tons of sand to get a gram of gold. I did that in my head and surely off. Its probably more.

The amount of gold that he originally posted about seems like a lot but there is a whole lot of water flowing. No matter what he does he is going to miss 99.99% of it. What he does have going for him is that the longer his vasoline is in the water the more gold it will collect.

 

[reptwar1]

Well, I panned the dust that I swept off of the barge, and 1/3 of it was black sand, and could see a bunch of tiny almost microscopic gold specs

 

[winners58]

best way to get really fine gold from sands and sediments from a large river is a fluid bed.
I've seen them made with just a wooden box and a 12v 650gph pump or you could build one like this.
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/dredging-hi-banking/452244-55-gallon-fluid-bed-highbanker.html
then you would need to processes that on a miller table.
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/gold-prospecting/443477-jeff-s-rubber-mat-miller-table.html

a good view of a fluid bed;

 

[reptwar1]

Thanks, I will take a look

 

[reptwar1]

That is a cool design and seems to work well, but the gold here has been pummeled and pulverized all the way from Colorado, down the Arkansas river

 

[chlsbrns]

Im all for fluid beds! They work great but do not capture suspended gold. Gold starts to suspend at about 74 microns. 50 micron gold is barely visible to the eye of someone with good vision. I would bet that most of tje gold flowing in the river is less than 50 microns. Conventional methods will not capture it.

Mining companies use froth flotation and such to get the tiny stuff. Why? Because they have too!

Im assuming that reptwar1 wants to do something similar to what he was told was done with mercury. Something that doesnt require a whole lot of time. He can use vasoline and other safe oils instead of mercury. The oils would actually work better than mercury. Once the mercury gets fouled it will stop collecting gold.

 

[reptwar1]

That is reassurring lol So there is still hope

 

[reptwar1]

I wouldnt dare touch mercury (in the field lol) so vaseline it is!!

 

[DizzyDigger]

reptwar: I have thought of doing the same thing, but then after
considering it for awhile decided against it. Just didn't make sense.

Yes, you could place a wide, fluid bed sluice in the river and let
it sit there and hope to collect some gold. Better option is to
get out there and prospect the area well, and then use common
methods (sluice, etc) to capture the gold.

This way, rather than wait for random flypoop to flow by, you
can target the best of the gold bearing areas and come out
much better. Plus, you don't have to worry about your sluice
getting buried, or worse yet, blown out (and lost) when high
water hits.

Also, do you know there is an EDIT feature on each of your
posts? You often post multiple times, but maybe a minute apart..
All you need to do is hit "EDIT", and then add your new comments
to your previous post. It's frustrating reading one-liners that
are posted one after the other, and seconds apart. Just sayin'..

 

[reptwar1]

My apologies dizzygigger. My only problem with conventional prospecting, is the fact that the gold is so small. Although there is a guy that did decent with a gold cube nearly 70 miles upriver. I have a few spots where I can run a 20 ft span of something covered in vaseline lol In Michigan, we had orange plastic fence that came on rolls with 4" holes everywhere which would ease some of the rivers resistance. Not sure if I can find it here in Arkansas though. I will try to find something that I can cover in vaseline though. I also wonder how long the vaseline will stay on the fence. And is the gold riding surface tension, or suspended yet submerged?....

 

[Jeff95531]

Wow. 1200 views in two days on a sheet in the creek. Can we say Gold Rush withdrawal

 

[DizzyDigger]

Something that doesn't require a whole lot of time. He can use Vaseline and other safe
oils instead of mercury. The oils would actually work better than mercury. Once the mercury
gets fouled it will stop collecting gold.

Vaseline and oil? Have you ever tried this?

Sounds like one big oil slick to me, plus you'll need a solvent to remove the
oil from the gold. Not to mention that the oil will float the gold right out of the sluice..

 

[Jeff95531]

Might as well have lunch ready after you do the laundry...

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152973749757906

 

[winners58]

how about sticky plants like hemp or Gorse then burn them to get the gold
Selective attachment processes in ancient gold ore beneficiation
Gorse is in the same family as scotch broom, but with thorns it grows wild up the eastern seaboard. (and the west coast)
"Pliny said Gorse was used in the collection of gold. The plant was put on stream beds to catch any gold-dust brought down by the current."
Ulex europaeus
I'm sure you can get all you want from the hippy conservationists eradication program
you might even get a grant for a study using invasive weeds to remove heavy metals