all this black sand yet no gold :(

[supra8892]

May have found one microscopic piece but I couldn't save it it was so small

 

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[supra8892]

Also can't figure out how to put a pic up on my new phone...

 

[Jason in Enid]

How much are you classifying your material?

 

[supra8892]

It's beach sand I'd post a pic if I could figure it out I did find a microscopic piece I used me 16x glass to see it I'm running the sand through a fine strainer then panning

 

[Jason in Enid]

It's beach sand I'd post a pic if I could figure it out I did find a microscopic piece I used me 16x glass to see it I'm running the sand through a fine strainer then panning

No, no, no. If you ONLY have fine gold then you have to use measured screens and only work one size range at a time. For starting with "sand" you should probably have a #12, #20, #30, #50. A #100 wouldn't be a bad idea if you want to see how much true flour gold is there.

 

[supra8892]

Care to explain a little more? New to the classifying thing and new to stuff this small I'm used to a creek it's still powder but at least it's bigger

 

[Jason in Enid]

OK. Gold separation, is stratifying by weight. You can't get tiny gold to settle to the bottom when it keeps getting knocked around by bigger, heavier, non-gold.

So, you get a set of screens first, and buckets. You need a separate bucket for each size. Then, run everything through the first to get rid of the rocks, shells, etc. then run it all through the second screen. Everything that doesn't fall through goes into a bucket. If you have the screens I listed earlier, this would be 12-20 mesh because it's small than the 12 but bigger than the 20. Do it again for the 20-30 and the 30-50 and then for -50 (everything that fell through the 50 mesh).

Now, work each size individually. If you have a lot of fine gold in your spot, you will be amazed at how much you start seeing in the smaller mesh sizes. Just make sure you work those small sizes more carefully, it's easy to get too aggressive if you work it like working stream material.

 

[supra8892]

Ok cool. Thank you. Also what about building a miller table for the beach sand

 

[Jason in Enid]

Ok cool. Thank you. Also what about building a miller table for the beach sand

Miller tables work great but extremely slow; you feed them with teaspoons. They are fore separating gold from your super concentrates. If you aren't familiar with the terms, concentrates (cons) are when you work a large amount of material with a sluice, dredge, or rough panning to remove the bulk of light material. You can then hand-pan that until you have mostly heavies (black sand, garnet, etc) and these are called super-cons. Super cons have to be worked slow and careful, but this will have all your gold. There are lots of things available to help you do this clean-up, but you can pan super cons just fine and it's my preferred method.

 

[rodoconnor]

What Jason says is correct. Sometimes there just isn't any Au. Keep looking, That's prospecting Good Luck

 

[Duckwalk]

If you need some classifiers, i just posted a thread day before yesterday about some i purchased from amazon. got a great deal on them! i got the 20, 50, and 100 mesh to seperate my cons out so its easier to spot the tiny stuff. you can get the whole kit, or a pick three deal. Heres the post.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/panning-gold/416570-just-purchased.html

 

[KevinInColorado]

If you need some classifiers, i just posted a thread day before yesterday about some i purchased from amazon. got a great deal on them! i got the 20, 50, and 100 mesh to seperate my cons out so its easier to spot the tiny stuff. you can get the whole kit, or a pick three deal. Heres the post. http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/panning-gold/416570-just-purchased.html

A great deal and those three are enough to start with if you are processing just a few gallons or less material at a time. If you have more than that, a cheap cleanup sluice will concentrate your cons down to that point so those three are still enough for classifying before panning.

Out in the field a 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8 is also nice depending on the type of material and gold you are working with.