Arastra and dry panning.

[Steve Jenkins]

I just read a post about a potential Arrastra being found while hunting for the LDM.

Modern dry panning machines can be bought for a reasonable price. Some of these arrastras were used for a long time and often shared by several miners and or mines. The recovery was never a hundred percent.

Seems reasonable to me that with today’s gold prices any old arrastra is the ideal place to run one of these machines. It would not take long for it to pay for itself if one had any degree of success.

 

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[sdcfia]

I just read a post about a potential Arrastra being found while hunting for the LDM.

Modern dry panning machines can be bought for a reasonable price. Some of these arrastras were used for a long time and often shared by several miners and or mines. The recovery was never a hundred percent.

Seems reasonable to me that with today’s gold prices any old arrastra is the ideal place to run one of these machines. It would not take long for it to pay for itself if one had any degree of success.

The arrastra is a crushing apparatus, not a panning machine. It's a mechanical device used to crush lode ore from mineralized veins into a small enough size to then be able to separate metals from the host rock by gravity techniques. The classic arrastra setup requires animal power to operate. The panning machine is used to do the gravity separation - usually from placer sands, not lode mine ore.

 

[Lucky Baldwin]

I just read a post about a potential Arrastra being found while hunting for the LDM.

Modern dry panning machines can be bought for a reasonable price. Some of these arrastras were used for a long time and often shared by several miners and or mines. The recovery was never a hundred percent.

Seems reasonable to me that with today’s gold prices any old arrastra is the ideal place to run one of these machines. It would not take long for it to pay for itself if one had any degree of success.

Don't do it. It most likely will never pay for itself in the wilderness. Before that happens, the gov't will catch you running it. They'll throw you in jail, confiscate the equipment and possibly take your vehicle too. And that's if you're lucky.

If you're not lucky, some gun toting headcase will hear you running it, shoot you in the back and you'll join the 150 year old mexican skeletons in the bottom of the shaft.

Personally, I'd hope you just leave the thing alone. Finding an old ruin like that when you're exploring the backcountry is a big thrill. Don't steal that thrill from others for 1/2 oz of gold.

 

[sgtfda]

I bring my stuff home to run. You can run equipment in the national forest if you have a claim. Hauling buckets of dirt is not fun unless you can park nearby.

 

[Steve Jenkins]

The arrastra is a crushing apparatus, not a panning machine. It's a mechanical device used to crush lode ore from mineralized veins into a small enough size to then be able to separate metals from the host rock by gravity techniques. The classic arrastra setup requires animal power to operate. The panning machine is used to do the gravity separation - usually from placer sands, not lode mine ore.

I know what an arastra is, naybe not how to spell it but I know what it is and that is the whole point of my post. I know of an Arastra that is local to me that was used by ten local mines, many of which operated for decades. The area was too remote to justify buying and transporting a stamp mill.

If the recovery after crushing was not a hundred percent and it was not, then it would be an ideal place for dry panning.

That was the point I was trying to make.

These things are located all over the place out here. One has a better chance of finding gold in them than finding the LDM.

 

[Steve Jenkins]

I bring my stuff home to run. You can run equipment in the national forest if you have a claim. Hauling buckets of dirt is not fun unless you can park nearby. View attachment 1629345

Nice work Sir.

Steve

 

[Steve Jenkins]

Not all of these are located in National Forest land. Some are on patented mine claims that are no longer being worked but title is in someone’s name despite the fact that the area is now surrounded by National Forest.

I can think of at least one that fits this exact scenario and I know the property owner personally.

 

[Steve Jenkins]

I know what an arastra is, naybe not how to spell it but I know what it is and that is the whole point of my post. I know of an Arastra that is local to me that was used by ten local mines, many of which operated for decades. The area was too remote to justify buying and transporting a stamp mill.

If the recovery after crushing was not a hundred percent and it was not, then it would be an ideal place for dry panning.

That was the point I was trying to make.

These things are located all over the place out here. One has a better chance of finding gold in them than finding the LDM.

The specific arastra I referred to was used to separate load ore from about ten mines located in the surrounding hills. They all shared this location which was located on a neighboring mine site and they used it for decades.

 

[sgtfda]

Use a pick tool and a gas vacuum to test the site. It would be a shame to destroy it. The old timers were not idiots. They knew to clean out those cracks. I have 2 gas vacuum's. I can lend you one to try out.

 

[sdcfia]

The specific arastra I referred to was used to separate load ore from about ten mines located in the surrounding hills. They all shared this location which was located on a neighboring mine site and they used it for decades.

Yeah, they were pretty easy to build if you could find flat stones. This one is just up the hill from my house and was used into the 1940s. Somebody robbed the floor stones to use as patio stones in their back yard.

 

[arizau]

Edit of original post:
Apparently amalgamation with mercury was the main means of gold recovery per this google search. https://www.google.com/search?q=arr...ome..69i57.17367j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8. Dry washing the waste piles may still recover some amalgam missed in the cleanup process as well as some free milled gold that escaped amalgamation.

If the bottom is lined with stones then the cracks between the stones may contain some values but they have probably been previously cleaned. They are milling devices and were cleaned of ground material frequently. That said, if I were to prospect the area I would look for tailings piles nearby that consist of mostly sand size particles. Piles like that are easy to spot and are likely where the old timers used a rocker box or whatever to concentrate the ground ore to separate the free milled gold from it. In my area rocker box tailings piles are prevalent and where I run my dry washer most often. Rocker boxes lose/lost a fair amount of 30 mesh and smaller gold but my drywasher does a pretty good job of catching what they lost. A major plus is that the piles are pretty easy to dig and require little to no classifying before feeding the washer.

Good luck.

 

[gollum]

The way arrastras were used was:

They would be used to crush ore for the whole season. As the months of crushing went on gold fines would be pushed down between the floor stones. At the end of the season, the miners would pick up the floor stones, dig down to a depth of about 1.5-2 feet. They would then pan that dirt to get the fines. They would often leave those floor stones stacked so people would know they were already checked for gold, and not mess up the rest of it.

What you are looking for, is an INTACT arrastra. I know the story of a group of mines North of Apache Lake that used a common arrastra. The Apache chased them off before the season was over, and they never went back. A group of people found the arrastra (I believe) in the early 2000's and got about $17,000 in gold from it.


Mike

 

[azdave35]

Use a pick tool and a gas vacuum to test the site. It would be a shame to destroy it. The old timers were not idiots. They knew to clean out those cracks. I have 2 gas vacuum's. I can lend you one to try out.

i'm with sarge...the old timers didn't leave much meat on the bones..they cleaned out the arrestra once a week or so..i've found dozens of them over the years and never found enough gold in one to justify violating it

 

[Ryano]

RE: Intact Arrastra by Gollum

Pretty cool that theres stuff out there in the hills still being discovered or recovered in the 21st century. Especially where there seems to be little-to-no ground cover from vegetation, at least compared to forests or grasslands. I suppose its because the area is so vast and the environment so challenging ?

 

[azdave35]

RE: Intact Arrastra by Gollum

Pretty cool that theres stuff out there in the hills still being discovered or recovered in the 21st century. Especially where there seems to be little-to-no ground cover from vegetation, at least compared to forests or grasslands. I suppose its because the area is so vast and the environment so challenging ?

" little-to-no ground cover from vegetation,"....lol..i can tell you have never been in arizona...arizona deserts are covered with vegatation...nevada desert on the other hand is brown and ugly

 

[Lucky Baldwin]

" ...nevada desert on the other hand is brown and ugly

Not all of it's ugly.



You just have to look really hard.

 

[azdave35]

Not all of it's ugly.

View attachment 1629716

You just have to look really hard.

true,,,but for the most part...lol

 

[gold tramp]

I tell ya right now as a person who actually uses an arrastra , they cleaned daily, most of the gold ore ran back then was high grade, you wouldn't just keep grinding up highgrade, anyways it don't get pushed into the cracks that's poppycock.

If any thing they used Hg and scraped the cracks of amalgam and pulled stones, maybe? seems like much work to do like this.
Although i think the Hg was used more in the patio process for the silver n copper, correct me if I'm wrong.


The whole idea is to make a slurry that can be washed, and your only trying to release gold values.
Anyways I will have a whole section written on this contrivance in my book.
Gt....

 

[azdave35]

I tell ya right now as a person who actually uses an arrastra , they cleaned daily, most of the gold ore ran back then was high grade, you wouldn't just keep grinding up highgrade, anyways it don't get pushed into the cracks that's poppycock.

If any thing they used Hg and scraped the cracks of amalgam and pulled stones, maybe? seems like much work to do like this.
Although i think the Hg was used more in the patio process for the silver n copper, correct me if I'm wrong.


The whole idea is to make a slurry that can be washed, and your only trying to release gold values.
Anyways I will have a whole section written on this contrivance in my book.
Gt....

exactly...people aren't stupid...they don't work their asses off grinding tons of ore and leave ounces of gold laying around for someone else to stumble onto and pocket...these old timers were way more thorough than you think...dont believe everything you read in books

 

[gold tramp]

Milling was a big responsibility, you were the man had to produce the yellow from the rock.
If you was loosin much gold.
chances are the guy you were running ore for, the miner, would be getting a rope around your neck.

Gt....