Blue Bucket LDMA/GPAA Outing...

[Jim in Idaho]

Chris and I attended the Blue Bucket Outing near Baker, Oregon over the weekend. Chris is still working, so we didn't get there until Thursday afternoon. We met a lot of really great people, and had a good time. I demonstrated the Sweep Jig, both wet and dry. The wet test was easy. Reed Lukens brought me about 7 gallons of material, and I hooked a hose up, and we ran it in a few minutes. Had about 15 or 20 colors in the batch. Then, Reed suggested running the tails as a way to determine the recovery ratio. Did that and had literally, NO black sand or gold the second run through. On Saturday, I decided to go down to the ponds, and not knowing anything about the area, I chose a pile of material that had been dug from the pond, and was made up of tailings from previous outings. The material was pretty damp, and somewhat sticky, so a really poor material for running dry. But, what the heck. I told Rick Denton I'd just as soon do a really tough test, if i was going to do one, so I started shoveling. Over an hour or so, I ran about 1/2 yard of material. No water, just running dry. On both tests I ran bank run...no classifying, other than picking out the stuff over about 2". When I did the cleanup, I had a couple of + 30 mesh flakes, and some smaller stuff, most of which floated on the surface, along with considerable black sand. I gotta tell you guys...this Sweep Jig is the nuts. I know of no other unit that could have passed both of those tests, and it was really something that I was able to recover flour from damp material, without water. Certainly there was more gold in the dry test that I didn't catch, but catching any under those conditions made me really happy. I'm sure that running really dry material the jig will enjoy the same high recovery ratio as when running wet. Those dry wash deposits, and the high benches will be a lot easier with this rig.
I left my original 18" steel unit with Reed at the camp, and I'm hoping he'll get some time to run it. I really appreciated the time he gave us to show us around, and be sure we had what we needed.
Jim

 

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[russau]

Yep , Reed is a cool guy indeed!

 

[arizau]

Virtually 100% black sand retention with wet process and considerable retention with damp feed ran as if dry. I still believe you have a winner for fine gold recovery regardless of soil conditions and process choice. I hope Reed will put the unit you left with him to use and give us his report too.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Congrats Jim!

 

[Jim in Idaho]

I really think this rig is going to roll once it becomes known. If it captures flour, I'm sure it will catch the bigger stuff. Compared to a small highbanker, it wins on all counts....lower water requirement; lighter weight; no classifying; equal or better feedrate; equal or lower cost; superior retention on flour gold; What's not to like? And, it can be built in larger sizes to compete with the bigger equipment, and at lower cost. A 30" diameter model would have about the same working area as a 10" x 6' highbanker, or sluice. But, it would have all the advantages stated above.
Jim

 

[arizau]

I really think this rig is going to roll once it becomes known. If it captures flour, I'm sure it will catch the bigger stuff. Compared to a small highbanker, it wins on all counts....lower water requirement; lighter weight; no classifying; equal or better feedrate; equal or lower cost; superior retention on flour gold; What's not to like? And, it can be built in larger sizes to compete with the bigger equipment, and at lower cost. A 30" diameter model would have about the same working area as a 10" x 6' highbanker, or sluice. But, it would have all the advantages stated above.
Jim

About the only downside is the amount of concentrates collected per clean up for larger models. You're at about a gallon with current size but, assuming the center depth remains at about 2" for larger diameters, a 30" model would equate to about 6 gallons. The heavier loads and possible increased wear characteristics for large diameter units may require a different catch surface than your current visqueen...a solvable problem. An upside is that collected concentrates can probably be added to a current run (super concentration) so at the end of the day one still ends up with the designed volume of one run. Field screening will reduce that volume if you only expect finer particles of gold. If not a large volume of concentrates is a good problem to have.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

I actually did the original durability testing on the diaphragm on the 22 1/2" model. That ran over 3 hours, dry, without a problem, though a few cracks were starting to show up. The way to handle the concentrates is as you said. Dump them every hour, and then do a final run at the end of the day, and end up with a super concentrate. Center depth on a 30" model would be about 1 1/2". That equates to about 4 gallons. BUT...keep in mind that you'd be running without classifying, and can toss out all the bigger rocks during cleanup. That reduces the volume of cons significantly. Then, assuming you have a good idea of the size of the largest gold in your location, you can screen down to that size, further reducing the amount of cons. Should be pretty easy to get down to a gallon, or so, of cons on each run. The run all them together to get a further reduction.
Jim

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Another point on the diaphragm. The smaller the diameter, the more flexible you want the diaphragm. With larger units, you can run a tougher, less flexible material without losing recovery on the fines. Or, you can run two layers...one tough, maybe not even waterproof, material on the bottom, supporting the top layer of visqueen. Lots of ways to make this work.
jim

 

[arizau]

Yep.

 

[Reed Lukens]

The Sweep Jig was a hit here and I have it displayed in the office. We're having another outting this weekend, I need to pick up some visqueen and then they can run it at the ponds It was great meeting you and your wife Jim, things are finally settling down here...
Reed

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Somewhere my response to your post got lost, Reed. I responded several days ago...LOL
" I'm not surprised you and Karen were worn out...I sure would have been. That's a big job overseeing all that activity, and making sure it all runs smoothly. Chris and I sure enjoyed meeting you and Karen. Sorry I forgot to leave you that roll of visqueen. meant to do that, but spaced it Sunday morning."
I'm working now on a mini-SJ. Only 4" in diameter. It's for dry recovery of gold from black sand. I'll probably make an attachment for it, that runs from the same gearmotor, that is only 2" in diameter. These will be cleanup jigs, though the 4" could be thrown in a backpack for prospecting on a small scale, while out and about. While I'm thinking about it, Reed, text me your email and physical address when you get a chance.
Jim