Does the gold cube occasionally catch mica?

[rocky99]

Did my first gold cube run today. Only classified to 1/8. I'm thinking it would be better to get on down with the classifying before running the cube. Comments?

 

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[arizau]

If you are digging raw bank material then it is probably best to sluice or high bank it thus little to no pre-classification needed. When you are classifying bank run to 1/8" you are probably missing a good portion of the gold since it may be encrusted on larger stones or actually enclosed in clods or clay balls. When you have an accumulation of concentrates is when a gold cube or a goldhog clean up sluice would be most effective. The one exception I can think of is if you are running beach sands that are, by definition, already minus 1/8".

 

[rocky99]

I am digging in a creek with a shovel. Hauling buckets up to the house and putting it through 3 sieves 1/2 1/4 1/8. When I first started the run all the mats were immediately full of 1/8 pcs of sand. I am expecting that if I have gold it is extremely fine. So I will probably start classifying down to 50 and 100.

 

[arizau]

Wet classify your raw material if you are not already doing it. That will rinse the caked on dirt and dissolve the dirt clods. After minus 1/8 is run through the cube is the time to classify cleanup concentrates to the 50, 100 size. That was probably your plan but was not clear to me.

 

[rocky99]

What I am thinking is classifying to finer values before the cold cube because I was not happy with what I saw in running the gold cube. Could be because my water floe is somewhat impaired, I will remedy that. But the large grains of sand seemed to be blocking access for the finer stuff where the gold may be.

 

[Goldfleks]

I am digging in a creek with a shovel. Hauling buckets up to the house and putting it through 3 sieves 1/2 1/4 1/8. When I first started the run all the mats were immediately full of 1/8 pcs of sand. I am expecting that if I have gold it is extremely fine. So I will probably start classifying down to 50 and 100.

Why don't you just sluice the creek?

 

[Goodyguy]

What I am thinking is classifying to finer values before the cold cube because I was not happy with what I saw in running the gold cube. Could be because my water floe is somewhat impaired, I will remedy that. But the large grains of sand seemed to be blocking access for the finer stuff where the gold may be.

The pockets in the vortex mat will always fill up with material (sand and small gravels) but that is typical of vortex mats. Before running paydirt make sure that all air bubbles are removed in the mat as per instruction. Then while running your paydirt and the pockets fill with material take a close look at the particles in the mat, they should be bouncing around in each pocket and that is how the light particles are exchanged for heavier particles (gold). as the lighter particles bounce up into the laminar flow they will continually be replaced by heavier particles.

If the particles are not moving at all then chances are that you need more flow. The correct angle is preset in the design of the cube so you only have to be concerned with having the correct flow for proper exchange of heavies for lights. No real need for classifying below 1/8"

However for best recovery in any set up it is best to classify all material to the size closest to the largest gold particles that are most common in the material that you are running.



GG~

 

[mike(swWash)]

An 1100 to 1500 gph water pump is the recommended flow amount.

 

[Jeff95531]

Did my first gold cube run today. Only classified to 1/8. I'm thinking it would be better to get on down with the classifying before running the cube. Comments?

I can't tell you what a gold cube will do with mica, but I can tell you when I put it on my Miller Table...it acted like it was a gold repellant! But it was just being honest. It shot off the end of the table so fast I couldn't believe it! Made me sick at the time but live and learn.

and yes...smaller is better for recovery as is in uniform size as well.

 

[KevinInColorado]

The gold cube guys will tell you: there is NO need to classify to less than 8 mesh to feed the cube. It'll catch "everything" you want at that point. It does a great job of spitting out mica too. You'll get about 1/2 cup of cons per mat tray no matter if you run a few hundred pounds of material or a couple tons. Stop worrying and start shoveling (into that wet classifying system).

 

[rocky99]

Why don't you just sluice the creek?

No water to speak of until drought is over.