First Foray into Processing Crushed Rock

[Assembler]

southfork, yeah, a lot of them. I know of a couple, but the roads are no longer passable. I know, as one road to one of them just ended over a deep wash.

The area I want to try is fairly easy to walk around. The road is fair. And based on what metal detecting I did, very little man made metal trash. Tomorrow will be a walk about, as I have to get back through the main washes before the predicted rain hits.

Hiking some off the roads will help keep the pounds off and is a good work out.

 

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[desertgolddigger]

Try shifting your work out efforts to just digging and panning. When you start to find a reasonable amount of colors then start checking out the rock right there and fan out in the direction you think the rock is coming from. May be time to get out the detector too at that point.

Well, this area is new to me. I first have to explore, and look at what's lying on the surface before I try that. I just want to become familiar with the hills on either side of the large wash. I'll probably just take my hammer, magnifying glass and gloves just to get an idea. If I run into something, I can go back and have a better look. I would like to do all this before our summer heat hits in March.

 

[Assembler]

Well, this area is new to me. I first have to explore, and look at what's lying on the surface before I try that. I just want to become familiar with the hills on either side of the large wash. I'll probably just take my hammer, magnifying glass and gloves just to get an idea. If I run into something, I can go back and have a better look. I would like to do all this before our summer heat hits in March.

Don't forget the pan can be used both wet or dry.
If you can take a GPS with you to mark interesting out crops etc.
Hiking is part of the process.
There may not be much right next to the road ways.

 

[JohnWhite]

I don’t know if my info on this is correct…But many years ago there were rumors of platinum and diamonds somewhere in San Bernardino County…Or at least I believe I may have read something about it somewhere…

I could be wrong…

Ed T

 

[Assembler]

I don’t know if my info on this is correct…But many years ago there were rumors of platinum and diamonds somewhere in San Bernardino County…Or at least I believe I may have read something about it somewhere…

I could be wrong…

Ed T

The simple pan can be used to help find these as well. The loupe may be better tool though.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Don't forget the pan can be used both wet or dry.
If you can take a GPS with you to mark interesting out crops etc.
Hiking is part of the process.
There may not be much right next to the road ways.

I don't own a GPS device. I am not very techie, so probably couldn't figure out how to use it even with the instructions.

Never dry panned, so I guess I need to watch a video on that.

I plan on hiking over the hill to the other side. No roads on that side that I could see, though maybe there are some very old ones.

EDITED: Just watched a Jeff Williams video:

He does two things. He explains what type of rocks to look for, and shows how to dry pan.. The rock information, to me, was the most informative part of the video.

 

[Assembler]

I don't own a GPS device. I am not very techie, so probably couldn't figure out how to use it even with the instructions.

Never dry panned, so I guess I need to watch a video on that.

I plan on hiking over the hill to the other side. No roads on that side that I could see, though maybe there are some very old ones.

Just a tip you can mark with the GPS then later have someone help you connect it to a computer for further work. With hiking off of the road / trails you should GPS mark so you can get back there if the results are good.

You can just shake the pan dry then remove most of the material out with a table spoon. Leaving the bottom 1/4" that you put into a container for later process wet.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Just a tip you can mark with the GPS then later have someone help you connect it to a computer for further work. With hiking off of the road / trails you should GPS mark so you can get back there if the results are good.

You can just shake the pan dry then remove most of the material out with a table spoon. Leaving the bottom 1/4" that you put into a container for later process wet.

I just remembered that I have a GPS running watch. While it doesn't act like a GPS, I can still plug it into my computer, and it will plot my course on a map.

If I understand correctly, dry pan several locations, putting them in numbered bags. Then wet pan at home. I'll have to remember to walk in a 10 meter circle where I dry pan so that it shows up on the map from my running watch.

 

[Assembler]

I just remembered that I have a GPS running watch. While it doesn't act like a GPS, I can still plug it into my computer, and it will plot my course on a map.

If I understand correctly, dry pan several locations, putting them in numbered bags. Then wet pan at home. I'll have to remember to walk in a 10 meter circle where I dry pan so that it shows up on the map from my running watch.

Yep plot of marks on a map will work fairly well. Marking each spot that you dig will work better.

Buy a roll of small plastic bags or zip lock bags will work great if you mark them with a pen.

 

[Assembler]

The most important goal to do now is start finding some fair amount of colors then expand out from there.

The people of the past did not clean out all of the colors as the goal can be finding it still in the rock nearby.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I didn't go out today for the simple reason, weather. If it rains any amount in the hills, I'd be trapped out there. I'll wait a few days for the weather to clear then try. I've spotted several very large old timer digs on Google Earth. I need to confirm they aren't active claims before walking out there. The one road I almost got stuck on was the one impassable, so the only way I can see is walking about a mile. I'll walk that road to determine if it is as bad as I think it is.

So I finished mortaring rocks on my dirtcrete berm, and then started digging a hole I'll fill with rock to both catch rainwater runoff, and a place to dump my dirty water. That way I contribute a tiny bit to replenishing the local aquifer.

Will be done digging tomorrow, as what I read is residential aquifer replenishing basins only need to be two feet deep, then filled with various sized rock. I'll be having plenty of broken rock to use. :-)

 

[Reed Lukens]

Dry panning can be fun...once... but putting a water container in the truck for wet panning will get faster results. For small trips I have an 8 gallon tote, for longer trips with bigger equipment I have 2 of the 275 gallon IBC totes.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Dry panning can be fun...once... but putting a water container in the truck for wet panning will get faster results. For small trips I have an 8 gallon tote, for longer trips with bigger equipment I have 2 of the 275 gallon IBC totes.

Reed, I found Gwendolyn (Nissan Frontier) doesn't appreciate heavy loads, so I'm limited to a few hundred pounds in this rough steep, hilly terrain. I guess my five gallon water tote would do, though I probably will just use my one gallon juice containers I am using with my cement mixer. Much easier to lift.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Reference Post #170 concerning what I thought was lead, but turned out to be magnetic.

The material was wet and sitting on the table in a pan overnight. I just looked at it, and the material had almost all turned to rust.

So I put some water in, and panned it. And there is shiny gold colored material in the pan. Most of it is very tiny, so I can't determine if it is gold or fool's gold. There's still a lot of that metal that hasn't completely rusted, so I just put CLR in the pan, as CLR is supposed to remove rust.

Maybe in a few days all that material will have rusted, then I can again pan, and see if that gold colored material acts lime gold when panned. If it weren't for the heavy, large magnetic stuff still in with the gold material, I think it will group in the corner of the pan.

Anyone ever experience material that almost completely rusted overnight when it got wet. Doesn't iron Pyrite deteriorate when wet?

 

[southfork]

Reference Post #170 concerning what I thought was lead, but turned out to be magnetic.

The material was wet and sitting on the table in a pan overnight. I just looked at it, and the material had almost all turned to rust.

So I put some water in, and panned it. And there is shiny gold colored material in the pan. Most of it is very tiny, so I can't determine if it is gold or fool's gold. There's still a lot of that metal that hasn't completely rusted, so I just put CLR in the pan, as CLR is supposed to remove rust.

Maybe in a few days all that material will have rusted, then I can again pan, and see if that gold colored material acts lime gold when panned. If it weren't for the heavy, large magnetic stuff still in with the gold material, I think it will group in the corner of the pan.

Anyone ever experience material that almost completely rusted overnight when it got wet. Doesn't iron Pyrite deteriorate when wet?

I reclassified some materials containing pyrite and rust colored rock and used the mortar and pestle. Then panned with a little dish soap to remove more dirt I could see a few specks of gold let dry in the sun. Then I placed the cons in a plastic jar and covered with muriatic acid it started foaming a little. I let it soak shaking the jar every day for a week then I poured off the acid then back panned with fresh water. At first, I could only see a line of pyrites and black sands but slowly panning a line of micro gold showed along the edge of the pyrite looked like hundreds of micro particles of gold. This is an ongoing experiment I now have the cons soaking in a plastic jar with Whink to see if I can recover more gold. These products are available at most hardware stores rubber gloves and goggles suggested the Whink will dissolve / break down the quartz sands slowly and attack the iron that still in the cons. I have recovered a lot of gold over the last few months. Just a note I save the poured off muriatic and let it settle to use again with fresh acid. It makes a weak leaching solution for more testing

 

[JohnWhite]

Have you ever tried soaking it in vinegar? Or using some of this https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=oxalic+acid&_trksid=p2380057.m4084.l1311&_sacat=0

Ed T

 

[desertgolddigger]

I ordered both the Whink, and Muriatic Acid, for the future, whenever they might be needed.

Today the odd rusty magnetic stuff got a bath of CLR. That seemed to release some more rust.

I then roasted the material, with plenty of ventilation.

I then crushed as much that would crush and then classified it smaller than 75 mesh.

In the pan the water turned an ugly red. I panned the water clear, then ran my magnet through it.

After that, all that was left was silvery pyrite. No gold.

I guess I've learned a little more about processing strange material, even if I didn't get any yellow stuff. Thanks southfork for the guidance. I like learning something new as often as possible. Maybe someday I'll learn enough geology to be better at looking at rocks and rock formations to determine if any gold might be in them.

As for rocks, I sledge hammered 3/4 bucket of rocks, and got nothing. One little piece showed a few yellow glints, but I think they're pyrite. Two other pieces has beautiful green coloration in a few spots in white quartz, with a few spots of black. I'm keeping all three until I find better examples. I figure I can collect interesting rocks if I can't find gold.

 

[Assembler]

I ordered both the Whink, and Muriatic Acid, for the future, whenever they might be needed.

Today the odd rusty magnetic stuff got a bath of CLR. That seemed to release some more rust.

I then roasted the material, with plenty of ventilation.

I then crushed as much that would crush and then classified it smaller than 75 mesh.

In the pan the water turned an ugly red. I panned the water clear, then ran my magnet through it.

After that, all that was left was silvery pyrite. No gold.

I guess I've learned a little more about processing strange material, even if I didn't get any yellow stuff. Thanks southfork for the guidance. I like learning something new as often as possible. Maybe someday I'll learn enough geology to be better at looking at rocks and rock formations to determine if any gold might be in them.

As for rocks, I sledge hammered 3/4 bucket of rocks, and got nothing. One little piece showed a few yellow glints, but I think they're pyrite. Two other pieces has beautiful green coloration in a few spots in white quartz, with a few spots of black. I'm keeping all three until I find better examples. I figure I can collect interesting rocks if I can't find gold.

Try the simple dry / wet gold panning method for finding a reasonable amount of colors first then think of smashing rocks.

 

[JohnWhite]

I ordered both the Whink, and Muriatic Acid, for the future, whenever they might be needed.

Today the odd rusty magnetic stuff got a bath of CLR. That seemed to release some more rust.

I then roasted the material, with plenty of ventilation.

I then crushed as much that would crush and then classified it smaller than 75 mesh.

In the pan the water turned an ugly red. I panned the water clear, then ran my magnet through it.

After that, all that was left was silvery pyrite. No gold.

I guess I've learned a little more about processing strange material, even if I didn't get any yellow stuff. Thanks southfork for the guidance. I like learning something new as often as possible. Maybe someday I'll learn enough geology to be better at looking at rocks and rock formations to determine if any gold might be in them.

As for rocks, I sledge hammered 3/4 bucket of rocks, and got nothing. One little piece showed a few yellow glints, but I think they're pyrite. Two other pieces has beautiful green coloration in a few spots in white quartz, with a few spots of black. I'm keeping all three until I find better examples. I figure I can collect interesting rocks if I can't find gold.

Be really careful with the wink…It is still pretty nasty stuff…https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrofluoric_acid

Ed T

 

[desertgolddigger]

Try the simple dry / wet gold panning method for finding a reasonable amount of colors first then think of smashing rocks.

Assembler, I was following southfork's suggestion of not throwing away all the rocks I toted home. Instead, break mthe rocks I have at home, and examine the pieces through a loupe. That's what I was referring to in my previous post, not gathering new stuff.