First Foray into Processing Crushed Rock

[desertgolddigger]

Did another small amount of the highly mineralized rocks. This time it amounted to about 1 1/2 times the amount I processed yesterday.

Results were 1 piece between 16 and 50 mesh. Nothing from 51-99 mesh. And got about twice the amount smaller than 100 mesh.

I think I'll revisit the dig site once I process the last two very large rocks I hauled down the hillside. I'm guessing they amount to twice what I did today for each rock.

Even though it's really messy panning this stuff, I believe the frustration factor I've been having with quartz associated rock is something I can deal with. I just need to figure out where to dump the red water.

I'm guessing that because this stuff is highly mineralized, it contains toxic chemicals/elements. I'm wearing a mask when crushing, and gloves when panning.

 

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[arizau]

I'm guessing that because this stuff is highly mineralized, it contains toxic chemicals/elements. I'm wearing a mask when crushing, and gloves when panning.

Considering it's source it is likely the red coloration is from an iron mineral such as iron oxide....natural rust.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Here's my Blue Bowl Setup. It's just a little table with a hole in the top to hold the Bowl. I never could get the supports that came with the bowl to work.

The black tube below is a catcher for what the Bowl expels.

You probably can't see them, but there are four screws to adjust everything to level.

theres a plastic protective strip with a multi outlet strip mounted. I can have four devices plugged in, and each outlet had an on/off switch.

The water is controlled by a needle valve. I have a lot of control of the flow.

Except for the valve, it's all stuff I had laying around.

Here's the results of my Blue Bowl setup: FAILURE!!!

Reason is the valve I purchased is designed for very high pressure. Even with an 850 GPH pump, the water barely moves in the Bowl.

I somehow misplaced my original control valve, so I'll be ordering another, unless someone could please link me to a valve that'll work.

I've had this thing for about 15 years, and I've never gotten it to work properly.

 

[JohnWhite]

Here's the results of my Blue Bowl setup: FAILURE!!!

Reason is the valve I purchased is designed for very high pressure. Even with an 850 GPH pump, the water barely moves in the Bowl.

I somehow misplaced my original control valve, so I'll be ordering another, unless someone could please link me to a valve that'll work.

I've had this thing for about 15 years, and I've never gotten it to work properly.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1651651718...fMyrMmKt3ZJokDR8Zh8ac2y5Bg==|tkp:BFBM-tLGsKRh

You should try one of these valves…And I used to use one of these cheap pumps from harbor freight as well…

 

[arizau]

Here's the results of my Blue Bowl setup: FAILURE!!!

Reason is the valve I purchased is designed for very high pressure. Even with an 850 GPH pump, the water barely moves in the Bowl.

I somehow misplaced my original control valve, so I'll be ordering another, unless someone could please link me to a valve that'll work.

I've had this thing for about 15 years, and I've never gotten it to work properly.

From what I understand, a gate valve provides more precise and gradual adjustability than ball valves....that is what is needed for your usage. Available wherever hardware is sold.


Good luck.

 

[desertgolddigger]

From what I understand, a gate valve provides more precise and gradual adjustability than ball valves....that is what is needed for your usage. Available wherever hardware is sold.


Good luck.

I shopped the local Home Depot, and finally found all the parts I needed to make this thing work. Now I just need to work with it until it moves the material properly.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Yesterday, was to be primarily a diggin g day for placer gold. And I did get a little, 0.060 gram.

I decided that since I was done very early, I'd hike up to the place I found the very mineralized rocks. I picked up two 1/3rd buckets. Anything heavier would've done me in over a quarter mile, even with most of it downhill.

I jumped in the truck, but stopped twice to remove boulders, and large rocks I call tire busters from the road. On the second stop I realized I'd left my sunglasses up at the quarry. So I proceeded up there, but couldn't find the place, as I'd started out about 300 feet from my normal starting place.

But I discovered another half a dozen old timer digs, though they don't look promising. after about a mile of frustration, I finally found my quarry, and sunglasses, and finally headed home.

I did pick up three additional rocks from the largest quarry, but the results were a zilch. so I think the only place that has any gold left is the mineralized one. The debris field is pretty big, so I'll have a lot of ground to pick over, and detect.

Also, out about half a mile is a road that looks like it meets up with our claim. It might have in the past, but there's a high wash that cuts any access off. I'll have to hike out that way during the cool months, to see what is down there along that road, and out of sight. Since the old timers made that road, I can only guess it was to access other mines.

If there's actually anything out there, and not claimed, which it seems, according to Land Matters, I'm going to have to figure out how to get to it with my truck. If it is an isolated mining area, it might not have been detected, let alone picked over by the hard rock miners of today.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I just looked at the area with Google Earth Pro, There's definitely the remnants of an old timer road, and it seems to end at what looks like over a dozen small quarries, and possibly something larger. There's also several foot paths in that area, leading to what looks like additional digs.

Looks like I may have a full day of walking just to check out the areas.

Like I said, that road used to branch off of our claim road. If the new area looks promising, I will have to find a new way through that gully to that old road, and it looks old, not used in many decades.

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Some old timers carried: nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, and sodium hydroxide with them into the field…They seemed to have known much more than we ever will…

Muriatic acid is dirt cheap…it is basically the same as hydrochloric acid, though it contains iron…
.

Great thread !!! Just a small point. They are the same thing with different name and any iron you find is a contaminant.

.
And if you do decide to use any chemicals…Be careful…One of my little areas has a large amount of sulfides and when exposed to muriatic acid h2s forms…

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Ed T

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Just a heads up on the turbo mat a few dabs of silicon to hold it down is not enough. Per instructions I tried it and what happens is the micro gold gets under the mat. I suggest putting a bead all the way around that's what I'm doing it's a pain to try and wash the gold out. Happy mining

What has the world come to? Who would have ever thought they would read about anyone complaining about all that filthy gold gumming up the works !

 

[desertgolddigger]

Today I crushed the last six mineralized rocks. These things are unbelievable. They are so rusty, no matter how much washing I do, the water is still a dull red. I tried the magnet, and could never rid myself of al the magnetics.

But I guess that if you have messy rocks,mgold likes them. The gold by the hundreds of specks, maybe thousands. They're just so small it's nearly impossible to pan them.

Is there na tapping method that will scoot the gold one way, and the overburden the other. I tried everything to separate the gold, and it just isn't happening with this little gold.

EDITED: I'm the victim of April Fool in December. The reason why the gold wouldn't drop to the corner of the pan while the overburden moved out of the way was quite simple, Fools Gold, with a little regular gold mixed in. It took my hand microscope to see the color and shape up close. DUH!!!!!So what I'll do is pan everything, and what stays in the corner of the pan should be gold. But I'll use the microscope again just to make sure

 

[desertgolddigger]

MYSTERY ROAD PUZZLE SOLVED:

Today I was to pour another slab of my sidewalk. That didn't happen, as everything froze. No water, as my premeasured bottles were the victims.

So I didn't want to waste a day, and headed out to solve a mystery. I couldn't find a place to park off of the claim back road, so I had to park where I normally do when going up to gather mineralized rocks.

About 1/4 mile into my walk, detecting all the way, I came to the big wash, crossed it to the road, and went to look for the beginning part. I got a beep, but it again was a cartridge casing fragment.The road definitely fed into our claims back road.

I followed this old road to its end, where several foot paths branched off. I took one to the right, and it passed several old timer test panning piles. At the end, there was one quarry that had been worked a little, then abandoned. This path proceeded uphill, and disappeared. I decided not to go up that way.

I went back down to the roadhead, and tried a path to the left, discovering that this path led up to my mineralized rock gathering place, and branched several ways towards the other old time digs.

Conclusion is that this road was for vehicles to get loaded, But the ore had to be hauled either by hand, or possibly wheelbarrow. The way up to these digs is just too steep and blocked by outcrops to have had a road put in.

So, there aren't any new places to gather rocks. So I brought back a few more in my old Marine backpack I've had for years. Much easier once on my shoulders to carry the rocks.

On the way out, I stopped, picked up gravel for our access road, and laid a few more feet.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I'm kind of disappointed I didn't notice all this pyrite before. Some is acting just like gold when panning, staying in the corner, while all the other stuff floats down the pan.

I now have to go back and redo all of what I thought was gold, and if it's mixed gold and pyrites, I am at a loss about how to separate them, if the pyrite pans exactly like gold.

Maybe getting into this hardrock thing might have been a mistake. The returns will never pay for the equipment, either with the hardrock stuff or the placer stuff. The placer stuff, at least keeps me healthy

 

[southfork]

Today I crushed the last six mineralized rocks. These things are unbelievable. They are so rusty, no matter how much washing I do, the water is still a dull red. I tried the magnet, and could never rid myself of al the magnetics.

But I guess that if you have messy rocks,mgold likes them. The gold by the hundreds of specks, maybe thousands. They're just so small it's nearly impossible to pan them.

Is there na tapping method that will scoot the gold one way, and the overburden the other. I tried everything to separate the gold, and it just isn't happening with this little gold.

EDITED: I'm the victim of April Fool in December. The reason why the gold wouldn't drop to the corner of the pan while the overburden moved out of the way was quite simple, Fools Gold, with a little regular gold mixed in. It took my hand microscope to see the color and shape up close. DUH!!!!!So what I'll do is pan everything, and what stays in the corner of the pan should be gold. But I'll use the microscope again just to make sure

I have the same thing here sometimes hundreds of pieces of gold dust the next time it's mixed with pyrites and the water is red mud. But not a problem my ground is red also I mix the slurry with soap to drop the gold and let the dirty water slowly top the bucket and return to the earth. Right now, I have dirty concentrates in plastic jars soaking in muriatic acid to break it down a little more.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I have the same thing here sometimes hundreds of pieces of gold dust the next time it's mixed with pyrites and the water is red mud. But not a problem my ground is red also I mix the slurry with soap to drop the gold and let the dirty water slowly top the bucket and return to the earth. Right now, I have dirty concentrates in plastic jars soaking in muriatic acid to break it down a little more.

southfork, are you saying you put your material in buckets, then run water until they clear? I sure wish I had a large enough property to do that. In order for me to do the same, I would have to excavate about a 10x10x4 foot area, and then fill with rocks to absorb all that dirty water.

Right now I have difficulty tossing 5 gallons of dirty water from stuff like reddish water.

I don't have that problem with my dry washer tailing water, as it is clear enough to water my cactus with. They seem to be happy with that dirty water.

 

[desertgolddigger]

@southfork How do you process your larger mesh material 99 mesh and larger? I'm trying the Blue Bowl with 70-99 mesh material, and the bowl isn't liking it. I get the feeling the Blue Bowl is for material that is heavily concentrated from material run through something like a mini sluice.

@Anyone Someone mentioned cleaning the black sands and other magnetics using Neodymium magnets. Currently I'm swirling a round flat one in the pan, then picking the magnetics off the magnet. This is both dirty, and time consuming. Can someone point me to long strong ones. And is there any kind of plan that shows how to build the framework for them that can be placed, and removed from the underside of the Miller Table?

Though I think that my Royal 50 inch recirculating sluice would be a better candidate, I could remove the ribbed rubber mat that's at on the upper section, and use the magnets. I purchased a valve to control the flow of water
based on the size of material. I had hoped this would allow me to run more material more quickly, saving some time. Doing both on the same sluice would be wonderful.

Somehow I need to find a way of cutting some of the time and labor from the processing of crushed rock material. I now have 50, 70 and 100 mesh screens for 5 gallon buckets, which is a real time saver, versus those little 4 inch hand classifiers I was using.

 

[arizau]

@southfork How do you process your larger mesh material 99 mesh and larger? I'm trying the Blue Bowl with 70-99 mesh material, and the bowl isn't liking it. I get the feeling the Blue Bowl is for material that is heavily concentrated from material run through something like a mini sluice.

@Anyone Someone mentioned cleaning the black sands and other magnetics using Neodymium magnets. Currently I'm swirling a round flat one in the pan, then picking the magnetics off the magnet. This is both dirty, and time consuming. Can someone point me to long strong ones. And is there any kind of plan that shows how to build the framework for them that can be placed, and removed from the underside of the Miller Table?

Though I think that my Royal 50 inch recirculating sluice would be a better candidate, I could remove the ribbed rubber mat that's at on the upper section, and use the magnets. I purchased a valve to control the flow of water
based on the size of material. I had hoped this would allow me to run more material more quickly, saving some time. Doing both on the same sluice would be wonderful.

Somehow I need to find a way of cutting some of the time and labor from the processing of crushed rock material. I now have 50, 70 and 100 mesh screens for 5 gallon buckets, which is a real time saver, versus those little 4 inch hand classifiers I was using.

You need a nonmagnetic barrier between the magnet and the black sand. A plastic bag inside a plastic bag*works.....old pill bottles, 35mm film case or....use your imagination. Remove the magnet and the black sand falls off onto whatever it is over. Magnets under the miller table, sluice or whatever just create obstructions.

*easier to remove the magnet by pulling one bag from the other.

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

cottage cheese container. solid instead of bags.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Try some cheap cow magnets first for riffles.

 

[desertgolddigger]

You need a nonmagnetic barrier between the magnet and the black sand. A plastic bag inside a plastic bag*works.....old pill bottles, 35mm film case or....use your imagination. Remove the magnet and the black sand falls off onto whatever it is over. Magnets under the miller table, sluice or whatever just create obstructions.

*easier to remove the magnet by pulling one bag from the other.

I've made several with rare earth magnets, and they don't seems to work as well as the commercial ones which are expensive.