Ghana

[mapatrin]

Is there a method for clay ?

 

[Goodyguy]

Clay is the worst material to work with. Even a trommel has a hard time with clay but as far as I know a trommel would be the best classifier to use when running muddy clay based material. It would need to be fairly long (minimum of 8') with cleats inside the drum and have plenty of spray.

Everything I stated above would still apply to the sluice. Trommels are self classifying.

GG~

 

[mapatrin]

It's an expense I would rather not have .. I'm wanting everything to hit a fluid Ved first will the clay affect that ?

 

[Goodyguy]

It's an expense I would rather not have .. I'm wanting everything to hit a fluid Ved first will the clay affect that ?

What design fluid bed will you be using?

It's a viscosity problem. The denser the slurry the more likely fine gold will have a harder time dropping out of suspension.

 

[mapatrin]

I was going to weld a small sink on to the bottom of an aluminium sluice cut hole lol I will draw it on google sketch up and put what I would like to do on

 

[Goodyguy]

I was going to weld a small sink on to the bottom of an aluminium sluice cut hole lol I will draw it on google sketch up and put what I would like to do on

As long as the slurry you run down the fluid bed is not so dense that it clogs the trap you should be fine.
There again cleaner water is the key. You may also have to run a higher pressure than normal through the fluid tubes to keep the trap in a fluidized liquid state.

Going to be trial and error getting it dialed in. Would not be my first choice to run thick muddy soil clay type material into a fluid bed trap.

One way to break up the material is to build a long tom sluice (20' long out of wood with wood riffles every 6" leaving the last 3' smooth without riffles) to feed into whatever production sluice you decide upon. That way the material gets broken up and stratified before it hits the production sluice.

Plus you'll be trapping gold in the long tom as well. Of course the material will need to be classified before going into the long tom.

Not knowing how much material you will be capable of running per hour makes designing a wash plant to fit your needs very difficult.


GG~

 

[mapatrin]

Please don't lol I have spent ages on it lol I will try and draw it up best as poss and show you my idea

 

[Goodyguy]

Do you know how deep you will have to dig to get down to the gold bearing material?
What about the water table, do you know how deep you can dig before the pit fills in with water?
It's not uncommon I hear for the gold bearing gravels in Ghana to be well over 50' deep.

Not trying to scare you off just making sure you are prepared for the uncertainty.

GG~

 

[mapatrin]

Not till I get out there 1m upto 4m I'm thinking Ventura suction pump in a loading pond and push all material through this which should break it up a bit as it travel up hose and will also wash gravel ... So not to a fluid bed in clay

 

[Goodyguy]

Not till I get out there 1m upto 4m I'm thinking Ventura suction pump in a loading pond and push all material through this which should break it up a bit as it travel up hose and will also wash gravel ... So not to a fluid bed in clay

I doubt you will find gold in clay. The gold should be in an ancient gravel layer mixed with whatever soil it compacted with during flooding. Of course if that gravel layer is also in the water table then all sorts of sediments will be there and could contain a certain amount of clay.

Too many unknowns for me to speculate, I've already speculated way past my expertise of mining in Ghana.

GG~

 

[doubled]

Like I posted earlier I still think the trommel is the best solution to your location... if you can't break it up It will clog your rifles real quick... the study I quoted earlier which is pretty a prominant study on sluice design explains that trommel and a oscillating sluice is the best for clays. I know you don't want that expense but it could save your from blowing out a LARGE percentage of your gold.

Hope it all works out for you

 

[Reed Lukens]

It sounds like you're going to need to go through the clay. Washing it with volume is the only way to deal with it. Best thing to do is go find out exactly what you're going to be dealing with first. Then don't bother planning a system until you see it. If the clay is dry from the start then remove it with a tractor. Right now with large amounts of clay, a long tom will be a must. Plus Like Goodyguy said, the mats will need to be cleaned every time you shut down and maybe much more often. This will be the key. There are easy ways of breaking up clay that are totally legal and workable there but it is still best to suck the material from as close as possible to where it drops into the water directly into the sluice.

 

[mapatrin]

Alright fellas everything looking good got another guy in Ghana who I know from uk, going out their in 5 weeks to stay with him and check out a claim he has and the other one of my friends, i found a investor that's going to come out for a week with me and have a look, my friend that's on the ground in Ghana has looked into a work permit for me says he has a friend lol, that's how it seems to be you need to know someone.
he has looked into the mining license and says its not a problem he already has a company that can do mining and will add me as a partner so it's done properly and I get paid looking good I'm going to try and get loads of claims to work so if all go's well ya all welcome to come and dig, I think their is more gold and land than investors,, it all seems to good to be true, I don't think many people have the money to get it out of the ground I have designed a up and under sluice on google sketch up will show it later, like you said best to look at how much clay their really is but yeah I was thinking longer.. Also I can't get the Keene / proline here in the uk so will have to order from states are they the best pumps to move gravel from a loading pond ?

 

[Reed Lukens]

I'm sure you can find pumps there but Keene, Proline or for large equipment Dahlke, Precision, and many other brands are available. Remember to keep it simple but effective and you can't lose

 

[mapatrin]

 

[Goodyguy]

View attachment 746624View attachment 746625

Doesn't look quite right to me

Is this port where you intend to pump your paydirt into the sluice?

And then all the larger material that doesn't go into the trap through the primary grizzly runs down the upper slick plate unless it's small enough to drop through the secondary grizzly and go down the main under sluices?

 

[mapatrin]

the item that looks like a grill will sit over the fluid bed clarify it is made of round steel rods welded, the bottom half of the rods will be welded close enough to only allow find pay dirt to drop over the fluid bed, the next rods are further aprt to clarify every thing else ( i chose this methothod as i think the waste matiral will slide easier as the rods wont have any joins)it then falls down into the sluice and under the metal slide which sits on top of the sluice bed the bottom bed consists of matt,grill,raffles all waste materal carries on over the metal top cover and off the sluice ........ any good

 

[Goodyguy]

View attachment 746694
the item that looks like a grill will sit over the fluid bed clarify it is made of round steel rods welded, the bottom half of the rods will be welded close enough to only allow find pay dirt to drop over the fluid bed, the next rods are further aprt to clarify every thing else ( i chose this methothod as i think the waste matiral will slide easier as the rods wont have any joins)it then falls down into the sluice and under the metal slide which sits on top of the sluice bed the bottom bed consists of matt,grill,raffles all waste materal carries on over the metal top cover and off the sluice ........ any good

Very interesting! Way to think outside the box Mapatrin.
The only problem I see doing it backwards so to speak is that the material doesn't have as much chance to self stratify due to not traveling down a slick plate before hitting the trap.

Otherwise I'm liking the concept.
I also like the way the overflow from the trap goes down the under sluices as well.

Is the reason for splitting the sluices to slow down the flow?

GG~

 

[mapatrin]

yeah thats the pay dirt hole, the hole underneath is for the fluid bed ,i will also have rubber flaps 2 or 3 connected to the sides of the sluice above to direct pay dirt and water down

 

[mapatrin]

yeah all the water will flow underneath i will be using a pump for the fluid bed so i can add extra waterto the slip plate if need to help the flow move the materal, i can add some more metal at the start to give it time to settle.

this is my first design ever, not much sleep lol can only get better with your help guys... i didnt add a trommal because of cost and hassle.. i will use a feeding pond with a ventura style 5 inch hose to feed the sluice this also should help break up the clay and wash the stones i think lol