Hey guys just wanted to update you a bit. I have still been getting out on a regular basis and that Cube really helps retain gold and reduce the material! Been hitting the same creek on a regular basis lately just because I know there is gold there, most of what I get is -100 mesh, it is really hard to get that gold to separate from the black sand, seems no matter how much I shake the pan the small stuff can't seem to make it's way through the black sand. I gotta get one of those rare earth magnets, maybe that will help with this fine stuff.
When I initially got the Cube I first ran all material I had laying around, everything, and I had missed a decent amount of gold through my panning, I was really excited with the amount the Cube had recovered.....then I remembered that mixed in with all of the cons I had gathered locally there was some pay dirt from Gold Hog and Dirt Hogg, obviously some of the gold recovered was from them, not what I had gathered. I ran all of the fresh stuff I had gathered and there was decent gold but nothing near what I had recovered from the pay dirt mixed with local dirt rerun. The stuff I had gathered locally probably amounted to about 1 full 5 gallon bucket so not a ton of material. The -100 mesh stuff I am keeping to process later is fairly loaded with sweet yellow, actually looks pretty cool in the pan, gold specks glistening throughout the black sand. I still may get a miller table for running -100 stuff but will first try getting what I can out with a magnet. I don't even really have an issue recovering gold from the -70 to +100 range but that small stuff is tough. I think it's probably smart I am keeping all of that stuff to process properly. Great news though, tomorrow I will have almost a full day to gather cons, I am torn between going to spots I know have small amount of gold or trying a new area. I did try a new creek today that was better than my normal spot, problem was the only gravel was in the faster moving water with boulders, it was EXTREMELY hard to get shovels of dirt out of, I was digging behind a large rock but it got to the point that without a backhoe I couldn't get any more rocks out of the way. I am excited for tomorrow but really hope I make the right decision on location. The new area I am considering is a terminal moraine consisting of sediment from the Superior Lobe, Des Moines Lobe and Rainy Lobe and is a glacial sluiceway according to my research. Looks promising but I don't know how high the river is.....if it's sandy, rock, gravel, etc.. I may have to run up there to check it out.
