gold dust question

[Tank69]

I have a 5 gallon bucket of good dirt I have been threw 4 times now , gotten everything out from the decent pickers to the smallest pieces we could get out with tweezers .we have been panning about a tablespoon of material at a time to make sure it's cleaned out .I'm down to allot of gold dust , I meen theres some in every pan ,what is the easiest way to extract all of this gold dust out of this material ? I've panned for years an normally it isn't to hard to do this` but theres allot in here .

Thanks a head of time for anyones Ideas or help .


HH Tank


PS the gold dust is in the fine non gold material

 

[cedarratt]

I am not sure what you mean by "Fine non gold material" But I would say your best bet is a Gold wheel like a Like a Desert Fox style wheel. You might try the Blue bowl thing as well I have not used one but I have seen them used. The only sure way to get all of the gold dust (powder fines like flour gold) is to use Mercury and an old mortar mixer or rock tumbler. You can do it with just a gold pan and a sniffer bottle but it takes a bit of time.

 

[Hoser John]

BLUE BOWL and forget the mercury mess and danger. DRY and sift to 50- mesh, then wet prior to running(add nothing else-EVER) run full to the brim to see the vortex in action(think toilet swirl) and your at optimal operating efficiency.Introduce black sands 3" past the inflow and up against the edge to promote specific gravity feathering and speed. Not fast BUT when your done--your done messing with them black sands. There isn't enough gold to economically retrieve. Unless that is you want to spend much $$ and hours of labor for a couple a bucks,which some newbies do. tons a au 2 u2 -John

 

[sniffer]

here's a way to get all the gold from your fines

http://www.nuggethunters.org/Poormans-Smelting.html

 

[goldfever1978]

BLUE BOWL and forget the mercury mess and danger. DRY and sift to 50- mesh, then wet prior to running(add nothing else-EVER) run full to the brim to see the vortex in action(think toilet swirl) and your at optimal operating efficiency.Introduce black sands 3" past the inflow and up against the edge to promote specific gravity feathering and speed. Not fast BUT when your done--your done messing with them black sands. There isn't enough gold to economically retrieve. Unless that is you want to spend much $$ and hours of labor for a couple a bucks,which some newbies do. tons a au 2 u2 -John

I'm going agree with John on this one. There is a bit of money up front for the Blue Bowl but for the time, future money and danger of other processes, it is the way to go. What ever you do, don't stare into the swirl!

 

[Functional]

here's a way to get all the gold from your fines

http://www.nuggethunters.org/Poormans-Smelting.html

I concur. Melt it, smelt it. In my area of the hemisphere, 50% of the gold is influenced by magnet due to the high iron content and can be mistaken for black sand due to the same reason. But nothing gets gold out like melting with flux.

F.

 

[Tank69]

thanks for all of your input guys I'll have to give 1 or 2 of these ideas a try an see how things turn out thanks


HH Tank

 

[DanB]

Note......when using a BLUE BOWL.........classify all the material down with sieving screens...keep all material the same size..... SIZE MATTERS......this will make a big difference on how the BLUE BOWL preforms...... no more than 2 table spoons of material at once, other wise the flow is disrupted....use 1 tsp of jet dry per gallon of water to break the surface tension of the water, this prevents the super fines from floating a way....good luck...and tons of au to u.....

db

 

[sniffer]

never thought about using jet dry. does that work pretty good, with no residue ?

 

[DanB]

Jet Dry will not leave a residue on the gold or blue bowl. WORKS GREAT


here is another helpful hint.....

**** on a conversation earlier up in this post, a guy talks about a rock tumbler and mercury.....use ONLY a drop of (dawn) or your favorite brand of grease cutting dish soap in the tumbler mix....mercury will not pick up gold with an oily residue on it..... ****

db

 

[goldfever1978]

Jet Dry will not leave a residue on the gold or blue bowl. WORKS GREAT


No matter what the method, you should always use jetdry/dishsoap to keep the fines from floating away. Good luck with what ever you decide!

 

[sniffer]

thanks for the info

 

[Eric Willoughby]

I use a Miller Board, it cost me only 20 bucks to build and it fast and super easy to use.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

I know this is an older post, but I would also suggest (depending on what concentrates you have), but, if there is black sand, you might try picking all that out with a magnet, first, and then use that bowl.

We have the little Camel, and we LOVE it, and jet dry is the very best stuff you can use - we ended up getting gold that we did not know was there - so much so, it took up quite a bit of that little cup. I poured it in my sampling pan, and it actually covered the bottom!

They are great, and so is the Jet Dry.

B

 

[Hoser John]

magnets turn your black sands and gold into the OREO cookie syndrome--black sands both sides and your oro puro is stuck in the middle and into the trash pile--adios--magnets never or with extreme caution and a bit a tumbling with mercury and NEVER use anything in a tumbler that foams-non sudsing el cheapo ammonia/lye are the answers. I run my blue bowl with a hose and water my trees & garden and get 2 things done at once-John

 

[jimmygoat]

Hello Tank, In my opinion the blue bowl is too slow. As you have read you have to feed it a couple of tablespoons at a time. I heard they a make a bigger bowl,but I haven't used it. If you are going to use a bowl or anything else, I agree with Oroblanco. Dry your cons, then remove the magnetite. Do this 3 times. Classify your material then pan or use bowl or whatever. Use shampoo or jet dry with the fines. Good luck, Jimmygoat.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

I've never had the problem of magnatite puree.

We use a little hand thing (magnet), it has a little handle on it - really a plunger set up. First you put the magnet on the concentrates (we spread them out), put the magnet right on them, so they don't get moved around, pick it up, then bring the magnet to another pan, move the plunger, and it drops the magnetic stuff in the other pan. If you're not rubbing the magnet all around your concentrates, I don't think you should get a gold and magnetite mess. Of course, that is also why we put the magnetite in another gold pan, too.

What we also like to do, as far as "the bowl", is, get our stuff concentrated down, and take them to camp. Cook dinner, and sit around with the bowl in between us and take turns putting concentrates in the bowl - heck you can sit and read and talk while you are doing it! (but we do try to get a big part of the heavies out first).

B