Gold Ore

[southfork]

A little sample that was found with a metal detector. Crushed by hand then panned to wash away some of the dirt and clay? The photo is macro so real small particles, but the quartz shows and what looks like iron and free gold. I think we need a small smelter to retrieve the values trying to speed up the recovery what's your thoughts ?

 

[southfork]

Funny I just rode around on the mower for a couple hours. Trying to get a jump on all the green weeds and grass around the house. Another Storm coming after that maybe I'll call the rancher up the road to see they have any hungy cattle.

Snowing now I guess I'll chain up the mower lol.

 

[southfork]

Nice sunny day my son and I ran the ribbed cleanup sluice for 6 hours. Fine crushed quartz that was panned and the heavy gold collected then we ran the slurry again. We had a 1/4 bucket of slurry we did two clean ups because of heavy black sands and ultra fine gold clogging the ribbed mat . I'll finish running a couple of pounds in the morning. It would be great if it was all like this. Water is running in the picture a fat line of gold at the top and loaded for the next foot under the black - red - and white sands. Center has more black sands covering the gold. Happy Mining

 

[desertgolddigger]

Nice sunny day my son and I ran the ribbed cleanup sluice for 6 hours. Fine crushed quartz that was panned and the heavy gold collected then we ran the slurry again. We had a 1/4 bucket of slurry we did two clean ups because of heavy black sands and ultra fine gold clogging the ribbed mat . I'll finish running a couple of pounds in the morning. It would be great if it was all like this. Water is running in the picture a fat line of gold at the top and loaded for the next foot under the black - red - and white sands. Center has more black sands covering the gold. Happy Mining

That is amazing! I sure hope my sluice can be tuned well enough for that ultra fine gold. That is a lot of gold in your sluice.

 

[southfork]

That is amazing! I sure hope my sluice can be tuned well enough for that ultra fine gold. That is a lot of gold in your sluice.

That gold is what my son and his mining buddy lost panning into a tub. When grinding ore you have ultra small gold to capture all our panning tails are run on the ribbed sluice real slow. Dish soap - Detergent something to drop the gold is a must I mix the detergent in the slurry before feeding the sluice.

 

[Goldwasher]

Some folks do coding as a hobby and use open source “ChatBot” software that they use to create AI bots. They use these Bots on discussion forums as a way to test them out AND teach them. Occasionally they have to correct or amend responses as required. As a result many times you get vaguely applicable responses followed up by something more coherent. Not saying this is the case here but there is a large community of coding nerds that spend their free time doing this. I expect a trophy 🏆 for this contribution.

it is the case here.

 

[southfork]

That is amazing! I sure hope my sluice can be tuned well enough for that ultra fine gold. That is a lot of gold in your sluice.

That micro gold looks good spread-out in the ribbed sluice but a lot of hours for 3 1/2 grams lol but a lot better than a skunk. And gold saved that was lost panning a great day in the sun crushing milling amalgamating and retorting today. The crew is out metal detecting while its sunny I hope they bring me some rocks too crush.

 

[southfork]

Another beautiful day sunny and a light breeze sluiced a half bucket of fines. A little gold maybe a 1/2 gram slowly catching up two more buckets to crush from the claim. I'll say this I found gold but glad I didn't fill the pickup out of that pile. But I have some new rocks to crush off our place. Happy Mining

 

[southfork]

A couple nice sunny days to melt some dirty buttons of gold they had pieces of cupels stuck to them. And a little black sand melted the two buttons together then corn flaked. The gold came out nice and clean ready to remelt into a bar or button 34 grams in the vial. The two pieces of ore have been soaking in whink the rusty one I'm going to crush. The last photo is what I have been recovering from the panning trough. Mixed all the tails into a slurry with detergent and slowly fed the cleanup sluice a five-gallon bucket worth takes hours.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

A couple nice sunny days to melt some dirty buttons of gold they had pieces of cupels stuck to them. And a little black sand melted the two buttons together then corn flaked. The gold came out nice and clean ready to remelt into a bar or button 34 grams in the vial. The two pieces of ore have been soaking in whink the rusty one I'm going to crush. The last photo is what I have been recovering from the panning trough. Mixed all the tails into a slurry with detergent and slowly fed the cleanup sluice a five-gallon bucket worth takes hours.

Heat that rusty one with a rosebud torch and toss it into some ice cold water. It might shatter and expose some better faces of gold. If not you can still crush it afterwards.

 

[southfork]

Heat that rusty one with a rosebud torch and toss it into some ice cold water. It might shatter and expose some better faces of gold. If not you can still crush it afterwards.

It broke in half while cleaning nothing but white quartz on the inside.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

It broke in half while cleaning nothing but white quartz on the inside.

Too bad. You probably knew that by weight and appearance anyway. I’ve now got a jeweler’s oxy-acetylene torch and would like to test it out breaking quartz off specimens. It will concentrate a bunch of heat in just a very small area.

 

[southfork]

Last couple of weeks has been slow slim to none but I ran all I hauled home. Just a couple of grams out of five buckets of rocks and a tote full crushed rock and dirt. But to keep the spirit alive I melted some gold that I corn flaked to clean into a button 35.5 grams came out nice and clean

 

[southfork]

Started making a 12 volt recirculating high banker out of spare parts. The legs are adjustable from a telescope and a RV awning. I need a hopper and some plumbing and aluminum sheet the water dumps too far forward from the grizzly. need to get the pump and tubs so I can experiment I still have a big pile from the gold rush down in the drainage below the house wanted something quiet. Very little water already but I can get really close maybe set up a tote for water storage and supply. 81 degrees today I'll need a sunshade soon maybe a popup. As you can see I haven't spent much money lol.

 

[southfork]

I finished the plumbing and gave it a little test the 12 volt 2000 GPH works great. I have a hose bib for wash down I need to work on the water supply the seasonal creeks are just about dry. We have the road just about done I can haul water down and run a garden hose from the back of my pickup and recirculate. I've spent about $150 bucks so far and 10 bucks for the two-yard sale sluice boxes.

 

[southfork]

I ran a tote full of dirt from the ravine next to the house my son cleaned off some bedrock to test. My mini 12-volt High banker worked great, but the returns were small a little color I cleaned up with mercury ended up with a BB sized amalgam ball. Beats a skunk but had problems with small pieces of slate falling through the grizzly and plugging the sluice. I might try some hardware cloth over the grizzly because we have lots of slate and small gold a few adjustments and I'll try again. Happy Mining

 

[southfork]

Another little test with a half of a tote I used plastic screen with 1/2 holes under the grizzly and over the sluice header. Less Material same returns. But the sluice ran a lot cleaner I piled rocks and dirt on the slick plate to give the material a chance to wash a lot of material was sticking to the rocks. Not real fast but pickers to micro gold in the cleanup. We are trying to decide where to set up in the shade and close to the end of the road so I can haul water. We have a spot cleaned to bedrock with a little leveling should work ok and we can follow the bedrock right across our property. I forgot to mention anywhere on the road will work for water supply just need a lot of hose it's all down hill.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Another little test with a half of a tote I used plastic screen with 1/2 holes under the grizzly and over the sluice header. Less Material same returns. But the sluice ran a lot cleaner I piled rocks and dirt on the slick plate to give the material a chance to wash a lot of material was sticking to the rocks. Not real fast but pickers to micro gold in the cleanup. We are trying to decide where to set up in the shade and close to the end of the road so I can haul water. We have a spot cleaned to bedrock with a little leveling should work ok and we can follow the bedrock right across our property. I forgot to mention anywhere on the road will work for water supply just need a lot of hose it's all down hill.

You might have to put spacers on the inside of your sluice to raise the depth of water and velocity so it clears out the slate. The gold will still settle to the bottom.

 

[southfork]

You might have to put spacers on the inside of your sluice to raise the depth of water and velocity so it clears out the slate. The gold will still settle to the bottom.

My plastic screen worked great just finished running about three hours. My son dug a hole at the spring below the house for our water supply so were working the dry ravine. Finding enough gold to keep my interest and getting some exercise. The water level never dropped and was still trickling down the ravine I'll try again in the morning. I cleaned the micro gold up with mercury.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

My plastic screen worked great just finished running about three hours. My son dug a hole at the spring below the house for our water supply so we’re working the dry ravine. Finding enough gold to keep my interest and getting some exercise. The water level never dropped and was still trickling down the ravine I'll try again in the morning. I cleaned the micro gold up with mercury.

My older brother built a high banker fully out of welded HDPE. We ran it all afternoon in a trickle of a draw with the smallest Honda pump. Probably a 55 gallon recirculating reservoir. It also had a dry land suction dredge. Worked awesome in my opinion. We just didn’t build enough settling areas. Seal started leaking on the pump.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

My plastic screen worked great just finished running about three hours. My son dug a hole at the spring below the house for our water supply so were working the dry ravine. Finding enough gold to keep my interest and getting some exercise. The water level never dropped and was still trickling down the ravine I'll try again in the morning. I cleaned the micro gold up with mercury.

I have to ask..”cleaned up the micro gold with mercury” what was the recovery weight on that? Not trying to be an ass, but I suspect not enough to retort or weigh? It may add up after awhile. Your persistence in maximizing recovery is one of those things that will pay off over time or eventually very quickly in my opinion.