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 ?

 

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[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

 

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[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.

 

[southfork]

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.

I don't weigh I just add to the jar until we are ready to retort then melt. I just like weighing a nice fat button placer or ore.

 

[southfork]

My son and me went back to the spring with a fresh battery and mined for a couple of hours. We found double the gold from yesterday working the booked slate bedrock and blue clay. But my mini high banker spray bars started plugging up with twigs and roots I need a screened pump box or tub / bucket. I spent more time unplugging than mining the screen fell off that I had wrapped around the pump off waters real muddy but it's in the shade. A few more adjustments small changes / fine tuning. If we can get everything running right we will move down to the big piles along the seasonal creek. Half the gold was covered in mercury lost revenue from the gold rush small pickers / flakes. The spray bars were melting the clay real nice there's Seem's to be gold trapped on top and under the clay but not much in it. Happy Mining

 

[southfork]

Cleaning quartz ore samples and dreaming about riches. Grass is so high no float until the cows do their job so I can see the ground. I panned the crushed quartz and got a nice pinch a few more samples to crush I see a nice button in the future. The photo from my camera is blurry but take my word for it that's gold. I also crushed old cupels to recover a little gold picture of sluice mat. And a 1/8 bucket of quartz float I crushed and ran on the ribbed sluice and panned from the spring last photo. Happy Mining

 

[Tesorodeoro]

My son and me went back to the spring with a fresh battery and mined for a couple of hours. We found double the gold from yesterday working the booked slate bedrock and blue clay. But my mini high banker spray bars started plugging up with twigs and roots I need a screened pump box or tub / bucket. I spent more time unplugging than mining the screen fell off that I had wrapped around the pump off waters real muddy but it's in the shade. A few more adjustments small changes / fine tuning. If we can get everything running right we will move down to the big piles along the seasonal creek. Half the gold was covered in mercury lost revenue from the gold rush small pickers / flakes. The spray bars were melting the clay real nice there's Seem's to be gold trapped on top and under the clay but not much in it. Happy Mining

You might consider metal detecting the surface, then scarf off the vegetation layer, setting it aside. You’re not losing much gold and the seed bank (weed bank) can be used to quickly revegetate behind yourself. The grass twigs and such really don’t belong in the system. Once you run it through your recirculating system, then it’s floating in your water ready to get sucked up and plugged up.

 

[southfork]

Cleaned and melted a little placer gold from hidden springs. A lot of work for a small button but it sure feels good in hand 7 grams. Pays for all the parts for the 12-volt mini high banker and a nice dinner and fuel in town. Happy Mining

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Cleaned and melted a little placer gold from hidden springs. A lot of work for a small button but it sure feels good in hand 7 grams. Pays for all the parts for the 12-volt mini high banker and a nice dinner and fuel in town. Happy Mining

7 grams isn’t anything to dismiss. I suspect this is gold that you had already captured in your sluice and reduced to a pan? Separate the pickers/flakes and melt the rest?

 

[southfork]

7 grams isn’t anything to dismiss. I suspect this is gold that you had already captured in your sluice and reduced to a pan? Separate the pickers/flakes and melt the rest?

Lol not sure if there's a question here but this button is from the flakes and pickers. The micro gold is still in the mercury for a future melt. This was a hole my son had dug in the creek bed the size of a bathtub. Seth filled buckets from the slate bed rock and dumped into a tote I shoveled out of the tote into the high banker. First day around 3 hours the next day a couple hours more until things started plugging up. All the gold from crushing the quartz float and the used cupels was run on the ribbed sluice and mercury was used for cleanup. The button included gold picked off the booked slate with tweezers. We have just a trickle of water, so thing get muddy fast the whole ravine is just about 1500 feet long, so it dries up fast. Some years the surface water at spring will last until late June then becomes a green spot.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Lol not sure if there's a question here but this button is from the flakes and pickers. The micro gold is still in the mercury for a future melt. This was a hole my son had dug in the creek bed the size of a bathtub. Seth filled buckets from the slate bed rock and dumped into a tote I shoveled out of the tote into the high banker. First day around 3 hours the next day a couple hours more until things started plugging up. All the gold from crushing the quartz float and the used cupels was run on the ribbed sluice and mercury was used for cleanup. The button included gold picked off the booked slate with tweezers. We have just a trickle of water, so thing get muddy fast the whole ravine is just about 1500 feet long, so it dries up fast. Some years the surface water at spring will last until late June then becomes a green spot.

I was curious it it was just the micro gold and if you were somehow incorporating mercury in the initial recovery method. I think you answered that.

Any gold is good gold. It’s amazing how much evaporation affects the amount of water. Things suddenly dried up here in the northern diggings. Seasonal creeks that have not run in a decade ran this year, but now have gone subterranean just in the last week (despite having several inches of T-Storm rain recently).

 

[southfork]

Moving cows around so checking fences and picked up a piece of quartz float to test. I ran the piece of float about a 1/4 pound though the jaw crusher then chain mill panned it out. We have Gold a small showing of color and a line of micro gold. The photo sucks but the best I could do with these shaky hands. This sample came from a small flat cut from my well pad 300' feet behind the house.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Moving cows around so checking fences and picked up a piece of quartz float to test. I ran the piece of float about a 1/4 pound though the jaw crusher then chain mill panned it out. We have Gold a small showing of color and a line of micro gold. The photo sucks but the best I could do with these shaky hands. This sample came from a small flat cut from my well pad 300' feet behind the house.

Glad you're able to find some gold. I hope you discover a low spot full of it.

 

[southfork]

I ran a half bucket through the jaw crusher then chain milled with a clean-up on the ribbed sluice. Random pieces of quartz that I piled near the cow tanks opposite side of the house from the other day. More magnetic black sands than normal but makes reducing the concentrates faster using the magnet. At first I thought the skunk monster had me but a quick look with a loupe the fines were loaded with micro gold balls. A quick mercury clean up and added to the amalgam jar. So gold all around the house an excavator for testing in the near future

 

[southfork]

Retorted some amalgam from finds around the homestead ended of with a nice blob of sponge. I had to melt twice to get rid some of the Impurity's soaking in Whink to brighten a little. The sponge weighed 7 grams after melting the button weighs 6 grams not bad for a short walk.

 

[southfork]

I love playing with gold retort the amalgam get some dirty sponge. Then melt and get a dirty button and soak in muriatic acid for a couple days. Rinse and melt again and get a button with some impurities add a little placer gold and melt again. Then let it soak in Whink for a couple of days success shinny gold.

 

[southfork]

A pinch of Nevada concentrates a pinch of Borax and Washing Soda heat equals a BB sized button of gold. Still hot sitting on clean green glassy slag. Need to make a trip to Nevada.