Gold Ore

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
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California
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DizzyDigger

Gold Member
Dec 9, 2012
5,787
11,447
Concrete, WA
Detector(s) used
Nokta FoRs Gold, a Gold Cube, 2 Keene Sluices and Lord only knows how many pans....not to mention a load of other gear my wife still doesn't know about!
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
7,478
California
Primary Interest:
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I tested the retort before heating with low pressure compressed air soap and water sprayed on the welds. And the pipe cap after being sprayed with graphite and tightened with a pipe wrench no leaks. The manufacturer claims all units are tested before shipping. It works great and I will continue to use it when needed. alloy_II made around 30 posts on the other forum about this retort. I hate to block people once in awhile they say something useful.
 

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Tesorodeoro

Bronze Member
Jan 21, 2018
1,221
1,906
Primary Interest:
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I tested the retort before heating with low pressure compressed air soap and water sprayed on the welds. And the pipe cap after being sprayed with graphite and tightened with a pipe wrench no leaks. The manufacturer claims all units are tested before shipping. It works great and I will continue to use it when needed. alloy_II made around 30 posts on the other forum about this retort. I hate to block people once in awhile they say something useful.
Well no need for drama in this thread! I’m looking forward to what you are going to share once the ticks come out. You’re obviously an intelligent man and probably don’t need redundant lecturing.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
7,478
California
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Well no need for drama in this thread! I’m looking forward to what you are going to share once the ticks come out. You’re obviously an intelligent man and probably don’t need redundant lecturing.
The ticks are out in the foothills. I'm done with the retort for awhile I have a couple of nice buttons from melting the amalgam. I crushed samples and washed yesterday slim Pickens maybe today.
 

Tesorodeoro

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Jan 21, 2018
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The ticks are out in the foothills. I'm done with the retort for awhile I have a couple of nice buttons from melting the amalgam. I crushed samples and washed yesterday slim Pickens maybe today.
We are still getting snow up north. Ticks won’t be out for another 3 weeks. Your lawn probably needs mowed already. Interesting how quickly the weather changes as you go south.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
7,478
California
Primary Interest:
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We are still getting snow up north. Ticks won’t be out for another 3 weeks. Your lawn probably needs mowed already. Interesting how quickly the weather changes as you go south.
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.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
7,478
California
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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.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
7,478
California
Primary Interest:
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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
 

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desertgolddigger

Bronze Member
May 31, 2015
1,019
1,872
Twentynine Palms, California
Detector(s) used
Bounty Hunter Time Ranger
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
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.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
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California
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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

Gold Member
May 26, 2009
6,077
13,222
Sailor Flat, Ca.
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
SDC2300, Gold Bug 2 Burlap, fish oil, .35 gallons of water per minute.
Primary Interest:
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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.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
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California
Primary Interest:
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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.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
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California
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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
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
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California
Primary Interest:
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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.
 

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Tesorodeoro

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Jan 21, 2018
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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.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
7,478
California
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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

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Jan 21, 2018
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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.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
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California
Primary Interest:
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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
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
7,478
California
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All Treasure Hunting
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.
 

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southfork

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
2,299
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California
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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.
 

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