Got out a little today....................

[johnedoe]

Well I managed to get out a bit today and did some testing.
I set up the prospecting sluice which is an 8x8 cleangold magnetic sluice.
Here are a few pics.

Here is the sluice and slick plate, May have a little too much water flowing but I'm getting things dialed in.







Here is the loaded sluice after running just a little more than half a 5 gal bucket. the black sand is about 1/8" thick.


The material came from the base of the wall and a few other patches of black sands along the beach. Not a specific spot just looking and collecting. I will pan this stuff out sometime this weekend.

Base of aggregate sedimentary layer....


Layer of rusty sediment.......................


After I figure a site to concentrate on a little more I will set up the cleangold beach sluice. It is 16"x24" and with the slick plate it is 48" long.



And breaks down to this, where the slick plate nests inside the sluice.




So there it is. a plan, the equipment, and some free time on my hands........

 

[arizau]

I know there is supposed to be some kind of a special technique to recover the gold from the cons for that device but I would also be interested how that mostly pure magnetic black sand concentrate acts using the EZ Pan you have talked about too. I always stop for a few days, south of your location, for some beach mining but really struggle trying to pan that stuff and if the EZ works ok (reduces black sand without taking the tiny gold with it) with quantities above about a tablespoon I might pick one up. Any chance you can at least run a test?
Thanks

 

[johnedoe]

I know there is supposed to be some kind of a special technique to recover the gold from the cons for that device but I would also be interested how that pure magnetic black sand concentrate acts using the EZ Pan you have talked about too. Any chance you can at least run a test? I always stop for a few days, south of your location, for some beach mining but really struggle trying to pan that stuff and if the EZ works ok with quantities above about a tablespoon I might pick one up.
Thanks

I'll let you know soon, I just wasn't up to trying it tonight.... I do know this though. Those are some HEAVY concentrates.

 

[specksandflecks]

There are spots along the southern Oregon coast where the magnetic black sands will get you $10.00 a pound as paid from refiners. Or so I heard from a local years ago...

 

[johnedoe]

I know there is supposed to be some kind of a special technique to recover the gold from the cons for that device but I would also be interested how that mostly pure magnetic black sand concentrate acts using the EZ Pan you have talked about too. I always stop for a few days, south of your location, for some beach mining but really struggle trying to pan that stuff and if the EZ works ok (reduces black sand without taking the tiny gold with it) with quantities above about a tablespoon I might pick one up. Any chance you can at least run a test?
Thanks

Well from the little I tried later last night I think it is going to have to be run over a miller table .... the cons are so dense it is just darn near impossible to keep them from packing up ......and of course the fineness of the gold makes it even harder......

The EZ Pan is great for the regular kind of stuff we usually run into in streams and the more common river sluice clean up..... But when you end up with a final concentrate batch of super heavy black sands and virtually NO blond sands that is a whole new set of circumstances.......

 

[johnedoe]

There are spots along the southern Oregon coast where the magnetic black sands will get you $10.00 a pound as paid from refiners. Or so I heard from a local years ago...

I could make a killing if that were the case,,,,,,,

 

[arizau]

Well from the little I tried later last night I think it is going to have to be run over a miller table .... the cons are so dense it is just darn near impossible to keep them from packing up ......and of course the fineness of the gold makes it even harder......

The EZ Pan is great for the regular kind of stuff we usually run into in streams and the more common river sluice clean up..... But when you end up with a final concentrate batch of super heavy black sands and virtually NO blond sands that is a hole new set of circumstances.......

The concentrates I have collected from the Oregon beaches is almost 100% minus 100 mesh and, as you said, mostly super heavy black sand. I was hoping the ez pan could at least super concentrate the cons. About the only way I have had any luck in getting out most of the gold is to pan in 1/4 teaspoonfuls. A bit tedious to say the least. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the miller table was probably the least expensive and efficient solution but I have not yet built one. I did build a sluice with goldhog mats, in a configuration suggested by Doc, and ended up with less total concentrates than past efforts which may have been a result of running it too hot. I am pretty sure I also ended up with less overall gold capture. though. I will try it again this year with different flow and slopes as I did not have time to do that last year.

Thanks for running the test and good luck.

 

[johnedoe]

The concentrates I have collected from the Oregon beaches is almost 100% minus 100 mesh and, as you said, mostly super heavy black sand. I was hoping the ez pan could at least super concentrate the cons. About the only way I have had any luck in getting out most of the gold is to pan in 1/4 teaspoonfuls. A bit tedious to say the least. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the miller table was probably the least expensive and efficient solution but I have not yet built one.

Thanks for running the test and good luck.

I'm still gonna do some messing around with the cons this weekend but I have to agree, a miller table is probably in my future .... These cons are just too much...........
As to the EZ Pan..... I still prefer it over any other, No pan is up to this stuff unless like you said, .. do it a 1/4 teaspoon at a time... and That just ain't in my plans........

 

[arizau]

About the only way I can think of to really super concentrate those collected black sands is to somehow isolate a small portion of the same or your smallest cleangold sluice and run your collected cons over that section. Narrower channel equals a smaller bed of magnetics, more rejection of waste and more concentration of gold to black sand. Maybe clamp a piece of plexiglass to create the narrow channel.

 

[johnedoe]

About the only way I can think of to super concentrate those collected black sands is to somehow isolate a small portion of the same sluice and run your collected cons over that section. Smaller bed of magnetics, more rejection of waste and more collection of gold.

That is something that I was thinking about as well........Great minds think alike....
Can you just imagine what I'm gonna end up with when I start running the beach sluice?..... 16"x 48" overall length.... 16"x24" magnetic area.

 

[arizau]

See my edited original response for my idea.

 

[QNCrazy]

John, have you tried classifying your concentrates down to similar size or is your material to small to classify? If you can classify, it doesn't take too long to classify down to -50 or -100. It might make panning a bit easier. I use a blue bowl for my concentrates. If I have heavy magnetics that wont leave the bowl, I stop the flow, spread the material out across the bottom, and run a magnet over the top. Then check that material to make sure I didn't pick up any gold by accident. Just some food for thought.

 

[arizau]

John, have you tried classifying your concentrates down to similar size or is your material to small to classify? If you can classify, it doesn't take too long to classify down to -50 or -100. It might make panning a bit easier. I use a blue bowl for my concentrates. If I have heavy magnetics that wont leave the bowl, I stop the flow, spread the material out across the bottom, and run a magnet over the top. Then check that material to make sure I didn't pick up any gold by accident. Just some food for thought.

I'll tackle your question - virtually all of the black sand concentrate and the associated gold is already minus 100 mesh or at least, what I have collected passes my screen sieve that is labeled 100 mesh. Some, actually a lot, of the gold is so tiny that it cannot be seen except by magnification. If you have not handled this stuff en mass you probably cannot even imagine it. You are right, further screening may gain some advantage. I have shopped around for pre made sieves smaller than 100 mesh but they are out of my practical price range since they start at about $80. The smaller mesh screen itself is much cheaper but usually sold in lengths by the square foot and I have not even pursued that since beach mining is at best a four or five day per year hobby for me. What John is working with is almost 100% magnetic, excepting gold and other stray pieces of blonde sand, since it was collected with a magnetic sluice (Cleangold - google it to see how it works and for some micro photographs of the gold the sluice captures).

The lure of playing with this stuff is that gold associated with black sand is abundant on the Oregon beaches particularly after storms literally turn the beaches black. The next storm may then scrub the beaches clean. If you can run enough of the mostly black sand efficiently there is a good chance you can capture grams or reportedly ounces of gold in the concentrates but then you have the problem of how to easily and efficiently separate the gold out.

 

[johnedoe]

I'll tackle your question - virtually all of the black sand concentrate and the associated gold is already minus 100 mesh or at least, what I have collected passes my screen sieve that is labeled 100 mesh. Some, actually a lot, of the gold is so tiny that it cannot be seen except by magnification. If you have not handled this stuff en mass you probably cannot even imagine it. You are right, further screening may gain some advantage. I have shopped around for pre made sieves smaller than 100 mesh but they are out of my practical price range since they start at about $80. The smaller mesh screen itself is much cheaper but usually sold in lengths by the square foot and I have not even pursued that since beach mining is at best a four or five day per year hobby for me. What John is working with is almost 100% magnetic, excepting gold and other stray pieces of blonde sand, since it was collected with a magnetic sluice (Cleangold - google it to see how it works and for some micro photographs of the gold the sluice captures).

The lure of playing with this stuff is that gold associated with black sand is abundant on the Oregon beaches particularly after storms literally turn the beaches black. The next storm may then scrub the beaches clean. If you can run enough of the mostly black sand efficiently there is a good chance you can capture grams or reportedly ounces of gold in the concentrates but then you have the problem of how to easily and efficiently separate the gold out.

YUP.... spot on...... Thank you arizau for answering that question....
Heres a link to the photomicrographs from cleangold... there are several pics from Oregon, Nome, and elsewhere....
cleangold photomicrographs

 

[Oregon Viking]

I found a little black sand today. I'am going to weigh some of it and run it through my clean up sluice.

 

[johnedoe]

Holy @(%&$(@&^$^%%.......
I really want to see the results of your little dig today.....
Man that is just insane........

 

[Oregon Viking]

Holy @(%&$(@&^$^%%.......
I really want to see the results of your little dig today.....
Man that is just insane........

And it's not a secret as you can see black sand from the parking lot!.






My arms are now 3 inches longer...
Tourists will see the size 14 deep boot prints and think it was bigfoot...

 

[johnedoe]

LOL.... I hear ya.... who needs a membership at the gym when you can just haul a little beach sand around.

 

[arizau]

Looks like Whaleshead. I worked a 2 or 3 foot thick creekside bank right at beach entry there a couple of years ago. Fed it to my zook as a test - total fail. Will not try that again.

 

[johnedoe]

Looks like Whaleshead. I worked a 2 or 3 foot thick creekside bank right at beach entry there a couple of years ago. Fed it to my zook as a test - total fail. Will not try that again.

That much heavy black sand will definitely plug up the fluid bed of a bazooka......
Did you get any color out of it at all?