Hey everyone , take a second to read this

[GoldGoblin]

I will do a quick introduction then on to the reason for my post. My name is Paul ,I have a serious interest in the discovery of things in the ground be it precious metals , gems , relics etc . I finally got to the point in my life that I can pursue those activities full time . I have designed built and intend to use a machine I made to locate , process and recover gold, silver platinum etc The machine is called a Gold Goblin . It is multi wheel drive , fully amphibious , with board wash plant , it has a mini 360 degree "excavator" and a mini drilling rig to sample .It can can be used on dry land or fully floating in water in Dredge mode. I don't want to get into to much detail but it is meant to work . Here is what I need . I am looking for places to prospect from coast to coast and am looking for a land owner or claim holder that is looking for higher processing of materials to get more gold .We can work out a fair split so you don't have any out of pocket costs . After almost 2 years of building I am just ready to work some land instead of staring at my machine ..if you want pics or info or want to chat about a place , shoot me a PM ... thanks Paul/GoldGoblin ...

 

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[Duckshot]

It is fully amphibious .. all plate steel ..there are NO rubber seals in the machine .

What's the draft when its afloat, and how is it propelled?

Also, what is the vehicle weight?

Thanks for the photos, looks interesting!

 

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[NeoTokyo]

Hello and thanks for choosing Grumpy Prospector Advising, today I will be your Blunt Tour Guide - Eric.
Please keep all hands, feet and broad imaginations inside the car at all times.

Your plumbing is absolutely horrible.
You need to smooth those bends and sharp corners out.
Your pumps look like they are pretty much at the highest point of this already tall rig, they are going to be working hard to pull water up that high through the footvalves, even more so if the rig isn't floating and is in shallow water.


Also, unless you are going to run a submersible dredge those twin 6.5hp Honda GX200's and their pumps (Keene, Proline, Dahlke, whatever) are only intended to run a 6" surface dredge down to about 25'.
Being that I don't see a single foot of dredge hose anywhere, or a large sluicebox that's my guess, its going to be a submersible unit.

Its been said a bunch already, an unmanned nozzle isn't going to work well, lots of clog ups and issues to moving large cobbles out of the way.
The Dragon on B.S.G. is a massive submersible unit, but it still needs to be manned.

This machine wont do too well with the type of terrain that most of us are familiar with, but in wide river, beach, shallow shore and jungle use, it might be a viable option.

Now, we aren't trying to rip apart your machine, we are suggesting improvements from our collective experience and knowledge.
You are far beyond what most dream of, refine it and make it work.

 

[GoldGoblin]

The pumps are not used to force material up a dredge hose as with conventional dredging. There is a custom designed " flapper " to eliminate cobble clogs . The travel is never moved more than 7.5feet from its source . IT DOES NOT go back up to the machine . If you look closely you will see the threaded cap on the trommel , during river "dredging " the trommel has a special adapter that once attached to the end of the 30 feet of hard pipe on the end of the excavator stick , converts the trommel to an underwater gravel transfer attachment... .. the plumbing is straight line plumbed to the excavator and the bends you see are a non issue since the valves in the line just divert water to the wash plant . I appreciate constructive criticism.

 

[GoldGoblin]

You are right about the areas of use , it is not designed to be a rock climber . However the areas I have access to that I can't get into ..such as small creeks ..I can use the excavator to reach into the creek to "dredge" . I have a 37 foot reach and that does not include the 6 , 5 foot sections of aluminum tubing. If I can access it on the bank .. I can likely reach it . Arid regions , jungle , wide body water and remote locations would be the primary use . It is unlikely it would be useful in the waterways in California because of the geology there .

 

[GoldGoblin]

The draft is 11 inches , propulsion in water is achieved by twin opposed 14 inch props , driven by dual independent high speed hydraulic motors. The weight went up from my original design .. since it has not been scaled we assume it to be under 9k ... suction in water is 23 inches , on and 49 inches from the foot valves .. I may go with 13hp key start Honda pumps if it warrants it but currently it shows no problems .

 

[Duckshot]

So if the draft is 11", and you got 14" propellers... ?

Do the props tip up like a sterndrive, or something?

Also, what is the ground clearance?

Thanks.

 

[GoldGoblin]

The props are mounted below the "hull" so when it floats it acts like a common outdrive. The ground clearance is somewhere around 18 inches ..measured at the bottom of the axle housing on all 3 axles.

 

[Bonaro]

The props are mounted below the "hull" so when it floats it acts like a common outdrive. The ground clearance is somewhere around 18 inches ..measured at the bottom of the axle housing on all 3 axles.

I am struggling here...if you are drafting 11" of water and the 14" props are below that then you will need a minimum of 2 feet of water to work in at all times. This will be hard to come by consistently in most rivers. The machine seems more suited to use in a lake. Unfortunately, lakes are not a good place to look for gold. Usually, the rougher and more cobble and boulder infested a river is, the better it will be for prospecting.

A 3 ton barge shaped vessel is not an easy thing to move and it will not plane out like a ski boat. If you put 60 HP to the propellers, I doubt you could get it moving faster than 8-10 knots. most rivers flow faster than this. How will you get it upstream against a 15 knot current?

Additionally, a machine of this size requires an improved launch site like a boat launch. This is very hard to come by in a river

Where do you see this being used?

 

[Lanny in AB]

Good morning, and as it's been a while since I posted, thanks for the pictures.

You're still getting the same sort of advice about your machine. I can see that you've invested an incredible amount of time in design and construction in your machine. The issue that's being addressed over and over again by real miners are the real-world conditions you'll have to confront in actual mining conditions.

I was a prospector for many years (far more than your 10) before I started mining. What I thought would work for mining as a prospector got turned right on its head when I started mining. I had a partner that did the same as I for many years, we prospected together, metal detected for nuggets together before we started mining. He's a brilliant fabricator. He built a far more robust "mini" excavator than yours (3 prototypes to be exact) and they all faced the same issues: when you hit compacted channel material, the size of the material you work and the solid nature of the material are too severe for small excavators. He was able to do some limited sampling if the material was loose enough, or if he was able to anchor his machine, but in most cases, the "mini" excavator concept is not viable.

The dredge with the flapper concept needs real-world dredging application. When you dredge (I've done a lot of it) the suction produced drags or snaps the rocks to the nozzle, and anything it wants to pull, it pulls. That means all different sizes, shapes, lengths, widths of cobbles. With a human on the end to visually sort, you still have issues with rocks slamming on the end of the nozzle, rocks flipping in the hose after they've entered the nozzle to generate jams, etc., etc. I can't see your flapper being able to handle the multiple variables or the rapid speed required to run your flapper to stop jams: it all happens far too fast in actual dredging conditions.

Once again, beach deposits, or deposits in very loose soil or smaller size deposition concentrations loosely compacted, yes, for your excavator. The dredge with no way to monitor the intake, no. I don't see that working.

I believe you've spent a lot of serious energy, money, time, sweat-equity in your machine, and it's time to realize it's realistic abilities. As it's designed and constructed right now, it has a very limited scope of operations. As others have said, and I've spent many years with full-scale, full-sized mining operations, they use much larger equipment to do their testing as small stuff wastes too much time and won't give them an accurate sample size for their larger production needs.

I don't believe anyone is being negative with malicious intent; we're trying to respond to your requests for sincere feedback about genuine mining or testing conditions so you can make an informed, realistic decision about the marketable possibilities of your machine to any possible interested parties.

I wish you all the best as you pursue the suggestions about real-world mining that you're receiving from experienced miners,

Lanny

 

[GoldGoblin]

Thanks for the information , there are aspects of the machine I am reluctant to share but I will tell you .. I have a visual means to monitor the areas of interest below water . The propellers are mounted above the height of the upper most point on the axles so I can traverse shallow water or Rocky areas without the use of or damaging the propellers .

 

[Reed Lukens]

weLL WEll

 

[GoldGoblin]

I understand that this machine will not work in all the various geological areas that MAY yield gold
I built it to work in the most possible locations within the confines of its design . Dredges don't tend to work well in the desert either.... as far as needing a modified or man-made point of descent to access a body of water , since it has multi wheel drive I can can climb out of and descend some pretty steep areas without the aid of a launch sight. The power to the propellers is about 400 hp ..so far it turns the props pretty well . The only way I plan to work in and area of steep walls or boulder fields is in the brakes fail lol. This machine is a great sampling/discovery machine which just happens to be able to process material on a single unit . Keep the knowledge coming , I would never claim to know everything . I have hand built this and have 6,000 hours in the build but I'm sure someone may know areas that need improved . Thanks

 

[GoldGoblin]

Typos should be a given..please .

 

[Goldwasher]

6000 hours have you done any testing or is that just building it?

 

[GoldGoblin]

That was build time .. but it includes the time spent building the original before I ripped it apart and started basically over. It will be put through extensive testing very soon .