Highbanker - Fine Material in Coarse Tailings

[gmn0000]

Hey All,

I am new to Treasure.net and this is my first post.

My question is, is it normal to have some losses of fine material in the coarse tailings pile from a highbanker?

I just got a Gold Hog Piglet mini highbanker that I ran the other day with a 3700gph 12v 16amp bilge pump.
I noticed fine material in the coarse tailings pile including garnets and black sand.
So I put a pan under the grizzly bars to catch the tailings, and proceeded to try different things to minimalize the losses.

Things I Tried and the results:
** Lowering the header box angle.
This just made rocks get stuck on the grizzly bars

** Adding my 2200gph pump by zip tying the hose to the pipe that feeds water into the header box.
More water spit out of the box instead of going into through the grizzly bars.

** Ran fine tailings from the end of the sluice to see if maybe larger rocks where keeping some stuff from going though the sluice.
Still losses.

** Slowed my feed rate
Still losses.

** Just ran the 2200gph pump after a clean out.
Water wasn't making it out which is good, but 2200 gph isn't enough water.

From what I can gather online, it seems that it is the nature of a highbanker's design to have some losses from the hopper feeder end.
Before I left, I panned some material from the coarse tailings pile and found three specks.

Is anyone else aware of this problem and does anyone have any suggestions?

 

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[gmn0000]

 

[Goldwasher]

It's gonna Happen. Some water runs down the grizz or screen it will bring some light stuff with it. If its clumps of unbroken material worry more.

Hi bankers are a necessary tool. But, most times the situation at the hopper coarse tailings area is a shitshow. My least favorite aspect of power sluices.

Gold is heavy it falls through the Grizz right away. The specks you found were most likely still stuck to something you panned.

Try running the hopper as flat as you can while still allowing larger material to screen on its own.

 

[akflyer]

Every few scoops just grab a scoop from the tailings pile and dump it back through. Doc shows this on his videos. I have tested mine and the losses I found were not worth trying to recover. If you are in an area known for big nuggets, it never hurts to run a detector over your tailings pile when your done for the day. I pulled the grizzles on mine and put in a punch plate I made to hopefully better deal with the sharp decomposed bed rock I deal with in some areas but have not had a chance to try it out yet.

 

[gmn0000]

Every few scoops just grab a scoop from the tailings pile and dump it back through. Doc shows this on his videos. I have tested mine and the losses I found were not worth trying to recover. If you are in an area known for big nuggets, it never hurts to run a detector over your tailings pile when your done for the day. I pulled the grizzles on mine and put in a punch plate I made to hopefully better deal with the sharp decomposed bed rock I deal with in some areas but have not had a chance to try it out yet.

I wouldn't mind re-running material if it was gravel sized, but the material I ran had a lot of decent sized rocks. I have a hog pan that would make quick work of the tailings, though. Most the gold where I go is fine gold, unless you get to bedrock in the creek. If you get lucky you might get a tiny picker.

 

[gmn0000]

It's gonna Happen. Some water runs down the grizz or screen it will bring some light stuff with it. If its clumps of unbroken material worry more.

Hi bankers are a necessary tool. But, most times the situation at the hopper coarse tailings area is a shitshow. My least favorite aspect of power sluices.

Gold is heavy it falls through the Grizz right away. The specks you found were most likely still stuck to something you panned.

Try running the hopper as flat as you can while still allowing larger material to screen on its own.

Good point about gold sticking to stuff. I decided to use quick wax on the grizzly's when I got home to help rocks slide easier. I bought a clay claw with the piglet, but the size and flat shape of the rocks kinda hindered production so I took it out for the rest of the day. I'll try it with them in.

 

[akflyer]

if you catch 1000 pieces and loose 3, are those 3 really worth the extra trouble of going after is my thoughts. No system is going to give you 100% recovery.

 

[N-Lionberger]

Did you say you waxed your grizzlies to make the rocks slide easier?

 

[akflyer]

Did you say you waxed your grizzlies to make the rocks slide easier?

That is something Doc shows in his videos. It works for about the fist 3 minutes. The aluminum grizzlies can hang on to some of the rougher rocks. I thought about replacing mine with SS tubing but ended up making my own punch plate to put in the back with the CNC plasma table.

 

[N-Lionberger]

I wouldn't put wax anywhere near the grizzlies sounds like trouble to me.

 

[Gold4Mike]

My wife and I also noticed that we were losing some fine material off the grizzlies of our Piglet. This was happening even with our Honda pump and lots of water flow, and making sure the rocks were extra clean before opening the clay claw. I was having a hard time believing material would actually ride the top of a grizzly bar all the way down without sliding off to the side. We tested the large tailings by using a bucket and classifier right below the grizzlies and found that we lost a fair bit of fine material as well as some gold. We now just include the bucket and classifier as part of our setup. It is an extra bit of labor, and is it worth it for the small amount of gold we recover? I don't know. One of us is usually tending to the clay claw and crash box anyway and just gives the classifier a shake now and then and cleans off the bigger rocks. At the end of the day we just dump it back through the Piglet before cleanup.

If any of you have seen El Burrows videos on youtube, he uses a Raptor Flare. As part of his videos he shows some slow motion action which is pretty cool to watch the way certain parts are actually working. He had a slow motion portion showing the ends of the grizzlies and sure enough I could see small specks of material sliding right down the top of a grizzly bar and off the end, without falling to the side. The Raptor's grizzlies are quite a bit longer than the Piglet's. For now we will continue using our bucket and classifier to reclean the large tailings. I just can't face the thought of losing one larger piece of gold!

 

[Goldwasher]

My wife and I also noticed that we were losing some fine material off the grizzlies of our Piglet. This was happening even with our Honda pump and lots of water flow, and making sure the rocks were extra clean before opening the clay claw. I was having a hard time believing material would actually ride the top of a grizzly bar all the way down without sliding off to the side. We tested the large tailings by using a bucket and classifier right below the grizzlies and found that we lost a fair bit of fine material as well as some gold. We now just include the bucket and classifier as part of our setup. It is an extra bit of labor, and is it worth it for the small amount of gold we recover? I don't know. One of us is usually tending to the clay claw and crash box anyway and just gives the classifier a shake now and then and cleans off the bigger rocks. At the end of the day we just dump it back through the Piglet before cleanup.
View attachment 1763214
If any of you have seen El Burrows videos on youtube, he uses a Raptor Flare. As part of his videos he shows some slow motion action which is pretty cool to watch the way certain parts are actually working. He had a slow motion portion showing the ends of the grizzlies and sure enough I could see small specks of material sliding right down the top of a grizzly bar and off the end, without falling to the side. The Raptor's grizzlies are quite a bit longer than the Piglet's. For now we will continue using our bucket and classifier to reclean the large tailings. I just can't face the thought of losing one larger piece of gold!

I wouldn't worry. "larger" gold will not make it down the Grizz..those small specks are doing so due to that fact that they have low specific gravity.

Small specks in your over size could be from sticking to something else or just the perfect conditions for those few very fine bits to ride the water out.

I wouldn't slow down my feed all that much over it.

don't forget roots...hold and carry gold out of the grizz too.

Notice the comment about the fine gold recovery.

 

[akflyer]

having light fines going out the back is not an issue. I only want the heavies in the mats anyway.

 

[Vance in AK]

How do I find El Burrows channel on youtube. Did a search there but no luck

 

[Gold4Mike]

How do I find El Burrows channel on youtube. Did a search there but no luck

Here's his most recent.

 

[Goodyguy]

Hey All,
My question is, is it normal to have some losses of fine material in the coarse tailings pile from a highbanker?

I just got a Gold Hog Piglet mini highbanker that I ran the other day with a 3700gph 12v 16amp bilge pump.
I noticed fine material in the coarse tailings pile including garnets and black sand.
So I put a pan under the grizzly bars to catch the tailings, and proceeded to try different things to minimalize the losses.

Is anyone else aware of this problem and does anyone have any suggestions?

I pulled the grizzles on mine and put in a punch plate I made to hopefully better deal with the sharp decomposed bed rock I deal with in some areas but have not had a chance to try it out yet.

You probably already do this but for those who dont........

Just be aware to run the punch plate so the staggered holes are facing downhill not sideways. If not there are rows of wide flat pathways for the gold to ride out the end of the hopper.
Turn it both ways and you will see what I mean. It's easy to overlook the correct orientation.

You may be surprised to find how many fines are lost riding the rails of a grizzly plus some are lost just being caught up in the flow of gravels and water.
Not too much trouble to set the back end of the highbanker into a tub that catches everything and do one test just to see if it's an issue or not.

I always use the safety tub when running my highbanker and the fines do add up especially on my highbanker with a high flow reverse hopper like the piglet.

GG~

 

[akflyer]

when I first built mine I was all about testing what came off both ends to see what kind of losses I was getting. I made my high banker based off the piglet then another based off the raptor. I must have gotten lucky on the matting and the basic design as I only found the very occasional fly poop speck. After a few runs I quit worrying about losses out of either end. I did make my sluice run an inch wider than the GH on both models and I run the hopper a little shallower as well. I think this helps with being able to run more water and not having the material flying out the back of the hopper.

I made a flair for both of the units and put in an extra section. In reality, as fast I can feed it by myself I don't see any benefit from the flair. Maybe if I had multiple people feeding it and was running the material much faster it would be worth while. I know that unless I get the conveyor set up this year to feed it I won't bother dragging out the flair or the extra 36" of sluice.

 

[Goodyguy]

when I first built mine I was all about testing what came off both ends to see what kind of losses I was getting. I made my high banker based off the piglet then another based off the raptor. I must have gotten lucky on the matting and the basic design as I only found the very occasional fly poop speck. After a few runs I quit worrying about losses out of either end. I did make my sluice run an inch wider than the GH on both models and I run the hopper a little shallower as well. I think this helps with being able to run more water and not having the material flying out the back of the hopper.

I made a flair for both of the units and put in an extra section. In reality, as fast I can feed it by myself I don't see any benefit from the flair. Maybe if I had multiple people feeding it and was running the material much faster it would be worth while. I know that unless I get the conveyor set up this year to feed it I won't bother dragging out the flair or the extra 36" of sluice.

Good Job on your build!
What kind of matting did you use?


GG~

 

[akflyer]

Good Job on your build!
What kind of matting did you use?


GG~

It is a mix of UR, cut RH, Talon, bedrock, razorback and motherlode.