Llano Slabs Prospecting

[B Street Blacksmith]

Now that I have my new sluice, and my homemade fluid bed sluice (I think I have fixed the issues with it), I am wanting to get down to moving a decent amount of material at the Slabs.

My question is, has anyone here ever prospected the Llano Slabs, and if so, is there any advice you could give me to make my next outing there more sucessful?

 

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[B Street Blacksmith]

Mason who is the president and handles the facebook page is a disabled Army Veteran. He had a broken back and still gets out and does some prospecting. He is a great guy also! You will like the bunch out there! Oh, on the outings they usually have a cook out Saturday evening as well!

Awesome, I look forward to meeting them!

I feel his pain with the back problems (that is why I had to retire).

 

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[B Street Blacksmith]

Headed out to the river for the day.

Here's to hoping that I see A piece of color before the day ends!

 

[B Street Blacksmith]

Today was more about learning how to run my sluice box correctly and running a lot of material, then finding the "best" material. Because of this, I am betting I did NOT find any color.

What I know that I did find was about 2lbs of really concentrated material, that I know for a fact is mostly black sand, and a LOT of lead shot.

I won't know for sure if there is any color in it until later tonight or tomorrow, because right now, I can hardly lift my left arm (too much panning and digging), and I would like to include my dad in it, and let him pan out the concentrates with me.

Next weekend, I'll probably go back out, weather permitting, and be a little more selective in the material I run.

I did run about 1.5 cubic yards of material through the sluice (overall).

Had a blast, and cant wait to go back out!

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

Today was more about learning how to run my sluice box correctly and running a lot of material, then finding the "best" material. Because of this, I am betting I did NOT find any color.

What I know that I did find was about 2lbs of really concentrated material, that I know for a fact is mostly black sand, and a LOT of lead shot.

I won't know for sure if there is any color in it until later tonight or tomorrow, because right now, I can hardly lift my left arm (too much panning and digging), and I would like to include my dad in it, and let him pan out the concentrates with me.

Next weekend, I'll probably go back out, weather permitting, and be a little more selective in the material I run.

I did run about 1.5 cubic yards of material through the sluice (overall).

Had a blast, and cant wait to go back out!

Thats cool! I made a tool out of PVC pipe, steel rod, spring and a couple of magnets inside to pick up magnetite and release it in a zip lock bag that I used to collect most of the black sands that are pretty much worthless so I can see what concentrates and any heavies are left in my pan. Of course by picking up quite a bit with a magnet can also pick up fine flour gold if you are not careful. I know I have collected quite a good bit of it in one day outing and mostly you will have a lot of it in your pan.

I would come home, dry out the black sand in a frying pan on the stove and get it really good and hot, then dump it through a funnel into a gallon of ice cold water. The minute the hot sands hit the cold water it will cause the water splash and pop, hence the reason you want to dump it in a gallon milk jug, causing the black sands to fracture and break releasing any micro gold that may be in them.

I use a table mounted magnifying glass/light to pick out any fine gold that is hard to see with the naked eye. I have about 20lbs of black sands with nothing in it.

I don't know what you have for tools, but I went to Home Depot and got some 1/8th, 3/16th steel rods and made some tools with flat spoon hooks on the end to dig out dirt in crevises between rocks on dry areas in the tributaries where water would have pushed heavies in there during floods.

Good luck if you go out there next weekend. I already have plans otherwise I would meet you out there. Always like prospecting with new people.

 

[Chaboznic]

If all the gold washed away , where did it go ? Down stream I would think but does that mean it washed all the way to the ocean already? What's your friend think about that?

 

[B Street Blacksmith]

Well, after looking at the weather report, I will probably not be out at the Slabs this next weekend (too cold and rainy). Hopefully the first saturday in March.

Still haven't run my concentrates for gold, because it got cold enough that all the pipes froze, and I've just been hunkered down in the house watching movies. Maybe tonight.

When I play with my concentrate container, I've seen what looks like a piece or two of flour gold settle to the bottom, so I might just be lucky (though I wouldn't bet on it).

 

[B Street Blacksmith]

Well, set my sluice up as a homemade highbanker, and tested it this last weekend. I only ran about two and a half buckets of dirt from the slabs.

But eventhough it was just a little bit of dirt from the slabs, I still proved that there is gold in the Llano.




It's only one flake, but lets me know if I try hard I might get some decent color.

 

[B Street Blacksmith]

Mason who is the president and handles the facebook page is a disabled Army Veteran. He had a broken back and still gets out and does some prospecting. He is a great guy also! You will like the bunch out there! Oh, on the outings they usually have a cook out Saturday evening as well!

Oh, I went to the march meeting.

You were right, they are a great bunch of guys.

I'm actually working on a new design for their website right now, as the site was built over 10 years ago, and hasn't been updated since (I mean the design, not the content).

When they found out that I was a designer, they were excited.

I will also be going on their outing next month, and getting to know them better!

Thanks for encouraging me to go meet them!

 

[SierraMadre]

Sluced the Slab 3 days and did not find a single speck. Was told I could not use a dredge or anything with an engine as the "claim owner" wouldn't allow it. Never heard of a "claim owner" in Texas before. You may do some good at Malcoms but I'd forget the slab unless you want to get some lead shot

 

[okbasspro]

In Texas you lease the ground from the state way more expensive than a western claim