M & M Mining the Northern Sierras

[N-Lionberger]

I can out shovel my 2.5" so I have the same game plan, shovel to bedrock and hookup the nozzle to clean up.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[mikep691]

I'm just hoping the bedrock is a only a couple feet down, like most everywhere else we've dug. Could be a honey hole. We just don't know. YET

 

[mikep691]

This is the hopper I don't like and why:

 

[mikep691]

Doing this on my phone so it won't let me put all the pictures in one post. What I did was redirect the gravels so they are not dropped straight down on the mat. Added this:

 

[mikep691]

With the grizzly installed:

 

[N-Lionberger]

I get what you are saying, I have a Keene highbanker hopper that looks just like that I was thinking about making a similar mod to, should hopefully reduce some bubbles and expose the slurry uniformly to as much capture surface as possible.

 

[mikep691]

I found an old Folgers can with black sand concentrates from the first three years working the claim. So I just had to set up the blue bowl again. This short vid is after the first spoon full of -30(ish) concentrates.



After five spoons, I'm like a little kid in a candy store....

 

[mytimetoshine]

I found an old Folgers can with black sand concentrates from the first three years working the claim. So I just had to set up the blue bowl again. This short vid is after the first spoon full of -30(ish) concentrates.



After five spoons, I'm like a little kid in a candy store....

Nice. Got to love finding concentrates that u didnt know u had! Thats from Meat Creek? I dont remember finding any fly poop there. In the video it looks like there was a lot of 100 mesh around the cone of the Blue Bowl.

 

[mikep691]

Nice. Got to love finding concentrates that u didnt know u had! Thats from Meat Creek? I dont remember finding any fly poop there. In the video it looks like there was a lot of 100 mesh around the cone of the Blue Bowl.

This was from the first couple years at Meat. When ever we did cleanouts, the blacks from the pan went into the coffee can for later removal. We always have a few pieces that would roll to the black sands when panning, so I just left it knowing we'd get them back sooner or later. This can was lost in the back room and I found it when I was digging through the stuff looking for all my garden seeds.

 

[mikep691]

Well, this sucks. My "semi-retirement" ends next week and the company I'll be working for at Tesla's battery Gigafactory is a 24-7-365 gig. My normal four day Memorial weekend mining trip is now in the septic. I'll be working three 12 hour shifts then two days off, followed by two 12 hour shifts with three days off. So, no holiday or four day weekend. Good news is I'm making good money, and can now go mining every 10 days for three days instead of just a weekend every two weeks.

If anybody cares, this company is a global supplier of specialized automotive systems to EVERY auto maker in the world. As long as you drive, this company makes money. I think it's a good place to be..

 

[mikep691]

Nice. Got to love finding concentrates that u didnt know u had! Thats from Meat Creek? I dont remember finding any fly poop there. In the video it looks like there was a lot of 100 mesh around the cone of the Blue Bowl.

When I got to the bottom of that coffee can, the black sands were so heavy they didn't even move around the bowl without some turkey baster action. I'm considering throwing that ball of mercury in with this the gold in the snuffer bottle bottle, and save until I built a retort. It might be close to half gram sponge when all is said and done.

 

[Oddjob]

Nice thread Mike.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Blue bowl loose quite a bit of gold id imagine so i would save that sand for sure

 

[mikep691]

it's all in the 5 gallon now. I'm old and kind of a pack rat so sh!t never goes away, it just gets moved .

 

[mikep691]

Here's a view of my day:

 

[mikep691]

Nice thread Mike.

Thanks. Kinda blown away when I saw 108 like. And NO, I didn't go through all of them

 

[mikep691]

Interesting turn of events for the upcoming season: Rockguy has scored a smokin' deal on a 2" combo unit without the pump. I may have scored a deal on a 2" pump, never used for $50 and a drive to Fallon, Nv. Since my new job is half way there, the plan is if it doesn't sell tonight (interested person ahead of me doesn't want to drive that far), I'll drive the extra miles after work Sunday to get it. Then it's GAME ON for the season!!!

 

[mikep691]

I'm guessing two things after testing the mods to the highbanker at the Meat... 1: the mods don't work, or 2: the pump is too small. This all comes about when I tested my tailings after not finding any gold in the box. Two tests and two fairly nice flakes were in the tailings and nothing was found in the sluice. I am leaning more toward not enough water. I had to run the box pretty steep to get a 1/2" rock to pass the riffles.

If I stepped up my pump size to 2" from the cheapo 1 1/2" that I have now, will it push more water through the same hoses? Now that I'm working again, and 2" pumps are on sale at Harbor, I'm seriously leaning in this direction before my next trip.

Rockguy's new 2" combo did pretty good. Neither of us are breaking gold getting records but that's because we are still in prospecting mode. After many beers, we may have decided to go back where we started, and where the biggest nugget was found a year ago. Things are on hold for a few weeks until finances catch up.

 

[mytimetoshine]

Better ramp up pruduction Mike. Season will be over before you know it. Maybe opt for a low tech option like a sluice box until the high banker issues get sorted?

 

[mikep691]

Better ramp up pruduction Mike. Season will be over before you know it. Maybe opt for a low tech option like a sluice box until the high banker issues get sorted?[/QUOTE
Now that Rockguy has a new toy, I could be using the redneck, zip tie the hose to the hopper and keep using the 1 1/2" pump and nozzle. The redneck uses an A51A sluice. The pump will have plenty of water for that sluice, but not enough for the 10" wide box that it is trying to feed now. Within a month I can afford a Harbor 2" pump. Also, by end of this season, I'll have the 3" gravity system up and running.