New Fluid Dynamics Sluice from Snake River Products

[wildminer]

You people will have a blast! If you haven't been to Sumpter to check out the bucket line dredge and all the mining related history, you will be close. FS campground at Philips Reservoir and a nice RV campground on the right just before Sumpter. Also the gold nugget display at U.S. Bank in Baker.

 

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[AllenJ]

First bucket with the Expedition, pretty happy with the results. I classified to 1/2" but should have taken it down to 1/4". Lots of bark, leaves, roots that made it through the 1/2" that then clogged up the holes. I fed it slow but am pretty sure some gold probably did not get caught due to that.

 

[arizau]

View attachment 1596258

First bucket with the Expedition, pretty happy with the results. I classified to 1/2" but should have taken it down to 1/4". Lots of bark, leaves, roots that made it through the 1/2" that then clogged up the holes. I fed it slow but am pretty sure some gold probably did not get caught due to that.

Just a random thought......Since you are already screening you might consider making a short mesh basket that fits within the sluice and dump the feed into that. You will have to empty it often but the time spent should not be more than that spent screening remotely and an added benefit of washing gold contained in the dirt that may be coating the rocks. Will it work? Don't know since I have not seen where anyone else has tried it.

Good luck.

 

[SunshineMiner]

QNCrazy on here does something like that, but its with a Keene A52. He has a punch plate formed into the wing of the sluice and it has a nice lip on it to prevent oversize from rolling down the sluice. I've seen it in action and works pretty well. You'll get a little surging on the top deck once you lift/clear the plate, but it should be pretty negligible as long as your careful. He usually does pretty well with it

 

[SRP_KBell]

AllenJ –

Great looking gold! Looks like you’ve got a great spot.

There are many small creeks and runoff areas here in California where we encounter lots of “woody” materials – These areas also have quite a bit of gold. When I’m using a Recon or Expedition in these conditions I understand that I will be spending time keeping the grizzly clear and cleaning and resetting the sluice more frequently than normal.

I need to mention that the grizzly of the AMP sluices is a water/material limiter first and a classifier second. That means that as the grizzly gets clogged you are reducing material processing speed, not recovery. Realizing that processing material would create a clogging of the grizzly, I built in about 5-10% more surface area into it. Over 10% of the grizzly would have to be covered before any real reduction happens.

Bottom line: When working in the material you discussed, keep the grizzly clean as you process material. When you think its too clogged and sweeping material off with your hand isn’t working just clean and reset the sluice – It takes about 40 seconds for an Expedition. Smaller classification size will certainly reduce the problem but you have to weigh time spent clearing the sluice vs. time spent classifying. Remember classifying one five gallon bucket of quarter-inch mesh is like classifying four buckets of half-inch mesh – concentration of gold in each bucket has benefits!

Arizau -

I want to stress the importance of laminar flow in fluidized systems like the Expedition (and I assume the Bazooka/GGT). The material liquefies and stratifies as it travels down the material deck. A mesh strainer will fill up very quickly with material causing reduced and irregular flows - Any impedance in the flow or addition of turbulence can disrupt the stratification and liquefaction process which can result in reduced recovery.

 

[arizau]

Yeah I figured that flow interruption would occur and left it out there for some one else to chime in on the consequences.

 

[AllenJ]

AllenJ –

Great looking gold! Looks like you’ve got a great spot.

There are many small creeks and runoff areas here in California where we encounter lots of “woody” materials – These areas also have quite a bit of gold. When I’m using a Recon or Expedition in these conditions I understand that I will be spending time keeping the grizzly clear and cleaning and resetting the sluice more frequently than normal.

I need to mention that the grizzly of the AMP sluices is a water/material limiter first and a classifier second. That means that as the grizzly gets clogged you are reducing material processing speed, not recovery. Realizing that processing material would create a clogging of the grizzly, I built in about 5-10% more surface area into it. Over 10% of the grizzly would have to be covered before any real reduction happens.

Bottom line: When working in the material you discussed, keep the grizzly clean as you process material. When you think its too clogged and sweeping material off with your hand isn’t working just clean and reset the sluice – It takes about 40 seconds for an Expedition. Smaller classification size will certainly reduce the problem but you have to weigh time spent clearing the sluice vs. time spent classifying. Remember classifying one five gallon bucket of quarter-inch mesh is like classifying four buckets of half-inch mesh – concentration of gold in each bucket has benefits!

Arizau -

I want to stress the importance of laminar flow in fluidized systems like the Expedition (and I assume the Bazooka/GGT). The material liquefies and stratifies as it travels down the material deck. A mesh strainer will fill up very quickly with material causing reduced and irregular flows - Any impedance in the flow or addition of turbulence can disrupt the stratification and liquefaction process which can result in reduced recovery.

Thank you for the advice sir. I never thought about how long it would take to re-classify it down to 1/4" plus it was a hot day so I'm sure it would have worn me out!