No sluice, alternative?

[MoonRakerSCM]

Hi there! I've been trying to get onto an active gold forum lately to ask a question or two, and this place looks like it's still hoppin'.

I have a question about sluicing alternatives. I've never been panning proper, but have a lot of experience with paydirt and my panning technique isn't too shabby. I'm a geologist that specializes in river terraces, so I've been putting together an attack plan for my local gold area (san gabriel canyon East Fork). So, I have the looking and panning part down (we'll see if a slightly educated approach even gets me a flake lol), but what I do not have is a sluice. None of my friends have one either and we're not looking to buy at this time.

So, with that in mind, we'll all be classifying into our buckets with 1/4 mesh and going from there. I was wondering, instead of going straight to the pan from the classified material, (normally you'd sluice), would it benefit me to perhaps... fill the bucket half with water, half with material, and then agitate for a minute or two, and then discard say... the upper half of the material?

I'm just wondering what I can do with a bucket, maybe a garden hand rake , or say anything else from around the house so as to further refine the material before I start breaking my back panning.

Thank you for any suggestions!

- Shawn

 

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[Goodyguy]

No I dont have a video or even a picture but it's a simple setup.

The tank has a bottom similar to the cap used in the 2 bucket method to hold the heavier particles. http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=26771&catid=538

On top is what looks like a sluice with a header box with punch plate to classify. A hose from the pump circulates the water in the tank enough to keep the particles moving. Picture a 2" pvc pipe laid across the top cut in half with a T in the middle and 2" pipe going down into the tank about half way that acts like a siphon. It siphons out the lighter particles that rise in the tank.

The gold and black sands get trapped in the bottom of the tank. You can dredge in, shovel in or dredge and shovel at the same time. There is no constantly pulling the plug. You can run all day trapping the gold in the bottom of the tank.

Got it
I may try a 55 gal version.

What is connected to the ends of the two inch pvc that crosses the top to create the siphon?
Wouldn't the lighter material just spill over the top as overflow?

How do you get to the gold in the bottom of that 215 gal tank? Isn't there a lot of material left in the tank that doesn't get siphoned off?
GG~

 

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[nickmarch]

I'm using a 215 gallon tank so I need the siphon. With a 55 gallon tank you could do without it. On mine the two ends of the pvc at the top are connected to 90 degree elbows and more 2" pvc pointing down outside of the tank. It creates a natural siphon. No motor needed. When the pump is shut off the water will drain to the end of the inside pvc that is in the tank.

There is also a sluice attached on mine and easily attached to a 55 gallon drum. It captures the gold from what is to large to pass thru the punch plate. On mine the sluice attaches to the end of the classifier. What runs off the classifier goes to the sluice.

It would be easy to attach a sluice to a 55 gallon drum. Measure the width of a sluice (the sluice has to be long. Mine is 5') The top rim of the drum... cut down a couple inches, measure the width of your sluice and cut down a couple inches. Remove the metal inbetween the cuts. It's hard to put into words but attach your sluice so that when the water spills out it runs down the sluice. I would not have the light materials run out the top of the drum. Drill a hole about 1/3 up from the bottom of the drum and attach a valve so the lighter materials drain out from the valve. Open the valve enough so that water still spills out the top. The lighter materials will come out the valve.

With the new setup there is quite a bit of material in the bottom but the gold is all the way at the bottom. With the old setup (pictured) the valve at the botom is open ever so slightly so that water, gold, black sands and some sand constantly drain from the bottom. I didnt put that in the new setup because it is the stand that makes moving it all a hastle.

I attached a previous version of the vortex concentrator. It works great but is a real hastle to get to the location. With my new setup everything including the pump fits inside of the tank. I strap it to a dolly with large inflatable wheels. I can wheel the whole setup to location. Look at the attached picture. The hose closest to the tent is where the lighter material comes out. With the old setup it was too high to add a classifier and sluice to the top.

 

[nickmarch]

This is roughly what I am talking about. The classifier shown is for multiple drums and to classify to two different size ranges. A sluice would be attached to the classifier or to the drum.

 

[Jeffro]

For a slick and quick down and dirty sluice without spending much money, go and find a 4 or 5 foot section of sewage pipe, it comes in either 4" or 6" diameter I think. Its plastic, flexible and corrugated so that it has drop riffles every 1/2" or so. Get the non-perforated stuff (NOT the drain pipe). Cut it in half lengthwise so you have a half circle 4 or 5 feet long. It'll handle your 1/4" minus pretty easily with decent water flow.

I've even gravity dredged with the stuff before (uncut, of course ) No pump, no motor, no sluice, easy to pack in to remote areas and will catch a ton of gold.

Here is one that a guy has spent money on, building a stand, buying a pump, plumbing, etc. But you don't need all that out in the field. Just lay it in the creek, put a large rock on the upper end to hold it down, and use a hand trowel to feed it your screened material.




To get gold to drop to the bottom of a five gallon bucket so that you could remove the top half realistically would be quite a chore. You'd need to keep every bit of it in suspension in the water for the gold to drop down. Otherwise it will layer and you could toss out some gold bearing material. Not really doable out in the field without some fancy setups.

 

[Goodyguy]

Thanks Nick,

Your setup is giving me a lot to think about. I saw on another post that you are making a move to NC. perhaps I will be able to pay you a visit and see your outfit first hand. I live in Indiana but try to prospect the Rutherfordton NC area once a year. Wouldn't be out of the question for me to make a side trip to your neck of the woods north of Charlotte. Shouldn't be more than about two hours away.

Thanks again for taking your time to detail those diagrams, and for including the photos of your other set up, I really like the concept.

GG~

 

[GrayCloud]

If we had all the fines thrown out.

 

[nickmarch]

Thanks Nick,

Your setup is giving me a lot to think about. I saw on another post that you are making a move to NC. perhaps I will be able to pay you a visit and see your outfit first hand. I live in Indiana but try to prospect the Rutherfordton NC area once a year. Wouldn't be out of the question for me to make a side trip to your neck of the woods north of Charlotte. Shouldn't be more than about two hours away.

Thanks again for taking your time to detail those diagrams, and for including the photos of your other set up, I really like the concept.

GG~

GG, it looks like about 60 miles from Rutherfordton to Huntersville. Feel free to stop by! I'll send an address when I have one. Hopefully I'll have the shaking table setup. Bring some worked cons! Stuff that you worked to death and feel that there is no gold left!

 

[johnedoe]

Here is a site I found for ALL your PVC needs......... http://flexpvc.com/

 

[sfast1]

In my experience, you have to run a lot of dirt to get much Gold out of the East Fork unless you are really good at selecting your Sunday Claim. We can run about 30 buckets through the sluice before our backs give out and we end up with maybe 50 flakes.

To get to your question. Whenever I want to really test our sluiced material I do like you suggest. I put some water in the 5 gal bucket and agitate it for a moment then tilt the bucket and scoop a few hand fulls from the bottom. Basically you are using the bucket as a big gold pan. I always end up with a few hand fulls of heavys and the majority of the gold will be there also.

So, yes, you could classify, then liquify, agitate, then just pan the heavys.

I do recommend a sluice though. We really like the bazooka gold traps, a small investment that really makes prospecting much easier. I personally don't like the traditional keene sluices because I don't like to classify and I always feel like I am losing fine gold. Who knows though. If you are into good gold you could probably run your material over a doormat and do well.

On another note, I feel we do pretty well in East fork for the amount of material we are able to run. On Gold rush I think they average about $5 per yard. I guess we can run about 1 yard per day and we do end up with about $5 of gold a sore back and a smile on our faces.

Good luck up there... Also may get "mine cache" for google Earth to help you pick a good spot up there..