Placer Claim Mined Out?

[desertgolddigger]

I belong to a local club that owns a claim. This club has had this claim for many years, and acquired it after the old timers had mined it previously, and others after they commercial outfits closed up.
I walked quite a bit of the 160 acre claim, and noted that just about every wash had been worked. Most of the surface nuggets has also been detected by those with gold detectors. In other words, this place has been picked over and over and over.
But I m a stubborn type of person, and I figured, just watching how people ram their puffer and blower drywashers, that some gold was just being blown through them. maybe not much, but some small stuff that never got a chance to settle behind the riffles.
I know many of you would never go to the effort of digging for three to four hours through the tailings in these washes. Again, I'm a bit stubborn, and anyway, I just wanted to have some fun locally, instead of driving 300 miles roundtrip to something that gives a little more for less effort.
I've spent the last three weeks, digging a few times a week along about 30 yards of wash, and have recovered just about a gram of gold. That might not seem like much, but I have only dug up 5 grams, not counting this one gram in almost 20 years out here drywashing in the desert of southern California.
As you would know, things always seem to go wrong. My gas powered blower motor decided it was time for the repair shop, and haven't heard from the shop in two weeks. So I purchased a WORX WG521 corded electric leaf blower to use with my Royal Large drywasher. I'm using a portable generator to provide the power. And it actually is working better than with my old gas powered blower. I have to run the blower on the lowest speed, or I just blow everything through the riffles. Results are very good, as I am getting gold specks so small that I will have to use the Blue bowl in order to recover them.
I'm not only getting a little gold, I'm having some fun, and I am getting a good workout. I've lost 10 pounds since I started. So things are going well.
I'm still digging test holes around the old time hard rock mines in the hope I will find where the gold has drifted downhill below these mines. So far just a couple specks here and there. I figure I just have to move laterally one way or the other before I get something better Of course, I' don't really know if the old timers stripped the hillsides. Even if they have, they apparently aren't as thorough as I am. I hope that I may be lucky and find a larger piece of gold that the old timers, previous placer miners, and detectorists have missed.
Hope everyone is having as much fun as I have been having.

 

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[southfork]

It is more fun if you can spot some gold with your eyes before crushing.

I did bring back some discolored rocks, but the detector showed nothing. I just finished crushing 3 of the very small ones. I couldn't see any gold with a 10x loupe, but I did see some silver colored specks. Those might be just small quartz shining though.

I may invest in a small chain type rock crusher. Which is better, gas powered or electric? Please recommend a powered type rock crusher, as my hands are toast, after my round of just crushing those 3 rocks, and they weren't even powdered very well.

I get the feeling I just need a way to crush the rock into fine powder. Then maybe I can find some fine gold that even a detector can't find

I bought one of these electric K and N Kushers used and I'm happy with it. But you still have to find small rocks or break them down small feed tube. https://kandmkrushers.com/ I would like to get a jaw crusher to size my material before it goes into the chain mill but only if we can find enough ore to pay for it.

 

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[desertgolddigger]

I bought one of these electric K and N Kushers used and I'm happy with it. But you still have to find small rocks or break them down small feed tube. https://kandmkrushers.com/ I would like to get a jaw crusher to size my material before it goes into the chain mill but only if we can find enough ore to pay for it.

Yeah, but so far I've seen zilch gold in the rocks. I've seen fools gold though. That stuff gets in my concentrates, and drives me crazy. I started pressing hard on anything that looks suspicious before dropping it in my gold bottle.

Anyway, I think bringing home some rock, and crushing it might teach me which rocks are best to bring home.

One thing about crushing these rocks is the orange color it imparts in the water when panning. It takes a lot of new water to eventually rid the pan of this murky water.

Once I determine what type of rock to bring home, and I have enough, I probably will invest in the small electric K&M Crusher. How do you mount these heavy crushers? or do you need to?

But then, that leaves me with getting a gas powered furnace, and then I have to invest in a bicycle shed to house all my mining stuff in the back backyard. I hope mining rocks can pay for all that, as I see the investment at about $5K.

 

[Reed Lukens]

I passed thru on 40 today, going to my mining partners funeral. I'll be coming back thru on Tuesday. If you want me to stop by, send me a pm and I can give you some pointers.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Another rock crushed and panned. Well mostly crushed. The crusher I have is one of those cheap t-handle, 2 inch types that go for about $50. Results were pretty much the same as last. Got at least two specks of gold, and maybe some too small for me to verify. I keep getting silver colored specks. I'm guessing that may either be silver, or maybe pyrites. Still more rocks to crush to see if one type might be better than these that at one time housed gold nuggets.

Back to K&M Crushers. Does all the material get pulverized, or does the majority stay 30 mesh or larger like my manual crusher? My manual crusher only seems to get about 25 percent crushed to 100 mesh and smaller, which isn't very good for all the effort I'm putting into slamming the darn thing. Please let me know, or possibly post a picture of what the results are for the K&M. I don't want to invest unless It can powder most of a rock.

And If I purchase the electric one, should I also purchase more chains, and screens?

 

[arizau]

Another rock crushed and panned. Well mostly crushed. The crusher I have is one of those cheap t-handle, 2 inch types that go for about $50. Results were pretty much the same as last. Got at least two specks of gold, and maybe some too small for me to verify. I keep getting silver colored specks. I'm guessing that may either be silver, or maybe pyrites. Still more rocks to crush to see if one type might be better than these that at one time housed gold nuggets.

Back to K&M Crushers. Does all the material get pulverized, or does the majority stay 30 mesh or larger like my manual crusher? My manual crusher only seems to get about 25 percent crushed to 100 mesh and smaller, which isn't very good for all the effort I'm putting into slamming the darn thing. Please let me know, or possibly post a picture of what the results are for the K&M. I don't want to invest unless It can powder most of a rock.

And If I purchase the electric one, should I also purchase more chains, and screens?

I think it is possible the silver specks you are finding may be shards of steel from your hand crusher. Check with a magnet.

The chains will eventually disintigrate or break through use. See above.

Ore milling is normally an incremental process with screen oversize being continually remilled until it is acceptably sized.

Still admire your persistance.

Good luck.

 

[southfork]

Another rock crushed and panned. Well mostly crushed. The crusher I have is one of those cheap t-handle, 2 inch types that go for about $50. Results were pretty much the same as last. Got at least two specks of gold, and maybe some too small for me to verify. I keep getting silver colored specks. I'm guessing that may either be silver, or maybe pyrites. Still more rocks to crush to see if one type might be better than these that at one time housed gold nuggets.

Back to K&M Crushers. Does all the material get pulverized, or does the majority stay 30 mesh or larger like my manual crusher? My manual crusher only seems to get about 25 percent crushed to 100 mesh and smaller, which isn't very good for all the effort I'm putting into slamming the darn thing. Please let me know, or possibly post a picture of what the results are for the K&M. I don't want to invest unless It can powder most of a rock.

And If I purchase the electric one, should I also purchase more chains, and screens?

With new chains it powders I would guess at 70 percent It depends on the hardness of the ore. I place a 30-mesh screen on a five-gallon bucket and wash the fines through pan what's on top and run the rest on the fluid bed concentrator. It powders all the material on some samples you need to feed slowly and let it do the work. And yes, spare chains and screens will be needed in time it will do a better job than the manual crusher makes most of it like powdered sugar wear a dust mask when running I catch the crushed material in a plastic tub. You might be able to run the crushed material through your dry washer? I was thinking about trying it because it takes so long to wash the fines it's a slow process. If you just run small rocks, it makes it easier or a lot of work making them small.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Southfork, Thanks for the photo and reply. With the dry washer I own, 100 mesh and smaller would probably end up either blown into the air, or below the screen. That's one reason I have to run stuff from the bottom of my washer. Last run netted 1/10th gram that somehow slipped around the screen.

I wonder if a real slow flow of water in a mini sluice might capture such fine gold?

EDITED: K&M wrote me back saying rock to 100 mesh or finer is initially about 90 percent. I guess you have to ensure yor screen and chains are always in good condition to keep achieving that figure..

 

[desertgolddigger]

I think it is possible the silver specks you are finding may be shards of steel from your hand crusher. Check with a magnet.

The chains will eventually disintigrate or break through use. See above.

Ore milling is normally an incremental process with screen oversize being continually remilled until it is acceptably sized.

Still admire your persistance.

Good luck.

Arizau, My persistence broke this morning with my attempts to detect my micro pea gravel pile with my Minrlab GM1000. I got one hit that ended up being a piece of aluminum that had crusted over, and almost looked like gold. Took me 10 minutes to find that tiny thing. Two other indications never paid off, no matter how I separated things. I think it might have been some kind of metal other than gold. I'm thinking seriously of just cleaning that pile up, and running everything smaller than 1/16 inch through my washer. IU'll use the micro pea gravel as a filler along my property boundary to block weeds.

 

[southfork]

Southfork, Thanks for the photo and reply. With the dry washer I own, 100 mesh and smaller would probably end up either blown into the air, or below the screen. That's one reason I have to run stuff from the bottom of my washer. Last run netted 1/10th gram that somehow slipped around the screen.

I wonder if a real slow flow of water in a mini sluice might capture such fine gold?

EDITED: K&M wrote me back saying rock to 100 mesh or finer is initially about 90 percent. I guess you have to ensure yor screen and chains are always in good condition to keep achieving that figure..

That sounds about right we always end up with a lot of fines to run through the ribbed sluice. But like I said depends on the ore. I have the water turned down to start on each run dish soap and water in the bucket to wet things up. And just feed slowly a spoon at a time keep an eye on it to see how it's moving

 

[Assembler]

That sounds about right we always end up with a lot of fines to run through the ribbed sluice. But like I said depends on the ore. I have the water turned down to start on each run dish soap and water in the bucket to wet things up. And just feed slowly a spoon at a time keep an eye on it to see how it's moving

This is one reason I like a pan as there is a lot less blow out.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Another day at home working in the side yard, getting things ready to pour a sidewalk to my back back yard. I do most of my dry wash work back there, and will eventually have my rock crusher there also. So I need a smooth, hard path to mke things easier gettin heavy things back there. Right now it's all pea gravel, which makes wheeling things there difficult.

After that work, I mistreated myself to crushing two more small rock brought back from the claim. The only gold I saw was from smaller than 100 mesh. I think there were another few pieces. Just saving it all to run on my Miller Table.

I'll order the rock crusher this coming week. I'm going to mount it on a 3/4 inch plywood platform fitted with locking wheel casters. That way I can move it back to a locked area when done.. Sure wish I had a garage.

 

[southfork]

The crusher will give you more options to sample from different areas. But I was wondering what are you going to do with the waste rock it adds up. I just use it as fill alongside of the barn.

 

[desertgolddigger]

The crusher will give you more options to sample from different areas. But I was wondering what are you going to do with the waste rock it adds up. I just use it as fill alongside of the barn.

I'll just put it back in buckets, and take it out with me when I go either Placer mining, or detecting rocks. We have plenty of washes that will disperse that kind of waste.

I went out with the detector to just sht of the Joshua Tree National Park boundary to search for some old tailing piles. Found one, but like most in our area, it's strewn with rusty cans, rusty hardware, bullets and cartridges, amongst the common stuff. Did find a 25x30mm oval piece of rusted metal, varying from 3 to 4mm thick. Can't see any markings on it. Maybe from a vehicle?

The detector found five rocks that sounded off from very faint to fairly loud. Will check one tomorrow. Also went through all the rocks I toted in from the club's claim, and found one that had a very weak signal. Hopefully they aren't full of iron. It would be nice to finally say I figured out this detector, and have gold as proof. Don't want to wear out the rock crusher for just a few tiny specks of gold per rock. The chains are super expensive, unless there's a source with better pricing. I found security chains of the same hardness, but they are coated.

 

[bc5391]

Arizau, My persistence broke this morning with my attempts to detect my micro pea gravel pile with my Minrlab GM1000. I got one hit that ended up being a piece of aluminum that had crusted over, and almost looked like gold. Took me 10 minutes to find that tiny thing. Two other indications never paid off, no matter how I separated things. I think it might have been some kind of metal other than gold. I'm thinking seriously of just cleaning that pile up, and running everything smaller than 1/16 inch through my washer. IU'll use the micro pea gravel as a filler along my property boundary to block weeds.

only 10 min, you may have set a record. I get frustrated looking for tiny bits that usually end up being lead, brass, or small wire

 

[desertgolddigger]

I guess the hits I got yesterday might all be iron of some type. I crushed one rock, and I got plenty of black sand, but no yellow stuff. This old lady is getting tired of slamming the manual rock crusher. Today I broke the skin on my thumb, so no more manual rock crushing for me. Will have to wait until I get the electric crusher.

Based on my finding black sand from the crushing, I have a bucket full of stuff I'll have to haul back into the desert. Now I know why the detector howled on the brownish gray rock in a surface quarry.

EDITED: Crusher ordered. Now I definitely need to spend more time looking for more rocks, with hopefully more gold in them. The club is having it's bi-annual Humbug Claim campout. Looks like I will be prospecting for that rock, instead of dry washing. I built a stand made of scrap PVC pipe and fittings to rest my detector on. That way I just need to dig rock,, place in bucket, and tote to detector for beeping, Hopefully I'll find enough for a bucket or two, during those three days. I think that with more practice, I'll get better I definitely will be wearing the headset that came with the detector. Just hope there's gold in the rocks versus black sand like I found this morning.

PS: HELP!! please recommend a furnace, and all that is needed to smelt gold. If you could list the chemicals, safety equipment, and all the other stuff needed, I would appreciate it. Maybe you could just PM me with the list. Hopefully the stuff is on Amazon.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Here's another question (idea?) about working OTer hard rock tailing piles.

Instead of just checking the larger rocks only, maybe I should be scooping everything with my plastic scoop, and running it under my elevated detector coil. My thoughts are there might be smaller stones with possible gold. Or maybe even a small nugget that slipped into the tailing pile.

Some of the piles on our claim are huge, some actually used as fill for where the trucks would park to get filled up. I'm guessing that if I dig into those, I'll have to restore them. A lot of work, but not sure what BLM would say if I just create a huge pile of waste next to the area I'm digging into. Any thoughts on that?

Anyway, except for a couple of these piles, none have been worked as far as I can tell. A couple of the surface quarries tailing piles seem to have been picked over, but not the mine shaft ones. Of course, the detectorists have beeped the surface of these piles, sometimes finding something.

 

[arizau]

Have you tried screening and running some of the dump fines through your drywasher?

 

[desertgolddigger]

Have you tried screening and running some of the dump fines through your drywasher?

yes, with no results

 

[Reed Lukens]

Don't worry about a furnace until you have a few ounces of gold to put thru it. There are tons of them on Amazon either way.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Don't worry about a furnace until you have a few ounces of gold to put thru it. There are tons of them on Amazon either way.

Yeah, Have to pay for the crusher first. Figure I need at least two ounces of unrefined gold. I'm just wondering if the claim has that much in the OTer tailing piles.