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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[desertgolddigger]

Re: primary gold recovery.....I have found that sometimes it helps to pan concentrates by the cupful or less when the gold is extremely fine.

Good luck

I pan gold this way. I put in four soup spoonful's of concentrates, and swirl to settle it. I then tap the side of the pan while tilting it away from my body. I then swish the contents side-to-side, then tap the pan on the side away from my body to settle the contents. I usually do this five or more times to ensure the gold is in the corner of the pan. Most of the gold is 200 mesh and smaller

Next I tilt the pan gently toward my body over a container, and remove half the concentrates using a lab squeeze bottle.

Then I repeat the process with four more spoon scoops until I have all my concentrates finished, and the last step is to remove more slowly until I have only a few spoonful's in the corner of the pan for final processing.

I keep the discarded concentrates and when I have three days worth of discards, I sluice it again, and do the panning the same way.

After I've finished, I rarely have very much gold on the second go around, and doing a third time has revealed nothing.

This procedure is the best I've come up with, and leaves very little gold in the discards after the first panning. What's left is usually smaller than 300 mesh.

 

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[desertgolddigger]

Guys, I found a kink in my sluicing. I hadn't noticed consciously that the water pressure apparently went up. I guess these water valves don't stay fixed at a certain flow rate. I cranked it down about a 1/4 turn, and reran my sluice tailings.

Guess what I found. That smaller than 300 mesh gold in large quantities.

I also reran three of my panning tailings, and yes, more smaller than 300 mesh gold in good quantity.

I hate to know that buckets of my sluicing tailings are gone back to the wilds. At least I now know to monitor the water pressure. The flow should be fairly similar to what a Miller Table requires, though a tad faster so the lighter material is carried over the grizzlies and carpet combination.

Also, I'd never looked with a loupe at my ribbed black matting before. I saw some of the larger gold trapped there. The super fine gold is apparently trapped by the grizzly/mat combination.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I ran my sluice early this morning before starting work on my electrical.

I hand crushed rock I'd just extracted from the Pit, and then ran it through the chain mill last evening. Remember I said I thought the gold was getting thin, and might have to find a new location. Get rid of that thought, as my pan had three nice lines of gold, I've been panning half my concentrates at a time, then going back and carefully repanning it all a again. Most of the gold is the super fine stuff with a sprinkling of the 100 mesh size.

I then tried to run my electrical out to my mill and electric sifter. Seems I did something wrong, and now my observatory electrical won't work, and the electrical box at the sifter and mill doesn't either. If I can't figure it out, I may need to hire an electrician. I sure hope not, as they cost a ton. I'll try to figure out how to simplify the setup so I can get my observatory, and mining stuff working. Guess I'll be doing lots of reading, and watching videos. Sure wish I had one of you nearby to show me how.

 

[Assembler]

I ran my sluice early this morning before starting work on my electrical.

I hand crushed rock I'd just extracted from the Pit, and then ran it through the chain mill last evening. Remember I said I thought the gold was getting thin, and might have to find a new location. Get rid of that thought, as my pan had three nice lines of gold, I've been panning half my concentrates at a time, then going back and carefully repanning it all a again. Most of the gold is the super fine stuff with a sprinkling of the 100 mesh size.

I then tried to run my electrical out to my mill and electric sifter. Seems I did something wrong, and now my observatory electrical won't work, and the electrical box at the sifter and mill doesn't either. If I can't figure it out, I may need to hire an electrician. I sure hope not, as they cost a ton. I'll try to figure out how to simplify the setup so I can get my observatory, and mining stuff working. Guess I'll be doing lots of reading, and watching videos. Sure wish I had one of you nearby to show me how.

Are you back into the half gram or better per 6 cu. ft. of material?

 

[desertgolddigger]

Are you back into the half gram or better per 6 cu. ft. of material?

I'm not placer mining because my last three outings have been less than 1/20th gram for ten full 5 gallon buckets of classified to 1/4 inch material. Whenever I feel up to it, I'll explore the upper area next to the current wash to see if I can find something richer.

the half gram I've gotten about five times over a year. Typically the take is 1/10th gram, which is OK.

My hard rock mining take per 5 gallon bucket probably never exceeds 1/10th gram, and is typically much less.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Gents, I finally solved my electrical difficulties. It was a mis-wired outlet. I watched a video on how to install the wires into an outlet. Very easy to understand.

Anyway, the first half of my back-backyard electrical works. Now to install a run, and outlet inside the Shelter Logic tent.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I continue getting the items I ordered from Amazon. Problem with Amazon is their packaging of fragile items in the same box with heavy items. They packaged a 20 pound item with the cupels on the bottom. One cupel was completely broken, with five more with chipped rims.

I'm hoping that the glazing of the chipped cupels will stabilize their structure. From watching a video, you first heat them to rid them of moisture, then use borax to glaze them, sealing at least the upper side and rim. The person making the video also glazed the bottom and sides.

I guess that when I heat the cupel up, if it's going to fail, it'll do that when removing the moisture.

Anyone have suggestions other then what I described?

 

[southfork]

I continue getting the items I ordered from Amazon. Problem with Amazon is their packaging of fragile items in the same box with heavy items. They packaged a 20 pound item with the cupels on the bottom. One cupel was completely broken, with five more with chipped rims.

I'm hoping that the glazing of the chipped cupels will stabilize their structure. From watching a video, you first heat them to rid them of moisture, then use borax to glaze them, sealing at least the upper side and rim. The person making the video also glazed the bottom and sides.

I guess that when I heat the cupel up, if it's going to fail, it'll do that when removing the moisture.

Anyone have suggestions other then what I described?

The imported cupels don't hold up there prone to cracking just heat slowly. I just figure there good for one time, so I just add a pinch of borax in with the gold. I place the cupel with the gold inside of a crucible and fire up. Sometimes the button sticks but by then there's hairline cracks in it anyway, so I just pry it out. I buy the cupels by the case our gold is sometimes dirty and it takes a couple of melts to cleanup. All of our buttons get cleaned in muriatic acid and Whink a good week long soak in each and there bright and shiny. Just to be clear I'm not smelting just melting the free gold so a lot of impurities it takes a couple of melts to cleanup. The buttons have a coating of blackish material on them sometimes along with parts of the cupel from sticking the acid takes care of that. Also, the crucible will catch the gold in case of total failure of the cupel lol. Where you live a day in the sun should drive any moisture out of the new cupels. Happy Mining have fun.

 

[desertgolddigger]

It sleeted this morning, and rain is expected all day, so all I managed was an early morning sluice. Not a whole lot of the yellow stuff, but I got the equivalent of a 2 inch thin line of the super fine stuff.

I had to change chains also. I've been reversing them to get use of all four sharp sides, and the seems to about double my use of them. They seem to wear more quickly once one side gets worn. But at least I'm not doing what I did early on when I threw away chains that had only one of the four edges worn. My brain didn't figurer out about reversing the chains until I'd thrown two sets away.

Yesterday I reground some of the richer ore particles that make it through the screen, and got almost as much gold from what little was turned to dust as the first grind. This tells me I need to figure a way to completely grind these remaining particles to the same consistency as I've been sluicing, 100 mesh and smaller. Apparently this super ultra fine gold can be locked up in these 1/16 particles I've just considered sand.

An Arrastra isn't possible, as I'm just not skilled enough to build one that will work. The only other cheap alternative is a cement mixer with various sized steel balls I'd tried a rock tumbler, but it just didn't have to ooompf to do anything. I have a small cement mixer, but I can't remove the mixing vanes, as the nuts and bolts are frozen in place by the cement particles. My only alternative is to buy another one dedicated to being a ball mill.

Anyone have comments or suggestions on an alternative method. Remember, I am not mechanically inclined like many of you guys. It must be simple, especially since I'm limited on the tools I have available, which mostly woodworking tools with a smattering like my Amazon Basics socket wrench set, and screwdriver set.

I'm going to shop cement mixers this morning, so, if nothing from any of you, I'll be ordering one this evening. What size do you suggest?

 

[southfork]

It sleeted this morning, and rain is expected all day, so all I managed was an early morning sluice. Not a whole lot of the yellow stuff, but I got the equivalent of a 2 inch thin line of the super fine stuff.

I had to change chains also. I've been reversing them to get use of all four sharp sides, and the seems to about double my use of them. They seem to wear more quickly once one side gets worn. But at least I'm not doing what I did early on when I threw away chains that had only one of the four edges worn. My brain didn't figurer out about reversing the chains until I'd thrown two sets away.

Yesterday I reground some of the richer ore particles that make it through the screen, and got almost as much gold from what little was turned to dust as the first grind. This tells me I need to figure a way to completely grind these remaining particles to the same consistency as I've been sluicing, 100 mesh and smaller. Apparently this super ultra fine gold can be locked up in these 1/16 particles I've just considered sand.

An Arrastra isn't possible, as I'm just not skilled enough to build one that will work. The only other cheap alternative is a cement mixer with various sized steel balls I'd tried a rock tumbler, but it just didn't have to ooompf to do anything. I have a small cement mixer, but I can't remove the mixing vanes, as the nuts and bolts are frozen in place by the cement particles. My only alternative is to buy another one dedicated to being a ball mill.

Anyone have comments or suggestions on an alternative method. Remember, I am not mechanically inclined like many of you guys. It must be simple, especially since I'm limited on the tools I have available, which mostly woodworking tools with a smattering like my Amazon Basics socket wrench set, and screwdriver set.

I'm going to shop cement mixers this morning, so, if nothing from any of you, I'll be ordering one this evening. What size do you suggest?

When I want a finer grind with the chain mill, I don't clean out the mill I run the material again. I feed slowly and let it run until the dust slows or quits. That pile that forms in the back of the mill acts as a guide to keep things under the chains longer. But a little warning it makes a lot of dust.

 

[desertgolddigger]

When I want a finer grind with the chain mill, I don't clean out the mill I run the material again. I feed slowly and let it run until the dust slows or quits. That pile that forms in the back of the mill acts as a guide to keep things under the chains longer. But a little warning it makes a lot of dust.

I rarely clean out the mill chamber more than the fourth or fifth half bucket run. I clean things out so I can properly view the screens and chains and hardware to make sure they're still in good shape.

But the Mill only manages to create smaller particles at about 1/6th the volume put in

Yes, I noted that it creates lots of dust. I use a mask when using both the chain mill, and my electric sifter.

I wish I had the masonry skills, as well as the mechanical skills to build an Arrastra. They pulverized the material to a fine paste, laving very little larger particles. I guess anything not ground down to paste is just put back in for a rerun.

 

[desertgolddigger]

The imported cupels don't hold up there prone to cracking just heat slowly. I just figure there good for one time, so I just add a pinch of borax in with the gold. I place the cupel with the gold inside of a crucible and fire up. Sometimes the button sticks but by then there's hairline cracks in it anyway, so I just pry it out. I buy the cupels by the case our gold is sometimes dirty and it takes a couple of melts to cleanup. All of our buttons get cleaned in muriatic acid and Whink a good week long soak in each and there bright and shiny. Just to be clear I'm not smelting just melting the free gold so a lot of impurities it takes a couple of melts to cleanup. The buttons have a coating of blackish material on them sometimes along with parts of the cupel from sticking the acid takes care of that. Also, the crucible will catch the gold in case of total failure of the cupel lol. Where you live a day in the sun should drive any moisture out of the new cupels. Happy Mining have fun.

The videos I've watched seem to indicate that if the cupel is properly rid of the internal moisture, then glazed with borax, they stand up better for longer use

I've still got to use the refractory and stiffener coating on the furnace lining. I read that the particles the lining is made of can loosen, and foul the material you're melting. If anyone needs a few ounces of this coating material, let me know. I tend to purchase the large size, and I'll never use all of the five pounds I purchased. The coating is rated at 3750F

I also need to purchase a respirator and filters designed for use with toxic fumes, including Mercury vapor. I don't want to take any chances breathing in toxic fumes when using the retort or furnace.

 

[N-Lionberger]

You could maybe cut the vanes out with an angle grinder.

 

[desertgolddigger]

You could maybe cut the vanes out with an angle grinder.

I don 't own an angle grinder. I do have a reciprocating saw which I may try to cut the bolt heads with. I just hope I don't cut the sheet metal housing in the process, or I will have to buy a new mixer.

 

[JohnWhite]

They have some pretty cheap grinders at harbor freight…I usually pick up their cheap tools because I don’t usually plan on using them to earn a living… lol…. https://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/grinders/angle-grinders.html

Ed T

 

[JohnWhite]

They even sell cheap cement mixers…

Harbor Freight Tools – Quality Tools at Discount Prices Since 1977

Harbor Freight buys their top quality tools from the same factories that supply our competitors. We cut out the middleman and pass the savings to you!

www.harborfreight.com

Ed T

 

[arizau]

It sleeted this morning, and rain is expected all day, so all I managed was an early morning sluice. Not a whole lot of the yellow stuff, but I got the equivalent of a 2 inch thin line of the super fine stuff.

I had to change chains also. I've been reversing them to get use of all four sharp sides, and the seems to about double my use of them. They seem to wear more quickly once one side gets worn. But at least I'm not doing what I did early on when I threw away chains that had only one of the four edges worn. My brain didn't figurer out about reversing the chains until I'd thrown two sets away.

Yesterday I reground some of the richer ore particles that make it through the screen, and got almost as much gold from what little was turned to dust as the first grind. This tells me I need to figure a way to completely grind these remaining particles to the same consistency as I've been sluicing, 100 mesh and smaller. Apparently this super ultra fine gold can be locked up in these 1/16 particles I've just considered sand.

An Arrastra isn't possible, as I'm just not skilled enough to build one that will work. The only other cheap alternative is a cement mixer with various sized steel balls I'd tried a rock tumbler, but it just didn't have to ooompf to do anything. I have a small cement mixer, but I can't remove the mixing vanes, as the nuts and bolts are frozen in place by the cement particles. My only alternative is to buy another one dedicated to being a ball mill.

Anyone have comments or suggestions on an alternative method. Remember, I am not mechanically inclined like many of you guys. It must be simple, especially since I'm limited on the tools I have available, which mostly woodworking tools with a smattering like my Amazon Basics socket wrench set, and screwdriver set.

I'm going to shop cement mixers this morning, so, if nothing from any of you, I'll be ordering one this evening. What size do you suggest?

You can probably use your mixer without modification other than maybe speed and steepening it's tilt*. Google "autogenous mill". They just use large stones or ore as the pulverisng and grinding media....kinda the same concept as an arrastra.

Good luck.

*This assumes the bottom is rounded and without vanes.

 

[DizzyDigger]

A cheap angle grinder would be the way to go, but rather than the laborious task of cutting the vanes out, use the grinder to take off the bolt heads for the vanes. Find some other nuts/bolts of the same size to plug the holes with.

so I can get my observatory, and mining stuff working.

An observatory? Nice to know there's a fellow star gazer around. Pray tell, what scope resides on the big tripod?

 

[desertgolddigger]

@DizzyDigger He said "An observatory? Nice to know there's a fellow star gazer around. Pray tell, what scope resides on the big tripod?"

I originally built the observatory about 15 years ago. At the time where I live was basically pitch black except for a small city skyglow. But during the last 5 years, people from the big cities have snapped up adjacent properties, renovating them, and added what I basically call floodlights.

I originally built it for astrophotography, but with being surrounded by people who want lights on outside all the time, I no longer can make an exposure over one minute without the photo starting to wash out.

I have a four inch apochromatic refractor on a pedestal mount. I also use an 8 inch reflector occasionally. I should mention I've not used the observatory in five years due to light pollution. And 29 Palms is supposed to be a dark sky designated city, but doesn't enforce residential light pollution violations, only commercial violations, and apparently those almost never.

If I could, I would've mover out into Wonder Valley to escape the light pollution, but I'm now too old to do that; my body deteriorating from neurological deterioration. But enough of this off subject stuff, other than my electrical problem was the Edison fuse in the observatory due to improper wiring for my noutdoor mining area electrical outlet. That's all solved now.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Gents, I got the cement mixer vane bolts removed, and didn't need to spend more money on something I'd only use once. I used my very old electric drill with my largest drill bit from a Harbor Freight drill bit set that is designed for drilling hardened steel. Went through the bolt heads like butter.

Now I just have to purchase new nuts, bolts and washers. I'm also going to look for a rubber grommet or something similar to ensure the stuff in the mixer doesn't leak out the holes.

EDITED: Nuts, bolts neoprene and metal washers are installed on the Mixer. All I'm waiting on now is 20# of 1 and 1/4 inch steel balls I ordered over the weekend. I already have several hundred 1/2 inch slingshot balls I'll throw in with the bigger brothers. Hopefully the combination will grind better than just the larger balls. Might need some 3/4 inchers, though won't know until I make my first run of the richer material that just makes too much wear and tear on my chain mill. Even the chains I get from the security company at about 1/5th the cost of the K&M chains are expensive