Processing Black Sands

[SchoolOfHardRocks]

I've heard that prospector's "would be surprised, & never discard black sands again if they knew how much gold is in it"...Well, with my 2nd season coming to a close I think I have stock piled enough to think about processing it.

I have about 2 gallons of black sands and am wondering, what's the most efficient way to process it? I've heard about the crushing method & the heat & freeze method...but what is the best way? Are there other ways??

My plan is to document this process from beginning to end on this thread once I have determined which processing method will work best for me..who knows someone else may benefit from seeing my trial and error with black sands. Plus it will keep me busy while I'm patiently waiting for spring

 

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[arizau]

Not so sure it is less complicated to build but I can see how it would work.
In fact the frame for such a thing to be able to produce several hundred or thousand pounds would be quite a project in itself.
New Durston Goldpro® Double D4 158 Manual Mill « Gold International Machinery | The One Stop Shop for all of your Machinery, Equipment, Tool & Die Needs

Showing my age now...Remember the old hand cranked or electric clothes wringers on washing machines of yore? One of those could probably be adapted if the rolls were stripped of the rubber coating and if the clearances could be adjusted close enough. Never got my tit caught in one but fingers? Yes

Also the author of a very popular, in Canada at least, book on prospecting, Tom Bryant/Golly Mr Science (The Modern Gold Seekers Manual) suggested the use of a roll mill on a similar thread over on the GPEX forum.

 

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[johnedoe]

Showing my age now...Remember the old hand cranked or electric clothes wringers on washing machines of yore? One of those could probably be adapted if the rolls were stripped of the rubber coating and if the clearances could be adjusted close enough. Never got my tit caught in one but fingers? Yes

Also the author of a very popular, in Canada at least, book on prospecting, Tom Bryant/Golly Mr Science (The Modern Gold Seekers Manual) suggested the use of a roll mill on a similar thread over on the GPEX forum.

.... I remember very well the old wringer washing machines..... never got anything caught in one though.....
I will have to look up ol' Mr Sciences thread.

 

[arizau]

.... I remember very well the old wringer washing machines..... never got anything caught in one though.....
I will have to look up ol' Mr Sciences thread.

How could you expect my Mom to make me keep my fingers out of a wringer if she couldn't make me keep them out of my nose?

 

[Finn]

Not so sure it is less complicated to build but I can see how it would work.
In fact the frame for such a thing to be able to produce several hundred or thousand pounds would be quite a project in itself.
New Durston Goldpro® Double D4 158 Manual Mill « Gold International Machinery | The One Stop Shop for all of your Machinery, Equipment, Tool & Die Needs

I didn't explain it well. It doesn't need hundreds of thousands pounds. The force is concentrated on very small surface where rolls meet. If we have 2000 pounds on half square inch, it's quite a crusher. Coil springs of the old car and a screw type jack from the same will provide enough force, and a frame for that is not SO heavy.

Salud

Finn

 

[johnedoe]

I did understand what you said and I stated....... the frame for such a thing to be able to produce several hundred or thousand pounds......

Even at that the frame would still have to be fairly beefy.
It's all good though, we know what we are talking bout here.......

 

[Oregon Viking]

Showing my age now...Remember the old hand cranked or electric clothes wringers on washing machines of yore? One of those could probably be adapted if the rolls were stripped of the rubber coating and if the clearances could be adjusted close enough. Never got my tit caught in one but fingers? Yes

Also the author of a very popular, in Canada at least, book on prospecting, Tom Bryant/Golly Mr Science (The Modern Gold Seekers Manual) suggested the use of a roll mill on a similar thread over on the GPEX forum.

A hand cranked clothes wringer?

 

[arizau]

A hand cranked clothes wringer?

This if you don't know what they are. https://www.google.com/search?q=clo...4OxrP7BaM:&usg=__ELTOqRfhUuxzfECtX2r9xNx9pH0=

Roll crusher after conversion.

 

[Oregon Viking]

This if you don't know what they are. https://www.google.com/search?q=clo...4OxrP7BaM:&usg=__ELTOqRfhUuxzfECtX2r9xNx9pH0=

Roll crusher after conversion.

Oh yeh! I think my grandmother had one of those!

 

[Finn]

Sorry johnedoe, it happens to me quite often now a days, i read carelessly and then be left thinking what a heck that was..

Here is a a video of roll mill crusher:



It's a comercial unit but pretty simple.

Salud

Finn

 

[johnedoe]

Sorry johnedoe, it happens to me quite often now a days, i read carelessly and then be left thinking what a heck that was..

Finn

Wait till you get to be my age............ No problem.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Oh come on John! Both of us know that it's NOT the age... It's the mileage!

 

[johnedoe]

Oh come on John! Both of us know that it's NOT the age... It's the mileage!

Mileage is an understatement..............Believe me, It hasn't been easy being me............................................................

 

[goldenIrishman]

Well the grinding project is on hold for today. The notes for the last batch will have to wait till this evening because I'm heading out to test a new area in Gold Basin today. One thing I will say is that the grind times for the materials I've been running are a BIT LONGER than 15 minutes to get them to where I want them. Of course this batch was -20 so that's to be expected. A roller mill would have speeded it up a lot but I don't have the time or inclination to build one at this time. I have noticed that the cold rolled steel rods have become pitted during this little experiment. Maybe if I case hardened them or tempered the steel this would be less. Close examination of them makes me think that if I could get the same finish on a piece of flat material that it would make for a killer Miller table surface if that material was something that wouldn't rust.

Another observation is that many of the Garnets in the mix don't seem to be crushing with this method. So either I've got some really tough Garnets, or the weight of the rods just isn't enough to effect them.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Oh come on John! Both of us know that it's NOT the age... It's the mileage!

It's not just the mileage, but also how many times you've been repaired.... and/or rebuilt.
Factory installed parts have a limited life span, but there's a volume of OEM parts now on
the market, as well. While they don't have that factory "fit and finish", they do perform
the needed task.

So, as long as they've got the parts in stock us old farts are good to go..

 

[johnedoe]

As much as I hate to end up on the table I have a feeling this next year I gonna have to get the old knees done....... Not looking forward to that..... I am NOT a good patient.

 

[goldenIrishman]

I'm happy to say that I've still got all the original equipment and not looking like I'll be needing replacement parts any time in the near future. (Knocking on wood) Managed to get samples at two different sites today as well as do a little exploring. Found an old audit and checked out the area around it and looking into it I could see that it was filled with water. That's something of a rarity in these parts! We of course didn't enter it but it was still cool to check out the area around it. We continued down the road but since we had mining gear in the truck we turned around when we hit the border of the Lake Meade National Rec area.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Another observation is that many of the Garnets in the mix don't seem to be crushing with this method. So either I've got some really tough Garnets, or the weight of the rods just isn't enough to effect them.

...no real need to crush the garnets tho right? No gold inside those crystals after all.

 

[goldenIrishman]

That would be correct Kev. I only mentioned them because they're obviously pretty hard if they can withstand the rod mill with no sign of damage. The stuff I've been running is -20/+30 magnetics. There SHOULDN'T have been any Garnets in them to start with. Maybe they got coated like some of the gold does? No telling.

 

[mu50stang]

I was able to get my setup together. I ran all my cons through the blue bowl first to get all the visible gold out I could. I then grabbed a 1/4 cup of cons all different sizes 30 mesh and smaller plus another 1/4 cup of water. I used a total of 11 rods cut to just smaller then my barrel and ran for about 5 minutes. I then washed the cons into a 50 mesh screen. To my amazement I found gold on both sides of the screen. About 3 pieces bigger then 50 mesh and at least a dozen smaller then 50 mesh. Next I am going to screen my cons to 30 50 70 100 and run each size separate to see what the result is. I am pretty sure the extra gold was found due to the rod mill because I usually have no visible gold after using the blue bowl. Pretty cool result in my opinion.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Keep track of your setups, run times etc Mu50stang and we can pool the info so everyone can share it. It would cut down on the learning curve for all.

Edit.... TOLD you that you would find more gold!!!!!