prospecting

[tweeta_bear]

is it fair to say that most of the high mountain have fissures in them? is it also fair to say gold follows water? with these questions in mind if i find an old dried up creek bed coming down off the mountain and i dig in the right spot i can get what im looking for or has it nit made it down off the side off the mountain yet(ie not reach the creek yet)?

 

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[KevinInColorado]

how many buckets of 1/4" classified material can i put threw the sluice before i need to clean the sluice?

I would say it depends. Type of sluice, how much black sand is filling things up. How much ultra fine gold you are running which is at higher risk of getting blown thru.

Usually for me, with a sluice that's quick and easy to clean out, I do it when the first couple riffles are full of black sand. Or when I want to confirm that I'm in the right spot. A sample pan is nice but a couple buckets worth shows a more accurate view of your gold values.

Love to hear what others have to say about this too...!!

 

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[tweeta_bear]

so this is after one bucket.

 

[DizzyDigger]

how many buckets of 1/4" classified material can i put threw the
sluice before i need to clean the sluice?

Depends on the type of sluice, as Kevin has stated. I use Keene's A51 and A52, and will
clean them out after 6-8 3 gal. buckets of 1/8- material have been put through. If you are
using the large Bazooka model, you could likely feed it all day long and never need to clean
it out till the end of the day.

[edit note] We cross posted, but now that I see the pic above I would either A) let the
sluice run for a bit and clean out some more, or B) I would clean it out and check to see
what I've got. IMO, after only one bucket that is an awful lot of material still in the sluice,
but if there's that much black sand in your material then I guess it is possible.

 

[tweeta_bear]

i am using an a51 keene and most every shovel full was black. ima make a vid and post it.

 

[tweeta_bear]

am i doing this right?

 

[DizzyDigger]

From what I can derive from the video you need much more water flowing
through the sluice. If you see that first riffle start to plug up like that it's a
definite sign that you're either feeding the material too fast, or the flow is
too slow. In this case the flow is the culprit, as you were feeding it at a decent
rate..providing there is sufficient water flow to move the material down the sluice.

Have you classified the material (to what size?) prior to running, and also removed
all the extraneous debris (leaves, sticks, etc.)?

 

[Jason in Enid]

I'm going to disagree. I think your water flow is looking decent. The problem I see is that your head unit is putting ALL the water to the sides which is creating a very funky vortex in the top half of the sluice. You need some kind of dam to even that out. The sluice is working correctly as your pic shows only small areas of concentration behind where the riffles were. I'm not sure if everyone understood that pic was without riffles. I don't run the expanded under the riffles in my A52. Just riffles and carpet.

Don't be afraid to let the sluice run for a few minutes after the last of the dirt is run. Clearing out the light stuff should take a minute when running correctly.

 

[tweeta_bear]

1/4" classification and ill post another vid showing flow.

 

[Jason in Enid]

1/4" classification and ill post another vid showing flow.

1/4" is fine for this sluice. As to your original question of how many buckets can you run, you just have to watch the box. When you see about half the space between the riffles filled with concentrates then it's time to do a cleanup. What you show in the picture isn't anywhere close to that.

Just don't forget to test pan your tailings. If you are finding gold in them, you need to make adjustments to the sluice.

 

[okla. prospector]

Looks like some good material your running. Have you found much gold? Can I ask how long have you been prospecting or is this new to you?

 

[DizzyDigger]

I'm going to disagree. I'm not sure if everyone understood that pic was
without riffles. I don't run the expanded under the riffles in my A52. Just riffles and carpet.

Now that makes much more sense, as I had no idea the riffles were out for the pic.

TB, I think your getting better advice from Jason.

 

[tweeta_bear]

okla-im kinda new to this, i learned how to pan several years ago but not to this extent. im getting my material down stream from a well know gold mining town.

ok jason here is how it looks when i shut down the pump. so ya dont think i should use the expanded metal?

 

[tweeta_bear]

okla i havent panned any yet but i have found a few micro pieces.

 

[tweeta_bear]

this is after i take the riffles out.

 

[tweeta_bear]

one 5gallon bucket

 

[tweeta_bear]

 

[Jason in Enid]

I've never understood why Keene designed this sluice like that. Putting the expanded metal in like that prevents the riffles from getting a full seal on the carpet. You can run riffles over carpet, you can run expanded over carpet, you can run JUST carpet or just ribbed rubber mat. Combining them in the wrong ways will reduce or even prevent gold capture.

 

[DizzyDigger]

In the video (above) it looks like there is more water flowing than
I thought. The water entering into the sluice should be at an even
flow across the entire width when flowing in.

 

[DizzyDigger]

I've never understood why Keene designed this sluice like that. Putting the expanded metal in like that prevents the riffles from getting a full seal on the carpet. You can run riffles over carpet, you can run expanded over carpet, you can run JUST carpet or just ribbed rubber mat. Combining them in the wrong ways will reduce or even prevent gold capture.

For that very reason I'm in the process of replacing the carpet, expanded metal
and riffles with a combination of Gold Hog mats in both my A51 and A52. The gold
up here is very small, and while the Keene stock config. does catch some of the micro-gold,
it's certainly not very efficient at it.

 

[okla. prospector]

Ok, I'm going to try and help you out the best I can. Going to a new area for a week you need to know how to pan good, it's the most important thing in prospecting. On the first day you get there I would do like everyone is saying walk the area out and take sample from different spots. The sluice box is pretty easy to use if you have a good creek or river with nice water flow. If you walk the area out look for bedrock that is showing in the creek bed. This way the creek does most of the work for you. Gold is going to be the heaviest thing out there, so anywhere you can see where the water would slow the gold will deposit up right there. With you walking the area and taking pan sample this will help you find area to set up on the next day. If you are wanting to bring back as much material as you can then set up the sluice and run your material, do a clean out in the bucket and run more, this way you can cut 5 buckets down to one super cons bucket. Which this is hard to do when you have put a hard day in prospecting and want to see what you have found. Just make sure you do all your panning in a safety container that is big enough to be able to pan inside it. You will loose some gold out of your pan, this way you can run it again when you get home. Remember that gold is the heaviest thing in the creek and when the water is flowing it will help liquified the gravel and sand allowing the gold to go deeper. Look for any small waterfalls or hole in the creek always a good place to find gold. If you do find bedrock and it has cracks work the material in the cracks, using a screwdriver or whatever you have to get the material out. I hope this helps and good luck.
Okla. prospector