SEEKING ADVICE ON NEW SLUICE BOX

[AkTradArcher]

Howdy! I'm looking to buy my first Dream Mat sluice. I can't wait to try it out after watching so many awesome videos, but I have some questions for the community.

I will be prospecting in Montana with a partner and am looking to use the 12x47" Prospectors Dream river sluice with dredge mats, a header, and adjustable legs. I like the idea of the dredge mats because my partner and I will be able to feed it at a high rate, either unclassified or classified to 3/4". I know the dredge mat requires high flow rates, so it takes a little more work to set up a river sluice outfitted with them, but as stated above, the high feed rates are very enticing. Two men filling buckets can move a lot of material.

Much of the placer gold to be found where I will be prospecting is flour, but of course, pickers and some nuggets can be found in certain tributaries.

My first question is: Will dredge mats achieve a high recovery rate of flour gold? Or will I need to instead outfit with a Micro or Cape D mat and classify down to 1/8 inch in order to capture flour gold?

2nd: Is it better to purchase one sluice with two mats (dredge, and Micro or Cape D ), and when I pack into a new spot, decide which mat to use based primarily on what the test pans reveal?

I know Prospectors Dream sells a combo mat with Micro, Cape D, and Mini mat in one 36-inch piece, but I am really held more towards choosing the single correct tool for any given job, and as I said, I am really attracted to the rate of feed that it seems can be achieved with the setup I described above.

Thank you ya'll, happy hunting.

 

[russau]

Do yourself a favor and do your set ups at home for you to be able to decide which set up is best for the gold your trageting ! and I'm sure you know that water pressure ,sluice angle and feed rate does apply to a good recovery ! Good luck on your search and post some pics when you return !

 

[AkTradArcher]

Do yourself a favor and do your set ups at home for you to be able to decide which set up is best for the gold your trageting ! and I'm sure you know that water pressure ,sluice angle and feed rate does apply to a good recovery ! Good luck on your search and post some pics when you return !

Thankyou!
I think I'll buy two or three gauges of mat, and run test buckets at each spot we try. Ill
Write down my results. Every spot is so different in flow rate and gold size it will be interesting to hone in on the perfect setups.

 

[Reed Lukens]

You can't get the flow needed for the dredge mat without the motor and dredge... Just get the standard sluice mat or the combo mat. Lots of places you will go will have low water flow, so the smaller the set design, the better. I use the standard in my mini trommel, but I would never even try it in a sluice box because finding water as fast as it needs is next to impossible.
I run the dream mat at 11° and with lots more water then you see in my desert recirculation set up.

 

[AkTradArcher]

You can't get the flow needed for the dredge mat without the motor and dredge... Just get the standard sluice mat or the combo mat. Lots of places you will go will have low water flow, so the smaller the set design, the better. I use the standard in my mini trommel, but I would never even try it in a sluice box because finding water as fast as it needs is next to impossible.
I run the dream mat at 11° and with lots more water then you see in my desert recirculation set up.

Thank you Reed! I subscribed to your channel, I'll check out your other videos. Looks like a pretty good resource. Like most things, prospecting looks like luck until you realize it mostly comes down to skill, experience, and how much you try to learn.

 

[russau]

Reed always has great advice !

 

[russau]

Reed's channel is ALWAYS A GOOD CHOICE for info ! He's been there & done that for a long time !

 

[geowizard]

Experience comes from feeding thousands of cubic yards;

I can talk about my setup. Everyone else can talk about their setup! It's all about YOU and YOUR setup!

The water flow, the angle of the sluice box, the riffles, the mat, there's one more...

The screen;

Screening aka classification of the feed is IMHO the one, single most important factor!

The process of "gravity separation" of Gold from other rocks, gravel, sand, dirt depends on "mass".

Regardless of the mat, the riffles, the flow, the angle of the dangle, every particle in the sluice is in competition with all of the other particles on the same "playing field".

Gold wins because of "mass"!

- Geowizard

 

[geowizard]

Size matters;

The micron stage (used with a microscope) has a 1 mm, electron sputtered, silver scale (looks like a ruler) divided into 100 divisions!

On a scale of .01 mm = 10 microns per division.

For reference: 100 mesh = 149 microns (15 divisions).

Mesh and Micron Sizes Chart

What microns are in relation to US Standard Mesh sizes. Includes cross reference chart for mesh, microns, inches and millimeters. A must-have reference tool.

www.industrialspec.com

At Ophir Creek Mine, I bagged up twenty, one kilogram bags of my saved screened 20 mesh minus reject cons for further testing during the off-season. The bags contained 70 mesh minus GOLD in black sand. A 20 mesh screen will only recover 70 mesh GOLD. I had saved the "minus 70".

We want to recover the 100 mesh!

Here's how:

The way gravity recovery works is the "lighter" particles go away and the "heavier" particles stay behind. It's actually a matter of "mass". Mass includes volume of the particle.

Pure Gold has a mass of 19.3 grams per cubic centimeter. Placer Gold is around 15-19 grams per cubic centimeter. Black sand hematite or magnetite on average is 5 grams per cubic centimeter.

No problem if their size is the same!

Black sand heavies have equal or greater mass than GOLD if they are FOUR times larger. Sand and limestone having TEN times the size also have equal or greater mass than GOLD.

To level the playing field, the particles have to be classified by screening! The Mass of GOLD and other particles increase 4X with a 2X increase in diameter.

If you screen to 20 mesh (841 microns) you cannot recover GOLD smaller than 70 mesh (210 microns).

To catch 100 mesh (149 microns) GOLD, you need to screen to 80 mesh (595 microns).

Anyone that has done it will agree, screening to 80 mesh using 5 gallon bucket screens is a slow and very tedious process. Screening is done in steps using progressively larger mesh screens starting with 4 mesh, then 8 mesh, then 16 or 20 mesh. To catch 100 mesh GOLD requires TWO more screens; 40 mesh and 80 mesh.

Screening to 80 mesh will catch the 100 mesh GOLD.

The "minus 100" GOLD fraction cannot compete and goes overboard. That becomes the next project!

(Ed. Note: Deleted Scribid link.)

- Geowizard

 

[russau]

Yep I agree with GW's post on this , BUT I've seem where a LOT of miner's just Don't want to take the time / effort to get it right the first time and rush through it and end up losing fine gold !

 

[geowizard]

There's more;

The Randy Clarkson report is your best reference:

Ed note: Added Thumbs up!

https://www.westcoastplacer.com/Files/Clarkson1990.pdf

- Geowizard

 

[geowizard]

My advice;

Watch it to the end... Click on "Watch on YouTube".






- Geowizard

 

[geowizard]

Note to readers and viewers;

In the video, above, the gold bars at the end are 200 oz bars. Do the math!

- Geowizard

 

[russau]

There's more;

The Randy Clarkson report is your best reference:

Ed note: Added Thumbs up!

https://www.westcoastplacer.com/Files/Clarkson1990.pdf

- Geowizard

GEEWIZZZZ it's been that long ago I had 3 video's of his from back then and i still have them ! BUT now the VCR is gone! OH WELL , I guess I can have them copied over to a DVD , maybe I'll hold off doing so until a new type of device comes out and makes everything else I have obsolete !