What is the reason large scale operators dont use a Bazooka type sluice?

[Fermion]

What is the reason large scale operators don't use a Bazooka type sluice?

I have noticed a lot of people talking about the Bazooka sluice and how it is the best thing since boxed wine.

I have only used two types of sluices, a homemade traditional sluice with miners moss and a LeTrap. Both seem like small scale versions of what commercial operations use (sans trommel and shaker).

What limits a fluid trap from scaling up, and at what processing level does it start to fail compared with traditional sluices?

 

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[fowledup]

There are several commercial type concentrators or seperators, such as the Knelson concentrator that use centrifugal force and the fluidbed pricncipals to trap the heavies at the bottom. As far as an actual monster Bazooka I don't know, seems like it would work if it were scaled out the same, and you could provide enough water to it. Would be pretty cool to simply dump a front end loader on a Bazookas slick plate and go get another scoop, then at the end of the shift open up a hatch and dump out 5 gals of super cons. Talk about a quick clean out!

 

[bakergeol]

I have noticed a lot of people talking about the Bazooka sluice and how it is the best thing since boxed wine.

I have only used two types of sluices, a homemade traditional sluice with miners moss and a LeTrap. Both seem like small scale versions of what commercial operations use (sans trommel and shaker).

What limits a fluid trap from scaling up, and at what processing level does it start to fail compared with traditional sluices?

Commercial operators do have a fluid bed version called hydraulic riffles. Water is injected and maintains a fluidized bed. They are kind of picky regarding feed size usually below 1/8" to prevent packing.
The Knelson concentrator is superior to sluice boxes for fine gold recovery because they use high G force for recovery. However, their high cost and small TPH make traditional sluices a better choice.
"What processing level does it start to fail compared with traditional sluices" The answer is not what you are losing- It is what you are recovering. I attended a seminar once in what a sluice operator in South America said that he felt that he was recovering only 5% of the gold. A failure -No as he was making 30K a day. As you increase the water velocity in high water velocity commercial sluice boxers, dredges and bazookas you will start to lose fine gold. But if you are happy and satisfied with your recovery- no sweat. The problem is when you have significant amounts of gold or the majority of the gold is below 40 mesh. There are some areas in Colorado like this as well as beach gold.
So use whatever works.

George

 

[goldog]

Good question. A battery of 10-12 BGT Miners in place of the sluicebox at the end of a wash plant might work very well. Obviously would need some mods but I don't see why not.

Commercial operations are slow to embrace change. Who wants to be the guy who sticks his neck out and have it fail? Sometimes that's the only reason. Maybe Freddy Dodge can chime in to tell us where we are wrong.

 

[Fermion]

I guess really all a Bazooka is is a single hydraulic riffle (essentially). Since most large operations have a number of hydraulic riffles, they are in essence already using a system like the Bazooka.

I am unsure why we need a sluice at all really. If there was a way to dump a 5 gallon bucket into a hopper and then stir the mixture with water jets, let it settle for a minute, then discard the top 99%, we would probably catch all of the gold that was in the bucket. Essentially panning works like this. You put a bunch of material in a container (pan), keep it in a slurry by agitating with water, then discard the top material while keeping the gold in the bottom of the pan.