Has anyone used the gold cube? Any comments on this. I was debating either to get a gold cube or a dredge and highbanker combo. Which would be better? Thanks.
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Gold cube
- Thread starter mu50stang
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ahaulil
Full Member
- Apr 19, 2011
- 103
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Minelab Equinox 800
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A couple of months ago I saw a guy running tailings from a drywasher and he was picking up some flour gold that was missed.
I was impressed and may consider one myself.
My equipment budget is busted until 2012.
I was impressed and may consider one myself.
My equipment budget is busted until 2012.
russau
Gold Member
i just might see ole Mike (Gold Cube)Pung in a couple of weeks in OK. he says he just give a personnal demo of his Gold Cube! hope i have enough "spare" cash then!!
My two cents worth...I am currently using the Gold Cube to clean concentrates from my dredging operation. I have the 4 stack unit which has three trays.
A. The Gold Cube appears to live up to the claims its makers claim. I can not report on the actual percentage of recovery yet as I haven't performed my "scientific" test yet, but visually I would say it is true or pretty darn close.
B. The gold we are getting is small. Minus 10 mesh plus 30 is 2.375%, -30 +40 19.938%, -40 +60 33.217% and minus 60 is 44.47%...so pretty small stuff.
C. Of the gold the Cube is recovering for us, probably about 85 percent is on tray one; and 15 percent on tray two. Rarely do we see any gold on tray three.
D. We have panned MANY buckets of "tails" with only the occasional pieces of gold found, so no it does not get 100 percent.
E. The feed rate is pretty good. We feed a 5 gallon bucket in about 10 minutes and it appears we could feed a LOT faster, I just don't like to feed cons so fast.
F. Though some people on other forums have commented on how expensive the Gold Cube is, I can only guess that they have never been involved in manufacture/retail before. There are a lot of costs that are factored in to a retail price. The cost of R&D, molds, and other expenses need to be amortized into the price based on an expected product sales lifetime or "How many of these darn things will I sell." Let's face it, Gold Cubes will never sell as many units as an iPod so the amortization of expenses cost will be higher. The components such as bilge pump, hose, steel frame (nicely done by the way), are priced very much in line with other mining market items. The Vortex matting is EXPENSIVE as I have found it available on the internet already from a couple of different sources. So, when you add it all up, the Gold Cube is a reasonable value.
G. I used to own Armadillo Mining Shop, but no longer sell any mining equipment...including the Gold Cube, so my observations are not self serving as I am not making any money from increased sales of this device. Is it perfect, no. Can some extra features be added , yes. Would I recommend it to my best friend to buy one, all ready have!
49er Mike
A. The Gold Cube appears to live up to the claims its makers claim. I can not report on the actual percentage of recovery yet as I haven't performed my "scientific" test yet, but visually I would say it is true or pretty darn close.
B. The gold we are getting is small. Minus 10 mesh plus 30 is 2.375%, -30 +40 19.938%, -40 +60 33.217% and minus 60 is 44.47%...so pretty small stuff.
C. Of the gold the Cube is recovering for us, probably about 85 percent is on tray one; and 15 percent on tray two. Rarely do we see any gold on tray three.
D. We have panned MANY buckets of "tails" with only the occasional pieces of gold found, so no it does not get 100 percent.
E. The feed rate is pretty good. We feed a 5 gallon bucket in about 10 minutes and it appears we could feed a LOT faster, I just don't like to feed cons so fast.
F. Though some people on other forums have commented on how expensive the Gold Cube is, I can only guess that they have never been involved in manufacture/retail before. There are a lot of costs that are factored in to a retail price. The cost of R&D, molds, and other expenses need to be amortized into the price based on an expected product sales lifetime or "How many of these darn things will I sell." Let's face it, Gold Cubes will never sell as many units as an iPod so the amortization of expenses cost will be higher. The components such as bilge pump, hose, steel frame (nicely done by the way), are priced very much in line with other mining market items. The Vortex matting is EXPENSIVE as I have found it available on the internet already from a couple of different sources. So, when you add it all up, the Gold Cube is a reasonable value.
G. I used to own Armadillo Mining Shop, but no longer sell any mining equipment...including the Gold Cube, so my observations are not self serving as I am not making any money from increased sales of this device. Is it perfect, no. Can some extra features be added , yes. Would I recommend it to my best friend to buy one, all ready have!
49er Mike
russau
Gold Member
Mike is a straight shooter and if he says its so, then its so! thanks for the report Mike! and with the weather so bad in the midwest (Oklahoma particularly) it looks like i wont be going to OK. after all.
rebel003
Full Member
get the dredge if you have a place to use it. the gold cube is for cleaning up the concentrates after you collect them.
russau
Gold Member
everything works better if you take the time to screen it! then specific gravity has a chance to help you out!
The Gold Cube should be fed with 8 mesh and smaller material. The finer you classify (down to the size of your gold) like all mining equipment it works better. The Gold Cube was NOT designed to clean concentrates as I understand it but was designed to run beach sands. I use it to run concentrates though and it does an excellent job. I have not used it as a highbanker personally, but I believe it would do a SUPERB job on materials classified to 8 mesh or smaller.
Jason in Enid
Gold Member
- Oct 10, 2009
- 9,581
- 9,201
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russau said:
Russ, did you end up going to the K river with Mike? Weather was nice and the river level was great. I was there a few days earlier but had to leave Friday morning. I met an older gent from the Tulsa area who came early.
I left a heck of a hole going down to bedrock. Wondering is anyone with a dredge expanded it.
russau
Gold Member
no i didnt get to goto OK and visist with Mike Pung or Buck Rodgers as i wanted. tornados/rain and now heat/drought are keeping me away for now!
Jonsered
Jr. Member
Glad to hear this. My Cube is on order, and I'm hoping it will process a much larger volume of material and leave my spiral panner with just gold bearing cons to process.
jmoller99
Sr. Member
- Jan 8, 2010
- 294
- 109
- Detector(s) used
- Whites GMT, Goldmaster Vsat, 5900, Bounty Hunter Discovery 3300 and Falcon MD-20.
- Primary Interest:
- Other
I got my Gold Cube mid December and finally got a chance to try to run some cons thru it. That's Alton Oakes (Colorado Springs GPAA) classifying at 1/8 mesh, and doing the panning.
We got an exceptional amount of black sand out of the 2 buckets of cons we ran thru and the gold was flour fine (100+ mesh). I will be hitting up more club members to run their cons with before summer to see what affects what.
I did not buy the stand with the GC - I need something a bit more extreme for where I plan to take my Gold Cube this summer. Its sitting on a piece of plywood and a cinder block for the time being. 1200 gph pump and a 12 volt battery.
We got an exceptional amount of black sand out of the 2 buckets of cons we ran thru and the gold was flour fine (100+ mesh). I will be hitting up more club members to run their cons with before summer to see what affects what.
I did not buy the stand with the GC - I need something a bit more extreme for where I plan to take my Gold Cube this summer. Its sitting on a piece of plywood and a cinder block for the time being. 1200 gph pump and a 12 volt battery.
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jmoller99
Sr. Member
- Jan 8, 2010
- 294
- 109
- Detector(s) used
- Whites GMT, Goldmaster Vsat, 5900, Bounty Hunter Discovery 3300 and Falcon MD-20.
- Primary Interest:
- Other
Additional cleanups (using concentrates - its a bit cold in the Colorado mountains right now) from Clear Creek Colorado. The resulting black sand is full of fines, and it ends up like a thick and hard to work pudding, we ended up panning out a table spoons worth at a time. We ran the material 2 times and there was only a few very tiny flecks that showed up in that cleanup. 1/8 inch mesh screen used as we were feeding the Gold Cube.
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russau
Gold Member
make sure you clear off all the small bubbles off of the vortex matting everytime you stop/restart the water. you will love its ability to strip fine gold and not miss much. only a couple of specks on the second section of matting.
ywevis
Full Member
The gold cube is highly worth the price. 350 dollars isn't much for it's recovery rate..
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