Thermal City High banking

[Astrobouncer]

I went to a pay to play gold mine that's about an hour and a half north of me with a couple buddies. I wanted to test my drop riffle highbanker while they just wanted to get gold. My buddy used my older highbanker with vortex matting and raised expanded metal. We each got a load of dirt from the bulldozer which is 1 cubic yard of unscreened material from the old river bed. These pics are after we had already ran the material and you can see my 2 tailings piles from when I moved the highbanker. I couldn't get pics earlier cause it rained nonstop while we were working. My other buddy Dr Phil rented one of their highbankers and ran a load of dirt as well. He got done early and had time to sluice. He got some nice gold and chunky too.










My take for the day wasnt as good as I had hoped, but at least the high banker worked good. most of the gold never made it out of the vortex matting.





Dr Phil's take in a 14 inch pan:



My other buddy Georgi looked like he had a lot of fines in his cleanup but I didnt get pics cause it was still kind of raining. We had a great time and met some great people as always.I saw a couple things which could use changing on my highbanker but overall it seemed to work fine. I test tailings several times by running it into that black trough and then panning it out, never found any gold in the tailings.

Here's a video of my self made highbanker before I put the legs on it: Thats the one I used for the day.

 

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[russau]

respectable take on the gold!

 

[Hoser John]

Never saw gold I didn't like and thats down right purty. NOW 100% illegal in kalif without 2 permits and a on sight inspection=$500+ and then site and time specific-this sucks-right along with this new format-emoticons ya can't see and wanted to post new regs but attachment setup is whacked,maybe copy/pasteView attachment highbank_faq.pdf'm with a edit will work--tons a au 2 u 2-John

 

[stilllookin]

Astro;
I haven't logged on for a while, but was pleased to see your post. My wife and I were in Fl and on our return trip to VT we stopped at Thermal City in NC on the 22nd. I really wanted to do some sluicing but elected to pan instead. We didn't have a full day and I had a small sluice so panning it was. I also found out there wasn't anyone to deliver us a bucket of gravel. Being from out of state, not knowing where to prospect and not having very much time this stop seemed like a fun thing to do. We did get a little gold which is a plus and enjoyed the 4 hrs we spent there. the first 2 hrs I was ready to load up and head for VT. I can get as much gold at home. The next couple of shovels full yielded some color so we stayed another couple hours. I will show you 1 pan that kept me interested. As you can see I couldn't wait to pan any further before checking, but I was happy. I will try to attach the picture so people can view it without getting upset,as I haven't replied to a post in some time and I forget how to do things.

 

[Astrobouncer]

Went back there today and did some panning.

Here was my take for 3 1/2 hours panning at the flume:

 

[GrayCloud]

Nice chunky gold Astro.

 

[stilllookin]

Nice! It looks like you did better panning than using the highbanker. You make me envious wish I were closer. Love the pics with color

 

[Goodyguy]

Way to go Astrobouncer!
Thermal City is one of my favorite mines to go to in NC. Did they tell you the story of how they pan out the material from the door mat once a month and recover gold?

GG~

 

[Astrobouncer]

Thanks for the comments guys, I did do better panning that day. Thats just how it goes sometimes!

Goodguy, I haven't heard the story but I definitely believe it.


I have family coming to town this weekend, and lots of work next week, so my only chance to get out was this past Wednesday. I decided to go up to Thermal City and just use their highbanker.

It took me about 2 1/2 hours to high bank the scoop of mine dirt they brought, mostly cause i was checking out many of the rocks looking for specimens and neat stones, and I did get some interesting ones.



Also after I worked the pile, I panned at their flume for about 3 hours, but my luck just wasn't so hot that day, and didn't find much (that gold is not included in my cleanup pics). However, another guy who was there panning with me, showed me some nice chunky gold he had panned from there earlier in the day.

Anyway later on in the video, each pan I do is one to two scoops of the concentrates that were caught in the high banker. Found some neat rocks as well as the gold. I think the purple clear gemstone is fluorite ( its hardness is less then 5), and some pyroxene, epidote and vein quartz specimen stones.

Great trip had a blast, and I recommend the place to anyone!

 

[Goodyguy]

They also have a nice store with lots of equipment for sale and aside from selling paydirt to go, and renting high bankers, and time on their huge trommel, and panning in the troughs, they also rent dredges and have great camping facilities.

It looks from your video that they now have a holding pond to high bank into instead of running the tailings into the creek.
Also you got a respectable amount of gold from just one scoop.

I didn't do too well at the panning trough either last time I was there but the price was right and I noticed that some of the other guys were using mercury to recover the micro gold from their black sand.

Oh .....and believe it or not the gold seems to be better from near the top of the pile when it's first dumped.
(first in the scoop last out) but that's just a theory.


GG~

 

[63bkpkr]

Astro,
If you ever stop inventing processing equipment and showing the results this site could get boring. Way to go, you always put up some interesing items! Glad you got out with some friends. Thank you..........63bkpkr

 

[forhorsmn]

You look different without your hat LOL Nice video

 

[stilllookin]

Astro Your videos are tops I just see your last one. When I visit the forum I look to see if you've added anything. If I can't live the dream I enjoy seeing it.
and 63 I felt the same way as the gold being on or near the top of the pile. My thoughts were if they continually dump the gravel in the same spots all the time, pan where the black sand builds up. Well I panned this for 2 hours and got nothing but black sand. I noticed someone else panning from the top and getting gold. I changed my strategy, Took my gravel off the top, and got some gold. I had the impression before I stopped there, it was all bank run gravel. It may be. Go figure. Ya If I lived closer I would go there again.

 

[stilllookin]

Astro I think you could give Gold Fever Prospecting TV Show a run for it's money. All they have are reruns and I'm sick of them.

 

[Astrobouncer]

Here's a new video of me testing my little DIY highbanker out there. Got some decent fines for only about 3 hours running. Still waiting on youtube to clear my other video from last month where I highbanked 2 piles of dirt there.

 

[Astrobouncer]

Here we are dredging with an Angus Mackirk Chameleon + Sluicing with two of my fluid beds this past weekend at Thermal City.

 

[Oakview2]

Astro

Heck of a nice pan. Always enjoy your video. Keep up the good work