What did you do with your gold prospecting equipment today?

[kazcoro]

Simple question. This is a good place to share ideas and reviews. You bought a new piece of equipment. Let us know what you bought and how it worked. Does it need modification? Did it work as advertised? I will start and let you all know that i asked for a Gold Magic recovery system from Pro- Gold Prospecting right here in AZ as a X-mas gift. What did you do with your gold prospecting equipment today?

 

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[Aufisher]

Cleaned my gold today so I used my vial and pan lol

 

[KevinInColorado]

Cleaned my gold today so I used my vial and pan lol<img src="http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=913767"/>

(like!) I classified and panned some concentrates today... Great to see the fine gold specks dance across the pan as I tap it. As I suck it out of the finish pan (10 inch, black), I put it into a dark green ceramic soap dish from Walmart $2). It is easy to do final cleaning there and very easy to take pics too.

 

[fowledup]

Well I won't be mining for sometime to come, so I brought it in out of the cold and gave it the spare bedroom. Sluiceboxes, buckets, backpacks, picks, shovels, classifiers, crevice tools, metal detectors, the whole shooterie! If I can't go outside and play with it at least it's close by where I can hug and care for it. Wife is laid up as well, we planned our surgeries two weeks apart to get it over with. She can't get around as well as I can at this point so she has been asking about a weird "moldy" smell coming from the other end of the house. He he!

 

[AzViper]

Placing all mining equipment in storage as I type. Met with the surgeon this morning. He told me I would be in a sling for 4 weeks with very little activity other than walking my fingers up the wall and swinging my arm like an elephant does with in trunk. So I will be playing lots of live and internet poker. Will have to fit in 5 mile walks each day.

 

[gold tramp]

Cleaned my gold today so I used my vial and pan lolView attachment 913767

getting a nice looking pile there buddy.
GT...........

 

[goldenIrishman]

Let's see here....

Went through all the magnetic sands to clean them one last time and found a little gold that had gotten picked up.

Cleaned out the sluice mats and you guessed it... found more gold caught up in them.

Cleaned out the panning station and you guessed it... found more gold that tried to make a break for it.

Put the gold from the last trip out to the gulch up to dry so it can go into the vial.

Straightened up the processing area in the back yard. I really need to make up some storage shelves for pans and other small items.

Moved the rock tailings to the driveway to fill in some holes. Checked them with the detector before moving them of course! No big nuggies though.

About the only thing left to do before we head back to Greaterville to do testing on a couple of possible claim sites is to "Shake N Bake" the non-magnetic sands and see if I can scrounge more gold out of them. I would have started doing that today but the Munchkin is home sick from school so I've had to keep her entertained as well as do my own work.

And all of this was done on only one cup of coffee! I must be sick myself!

Jeff

 

[KevinInColorado]

Jeff, do you shake and bake your magnetic sands? Seems worth a try.

I went out with my Bazooka Prospector today and dug for an hour or so, gotta love Colorado's quirky weather. 14" Proline pan was used to reduce the concentrates at the creek. Now I have more material to process in my workshop which is always nice this time of year...I hate it when I run out of material - then I get stuck spending my time cleaning and organizing ;-)

 

[goldenIrishman]

I've tried it a couple of time and never got anything out of them that I could see. For the most part the majority of them are picked up with the magnet and the larger stuff screened out of it. The stuff that doesn't make it through the screen gets crushed and gone through with the magnet again. Anything that isn't picked up gets panned to check it and then put with the rest of the materials for shake n bake treatment. I have a set "recovery process" and I stick to it.

Even when the stuff has been cooked and panned I don't get rid of it. There's still lots of micron gold in it. I'm saving it all up so I can do an amalgamation on it to get that micron gold out of it. Just waiting until I have all the gear to do it safely. I have enough sands saved up to do several batches already and that's running it 6 lbs at a time in the tumbling step. I already have the mercury but I don't have the retort yet. I'm NOT going to make a YouTube special to reclaim the mercury!!!! I don't trust any of those I've seen in those videos with the Munchkins health! She's a little young to be going "Mad as a Hatter" thank you very much!!!! I was a lab tech in Georgia and I know what a lot of that stuff can do if you don't treat it with the respect it calls for. Hydrogen Peroxide at the strengths used in processing will do a lot more than just bleach your hair for ya! Full PPG is the order of the day. That is also one reason I'm so down on people asking about processing with Aqua Regina. It's super nasty stuff and will kill ya if you make a mistake with it. Ain't no gold worth your life!!!!!!!!

 

[kazcoro]

I brought back some dirt from Rich Hill. Started panning it out. There are a few flakes in there. Got hooked up with a guy today at work that is going to take me up on the potato patch in January. Can't wait for that!!

 

[KevinInColorado]

I've tried it a couple of time and never got anything out of them that I could see. For the most part the majority of them are picked up with the magnet and the larger stuff screened out of it. The stuff that doesn't make it through the screen gets crushed and gone through with the magnet again. Anything that isn't picked up gets panned to check it and then put with the rest of the materials for shake n bake treatment. I have a set "recovery process" and I stick to it. Even when the stuff has been cooked and panned I don't get rid of it. There's still lots of micron gold in it. I'm saving it all up so I can do an amalgamation on it to get that micron gold out of it. Just waiting until I have all the gear to do it safely. I have enough sands saved up to do several batches already and that's running it 6 lbs at a time in the tumbling step. I already have the mercury but I don't have the retort yet. I'm NOT going to make a YouTube special to reclaim the mercury!!!! I don't trust any of those I've seen in those videos with the Munchkins health! She's a little young to be going "Mad as a Hatter" thank you very much!!!! I was a lab tech in Georgia and I know what a lot of that stuff can do if you don't treat it with the respect it calls for. Hydrogen Peroxide at the strengths used in processing will do a lot more than just bleach your hair for ya! Full PPG is the order of the day. That is also one reason I'm so down on people asking about processing with Aqua Regina. It's super nasty stuff and will kill ya if you make a mistake with it. Ain't no gold worth your life!!!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing the details of your process, I and many others can learn from this. Quite a bit of my mags are big enough (+50 mesh).to be worth crushing and re-separating so that's going to happen

PS a friend of mine makes really nice retorts ...I can hook you up! (I hope lots of garage chemists read your cautions!!

 

[goldenIrishman]

The biggest mistake a person can make is playing with things that they don't understand to the fullest possible extent! If my words of warning can help keep a brother miner alive and mining then it's worth the time to rant about these things. I truly believe in the old saying "There are old miners and there are foolish miners, but you'll never meet a foolish old miner!" Safety should always be our number one goal. Even before getting gold!!!!

You've offered to set me up with your friend before Kev and again I have to decline. When it comes to working with chemicals I'll only use the proper equipment and procedures. Those tube type retorts really are not safe. If they suck in some water at the wrong time you've got a major problem on your hands. I'd rather err on the side of caution than to have mercury all over the place. We've got our seven year old grand daughter living with us and I will not expose her to something like that. (Besides.... Robi would kill me worse than any lab explosion would!)

 

[KevinInColorado]

Your fear of Robi seems well founded! LoL Seriously you have my respect for your caution.

 

[kazcoro]

This was last week, but I found out that we have a large roll of black plastic corrugated tubing at work, so I cut off 6'. I have heard that it works great for a little sluice. Maybe I will play around with it. Really need a highbanker, though.

 

[mxer47]

Everything is frozen. Went out to cut firewood and i couldn't help myself, I picked up a couple of pieces of quarts and looked at them through the loop.-Sickness.

 

[gold tramp]

Jeff, do you shake and bake your magnetic sands? Seems worth a try.

I went out with my Bazooka Prospector today and dug for an hour or so, gotta love Colorado's quirky weather. 14" Proline pan was used to reduce the concentrates at the creek. Now I have more material to process in my workshop which is always nice this time of year...I hate it when I run out of material - then I get stuck spending my time cleaning and organizing ;-)

You should watch out Kevin if you have floured HG ( Mercury ) you might poison yourself or family putting in the house hold oven?
Don't know if youall have mercury on your gold where you are but if you do its floured in the black sand also, just a thought safety first.
GT..............

 

[KevinInColorado]

You should watch out Kevin if you have floured HG ( Mercury ) you might poison yourself or family putting in the house hold oven? Don't know if youall have mercury on your gold where you are but if you do its floured in the black sand also, just a thought safety first. GT..............

Thanks for your concern. I would never use cooking/eating gear for prospecting related stuff. Heating cons should only be done outside in my view...even in winter! Brr! Happily my local creek is virgin material(!!) and there's no merc in it. Cons with merc are stored in water in my shop for safety...my best friend's federal claim does have quite a bit of merc from gold rush days. I think you have to assume there IS floured merc anywhere there is evidence of the historic miners since they were so quick to use it here in CO. Like you, I hope others are as careful.



Btw here's the gold from my last two outings to my current hole. More gold in the second one I think. If weighing it confirms this then I know which side of the creek/hole to focus on

 

[Jeff95531]

Hey Kevin. My take for my first year is about half of the pile in the bottom part of your picture. That kind of inspired me. I'd like to double my take for the year in my last trip out for 2013. The river is very very low, no rain in the forecast, colder than average temps (ah well, can't have everything). I'll be taking hip waders, a pry par, a REAL shovel and my rock pick among other things. Access is easy, we'll see about the rest. I intend to get 5 gal of 1/4" classified and drained. The goal is to dial in the sluice with elkie13's pay dirt...due in any day now. Then run my 5 gallons. I want to at least double what I have (like the top of your photo) and add it to what I have and all must be done by 12/31. Thanks too to kazcoro for the motivation Heading out early this week

 

[kazcoro]

It's fun to see what everyone else is getting, more fun to get out and get it yourself. I think I am in the same boat as you. I wanted to double my take last trip. I think we have about the same amount at this point in time. As soon as I get the last of the christmas shopping done, I am heading out for a day of beeeping in a new area....Sunday or Monday at this point.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Hey Kevin. My take for my first year is about half of the pile in the bottom part of your picture. That kind of inspired me. I'd like to double my take for the year in my last trip out for 2013. The river is very very low, no rain in the forecast, colder than average temps (ah well, can't have everything). I'll be taking hip waders, a pry par, a REAL shovel and my rock pick among other things. Access is easy, we'll see about the rest. I intend to get 5 gal of 1/4" classified and drained. The goal is to dial in the sluice with elkie13's pay dirt...due in any day now. Then run my 5 gallons. I want to at least double what I have (like the top of your photo) and add it to what I have and all must be done by 12/31. Thanks too to kazcoro for the motivation Heading out early this week

Go man go!