Classifying out -100?

[MrGneissGuy]

Is it ok to classify out anything smaller than 100 mesh? I find lots of very small materials in my pan, and usually none of it is gold. However, maybe my eyes just can't see the gold. That being said though, if I can't see it I can't even recover it. I do not have a blue bowl or spinning concentrate device.

 

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[goldog]

So what you're saying is that you are having trouble panning off the black sand? You could classify down that far. No one will stop you.

Better to have a good panning technique. Maybe learn to remove the magnetic black sand. You'll have a much better recovery.

 

[arizau]

Gold is always easiest to separate by panning when panned with like sized material. I just screened and panned some concentrate to minus 80 plus 100, minus 100 plus 150 and minus 150 and found gold in all three fractions. I probably would not have even seen some of the minus material had I not screened and panned separately. That said what I found was probably only worth a fraction of a cent but by the same token I only panned a total of about 1 or 2 tablespoons. You can get a decent 4 or 5" screen set of 60, 80, 100, 150 and a bottom cup at Rio Grande Jewelry for about 25 or 30 dollars. Google it then search for stackable screens.

Good luck.

 

[bobw53]

My 2 cents... I would say it is a good idea to classify out any material that is smaller than you want to deal with.. It really does make it easier..

if I can't see it I can't even recover it. I do not have a blue bowl or spinning concentrate device.

That quote is a bunch of crap..

The GOLDEN RULE: If EVERYTHING in your pan is the same size... GOLD RULES
The GOLDEN RULE: If EVERYTHING in your pan is the same size... GOLD RULES

Apparently GOLD colored letters don't show up on a TAN background.. So, just for this message, Purple Rules...

You don't need a blue bowl... You don't need a miller table..... You don't need some weird tornado whatchacaller BS... You will need to classify
to make any of those work properly... And once you classify... Its so easy to pan, why waste your time and money on a slow finicky device.
It REALLY is easy to pan REALLY REALLY REALLY TINY gold........ when its classified.

Here is a shot I took a while ago with my cell phone.. -250... Just so happens to be two and a half thou. .0025" and smaller, just under the size
you can actually see with the human eye... Somewhere in the range of thickness of a very fine blonde hair. The thickness of crappy notebook paper.
But its that tiny dimension in all 3 directions...

Can't see a single tiny piece of gold... BUT, using a currency microscope (dirt cheap on E-bay, buy a dozen, give some to your friends), there is over
200 pieces of gold in that shot.. Can't see a single one in the photo.. And that's a match head...

Is it worth it going down that low? Depends I guess.... I've been stockpiling my -80's and classify them out and pan them down
once in a while.. Did it the other day.. Gold fever hit me hard.. Had to do something... After seeing what was in my -250
(I didn't bother going to 400), I just tossed it in the panning tub.. The 80-120 and 120-250 was pretty nice...

I'll get that little stuff back later when the panning tub gets full up and I run it back through the cube.... And start stockpiling the tiny
stuff again...


But... If your question was about dropping the -100 out so that your +100's are easier.... YES.. DO THAT, it will make it easier to pan...
KEEP that -100... Its gives you something to play with when the FEVER!!! hits and its cold and rainy out, or you just don't have enough time
to go out digging. A little bit of TINY gold is better than NO gold any day.

 

[russau]

I have screens down to -400 BUT I only used it a couple of times. I bought it at a outing to help support that club. the gold that is this size will be visible when you get enough of it in your pan in the form of a small gold line! I only pan thisstuff in very small amounts or it's a real pain to get it!

 

[MrGneissGuy]

My 2 cents... I would say it is a good idea to classify out any material that is smaller than you want to deal with.. It really does make it easier..



That quote is a bunch of crap..

The GOLDEN RULE: If EVERYTHING in your pan is the same size... GOLD RULES
The GOLDEN RULE: If EVERYTHING in your pan is the same size... GOLD RULES

Apparently GOLD colored letters don't show up on a TAN background.. So, just for this message, Purple Rules...

You don't need a blue bowl... You don't need a miller table..... You don't need some weird tornado whatchacaller BS... You will need to classify
to make any of those work properly... And once you classify... Its so easy to pan, why waste your time and money on a slow finicky device.
It REALLY is easy to pan REALLY REALLY REALLY TINY gold........ when its classified.

Here is a shot I took a while ago with my cell phone.. -250... Just so happens to be two and a half thou. .0025" and smaller, just under the size
you can actually see with the human eye... Somewhere in the range of thickness of a very fine blonde hair. The thickness of crappy notebook paper.
But its that tiny dimension in all 3 directions...

Can't see a single tiny piece of gold... BUT, using a currency microscope (dirt cheap on E-bay, buy a dozen, give some to your friends), there is over
200 pieces of gold in that shot.. Can't see a single one in the photo.. And that's a match head...

Is it worth it going down that low? Depends I guess.... I've been stockpiling my -80's and classify them out and pan them down
once in a while.. Did it the other day.. Gold fever hit me hard.. Had to do something... After seeing what was in my -250
(I didn't bother going to 400), I just tossed it in the panning tub.. The 80-120 and 120-250 was pretty nice...

I'll get that little stuff back later when the panning tub gets full up and I run it back through the cube.... And start stockpiling the tiny
stuff again...


But... If your question was about dropping the -100 out so that your +100's are easier.... YES.. DO THAT, it will make it easier to pan...
KEEP that -100... Its gives you something to play with when the FEVER!!! hits and its cold and rainy out, or you just don't have enough time
to go out digging. A little bit of TINY gold is better than NO gold any day.

Oh my god I just finally understood what you are saying. For some reason I didn't even consider making everything the same size. Genius. Thanks!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Per the original question....are you classifying down that small when you initially start panning material or is this a question about cleaning up concentrates?


You guys should look into buying used screens and shakers from a soils lab at an auction.

 

[russau]

I've had my screens for many years now and don't plan on buying anything else. In fact I'm probly going to end up selling it all and playing bingo in my spare time or watching Wheel of Fortune!

 

[Terry Soloman]

I've never classified below a quarter-inch. Why would you bother?

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I have been messing around with gold since I was small...much more so in my adult life.
Always just used a 1/4" screen, sucked the flakes/fly poop out of the pan and tossed the micron gold out into the river as seed.

One thing I have learned from this forum, is that gold fever has no geographic limits.
Some people that live in areas where gold is not plentiful. They are forced to develop methods and equipment to catch EVERY speck of gold.
This is something that people that DO live in areas where gold is plentiful, see as wasted effort.

An example of this is the folks back east that dredge for an entire day and feel very lucky to find a couple grains of flour gold.
At first I too was scratching my head, but I have come to realize that they too are just out there trying to find gold like the rest of us.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Those that cut their teeth capturing the finest gold will do great when in areas with big gold.

 

[brianc053]

Those that cut their teeth capturing the finest gold will do great when in areas with big gold.

I couldn't agree with this post more. You said exactly what I was thinking, Capt_Nemo.
I learned to pan gold in Pennsylvania where the only gold is fly poop left over from the glaciers. Once I learned to find that, and then took field trips to California, Colorado, North Carolina and New England - all places with real gold - I was able to test pan quickly and with confidence that if there was gold, I could find it (and I did, every time. The one time I got skunked was dry panning in Arizona, but that's a whole different process that I know nothing about but thought I'd try anyway).

To the OP's original question, though, I've often wondered if it's worth the time to pan anything smaller than 100 Mesh. The time invested vs. the gold recovered makes me lean toward throwing it back in the river (...to let the little pieces of gold grow bigger for next season, as prospectors often joke). What I actually do depends on my time available: if I have the time I pan it all, and if I don't then I store it away for the future, to run through the blue bowl in a larger batch.
One other idea I'm toying with is taking everything smaller than, say, 80 mesh back to the river the next time I go and throwing it back into the sluice/highbanker/dredge, with the thinking being: if I catch it again then I can pan it out, and if it sneaks through the device then I wasn't meant to recover it anyway.

Just some thoughts that I hope the Original Poster can consider.

- Brian

 

[goldog]

I don't know about this throw it back business. I get a lot of lead and other crap. Once I've panned and snuffed up the easy gold the last cup or two goes home.

Then it's sport. Smallest gets a prize.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KevinInColorado]

I don't know about this throw it back business. I get a lot of lead and other crap. Once I've panned and snuffed up the easy gold the last cup or two goes home.

Then it's sport. Smallest gets a prize.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This, so this!
Deal with it at home under controlled conditions and everything down to 100 mesh is easy peasy!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I don't know about this throw it back business. I get a lot of lead and other crap. Once I've panned and snuffed up the easy gold the last cup or two goes home.

Then it's sport. Smallest gets a prize.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Spoiled is the best way to describe it.

 

[Capt Nemo]

Heck, I'm panning this stuff at 1/4" classification! Yeah, I use a miller table to get it out. Glory hole is 19/64".