80 mesh to small for panning

[Tony_agr]

I just bought a mini pulverizer (hasn't been delivered yet) from action mining in OR for $150, using a drill as the motor claim is 1/2" pcs down to 80 mesh. This is for assay samples.. I will use it to crush my quartz to pan/blue bowl.. my question is , is 80 mesh to fine to pan or Blue bowl?, I don't mind collecting flower gold or will it just wash or float out.. I just got so sick and tired of pounding it down to dust by hand.. plus my hands are starting to give out.. So.. what do ya think?
Thanks
Tony

 

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[dvdtharaldson]

When I finish pan I use a 30,50, then an 80 mesh. It really helps when your washing and tapping cons that has -80 colors in it.

 

[bobw53]

Watch the Gold Cube man's (Mike Pung's) videos... The golden rule, if everything in your pan is the same size, gold rules.

He takes it down to a 100.

Where I've been digging, I know the gold is small, really small... The old town was Gold DUST.. I was going 20,40,60, and then
bought a few smaller screens from McMaster Carr and went to 20,50,80,120,250,400... I was losing a TON of gold, not in weight, but in count.
My piece count easily quadrupled...

As for ease, classifying just isn't a whole lot of fun, but once your material is tightly classified, it is SO EASY and quick to pan. I found
it to actually be quicker to classify further and pan all the classifications than to classify less and have to be careful about washing the
small stuff out... and I was still losing a lot of it.

I did a little write up about it last summer over in the journal section.

I would say 80mesh isn't fine enough. At least while you are figuring out what you have.

 

[meMiner]

There are guys in Alberta Canada who mostly only get small gold and 80 mesh would seem large. As said, classify the material and it should be no problem to pan 200 mesh.

 

[Tony_agr]

Thanks for all the info, Looking forward to see what I may have been losing, I have only been going to 30 mesh..

 

[goldenIrishman]

Thanks for all the info, Looking forward to see what I may have been losing, I have only been going to 30 mesh..

Yeah.... I wouldn't be surprised if you've been loosing gold. Start classifying it down more and you will see a big improvement on both ease of panning and how little gold you loose from that point on.