Complete newb, but Im having quite the adventure, and I havent found much yet.

[Jeff95531]

A few thoughts bobw53.

"I didn't take a picture because you can't see it anyway". That made me LOL because I know exactly what you mean. When I got my 40 classifier I looked at the mesh and said to myself...OMG, they make these even 10x finer I've looked at some that didn't even let light thru...well almost.

Last year I learned what a huge difference classifier's can make. Classifying is fast, easy, kinda fun and makes panning 10 times faster AND easier. I now have in my arsenal:
1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 12, 20, 40.

To get a compliment from Kevin on small gold recovery? Let's just say that's rare and cherish it. And I agree...you earned it! Great job and report.

Now personally, I am only interested in gold you can see (oh stop gasping out there) and really not interested in -40 gold*. Yes, it does add up but visible gold is what I want in my vial. That said, I too want to say thank you for the work and report as I love learning anything that = working smarter and not harder.

*I do use 1.5x reading glasses now (thanks Kevin) and if it sticks on the Miller Table, it's mine no matter what the size!

Thanks!

 

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[arizau]

It all adds up but sometimes I am tempted to throw it back and let it grow up. 40 mesh gold.... What is that? Most of what I process now is Oregon ocean beach sand and that and all of the gold I find is minus 100 mesh and that is my smallest screen. Oh for a 200 mesh screen and smaller to ease my panning efforts.

Good report bobw53!

 

[Crusty Shellback]

Oh ok thanks, I'm always on the lookout for a good treasure hunting book!

 

[bobw53]

Oh ok thanks, I'm always on the lookout for a good treasure hunting book!

Wasn't very exciting, a book everybody and their grandmother has, but it got me hooked.

but here is a freeby. Its 2 PDF's. Lure of the Caballos, and part 2 Metals Man and Lands. Its local to here. And fairly recent.
Download it once and save it, don't kill the guys site... I've only made it half way through the first one, but I'm enjoying it.

Entertainment - Home Page

To all you others, thanx for the kind words...

I finally made it home, got my stuff finished and delivered. I'm exhausted.. Waiting for some meat to thaw so I can toss it in the oven and
take a nap... Took a wander out to the end of the driveway to see how the black sands are doing with the recent rains... A lot of blondes on
top... So I picked up a rock, softball size that had come down... Big wad of sand stuck to it... Caliche covering.. And from what I can see of
the actual rock... Looks like smoky quartz to me...

She's soaking in a pan in the sink. Not even a gold pan, a 4 quart cooking pan so that it is
completely covered in water. A cooking pan that we use and eat out of.... The better half just shakes her head... At least she knows where I am
and what I'm doing. I guess there could be a lot worse things than some rocks in the sink and a panning tub on the counter.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Complete newb, but I'm having quite the adventure, and I haven't found much yet.

My wife has the same reaction...and jokingly says with this 'hobby' she doesn't have to worry about some other woman chasing me...hmm.

 

[Jeff95531]

Hmmmm...that's funny. I get"When the He** are you gonna learn to keep your hands off my stuff?!!" Then she repeats as needed...or more.

 

[bobw53]

Hmmmm...that's funny. I get"When the He** are you gonna learn to keep your hands off my stuff?!!" Then she repeats as needed...or more.

Take over the cooking duties, then you can play in the kitchen all you want. If I didn't cook I think I'd starve, I enjoy it, I find it relaxing... Its like
non-stop chemistry experiments, and you get to play with knives, big ones... And FIRE... And occasionally some fun gizmos with cool buttons..
kitchen aid, food processor, bread maker, I'm really liking these little induction plates... Lots of buttons on those, awesome temp control, and they
don't make the AC mad in the summer.

Just don't ever touch her sewing scissors... Instant death.

Double road runners this morning... Out the kitchen window... Wile.E Coyote was out back this morning. I'm not liking this coyote,
he likes to get right up to the fence and get my dogs going, and he isn't afraid of me in the slightest.

 

[arizau]

I like road runners except that their favorite prey are baby quail or so I heard. Sad to see those quail families shrink from 10 or 12 chicks down to 2 or three. Interesting to watch the road runners as they chase down and kill lizards. My backyard is a regular menangerie of wildlife from snooty (typical cat behavior) bobcats to coyotes and on down as your area probably is too.

 

[bobw53]

Wandering around in the yard at the shop the other day, and I found a big chunk of cemented gravel.... Then I found a little piece.

This morning for shits and giggles I crushed up the little piece, about as big around as a golf ball and twice as long.....

Filter through the only screen I have at the shop, approximately a 30 or so... And there was over 50 pieces of flour in there....
Probably more but I won't know until I screen it all down... Quite the pleasant little surprise...

Right at the edge of the Rio Grande flood plain, all kinds of different rocks and gravel out there... Most likely old deposits that came down
the river many many many many moons ago.... So apparently there is some gold in the Rio Grande...

Got a fairly cheap porter and cable angle grinder for my little rock crusher.. Night and day difference to that clapped out 4.5amp Harbor Freight POS
that I was using (and blew up)... Nice and smooth, very little vibration, comes right up to speed and I have powder in about 15 seconds... I thought
it worked pretty good before, now I'm really happy with it.

The old man is flying in tomorrow, staying for a couple of weeks. I need his help at the shop a bit. But the primary purpose is that we've got
some serious camping, and digging and beer drinking to do... I might even put him to work building the big rock crusher.

Should be fun... Been far too much work lately.

 

[bobw53]

I was worried about my little dog getting bit by a snake up at the claim...

Here is what happened today while I was cooking dinner... Right out in the back yard.

At first I thought she just got stuck by a yucca or something, then she started to get lethargic, then she started to swell
a bit...

Had her to the clinic within an hour of her first yipping out back. Most of the swelling in that leg happened just
before we got to the clinic. They are good, I've been there before, quite a few times... They had 7 snake bites
last weekend alone. They said that this has been the worst year for bites they've had.

99.5% chance she'll be just fine... Kind of nice going to the emergency clinic already knowing that she was most
likely going to be fine, most of the times I've had to go, the odds have been a lot lot worse...

I'm going to find that ******* tomorrow, and Molly is going to get herself a nice new snake skin collar.

 

[BagLady]

Hope your girl makes it through OK, Bob.
I've enjoyed reading your journal journey.
Especially with your Dad involved.
Look forward to hearing, (and seeing) more!

I just noticed your dogs name, Molly.
That's my daughter's middle name.

 

[bobw53]

Hope your girl makes it through OK, Bob.

She bounced right back, the swelling and the pain went away in about 4 or 5 days. I was letting the back yard grow out, hoping to choke out the
Goat Heads. (for people that don't know what they are.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulus_terrestris,
scroll down and look at the bottom pic, its why we all hate them).. Did a clear cut on the backyard, and about a 10 foot strip outside the fence. We should
be good.

I think I'm going to start feeding the feral cats again, they seemed to keep the rodent population down.. Tons of kangaroo rats, wood rats and ground squirrels this
year... And MICE, tons of mice, I ran over one driving out this morning.

A few interesting things....

Crushed some rocks... Loaded with what I think is lead... LOADED... Little bit of gold.

The old man and I went up to the claim the other day.. Clearing the road a bit so we can get the camper in there... And of course we had to grab some dirt.

Got into some caliche, clay like stuff that I had been avoiding because it didn't look very good.... Its mostly white, it has to be loaded with lime...
Upon closer inspection, it full of small rocks and pockets of black sand.

Got some of the best and biggest gold we've found up there, the odd thing... Sitting right next to the vein, near the top of the hill... And the gold is
beaten, flattened, smoothed, some was even folded... The gold up there is usually really really course, not beaten, not banged, not flattened, though
I had found a few small pieces that where, and they seemed out of place, but I just figured that was just how they formed.

That piece of gold is beat like a red headed step child..

I'm wondering if we've stumbled upon what they are always talking about in California? An old river channel, or an old old arroyo... The best part is,
I don't think its ever been worked... It's cemented, it wouldn't be there if it had been worked....

Should be able to get back up there in the next couple of days and poke at it a little more... And finish clearing the road so we can get the
camper in there and spend a few days...

 

[arizau]

If further testing of the caliche pans out (pun intended) you may need to make your pulverizer portable or build another larger one for that purpose.

Glad your dog is ok now. Good luck.

 

[BagLady]

Good news + good news = Happy Gold Hunting!! Keep us posted!

 

[GoldpannerDave]

Yesterdays project, half done. My 250 and 400 screens came in... The 400 is FINE... it feels like silk. I also realized that mesh size is about the dumbest thing
known to man.... Holes per inch doesn't tell the whole story, especially when it comes down to the small stuff. Wire size really messes with the hole size. So I ignored
"MESH" and bought based on hole size. The new procedure will be 1/8" to go through the cube, then 20,50,80,120,250,400. The 400 mesh is a .0015" hole
(.038mm for you metric minded people).

Any of you guys ever gone down that small? I guess it depends on how much gold is in there as to weather its worth it or not. I guess I'll find out
pretty soon, I saved all the stuff I classified down to -120, but its at home on the counter... Though I could do some rock crushing just to play with
it today.

Of course the 5 or 6 inch classifiers I bought are 10,20,30,40,50,60... Useless in their current configuration, but an incredible bargain at $25. I just had the screen sitting
in the bottom, I'm going to silicone them in now. Pulled out the 80 and 120 screens and rinsed off the dirt that had gone around and got stuck, 9 tiny little pieces of
gold in there, really really small stuff.

I also got sick of not knowing what classifier I was working with or grabbing. A Sharpie kind of blends in then fades, so I fixed that. Just heated up some impression stamps with
a torch. I marked them every 90 degrees. Its not the prettiest thing going, but it should serve its purpose. And again the camera fails, they are really easy to see, except when
I'm trying to take a picture..

So where did you get the classifiers for $25?? Always looking for good bargains.

 

[bobw53]

So where did you get the classifiers for $25?? Always looking for good bargains.

GPAA treasure show in Phoenix. First booth I stopped at.. $25 bucks!!! Gimme!!! Everyone else had the sets for $40 or $45, singles
for $10 or so.

Since I'm here, and I haven't updated this in forever... The update is that I still have a quarter yard of dirt on my truck from September, and I have
6 buckets classified to -8 ready to go through the cube, sitting since september.

What I did mess around with.. Taking the +8 from that cemented/lime stone stuff I mentioned up above, and I beat it up in a home made, half assed
mixer I had kicking around.

It was for mixing refractory cement in very small batches. Just a bucket hanging off a 45rpm 90 degree gear box.

This... All +1/8

Became this.. 2, 10 inch pans of plus 1/8 and pan of minus 1/8.

I did 2 batches... About 2 gallons or so, and I got a decent bit of gold out of it. Nothing big, but there was at least 50 small pieces in there. I didn't classify it
all the way down, just to an 80 or 120, I don't remember... Saw that it was worth it and threw it into the tub of stuff to deal with later... There was still some
really hard pieces of cemented caliche in there, and I haven't played with that yet.

Too much real work to do, and very little time left over for playing... Hopefully all this work pays off, I've brought some people in to help me at the shop, but I'm
still behind and slammed, and the work just keeps coming. 1 or 2 more people giving(they get paid well) me 10 to 20 hours a week and I should have some time
off to dig a little harder next year. Looking pretty darn Rosy though, a few more machines, and a few more people and I should be doing fairly well... And have time
to go play.

One quick last thought here. If you are going to bang your dirt up in a mixer... Make sure it is DRY!!! My first attempt, I succeeded in making a bucket
full of cement golf balls.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

GPAA treasure show in Phoenix. First booth I stopped at.. $25 bucks!!! Gimme!!! Everyone else had the sets for $40 or $45, singles
for $10 or so.

Since I'm here, and I haven't updated this in forever... The update is that I still have a quarter yard of dirt on my truck from September, and I have
6 buckets classified to -8 ready to go through the cube, sitting since september.

What I did mess around with.. Taking the +8 from that cemented/lime stone stuff I mentioned up above, and I beat it up in a home made, half assed
mixer I had kicking around.

It was for mixing refractory cement in very small batches. Just a bucket hanging off a 45rpm 90 degree gear box.

This... All +1/8

Became this.. 2, 10 inch pans of plus 1/8 and pan of minus 1/8.

I did 2 batches... About 2 gallons or so, and I got a decent bit of gold out of it. Nothing big, but there was at least 50 small pieces in there. I didn't classify it
all the way down, just to an 80 or 120, I don't remember... Saw that it was worth it and threw it into the tub of stuff to deal with later... There was still some
really hard pieces of cemented caliche in there, and I haven't played with that yet.

Too much real work to do, and very little time left over for playing... Hopefully all this work pays off, I've brought some people in to help me at the shop, but I'm
still behind and slammed, and the work just keeps coming. 1 or 2 more people giving(they get paid well) me 10 to 20 hours a week and I should have some time
off to dig a little harder next year. Looking pretty darn Rosy though, a few more machines, and a few more people and I should be doing fairly well... And have time
to go play.

One quick last thought here. If you are going to bang your dirt up in a mixer... Make sure it is DRY!!! My first attempt, I succeeded in making a bucket
full of cement golf balls.

Looks like nice work there; I appreciate the update, as do others, I am sure.

 

[GoldpannerDave]

As hard as that material is, does the - 1/8 get enough "treatment" by the Gold Cube to get all the gold out? Or do you soak it first?

Not that I send that type material through my Gold Cube; just interested.

 

[bobw53]

As hard as that material is, does the - 1/8 get enough "treatment" by the Gold Cube to get all the gold out? Or do you soak it first?

Not that I send that type material through my Gold Cube; just interested.

I haven't gotten that far yet... I know some of the -8 that went through the cube was cemented and probably drug some gold through the cube... I'm 99% sure it didn't all
break up in the cube. I know water doesn't break it all up... One of these days I'm going to at least do a sample of the tailings that went through the cube from this
batch of dirt, see what actually happened.

I'm also dealing with several different "grades" of cemented stuff. Some of it is flat out ROCK, some of it is loose some of its in the middle, some of it is coming apart in
just water, and some of it has to go through the rock crusher..

This crazy cemented stuff is new to me... My old man and I just found this on our claim in September. Seems like we have an ancient channel/arroyo going north-south intersecting
an east west modern day arroyo..

Its a lot of fun, and I want to explore it more, and play with it more, but right now my focus is making sure I have a business and a means of survival into the future.

A few weeks ago after working through the night, on 3 hours of sleep, I ran up to the claim with a generator and a wet dry vac... Did some bed rock sucking and was
going to shovel a few buckets... Never even got to the shoveling, I was exhausted... I was back at the shop in 2 hours and 7 minutes... I haven't even finished
processing that bit of dirt either...

Also.. Had a propane leak at the house, some little woodland critter must have decided my propane line was tasty.... HUGE leak. I dug some of the ditch, had
my cleaning guy/handyman dig the rest and told the plumber DO NOT fill it back in... That dirt was shoveled for a reason... And that reason is because it needs to go
through the dry washer... If it ever dries out. The better half never goes over to that side of the house anyways... So it can wait.

 

[KevinInColorado]

You sure are working hard from all directions at once! Sounds like you are very smart to focus on the opportunity to grow your business right now...scale it up a bit, hire well, pay well and you'll be on the way to creating Custer satisfaction, great careers for others AND WEALTH for you. That's the USA at its best!! Oh, and gold. ;-)