Finishing/ proccessing powdered ore

[Strebs]

Hello ive been wondering what everyone uses to clean up the pulverized ore? I wanted to use my 3 stack gold cube but that doesnt seem like an effective collector. Seen some nice shaker tables but 4k price tag is way out of my budget. Have anyone done any DIY?
Thanks for the advice,
Strebs

 

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[one blanket]

are you sure there is anything heavy in the powder? check youtube for how to pan really fine gold.
maybe try to find a table owner you can access on a 1 shot trial.

 

[arizau]

Is the gold in your pulverized ore free milling? What scale of feed are you working on....pounds? First you need to concentrate then work on gold recovery from it. Free milled gold is, in most instances, but a tiny fraction of the total weight of most ores and is usually measured in grams per ton so reduction to concentrates always should be the first step. High grade samples are an exception and may be better valued by kept or sold as specimens. From there, close screening to batches of like sized material before further processing would be my next step and I would probably pan them unless I had huge quantities.

Good luck.

 

[tonofsteel]

Free milled gold is, in most instances, but a tiny fraction of the total weight of most ores

Other than assay/mercury/leach what can be done to extract more of the gold? Would it be worthwhile to try roasting with salt/dumping in water and/or melting it all down with flux to get the hidden gold?

I always hear about variations of this but never from this context, and since you didn't mention it I wonder if it is not really done in practice?

Would you also do this for pan concentrates or is this one of those things that are talked about but not really practiced?

 

[Strebs]

Yes the ore does have free milling values. Its from hand sorted ore piles that the old timers had left. Im still in the process of getting assay from the locations. But i would like to be able 2 crush/ process at least 3 tons a week onsite. I have been talking with a friend who worked as a mill mechanic for morenci mine. He thinks i would need to jig it first to concentrate the heavies then proccess tho a finishing device. What do you think would be a good heavy concentrator? I thought intially to gold cube from the crusher then to miller table or shaker. What setups do you guys use? Thank you for the information.

 

[arizau]

I'm far from an expert but for a relatively small operation I'm thinking a highbanker to concentrate then cube the cons or just pan or miller table them for gold recovery assuming you are just after the free milling gold. That said, Freddy Dodge of Gold Rush TV fame owns a company that makes jigs as well as washplants, etc. Their Enhancer 755 could fit your needs as it runs up to 755 pounds per hour. You can find it by googling "msi gold mining equipment". I see that if you press the Contact button on upper right of the site you can send them an email question. Maybe they can suggest an alternative(?) if their equipment is too big and or expensive for you.

Good luck.

 

[Thesauros]

New to Treasurenet.
I feel your pain.
Thread on DIY Wilfley at Goldrefining forum: (deleted by mod, cant post links to other forums)
Go lurk on some of the Australian prospecting sites...recall a fellow or two building DIY Gemini style tables out of plywood.
Google Books: Run a search on Wilfley table, will return some nice 19th century plans.
Also check out chlorination gold ores at 911Meturalligist.
IGOLI looks pretty interesting/possible for small scale:
Pretty leery... Anyone ever order, and actually receive, one of the lab size Chines tables like: (deleted by mod)
Anyone build a small scale Jameson cell? Thinking, size wise, maybe 55gallon plastic drum?

 

[one blanket]

check out "lil gold spinner; ask factory if they have sold one nearby; maybe the owner would let you run a bucket or 2 through it to see if it will do the job.

 

[StreamlineGold]

I was about to say, find a good used shaker table or a centrifuge.. both will yield a concentrate which you can pan down carefully

 

[StreamlineGold]

Your just trying to get rid of the junk material.. save the heavy minerals

 

[OreCart]

I would be leery of doing any dealings with Chinese Companies. I looked into getting a small sized rock crusher for my farm (before my gold interest days), and everything was in the works, then they wanted me to buy two machines saying something about shipping costs not being worth it for one machine. I replied that I had no use for (2) and they started sounding fishy, so I backed out of the deal. That was just my dealings, so other people's dealings might be better?

I would scour the 911 Metallurgist website. That had some Hard Rock Concentrators for low tonnage amounts for fairly low prices. They were designed for just what you are doing; they were for sampling ore, or small production runs. I think they needed a 9 HP generator to operate.

Myself I am in the same situation as you, so mostly I am watching this thread and eating popcorn while doing so.

 

[OreCart]

This is not my place to say, as I am new myself, but I do fabricate a lot of my own equipment. One thing I do is to never reinvent the wheel if I can help it, by that I mean using what I already have on hand. For me, most of the time that is my farm tractor because it is portable, goes anywhere, has a loader and three point hitch, and can power things with its PTO. By using that as a power source, I can save a lot of money in a lot of my builds.

IF it works out, and later I am finding out I do not want to run my tractor all the time to do work with the implement, then I can look at buying a junk car engine to power the unit. But at that point it has proven itself as working.

 

[OreCart]

To me a Wilfey Table looks easy enough to build, if a person could find an old tablesaw frame. That would enable the miner to adjust the roll (side to side angle) using an already built set of adjustable trunnions. That would have to be bolted/welded to a subframe that oscillated back and forth, but if the machine was attached to the tractors three point hitch, but offset at 90 degrees to the tractor, a gear box would not have to be used, and the PTO could power an adjustable cam to oscillate the table easy enough. A pulley on the PTO could also power a water pump for that aspect of things, so then it would just be a matter of fabricating the Wilfey Table top now that the other aspects were done.

Just off the top of my head, I would put the do it yourself project around $600, the most expensive part being the PTO shaft that will cost $180 for the cheapest one my dealership sells anyway.

I am NOT saying this is the answer, I am just throwing this out regarding how I MIGHT fabricate such a project using already engineered stuff so I could save money.

 

[OreCart]

When I design a new implement, I kind of follow a process before I build.

I doodle some crude depictions out on paper.

Then I design the implement using Microsoft Excel. To get me some nice "graph paper", I set my columns to size two. This allows me to design the implement with each box representing 1 square inch. Using the drawing tools, I can draw just about anything I could with mechanical drawing tools.

Next, I do CAD. Do not be impressed; I am a sheep farmer so that means CARDBOARD Aided Design! (LOL). I can cut a nice scale model of my implement with cardboard, a razor and a hot glue gun and really work out some details. It is far less expensive doing that, then cutting part welds, and buying more steel.

Most of the time I do not do a mock up using 1/4" plywood and 1x3 strapping, but a person can if they want.

By the time I do cardboard models, I got most details hammered out and can get the steel from my local steel shop. I try to stay clear of machined parts, and try and do everything I can for myself. Keep It Simple!

To do that, just break down whatever you want to build, into stages. Everything looks complicated, until it is broken down. For instance, figure out what the device will have for a frame, then how it will oscillate, how the PTO of the tractor will do that without costly gear boxes and pulleys and gearing (as much as possible). The figure out the tilting aspect. Then the table itself, and finally the water...one by one, they are not hard to fabricate.

IF a person spends $600 on a project lets say, and it works, then they can go invest in off-the-shelf units that might be more robust. But if the unit does not work, then they are only out $600 instead of $4000. But the design/build to me, is part of the excitement, and not just digging in the dirt. Other people's experiences may differ.

 

[OreCart]

Here is an example:

I was building a heavy haul road for logging trucks, and needed a way to get a nice smooth road. My 3 point hitch grader would not work because when the tractor goes into a hole, the cantilevered grader gets driven down deeper, and when the tractor goes over a bump, the grader would lift out of the ground...NO GOOD.

So rather then reinvent the wheel, I fabricated a gooseneck that bolted between the hitches of my log trailer. I cut the 3 point hitch attachment off the grader, and welded the blade to my new gooseneck hitch. (The blade can be straight or angled in either direction). Now the distance the blade travels up and down, is cut in half, and it is spanning 18 feet between the tires. And my walking beam suspension of my trailer, riding on 4 wheels, keeps the blade level even if the tires of the trailer go over a kicked up rock, or down into a hole. In two passes, I can have an incredibly smooth road for my logging trucks.

That is what I mean by not reinventing the wheel; using what you already have to get the job done, without spending money.

 

[gold tramp]

I have a mill, would be happy to help out for a small fee, it's easier to transport ore to a mill than tryin to set up a on-site op.

Gt....