First Foray into Processing Crushed Rock

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JohnWhite said:
One of these days…
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John, Is that your dream fine gold cleanup device? I've heard good things about it, though never used one. Maybe you'll get one for Christmas.

I'm using a $75 mini sluice with ribbed matting. It took me a few days to get the angle, and water flow dialed in, but it seems to be doing the job. If you don't understand microns, 7.5 microns is 0.075 millimeters. Oh, one thing, I'm using a mini vivrator device with this sluice. The vibrations, pretty much guarantee the heavies will settle in the ribbed mat this sluice uses.
 

desertgolddigger said:
John, Is that your dream fine gold cleanup device? I've heard good things about it, though never used one. Maybe you'll get one for Christmas.

I'm using a $75 mini sluice with ribbed matting. It took me a few days to get the angle, and water flow dialed in, but it seems to be doing the job. If you don't understand microns, 7.5 microns is 0.075 millimeters. Oh, one thing, I'm using a mini vivrator device with this sluice. The vibrations, pretty much guarantee the heavies will settle in the ribbed mat this sluice uses.
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I too have heard good things about it…I have had this on my wish list for some time…Due to my bad health I have not been doing much of anything as of late…

I recently purchased a Keene a52 súper sluice, which was a blemish I believe, that I had to use a set of channel locks on…The ding appeared to be pre shipment damage…Needless to say, I will not be doing any future business with Keene in the foreseeable future…

Oh well…life will go on…

One can just screen the material and run it on the cube golddigger…and I have an old deposit I have been playing with that has micron gold as well…If I pan it after I crush it…if I don’t add dawn or jet dry it will float off if I am not careful…I have also found it best to use latex gloves while panning…because the oil on my hands can cause it to float away as well…

Ed T
 

@southfork I'm wondering how many times you run say 100 mesh and smaller on your micro sluice to ensure you get as much of the fine gold as possible.

Do you toss things afterward? Because I've been tossing things, and I'm now wondering if I may've been too quick doing that, now that I know I hadn't run my material as well as I should. As things stand, I'll be bringing back what I dumped at the claim. Thank goodness I made a pile of it.
 

Don't bother with the Gold Cube Caley, it's for a different application from yours. Your table is perfect. I threw together the panning video today and at 9:30 watch the light tapping method for actually bringing gold back from the lip on the bottom before it falls out.

 

desertgolddigger said:
Ran another batch of ore this morning. After what I saw, I will rerun all the material several times to ensure I get the majority of this ultra fine gold. How ultra fine? The specks measure 7.5 microns and smaller. Yup, somehow the mini sluice is catching this small gold. And I thought my first success had small gold. Those were easily twice the size of todays batch. How do I know the size? I purchased a microscope with markings etched into the primary optic

And the rocks I crushed were the ones I thought might contain gold, based on what I've read, and videos I've watched online. Now I think I can go out, and pick up ore, and have occasional success. I'm sure that of the eight rocks I broke up, and crushed, only one was the one with this gold.

Of course, several hundred specks at 7.5 microns doesn't add up to a whole lot, but for our claim, it's a jackpot. :icon_cheers:
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I let the mill run a while before adding more material. also take the cap off once in a while to let more air in to move things around. I use a lot of soap in the slurry bucket and the recirculating sluice slow feed is key. It's amazing how small of gold you can recover I was getting carried away with running large amounts of rock. It would take hours to process I'm going back to small batches. Seems like you're getting things dialed in have fun Happy Mining
 

desertgolddigger said:
@southfork I'm wondering how many times you run say 100 mesh and smaller on your micro sluice to ensure you get as much of the fine gold as possible.

Do you toss things afterward? Because I've been tossing things, and I'm now wondering if I may've been too quick doing that, now that I know I hadn't run my material as well as I should. As things stand, I'll be bringing back what I dumped at the claim. Thank goodness I made a pile of it.
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I run whatever passes the # 30 screen one time on the ribbed sluice. If I see a lot of black sand and fine gold, I pan it and use a magnet making sure I tap and shake under water the micro gold will stick to the black sands. Sometimes I run all the concentrates in the blue bowl one spoon at a time. When we hit rich ore, I save the mud and let dry I'm going to smelt some to see if there's any values being lost or locked up in the waste. After I get around to smelting some of what I've saved I may start dumping if it proves to be a waste of time. It has to at least pay for the propane lol. I'm not sold on the blue bowl I find gold in the catch bucket if I run it a little too fast. Since I started using the turbo mat in the bowl, I'm catching smaller gold.
 

southfork said:
I let the mill run a while before adding more material. also take the cap off once in a while to let more air in to move things around. I use a lot of soap in the slurry bucket and the recirculating sluice slow feed is key. It's amazing how small of gold you can recover I was getting carried away with running large amounts of rock. It would take hours to process I'm going back to small batches. Seems like you're getting things dialed in have fun Happy Mining
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I dug up all I'd dumped in my back backyard, and classified it down to 100 mesh and smaller. I don't get much larger than that. Just got three specks since starting the hard rock thing.

Anyway, I carefully stratified, and dipped the pan with the material, letting the dirt drift off. I'd been agitating the dirt off before, and that was where I was losing the ultra fine gold. I discovered that problem a few days ago. Once I had most of the dirt float away, I dumped each pan processed in my to be sluiced container.

I did exactly what you mentioned, and very slowly ran the material. I'm also just running no more than 7-10 fist sized rocks through the crusher. I'm finding this a lot easier to handle, as I don't get tired classifying things down, etc. I think that caused me to hurry things.

Anyway, that material I resurrected ended up loaded with that micron sized gold. Well, to me it was loaded, but probably only less than 100 specks of gold, and about the same for those non-magnetic silvery things. I just wonder if these are a form of gold, if melting them will remove the impurities, leaving the gold.

I'm also wondering if all my drywashing has had the same micro fine gold. I never considered panning the fluff dirt to see.
 

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desertgolddigger said:
I dug up all I'd dumped in my back backyard, and classified it down to 100 mesh and smaller. I don't get much larger than that. Just got three specks since starting the hard rock thing.

Anyway, I carefully stratified, and dipped the pan with the material, letting the dirt drift off. I'd been agitating the dirt off before, and that was where nI was losing the ultra fine gold. I discovered that problem a few days ago. Once I had most of the dirt float away, I dumped each pan processed in my to be sluiced container.

I did exactly what you mentioned, and very slowly ran the material. I'm also just running no more than 7-10 fist sized rocks through the crusher. I'm finding this a lot easier to handle, as I don't get tired classifying things down, etc. I think that caused me to hurry things.

Anyway, that material I resurrected ended up loaded with that micron sized gold. Well, to me it was loaded, but probably only less than 100 specks of gold, and about the same for those non-magnetic silvery things. I just wonder if these are a form of gold, if melting them will remove the impurities, leaving the gold.

I'm also wondering if all my drywashing has had the same micro fine gold. I never considered panning the fluff dirt to see.
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I would bet your dry washer tailings have a little bit of micro gold stuck to the dirt. Takes screening / concentrating and good old water and a micro sluice then the concentrates panned Most likely floating around in the dust also think carlin lol
 

Have you tried to crush the silvery things with a spoon yet? Do they act like gold while you pan?
 

Now I'm getting information overload. Sorry, but I learn slowly, but Shirley. I'm presently concentrating on what I have at hand, the thrown away material I goofed panning with.

Arizau, The silvery stuff is non-magnetic. It just precedes the gold specks down the pan. I'm guessing it weighs slightly less than the gold I'm used to seeing

I wouldn't know how to crush something that's only 7.5 microns or smaller. That's the size I'm working with

I'm finding that I have to pan with only a very small amount at a time, and run the magnet I have through the material to remove the black sand. If I don't remove the black sand, this very tiny gold gets pushed around by it.

I'm saving for three more sieves, 300, 500 and 1000, but they cost progressively more, the finer the mesh size. These three will cost me about $80 for the 10cm diameter ones. I get the feeling that until I can classify at those sizes, panning is going to be a bear, as I'm a lousy panner.
 

southfork said:
I would bet your dry washer tailings have a little bit of micro gold stuck to the dirt. Takes screening / concentrating and good old water and a micro sluice then the concentrates panned Most likely floating around in the dust also think carlin lol
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That's what I'm thinking. I'm learning all the time, and had never considered ultra fine gold existing. Yes, what I call fluff dirt is very sticky, and I get the feeling this very small gold just loves to stick to it.

Next time I dry wash, I will dig a pans worth of this fluff, and pan at the claim just to see if there is indeed this type of gold stuck to it. That little should be all that is needed to answer that question.
 

Have you ever tried panning with other liquids instead of water? Maybe you can get you some good gloves and soak your cons in muriatic acid… Or you may try plain vinegar… heck… I have even panned some of my crushed ore in drain cleaner… one of my ores turned a bright Orange color for some reason… I have even tried panning with water with a little bleach in it…

You never know what else you might be able to pan with…there is always peroxide and other liquids you might try…Who knows???I’ve even panned some cons in ammonia…

Ed T
 

JohnWhite said:
Have you ever tried panning with other liquids instead of water? Maybe you can get you some good gloves and soak your cons in muriatic acid… Or you may try plain vinegar… heck… I have even panned some of my crushed ore in drain cleaner… one of my ores turned a bright Orange color for some reason… I have even tried panning with water with a little bleach in it…

You never know what else you might be able to pan with…there is always peroxide and other liquids you might try…Who knows???I’ve even panned some cons in ammonia…

Ed T
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I think I'll stick with water. Too many chemicals is something I don't have room for. I live in an 800 square foot house, have no garage, have a 120 square foot shed, ans 1/16 acre. So I'm kind of limited on space. I'll just keep things as simple as possible.

I also decided not to purchase those sieves, as they're over $100 now. I'll do what Southfork mentioned, and try using my Blue Bowl for the super fine gold, and my Miller Table for mesh 76-400. The table is supposed to be able to handle those sizes

Right now I'm just going to classify things 99 mesh and larger, 100-199 mesh, and 200 mesh and smaller. That'll make working with things a little easier.

Like I said, I'm trying to keep things a little bit simpler. It's also cheaper.
 

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