Gold in Sand and Gravel Pits

[GoldReport]

Hi everyone!
Novice prospector here. I work for an aggregates mining company and have talked with the company geologist about gold in our s&g deposits. At my last site visits in Southern NY + NW PA I took my gold pan. I grabbed about a gallon of material from the sand screws and panned them. I would have done more material but was time limited. I did indeed find some glacial gold, really small stuff. What I am having a tough time figuring out is what processing this would look like. In my head I would set up a sluice box where the chute that feeds the sand screw is located. It would need to be something as low cost as possible and would not need to be cleaned out very often. Anyone have any pics of their setup they would be willing to share?

Still trying to determine the concentration in these deposits. If they could recover at least 0.01g per ton of sand, I think it could be profitable as an additional revenue stream.

 

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[tamrock]

There are a few alluvial sand and gravel plants here in Colorado that capture gold. I'm sure they recover more gold per yard than what you're estimating and I would think the labor cost to recover the amount gold you're estimating could be a deal breaker. Maybe the company will allow you to check out your ideas on your own time.

 

[GoldReport]

There are a few alluvial sand and gravel plants here in Colorado that capture gold. I'm sure they recover more gold per yard than what you're estimating and I would think the labor cost to recover the amount gold you're estimating could be a deal breaker. Maybe the company will allow you to check out your ideas on your own time.

The labor cost is indeed what I'm concerned about, in addition to the added headache of additional equipment on the plant. Would be ideal if you could do an annual clean out. For reference these sites do an average of 100,000 to 400,000 tons per year, with sand production usually being about 1/3 to 1/2 of the total.

I would certainly be doing this on my own time if I lived closer. I've taken to getting buckets from a local pit while I get my sluice setup going.