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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[Assembler]

I'm not sure I follow what you mean. The site is your typical aggregates plant with stackers for each of the product piles. If I sample these I will likely try to sample from the back side of the stockpile where the heavier material would fall. I could definitely get a loader in to move some material if needed

Well you will not stop the plant or process then to get your good test batches is my point. If you can have a staging area to work your high banker you should get good results and answers for each test batch you can get without stopping the plant. You will have to figure out water and where to put the tailings.
By renting a front loader for a day you should be able to make a number of test piles for you to work on later. If the plant has a small front loader maybe a number of test piles can be made?

 

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[DizzyDigger]

If I sample these I will likely try to sample from the back side of the stockpile where the heavier material would fall. I could definitely get a loader in to move some material if needed

My thoughts are kind of along the lines of what Assembler just posted. If you're looking to see how much gold is in "x" yards, then have them set aside a couple yards in a spot where you can run a bit of water. Set up a 4-stack Gold Cube and then be sure you're working with material that is no larger than 3/8-.

Get yourself a nice plastic scoop, and feed the whole pile through the GC, and cleaning off the mat (into a bucket) on the top unit every so often. Then you can at least say...."Boss, we got this from X yds. of random material.

Other things to consider the spot the sand/aggregate is coming from. Could very well be that there are more productive spots (gold wise) that the company will be excavating at a later date, meaning the potential (to mgt.) for an additional revenue source becomes more attractive.

 

[GoldReport]

My thoughts are kind of along the lines of what Assembler just posted. If you're looking to see how much gold is in "x" yards, then have them set aside a couple yards in a spot where you can run a bit of water. Set up a 4-stack Gold Cube and then be sure you're working with material that is no larger than 3/8-.

Get yourself a nice plastic scoop, and feed the whole pile through the GC, and cleaning off the mat (into a bucket) on the top unit every so often. Then you can at least say...."Boss, we got this from X yds. of random material.

Other things to consider the spot the sand/aggregate is coming from. Could very well be that there are more productive spots (gold wise) that the company will be excavating at a later date, meaning the potential (to mgt.) for an additional revenue source becomes more attractive.

Why a plastic scoop? I have a regular old garden trowel I use. Is there a reason to use plastic instead?

I agree with you that certain parts of their deposit will vary on gold concentration. They have some stockpiles of sand which date back from time immemorial which might be worth taking some samples from.

My reasoning with this project is that if there is even a small amount of recoverable gold, it could be worth the time. Adding a dollar a ton to the bottom line would make a significant impact. A dollar a ton is less than 0.02 g per ton of RECOVERABLE gold. The recoverable part is, of course, extremely important to the whole conversation.

The ultimate goal is to find an amount of gold that will wow the upper management and have the numbers to back it. Of course, the deposit needs to have that in the first place. This place processes around 200k tons of sand and gravel every year, there must be some economic gold in it?!

 

[DizzyDigger]

I use a plastic dog food scoop to feed my Gold Cube. It holds multiple times of material than a garden trowel..less scooping equals more feeding the cube.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has previously considered what you're putting your efforts into, but I never had a chance to work at a gravel pit.

 

[russau]

In my case and location , getting a Bob Cat into the location to allow the B.S. to dump into the Bob Cat bucket from the screw hopper wouldn't be physically possible BUT great idea ! there isn't enough room to get into there !

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

We have a bunch of plants all over the area I live. I think Martin Marietta is one of the larger outfits. I would love to find a lead into one to process the BS. Any info on making that a possibility would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GoldReport]

We have a bunch of plants all over the area I live. I think Martin Marietta is one of the larger outfits. I would love to find a lead into one to process the BS. Any info on making that a possibility would be greatly appreciated.

Do you have your MSHA cert? Do you have the proper safety gear: steel toes, hard hat, high vis, glasses, gloves?

If you want to have a chance at getting direct access to their materials I would make sure you can answer yes to those questions. Mining is such a huge liability that when I was a quarry manager, I wouldn't let a person who wasn't all geared up out of the truck when on site. Just the liability of someone hurting their back shoveling was enough reason to keep people out. That being said, if you go to a pit and explain to the scale clerk what you're looking for they can probably help you out. At the very least they could call the site boss and they will help.

My other advice is go to a site that isn't owned by a massive corporation like Martin, less rules typically.

Lot of places won't be running after Thanksgiving so I would advise to stop in sooner rather than later before they do plant cleanups.

 

[Assembler]

Do you have your MSHA cert? Do you have the proper safety gear: steel toes, hard hat, high vis, glasses, gloves?

If you want to have a chance at getting direct access to their materials I would make sure you can answer yes to those questions. Mining is such a huge liability that when I was a quarry manager, I wouldn't let a person who wasn't all geared up out of the truck when on site. Just the liability of someone hurting their back shoveling was enough reason to keep people out. That being said, if you go to a pit and explain to the scale clerk what you're looking for they can probably help you out. At the very least they could call the site boss and they will help.

My other advice is go to a site that isn't owned by a massive corporation like Martin, less rules typically.

Lot of places won't be running after Thanksgiving so I would advise to stop in sooner rather than later before they do plant cleanups.

Excellent points there that a lot of people over look.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Do you have your MSHA cert? Do you have the proper safety gear: steel toes, hard hat, high vis, glasses, gloves?

If you want to have a chance at getting direct access to their materials I would make sure you can answer yes to those questions. Mining is such a huge liability that when I was a quarry manager, I wouldn't let a person who wasn't all geared up out of the truck when on site. Just the liability of someone hurting their back shoveling was enough reason to keep people out. That being said, if you go to a pit and explain to the scale clerk what you're looking for they can probably help you out. At the very least they could call the site boss and they will help.

My other advice is go to a site that isn't owned by a massive corporation like Martin, less rules typically.

Lot of places won't be running after Thanksgiving so I would advise to stop in sooner rather than later before they do plant cleanups.

Thank you for the info. I’ll look into satisfying these questions and reach out to a few places.

 

[Assembler]

Thank you for the info. I’ll look into satisfying these questions and reach out to a few places.

Interesting let us know what you find out.