Gold Ore

southfork

Bronze Member
Jun 15, 2014
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California
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A little sample that was found with a metal detector. Crushed by hand then panned to wash away some of the dirt and clay? The photo is macro so real small particles, but the quartz shows and what looks like iron and free gold. I think we need a small smelter to retrieve the values trying to speed up the recovery what's your thoughts ?
 

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Winnowing. Early form of drywashing...toss material up and depend on wind to blow away dust and other fines while heavies fall back on the cloth, blankets, etc.
Maybe todays version is a conveyer belt of spread out thin material that drops off the end height with a slow low noise speed air fan to separate the lights from the heavies?
 

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Winnowing. Early form of drywashing...toss material up and depend on wind to blow away dust and other fines while heavies fall back on the cloth, blankets, etc.
Yes, that was what was on the tip of my tongue. I just wasn’t sure enough to say it .
 

Yes, that was what was on the tip of my tongue. I just wasn’t sure enough to say it .
Slow air speed movement is key to help controlling the dust or at least a fast drop of the air speed.
 

Some metal detector prospecting finds by my son in the heat. We used the jaw crusher and chain mill to grind and powder then panned. 43 pennyweights. And he gave me a 4gram plus specimen piece for my collection. More 100 plus days on the way gold fever.
 

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Some metal detector prospecting finds by my son in the heat. We used the jaw crusher and chain mill to grind and powder then panned. 43 pennyweights. And he gave me a 4gram plus specimen piece for my collection. More 100 plus days on the way gold fever.
That’s outstanding!!
 

Nice to see some color in the pan. great specimen too! :coffee2:
 

Amazing! I haven't seen the gold all balled up like that before like golden BBs. I assume it was really chunky stuff and that's what the crusher did to it?
The ore went through a jaw crusher first to about 1/4 inch then the chain mill if there's a lot of free gold it balls up.
 

My son and friend went back out on a 103-degree day and worked on their latest pocket. We haven't finished the cleanup but over an ounce so a great day. My photo is bad but there's micro gold all the way up the small ribs in the pan. The tailings from panning are loaded with super fine gold we are saving to blue bowl and wet micro sluice.
 

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My son and friend went back out on a 103-degree day and worked on their latest pocket. We haven't finished the cleanup but over an ounce so a great day. My photo is bad but there's micro gold all the way up the small ribs in the pan. The tailings from panning are loaded with super fine gold we are saving to blue bowl and wet micro sluice.
Sound like your son and friend will not be tossing back to nature the fines with around a ounce of values there. Yes the colors can add up that is for sure.
Great job there. :icon_thumright:

Some area deposits only have the super fines for the most part.
 

Sound like your son and friend will not be tossing back to nature the fines with around a ounce of values there. Yes the colors can add up that is for sure.
Great job there. :icon_thumright:

Some area deposits only have the super fines for the most part.
A panful of super fines would make some nice buttons / bars
 

The new spot is kicking out a little treasure early California gold rush prospect with no trash. My son spent a few hours crawling under the brush and found some ore for crushing. They sound off with the detector but hard to see visible gold on chunks of quartz. But this little half gram bit made the detector scream nice little high grade find. I'm starting to think that wildfire has cooked a lot of this material and popped these specimens' out of the waste piles. Ore roasting on a large scale. What is that track lol
 

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The new spot is kicking out a little treasure early California gold rush prospect with no trash. My son spent a few hours crawling under the brush and found some ore for crushing. They sound off with the detector but hard to see visible gold on chunks of quartz. But this little half gram bit made the detector scream nice little high grade find. I'm starting to think that wildfire has cooked a lot of this material and popped these specimens' out of the waste piles. Ore roasting on a large scale. What is that track lol
Beauty
 

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