Gold Recovery Below 100 Mesh

[desertgolddigger]

Hi All, After so many years away from digging for gold, I got back to it several months ago.

I did a lot of reading and viewing of videos online to educate myself about how I set up my dry washer.

Apparently I must be doing something correct now, as I am getting all kinds of sizes of gold. And I am seeing
a lot of fine gold that's much smaller than 100 mesh when I ran my Blue bowl for the first time in over 10 years.
Yes, I also read and watched videos about Blue Bowls.

The problem is that when I shined a very bright flashlight into the bowl to view how things were progressing,
I noticed that the gold just at the 100 mesh size was happily setting on the bottom, but stuff that was very tiny was
being washed up and over the cone, and into my catch bucket. Thank goodness for that bucket, as I can run the
material again.

I think that if I can find wire mesh in the say 125, 150 and smaller range, I may be able to classify the sizes down to where
I have fairly consistent sizes, that won't have the gold going up with the black sand and other little stuff.

From what I was viewing, there was just oodles of that super fine gold.

Now the question. What is the most efficient method of super fine gold recovery that doesn't cost hundreds of dollars.
I know a sluice is useless, except for refining the junk material out. Anyway, a sluice is something I, who lives in the high desert
would get any use of, unless I want to run some of those dry washing tailing piles. That's where I have been getting all my
gold, in those tailing piles that the previous people left. I can catch a lot of what they let go out of their machine, but finding
a way to get if recovered to just gold is just beyond me right now.

I hope someone can tell me a simple way that will work.

 

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[Reed Lukens]

Cheap sluices give you cheap recovery...
I would at least buy a piece of dream mat, then make a sluice for it.

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[southfork]

I definitely won't use mercury.

Why it can be used safely by a hobby miner and makes your prospecting more affordable. It makes the recovery of fines simple. I've been using this method since my teens I'm 76 and still have all my teeth happy mining.

 

[Bonaro]

The answer you seek depends on your goals.
If you are trying to see if you can recover every bit of gold and you have the time to burn, then by all means, carry on and enjoy your work.
If you are trying to come up with a valuable amount of gold then time spent is your enemy. You need to focus on production volume at the cost of losing the fine gold. One small flake is considerably more gold that a whole days worth of fly poop.
If I am working in material where the gold is all extremely fine, I process as much volume as I can and the mercury comes out pretty quickly in the final clean up.

 

[desertgolddigger]

The answer you seek depends on your goals.
If you are trying to see if you can recover every bit of gold and you have the time to burn, then by all means, carry on and enjoy your work.
If you are trying to come up with a valuable amount of gold then time spent is your enemy. You need to focus on production volume at the cost of losing the fine gold. One small flake is considerably more gold that a whole days worth of fly poop.
If I am working in material where the gold is all extremely fine, I process as much volume as I can and the mercury comes out pretty quickly in the final clean up.

I'm a different sort when it comes to the hobby. And yes, to me it is a hobby. I look at it as fun and enjoyable.

But I'm always trying to learn, and improve. Right now I just wish wo learn how to recover the most out of a days digging. And that means trying something new like sluicing.

I've already ordered a long recirculating sluice, and am in the process of trying to determine just what Gold Hog mats will work best for my situation. I've written them with my ideas, and am waiting on a reply to either tell me go for it, or to correct me on my choice of mat combinations. Since the gold I dig is for the most part, smaller than 1/16 inch, and usually flat or wire type, I figured I need mats that are used for that purpose.

The key for me is learning, and having fun while doing that learning.

I went exploring today to a fairly major hard rock mining area that not very many people have visited. I'm in the process of sampling various areas, to see if it is worthwhile. My first dig produced only one tiny speck of gold, but to me, not really knowing how to read the landscape, one speck was a victory. Now, if I can just find a sweet spot, if one exists. It might not be a good area, as no placer miners have been out there.

 

[desertgolddigger]

OK, I've finally given up on the Blue Bowl. Even with it perfectly level, and with a multi turn gate valve, the water flow become erratic. You can't set it, then come back later. I did that, and the water, which I lift with just enough force to cause the lighter material to rise and go over the cone, ended up with the water almost pouring over the outer edge of the bowl, half an hour later. It does separate the super fine gold from the other stuff fairly well, but, some other method is needed to get rid of the fine black sand.

I've tried a magnet, but the super fine gold just comes right up with the black sand. Makes me realise just how much super fine gold I threw away with that black sand when I first started out in this hobby.

Is there any other method, other than mercury that will get the super fine gold separated from the black and white sands? Meanwhil, I will read up on mercury use in our hobby.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Did some reading on mercury in California. It's basically banned, except in special cases where it is required for instruments. So, this avenue is not available even if I had wanted to use it.

Am watching a video on the subject. The process is very time consuming for what little gold you recover.

 

[mikep691]

Basically mining is banned in California unless all you use is a garden spade and pan. Mercury is a naturally occurring element. It can show up in your sluice or pan at any time. I was running old BSC one winter in my blue bowl and low and behold, a large BB of mercury appeared. I just let it roll around the bowl while I kept feeding the bowl. Now I have a golden BB in the snuffer bottle.
Building a retort is a simple process to remove the mercury and end up with nothing but a small golden sponge. Learning that process is likely your best method for super fine gold recovery and it can be done safely.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Basically mining is banned in California unless all you use is a garden spade and pan. Mercury is a naturally occurring element. It can show up in your sluice or pan at any time. I was running old BSC one winter in my blue bowl and low and behold, a large BB of mercury appeared. I just let it roll around the bowl while I kept feeding the bowl. Now I have a golden BB in the snuffer bottle.
Building a retort is a simple process to remove the mercury and end up with nothing but a small golden sponge. Learning that process is likely your best method for super fine gold recovery and it can be done safely.

I know where some mercury is in the Dale Mining District. Before I joined a mining club, I tried finding gold off any claims. One was below a gold processing area. I found globs of silvery stuff, which, at the time, I didn't know what it was. I learned later, and tossed the stuff. Wish I hadn't, as I was told there might still be gold caught up in those little lumps.

Not sure if digging up 100 year old lumps of amalgam is worthwhile, or whether a retort could process the stuff.

 

[mikep691]

I know where some mercury is in the Dale Mining District. Before I joined a mining club, I tried finding gold off any claims. One was below a gold processing area. I found globs of silvery stuff, which, at the time, I didn't know what it was. I learned later, and tossed the stuff. Wish I hadn't, as I was told there might still be gold caught up in those little lumps.

Not sure if digging up 100 year old lumps of amalgam is worthwhile, or whether a retort could process the stuff.

No matter how old mercury is it can still be processed with a retort. It will still leave the gold behind.

 

[Reed Lukens]

I made a decent living digging up the old mercury covered gold from the left over Hydraulic Era sluice boxes.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

I made a decent living digging up the old mercury covered gold from the left over Hydraulic Era sluice boxes.

That’s a cool box and vials. Where did you come across that?

 

[desertgolddigger]

That’s a cool box and vials. Where did you come across that?

I made a decent living digging up the old mercury covered gold from the left over Hydraulic Era sluice boxes.

I knew about the hydraulic mining in northern California, but didn't realise how destructive it was down stream. Good educational video.

 

[Reed Lukens]

That’s a cool box and vials. Where did you come across that?

It's an old pharmaceutical salesman's sample kit that I found on ebay around 20 years ago now. All of the gold in it is either still in or came out of the old mercury from the Hydraulic Pit. The brown vial is all micro gold that was in the mercury, so small that you can't see it with the naked eye by itself. I would fill this little jar, then make buttons out of it. Then thats how it looks in a gold pan. I sold those buttons long ago, just kept the pics. Great memories 😀