Good Gold Or Not?

ProspectorALEX

Sr. Member
Apr 14, 2013
292
184
Clam Gulch, AK
Detector(s) used
Whites GMT E-series
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Well, we finally found a decent spot that isn't claimed yet. WP_20180516_10_32_58_Pro.jpgWP_20180516_10_32_58_Pro.jpg What do you all think? It is easy access. We worked for about 8 hours with a gold cube. It was easy classifying and shoveling. The only problem is a water shortage due to the snow melt water being gone now. Also, there are lots of black sands so you have to feed the cube slow. We were considering getting a claim and better equipment if it is worth it.(Couldn't figure out why the pictures were double posting)
 

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Gold is always goo.

But how much did you process to get that; then decided if it is worth it.
 

i am not exactly sure. maybe 2-2 1/2 yards? we just put stuff in a bin and filled it as needed.
 

i am not exactly sure. maybe 2-2 1/2 yards? we just put stuff in a bin and filled it as needed.

OK, then next four questions.

First how many grams is it.

Second did you plan on doing this full time for a sole support income.

Third, did you want to break even this year.

Last, have your prospected around to see how much more you have around.
 

the gold cube is not really made for production,
since its fine gold do a cleanup often, guys doing beach mining with pure black sand
say they do a full clean up after 2 five gallon buckets. One cubic yard is like 45 mostly full buckets.
build a pond or find a way to get water to use a sluice or high-banker.
 

The pictures show what appears to be less than a gram of gold or something south of $40 so less than $2/hour take per person assuming there were two of you doing the work. Probably not worth a claim unless you can do better or you just want to insure that you protect a spot that only you can mine legally. In times of better water availability, a sluice/beach sluice would allow you to run much more material in the same time frame...Just guessing that you are processing beach sands(?).

Good luck.
 

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Will take more then this to pay for some equipment. Could be more near by worth checking out.
 

for 8 hours you could make more delivering pizzas
 

for 8 hours you could make more delivering pizzas
Good one and thanks for posting.

Say almost looks like your avatar has something on top or over the head. Kinda like this one's avatar cat has something over the top of the head......LOL :laughing7:
Like minds think alike......:laughing7: :headbang:
 

Looks like good gold and if you don't stake a claim there someone surely will. At least it will be yours to prospect fully and to decide if it's worth keeping. That's what it's all about.
 

Yeah, that's what i was thinking. I know the cube was losing gold because i was test panning the tailings. I was thinking maybe a gold hog highbanker?
 

Yeah, that's what i was thinking. I know the cube was losing gold because i was test panning the tailings. I was thinking maybe a gold hog highbanker?

Or setting up the cube correctly and running it correctly? Was it level? Did you prep the mats correctly, etc?
 

the cube loses gold when it is fed too quickly like for " production"

it's not what it's made for. Running 2 1/2 yards through it should take forever at the proper feed rate.

A gold Hog or a sluice with large expanded over moss or carpet would run material quicker and catch fine gold.
 

The $$$ rate per hour is appalling. If this is a hobby, go for it, other than a hobby, it will not put food on the table.
 

the cube loses gold when it is fed too quickly like for " production"

it's not what it's made for. Running 2 1/2 yards through it should take forever at the proper feed rate.

A gold Hog or a sluice with large expanded over moss or carpet would run material quicker and catch fine gold.

we probably were over feeding it. we will get a gold hog once we sell the cube. it is the deal my dad and i made with my mom.
 

Ive never tried to run yards through a Gold Cube but it IS designed to run "1000lb"per hr from the inventor and manufactuer...
 

I would say not a proper sample. A couple yard sample from a property is will only tell you part of the property's story. I would say not the right equipment for sampling the property or mining the pay on this property. A good highbanker will allow you to run about 15 buckets of 1/2" minus material an hour. This will also allow you to take several 5yd samples from the property to better tell you if the property is worth filing for a claim.

If you are finding that much gold there and having a good time, you are doing it without a claim. It sounds like a great weekend hang out without the financial responsibility of having a claim.
 

the gold cube is not really made for production,
since its fine gold do a cleanup often, guys doing beach mining with pure black sand
say they do a full clean up after 2 five gallon buckets. One cubic yard is like 45 mostly full buckets.
build a pond or find a way to get water to use a sluice or high-banker.

Yards per bucket depends only on the size of the bucket. 26 almost full 5 gallon buckets will equal a yard of material. Here is where things get complicated. There are two types of yards that go through your equipment:

* First, is the yards of property dug. This is used to determine your gold per yard or $ per yard average. After taking out the bigger rocks you may actually put less material through your equipment. For instance there may be 25% of the hole you dig being large cobble. So there may be only 20 buckets of material to run for your 1yd hole.

* Second, is the actual yards of material you physically put through the box. This lets you know how much actual material your equipment will run per hour. So lets say your equipment will run 1yd per hour and your hole is 25% large cobble, a 5yd sample should take a little less than 4 hours to run.

So if you don't classify any of your material and run every rock that will fit in a bucket, only then can you measure the hole you dig by the amount of buckets you run.
 

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Sorry, but it's not 26 buckets per yard!

A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, at 7 gallons per cubic foot. That equals 189 gallons. Divide that by 5 and you get 37.8. So it's 37.8 full 5 gallon buckets per yard.
 

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