Having a little dilemma about sluice cleanup

[Ragnor]

I'm having this little arguement with myself. I am pretty steadfast on not cleaning out my sluice unless I am ready to move or on the rare occasion I see gold at the bottom end of the carpet. Let's say the last two riffles in a standard sluice.

However in the material I have been working the last few days it is loaded with heavies. Heavies that carry values. The riffles load up fairly quickly with various crystaline sulphides and native metals other than gold. Some of these materials are of significant value. I was working a trench yesterday and after the sluice loaded up I could see fairly large flakes of 'pyrite' falling off the end of the sluice back into the creek.

I came up against my hard and fast rule of "Don't take the damn sluice out of the creek! Keep Working!" vs "I might be losing some valuable material here".

I'm wondering what you guys have to say on that. I am recovering significant quantities of galena and other more valuable materials. I save these sulphides and other materials to roast at the end of the year. I know they are carrying values in gold also as I can see it imbedded in some crystals under the microscope.

However I don't want to lose fine gold either.

You fellers think I should go ahead and dump the sluice into a bucket when I see it load up or will the heaviest material always displace the least valuable material and stay in the sluice?

I am just running a small 10" x 32" classic style sluice box.

Here is a pic of the larger concentrate materials.



At the same time the vast majority of the gold is on the micron scale
The cloudy yellow cast (if you can see it) to this black sand is due to microscopic gold particles.



And since you read this far, here is 3 of the 6 pickers I recovered. The other three where unrecognizable as gold without the microscope, they are currently soaking in acid to remove some kind of ugly coating.


I have not yet worked out where the main body of the deposit settled out. For now I am just sampling. I'll ask about that in another thread.

 

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[kcm]

From past processing of the heavies, just how rich are they?

Next, ask yourself if it is worth the effort to clean out the sluice often and haul the heavies home, store them, then process them later in the year.

If you want to avoid the heavies (out of sight; out of mind), then pre-classify your material as you dig, then run it when your back needs a rest. As for your sluice, larger heavies will displace the very small gold from your riffles. No way around that with your setup. Have you considered a newer sluice with GoldHog or similar matting?

 

[Ragnor]

In my experience in this particular area there is an equal amount locked up in the heavies as I get in free gold. I know in many other areas that is not the case but I have roasted cons from this area before. I got a couple gram nugget from breaking an old thermometer into a pint jar of cons when I was a younger. Shame too, them thermometers are worth quit a bit , lol. kids...... But yeah, it's worth my time, but so is the micron gold. I may set up a better classified fines recovery section at the head of the box and maybe a catch all section at the tail after thinking about it like that.

I have actually mocked up several goldhog matting layouts that would work perfect for my area. But I'm waiting to find my first ounce before investing in new equipment.

 

[KevinInColorado]

...then I guess you better clean out more often! Good problem to have my friend

 

[njcommercialdiver]

id let it load up, dump it in a bucket and go back for more, those are some nice looking heavies

 

[mytimetoshine]

Sweet specimens