Help ! Is panning the best for flour gold ?

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GoldMine21

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Feb 3, 2017
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johnedoe said:
Your right .... I'm the only nut case that needs the 100.... I also have 150, 200 and 325.... and failing eyesight.....:laughing7:
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No Johne..... You're NOT the only nut case that needs/uses the 100 or finer meshed classifiers. We're just gluttons for punishment is all. :BangHead:
 

KevinInColorado said:
Great advice from both Brian and Ken. My only 'correction', don't buy the Orange HD buckets or the blue Lowes ones, they are made of thin plastic and will break when you dump shovelfuls of rocks in! Get your buckets from a deli or donut shop for a buck each...with "090" or "90 mil" markings on the bottom. Those buckets are TOUGH!
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Kevin saw this first hand when we went out on a trip! I had one of the blue buckets from Lowe's filled with classified material, set it down on the dam next to my sluice, and my paydirt was going out the bottom and on it's way down the river..
 

Exactly!
I've seen it happen too many times to guys :(

Never happened to me as a newbie for the simple reason I'm too cheap to pay for a new bucket!
 

Living in southern Indiana most of what i deal with is flour gold. The heavier buckets can be bought at Lowes etc, they are called food grade buckets at my local store. I use a 1/8" classifier on top of one of those buckets and classify out about half a bucket of material. At that point i find a comfortable spot on the stream and use a garden trowel to scoop out of my bucket of classified material into a kitchen strainer that is about 1/20". I usually put 2 scoops into the pan through the sieve and then pan it down from there. For me the more I classify the material the easier it is to pan as I have a bad case of tendinitis in my elbow.
 

jrg47203 said:
Living in southern Indiana most of what i deal with is flour gold. The heavier buckets can be bought at Lowes etc, they are called food grade buckets at my local store. I use a 1/8" classifier on top of one of those buckets and classify out about half a bucket of material. At that point i find a comfortable spot on the stream and use a garden trowel to scoop out of my bucket of classified material into a kitchen strainer that is about 1/20". I usually put 2 scoops into the pan through the sieve and then pan it down from there. For me the more I classify the material the easier it is to pan as I have a bad case of tendinitis in my elbow.
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I don't know about the laws there on sluicing, but if it's legal, it's a less painful option. I use my "zook" for high water and my AM for low water.
 

GoldMine21 said:
I am completely new to this and I live in a state with flour gold. I bought a Garrett pan which is on the way. I am wondering if the pan was the way to go ? I also looked at a sluice and a blue pan. It would be for stream. Any help on what works best for flour gold would be greatly appreciated. Thank you !
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When working with fine gold I do what I call "production panning" I pan it down as quick as I can to the heavy concentrates and dump it in a bucket/ Actually I like to use a gator-aid bottle and a funnel. Don;t waste your time trying to pan them specks out on the creek. Just get as much cons as you can and then take your time panning them at home. The BEST methods are going to be things like a gold cube or other concentrator type equipment. But save that for when your time is not at a premium.

Another thing, River rockers, small backpack rocker boxes. I dont have one yet but I seen a real nice one at the gold show and I am apt to buy one here directly. Google CreekSide Prospecting.
 

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What a neat adaptation of the original "river rocker box".:thumbsup:

DIY plans for the original here: http://www.gpex.ca/pdfs/Rocker Box 1.pdf. Maybe you can adapt them in a similar manner to the commercial model and save a few bucks.

What ever you do Ragnor.....Good luck!
 

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arizau said:
What a neat adaptation of the original "river rocker box".:thumbsup:

DIY plans for the original here: http://www.gpex.ca/pdfs/Rocker Box 1.pdf. Maybe you can adapt them in a similar manner to the commercial model and save a few bucks.

What ever you do Ragnor.....Good luck!
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Thank you for the .pdf I have a prototype here I made years ago but it never made it to the creek. Actually they locked the gate on my payable fine gold area and I have not yet bought they're permit... But the box I made was too heavy all I had was sheet steel available at the time. I agree the price point on they're box is pretty darned high. With the Internets I should be able to buy the parts and make one for allot less.
 

All are wonderful suggestions.. Here are two more to add: Please make sure you aren't on someone's claim (we have claim jumping going on our claims and it stinks!), one can always ask permission rather than have Mr. Sheriff at your door step. LR 2000 is great !
Please make sure if you make a hole (unless its in the river- yep I have had a good laugh or two telling people to fill in their holes in the river); fill it back in so no animal or human gets hurt..

Have fun, enjoy the outdoors !!8-)
 

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Firehouse subs are awesome be sure to get one when you get their pickle buckets!!!
 

This thread has some great info about how to get the fine gold while panning. And now I am going to buy some screens to help me with a pocket I found thanks all! One thing I noticed though about the answers as I am very interested in this question. The question was, is panning the best for fine flour. Now I know this is a friendly discussion and advice can be about a variety of things that work well. However, I am looking as well into the best method. Heck, maybe if I capture enough at my spot I can buy one of the new Bazooka type sluices being developed, or, a new River Hog Sluice. I only have a few pans and a 24" sniper and a small sluice with some downdraft Hog mat. So, will the pan prove to be the best way to capture the most gold? It's not about speed for this spot. It's about capturing all that is there with the highest percentage of capture so I can buy better equipment and add to my stable of tools etc. I will process at home. For now its about capturing the most. So what's the best? A pan, a type of pan? A sluice? A gold magnet? (Someone tell me there's a gold magnet somewhere on Amazon please! Ha ha)
 

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Tahoegold said:
This thread has some great info about how to get the fine gold while panning. And now I am going to buy some screens to help me with a pocket I found thanks all! One thing I noticed though about the answers as I am very interested in this question. The question was, is panning the best for fine flour. Now I know this is a friendly discussion and advice can be about a variety of things that work well. However, I am looking as well into the best method. Heck, maybe if I capture enough at my spot I can buy one of the new Bazooka type sluices being developed, or, a new River Hog Sluice. I only have a few pans and a 24" sniper and a small sluice with some downdraft Hog mat. So, will the pan prove to be the best way to capture the most gold? It's not about speed for this spot. It's about capturing all that is there with the highest percentage of capture so I can buy better equipment and add to my stable of tools etc. I will process at home. For now its about capturing the most. So what's the best? A pan, a type of pan? A sluice? A gold magnet? (Someone tell me there's a gold magnet somewhere on Amazon please! Ha ha)
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Just one of many probable solutions/answers to your question: Ever hear about production panning? Pretty simple to do with just an ordinary pan. Fill the pan and pan off about 1/2 to 3/4 of the material (toss or wipe off the bigger rocks by hand after they are washed clean). Add more feed to top off the pan and repeat over and over again until most of what is left in the pan is black sands and other heavies. Dump that into a bucket to take home then start all over again, etc. As long as there was gold in your feed and you are careful not to wash out black sands in this process, you are golden. Don't forget to classify your concentrates before panning for final gold recovery.

There are a few pans that are high capacity and very efficient for production panning and they are real speed demons. I own one of them and would recommend it....ez gold pan https://www.google.com/webhp?source...1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=ez+gold+pan+angus+mackirk. Also there is the pyramid pro pan and the garrett super sluice gold pan. I like the pyramid pro pan since it is best used while sitting on your butt.:thumbsup:

Have fun and good luck.
 

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Great info thank you! I read about production panning and I feel I can do that. I have a 1/8th inch screen I built out of the the bottpm of a bucket and hardware cloth that fits both my Estwing 12" pan and my Supersluice. Pan the material until I see mostly black sands then throw it into my peanutbutter jar. My gut feeling is that if Im careful yet fast enough I can be effecient with this method and have my highest capture rate. Is that the most effective method for recovering flour gold? Or is there another better way?
 

Ok, I read up a little more. There's several options and this question has a complicated answer! So, panning can capture almost everything. Sluicing captures most but potentially more weight. Production panning seems to have the best promise for capture if trying to get all the gold in a pocket. Sluicing may be better than panning if a large area contains gold and produces more gold weight per hour using the sluice. I am going to test this theory with a Bazooka 24", a small 6" x 16" sluice with Hog downdraft mat, and then a Garrett Supersluice. I'm going to give myself 15 minutes for each process then see what I find. Also, I was thinking of running the Bazooka into the mini sluice with the mat with the mini running into the supersluice. That may be a system that is packable and has different capture zones. We shall see! I would love to have a packable system that is effective and multipurpose.
 

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