Help with keene matting please

[desert-rat]

I recently removed the metal riffles from my 36"x10" high banker and replaced them with the keene matting. Im getting a lot less cons which is nice but im not sure if this is the set up I need. im running a 3700 gph pump and 3"s of drop. materials are classified down to 1/4". what should my water depth over the matting be and is it going to have a fast enough exchange rate to capture gold if I run 5 or 6 5 gallon buckets in a single run. im new to the sport and have a million and one questions any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance....

 

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[russau]

not having any experience with this mat myself , id have to say set your particular HB and run it with some cons and pan the off fall from your sluice to check if your loseing anything often! Try this at different angles and water speeds/depths and record the results!

 

[Jason in Enid]

Like russ said, you are just going to have to do some experimenting on your own. Not a lot of people are using the Keene matting, but there are lots of different types of rubber riffle mats on the market. Each one likes a different water flow, angle and type of material to work best.

First thing you should do is set it up how you have it and watch it run. It shouldn't clear out completely when you stop feeding it, but it shouldn't load up with cons and prevent anything else from settling either. Watch the material as you run it. You should see it bouncing and vibrating behind each riffle. As long as you still have some black sands behind each one and they are staying in motion then you should be in the sweet zone.

When you have heavy cons in a fluid state, then they will be actively exchanging. They will let bits of gold fall through and sit on the bottom. If they aren;t fluid, the gold will slide over the top and keep moving down the sluice and out with the tailings.

Also, your water needs to be deep enough that you aren't creating bubbles in the turbulence behind the riffles. If you have rolling bubbles you are losing gold.

 

[desert-rat]

Thans for the help guys!! ive been experimenting with it a lot and im still not sure I have it right but im getting there..

 

[Reed Lukens]

That should be fine but you may need to angle it a bit less. When you see the bulk of the heavy blacksand stop in the top half, it will be close. The gold should be seen in the top foot of mat.

 

[desert-rat]

I tested it with some #9 lead bird shot and it caught every BB in the first 3rd of the sluice so im thinking its good. I ran the BB's with some samples I had pulled and found a couple pieces of gold about the same size as the BB's.

 

[Oregon Viking]

Are you guys talking about the Keene Miracle matting?

 

[Reed Lukens]

Yup

 

[russau]

Are you guys talking about the Keene Miracle matting?


View attachment 1238121

you did VERY well Grasshopper!

 

[Jason in Enid]

I tested it with some #9 lead bird shot and it caught every BB in the first 3rd of the sluice so im thinking its good. I ran the BB's with some samples I had pulled and found a couple pieces of gold about the same size as the BB's.

Now take that birdshot and beat the hell out of it with a mallet and try again!

 

[desert-rat]

I actually thought about smashing those bb's but figured if they could roll they might travel farther down than if their and irregular shape like flat. ill try it and see what I get im about to run out and take a few samples for the day. ill run them with the samples and see how she does. if I have time before the holiday rush I post some results..

 

[Jason in Enid]

the flattened bits are harder to capture because they have a much larger surface area. They want to slide over the top of the material because it has to be much more fluid, and the water pushes harder against the surface area. Don't check the sluice for what you capture, check the tailing for what you lost.

 

[desert-rat]

I count the bb's before and then make sure I catch em all and so far so good.

 

[desert-rat]

well in ran the samples and the flattened bird shot. results= all 16 bb's back and a nice amount of color. next thing ive got to figure out is what flood layer its coming from. this was my best sample by far. wish me luck!!

 

[Oregon Viking]

I was under the impression that my Keene A52P had the miracle matting, but upon closer examination it appears slightly different.
And it's green



Have you looked at the Gold Hog mats? They seem more advanced, different mats for different conditions.
I would try/own one of everything if I could...

 

[russau]

I really enjoy running my Gold Cube on cons! and then using my Miller Table to clean it all up! sometimes its NOT what you have BUT how you use it! right now id give my right.............something or another to be out dredgeing even in this cold/ice! or even better to be out with Hoser somewhere in parts unkown!