How do you clean roots, grass, moss effectively?

[OwenT]

Last time I went out the only good gold I was finding was in a patch of grass roots so I settled down and tried to clean all the dirt out of that patch, probably about 15 square feet worth. I got probably less than 5 gallons of dirt and recovered 1/5 gram. I feel like I left a lot of material in those roots still. What's the best way to get the gold out of those roots? I know the burn method but that's a little too much I think, I was wondering about grinding them up or something like a washboard for scrubbing them.

 

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[et1955]

Hi Owen, while it is still in the ground use your shovel to cut it up into smaller chunks before you wash it, also you could use pruning shears to cut it up more as you wash it out. If this is Sky grass it is very hardened to survive all the flooding it goes threw. Lot of gold trapped in it but you will have to work for it.

 

[Goldwasher]

I just break them up in the bucket of water. or head of the sluice. Typically as material falls out its easier to break them up more.

 

[Laz7777]

if you're there for awhile, lay grass on a tarp to dry after breaking up.
knew one couple would bring a sawzall in to cut it up.
we call it elephant grass, the tougher it is to break up, less gold I'd found where i work...the grass with the most color had loose soil in the top, beaucoup black sand is a good indicator where I mine as well, same for the moss...not much black sand, not much gold, either.

 

[benny]

If the roots are fairly bound up, I'll scrub in a -2 classifier until they come apart.

 

[Ragnor]

I hold it by the 'hair' and pump em up and down, slapping the water with them like I'm churning butter. Tear em in pieces and shake em around till there aint no more dirt in em. Thirty to 60 seconds a clump. Best way would be one of them river rockers.

 

[fowledup]

Done same as Benny in clumps with one exception- I put the classifier in a bucket full of water making sure the screen is submerged. Water makes a huge difference, few scrubs back and forth and all you come out with is the vegetation.

 

[Jeff95531]

I've avoided posting as I'm far from doing it "effectively". I can tell you that when I first started out, it was much like an archaeological dig and VERY time consuming. I've since learned you're not gonna kill it if you snip off small roots with a hand held pruner when the roots get in the way. And I've heard of but have yet to try...putting moss in a thrift store cake pan, pour charcoal lighter fluid on it, put it in the campfire ring and throw a match to it. Pan what's left.

 

[Reed Lukens]

Put a tarp up around 3 sides and then blast it with a 500gph water nozzle until there's nothing left but bedrock and gold. If you have a wide V shaped crack in the bedrock, you can wash the gold down into one side and pile it to scoop out. Then just shovel as much of the gold as you can carry into your truck and drive away

 

[benny]

Done same as Benny in clumps with one exception- I put the classifier in a bucket full of water making sure the screen is submerged. Water makes a huge difference, few scrubs back and forth and all you come out with is the vegetation.

Yeah, forgot to mention the water part. Pretty tough banging a dry clod of root without water.

 

[Canuck]

I typically just decrease the angle of my hopper and let the spray bars break it down for me. Cutting it to smaller pieces helps as well.

 

[mikep691]

We call it doing the laundry on our claim. Moss and roots can be soaked then thrown in the hopper where the water does most of the work.

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

Do everything you can with what you need. Buckets. Wash rocks, grass and roots by swishing back and forth. Use 1/4" hardware cloth as a shredder. Inside one bucket, on the outside of the other. Swishing becomes grinding.

 

[ohiochris]

I just work them real good in a bucket of water , anything heavy will wind up in the bucket , if it don't then its usually not enough to worry about missing anyway.

 

[motohed]

All of the above , but I would use an old time clouthes washing board with a recycling system and scrub out all of the grass and moss . Then you can run the material left over anyway you want it's amazing how these work . You really asnwered your own question !