Im lost

[elijahhenry10]

I'm lost

I just panned through about 4 pounds of dirt and found a lot of black sands and a decent amount of gold. My only problem is that the gold is awfully small and I don't know how to separate it. Anyone have any ideas/tips?

Thanks

 

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[nsdq]

Re: I'm lost

tweezer a snuffer bottle and time with a steady hand

 

[echidna gold]

Re: I'm lost

mate, if you've got a decent amount of gold from just 4 pounds......

Dont worry so much about final seperation, worry about getting more of that dirt.

But anyway - imo mercury is the best but you'll need a retort and knowledge about safety etc.

or blue bowl, miller table or baby sluice combined with close screening will help a lot.

 

[russau]

Re: I'm lost

. My only problem is that the gold is awfully small and I don't know how to separate it. Anyone have any ideas/tips?

Thanks
[/quote] let it dry out and make sure it isnt clumped together.use a magnet to remove the magnetics,screen the material and then place small amounts of it on white paper and gently blow the unwanted material off to the side. walla! clean gold.

 

[kuger]

Re: I'm lost

. My only problem is that the gold is awfully small and I don't know how to separate it. Anyone have any ideas/tips?

Thanks

let it dry out and make sure it isnt clumped together.use a magnet to remove the magnetics,screen the material and then place small amounts of it on white paper and gently blow the unwanted material off to the side. walla! clean gold.
[/quote]

....................yes!!

 

[jmoller99]

Re: I'm lost

Or look into a Blue Bowl (classify it first - 30 mesh, 50 mesh or whatever you need).

(turn the sound down - the music is not that great)

(Plenty of other demos on youtube if you look).

I put a brass valve on mine - the plastic one is not very good. Keep it level.

 

[elijahhenry10]

Re: I'm lost

I think I can probably roll out the option of a blue bowl or other method that would take a semi-large purchase. Most things like that don't fit into a 15 yr olds budget.

Anyhow, I will just have to try to fill something with a little of the mix, take the bigger pieces out, and then save the black sands until I have enough that they can be smelted to get the fine gold. Also, Mercury might be a rather risky option for me to try, I have too much of a habit of mixing random things just to see what they do.

Thanks!

 

[kuger]

Re: I'm lost

The strain,and blow method is about as cheap,old and efficient as you can get?Good luck!

 

[echidna gold]

Re: I'm lost

Try this, get an old tupperware tub, very lightly rub some peanut butter oil on the bottom, then wash the tub with water only to get rid of any free oil - place the cons in there with some water.. swirl around so the heavies settle, then tip out the whole lot out. You should be left with the gold stuck to the oil on the bottom, scrape this off with a razor. Works well with very fine gold. But dont blame me if it goes pear shaped. Experiment with a little bit first. I've used the method before and had success.

Anyway you're only 15, you should be out shoplifting or something.

 

[elijahhenry10]

Re: I'm lost

The strain,and blow method is about as cheap,old and efficient as you can get?Good luck!

Well, this method got the majority of the bigger ge, but there was still smaller pieces that are almost too small to even pick up with tweezers

 

[kuger]

Re: I'm lost

The strain,and blow method is about as cheap,old and efficient as you can get?Good luck!

Well, this method got the majority of the bigger ge, but there was still smaller pieces that are almost too small to even pick up with tweezers

Your not blowin right.....no need for tweezers if you are

 

[elijahhenry10]

Re: I'm lost

The strain,and blow method is about as cheap,old and efficient as you can get?Good luck!

Well, this method got the majority of the bigger ge, but there was still smaller pieces that are almost too small to even pick up with tweezers

Your not blowin right.....no need for tweezers if you are

I had to use tweezers to pick up the pieces of gold

 

[jmoller99]

Re: I'm lost

You should be able to pan it out if you are persistent. This picture shows some of the smaller than 100 mesh that I got out of a Gold Cube cleanup (just dug some sand at Clear Creek Colorado that had a streak of black sand running thru it, right at the surface - note: this gold would have just floated away if run thru a normal Sluice). My guess is there are 250 to 500 specs here. It took patience to separate them, but classification screens and a magnet in a plastic bag to pull out the magnetite helped a lot.

Processing a few shovelfuls of surface sand was a test to see what the Gold Cube would pull out. I doubt what you are trying to get out is any smaller. Used a snuffer bottle to remove the gold from the pan.

 

[Astrobouncer]

Re: I'm lost

Jmoller99, I respectfully disagree with your statement about gold that small floating away. Here's some super fine gold as seen through my loupe. The scratches on my gold pan look big compared to it, and this gold was caught with a custom fluid bed sluice I made. I routinely catch gold this small and smaller, in fact I have buckets of this stuff caught with my drop riffles as well. Recovery for gold that small is more about knowing what you are doing then anything else. I do believe most sluices nowadays can catch gold this small if they have the right operator.



Here's another video showing some of that fine gold from another trip out with the fluid bed sluice.



And elijahhenry10, if you want fairly easy recovery of clean gold from cons, look into a Miller Table. Theres a good thread about them here already that has everything you need to know. They are pretty low cost to build, as far as concentrators go (much cheaper then a blue bowl even), and they work great.

 

[kuger]

Re: I'm lost

The "Blow",method is what I have used and has been done since the Great Cali Gold Rush....here is a blow pan an industrious miner fashioned from an Opium tin ca.1850's

 

[elijahhenry10]

Re: I'm lost

I think I will probably just get as much at I can out, and then work on a miller table if I ever get this sluice done. I have been digging a hole at a creek about a 1/4 mile from my house and just stockpiling it where I plan to set my sluice up. I'm sure having a miller table will help sort through the concentrates then.

 

[shamaalah]

Re: I'm lost

Dont be....

http://www.microwavegoldkiln.com/home

done..done....and done