Is it even worth it? - Fine Gold

C

cali209

Jr. Member
Nov 13, 2007
63
1
Northern California
On our land we have a mountain full of hydraulic tailings and in every pan I sample I find anywhere from 2-5 specks of gold. We're talking tiny specks like the tip of a needle.

We are gonna be using a highbanker soon on it but Im starting to wonder if its even worth it.

I figure with the highbanker some of that small stuff will be lost so I may even get less than what I get when I pan.

Its consistent too...2-5 specks per large pan...but man, thats gonna take forever to add up...

What do you all think? Anyone here ever tackle a job like this?

Here's a pic...
 

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Thanks for posting that episode. I have never seen that one before. That was a nice setup for recovering fine gold...
 

Fine gold-25-200 mesh has paid for,at least,all my gas,equipment and beer--and thats quite a bill!! Thats why we worked so hard at engineering and modifying dredges to the flarejet and over/under classification combo. That was at $235-$435 an oz--now at $1,000 plus I wish I had all them pounds a dust back right now!! Tons a au 2 u2 -John :thumbsup:
 

a good resource for fine gold is do a search for pop&sons type sluice its a modified sluice.

I am not sure if I can post the forum to goto for the info but a quick search should find it. Those guys are pro's at recovering super fine gold with thier modified sluices.
 

That was old George's mantra (Buzzard) - nuggets are nice, but the little stuff is your bread and butter.


I never liked dredging for fine gold - it always seemed to lose more than than "panning".

I did, however, get a better recovery when we extended the length of the sluice box. It seemed to us that, with the force of the water coming into the sluice box, that it was actually washing away (and not letting the small fines) settle.

Adding some length to the box, along with miners moss, and slowing the water down a tad, seemed to help.

I prefer a highbanker, recycling the water and adding some jet dry to the water - it more than doubled recovery of fines.

B
 

if you ask me .. even if you only get 2-5 specks of gold pr pan it is worth it .. All gold is worth the work.

But then again i never found any gold.. haven't been out trying.

USTiger
 

Here in Sweden we would be HAPPY to find 2 to 5 speck per pan then I'd mine the place!

A highbanker works much faster then a pan so it can add up faster then with a gold pan.

What highbanker you got? :icon_scratch:

Even if you can't make profit right away you''ll at least have fun! :icon_sunny:

Cheers,
Eu :coffee2:
 

If I had the land and the money I would get a trailer mounted trommel sluice rig and load it with a bobcat. If I had the money. Now if you have bedrock exposed in the creek bed you can make some cheap sluice boxes out of wood, or corrugated pipe cut in half then anchor them to the bed rock and let them collect gold while you are away. Another trick is to bury 5 gallon buckets weighted with lead at the bottoms of little water falls or pools. This won't catch all of the gold but will catch a lot of it. Then all you have to do is clean these out after a rain and a lot of the work is already done for you. Good luck tho I would certainly go after it, here in Texas that would be doing pretty good out at Llano to find that much constantly.
 

There are some places where entire mines were built and worth while to mine with 2 to 5 specks.

Obviously someone Hydro mined it in the past so this tells you something very important.

Maybe you should see why they stopped? was it due to the war? Price change in gold, fuel, new regulations, falling out of business partners, death of an owner? Debt and bankruptcy with creditors knocking. All kinds of reasons can cause a mine to stop.

It was worth it for someone to move all that dirt and rock back in the day.

Todays technology is better than it was back then, much more efficient. Half the success is classification down so you just run the small stuff if its all fines.

I would carefully hand pan exactly one cubic yard and see how much gold you get, Then see how much gold is there, lets say its $10 worth at $1000 per ounce for panning all day to do that one yard.
Figure a front end loader can move that amount x 2 or 3 yards every couple mins. Lets say your getting 80% of whats in the gravel thats $8 a yard

now, Lets say your getting $24 per dump of gravel into a trommel every 4 min. thats 15 loads an hour Or about $360 per hour before expenses such as diesel equipment etc. Figure a 10 or 11 hour work day and more if you have gold fever and going like mad. And your looking about $4,000 a day apx

Not something to really pass up...
 

I am new to this prospecting does anyone use the desert fox panning machine to get the fine gold Bob ??? :icon_study: :icon_scratch:
 

labradoodle of pa said:
I am new to this prospecting does anyone use the desert fox panning machine to get the fine gold Bob ??? :icon_study: :icon_scratch:
Click to expand...
Hi
i use the desert fox......
to get the fine stuff, you need to classify down to at least 1/8"
use some jet dry in the recirculated water
some clay-gone in the water
and you will be able to get out the fine stuff also it's about 40 times faster than panning.
george
 

I agree 1911d I use the Gold Miner Spiral panner and I love it once you got it all classified it takes the back aching long time panning and makes it quick and alot better recovery of the fine stuff.

I used it on some Nome Beach Sands and the recovery was great even with the fines.
 

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