Jigging for gold

[Jim in Idaho]

I lost this video of my mineral jig on youtube. Since I was reposting the new URL I thought I'd post here, so the gold guys could see it. Not many use jigs as they tend to be expensive. They do work very well for gold, however. I'm currently working on a new model, that will be simpler, and cheaper. I may build and sell them this winter. Probably be in the $500 range. Won't look at all like the one I use, but should work just as well, but with a smaller throughput.....about 150lbs/hr rather than the 250-300 that this unit can do. For gold, it would probably be easier to just hand feed the material into the feed tray, rather than use the auto-feeder. The auto-feeder works best with clean material. For dirtier material, Like you'd have with gold processing, I'd probably want to add a water source into the auto-feeder bucket to help the fines go through.
Jim

 

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[Doitlaynstyle]

Looks like a pulsing fluid bed or ball mill. Same concept. Very nice setup for processing massive amounts of concentrates.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Actually, it's just a typical jig with a sawtooth waveform. It works really well for either gold or gems. When I classify for gems I go to two sizes....+#8 to -#4, and +#4 to - #2. I also clean the material to get rid of the dirt. That way I can reuse the water for a long time. For gold, where there is going to be dirt going through, you can't reuse the water...it gets so muddy, the efficiency goes way down. For gems, the gems end up on top of the screen, as the screen openings are smaller than #8. For gold, anything larger than #8 ends up on the screen. Smaller than #8 goes through the screen into the hutch. I also have to have a constant drain going if looking for gold....otherwise the mud that goes through the screen would fill the hutch. (don't ask me how I know). Usually a 1/8" hole is enough of a drain to drain out the material, including the gold. I just put a hose cap with a hole in it on the hutch drain hose bib. Put a little can under it, and the water just runs over the top, carrying the mud with it. The gold stays in the can. At the end of the run you just remove the screen box and dump it into either a pan, or a fine screen to sort out the gold and gems. That small loss of water doesn't affect the operation, as you're not reusing the water when after gold, anyway.
Jim