Material stuck on rocks

[nmhunter]

What do you do with the rocks that are larger than your Grizzly on your dry-washer?

I currently collect these rocks as I run material in a 5 gal bucket and then wash them by placing a #8 classifier over another bucket placed in a 20 gal tub. After washing the rocks I discard the +8 material and save the -8 to run through the gold cube at a later time. The problem is this system requires me to transport a lot of water and spend a lot of time that I could better use running material through the dry-washer.

I cannot afford a good metal detector like the GB2 and was thinking that the Falcon MD20 Gold Tracker Probe might be a solution.

I also do not want to just let the rocks lay where they may fall because I do get pretty good color from the material I run through the cube and it seems very wasteful to do all that work digging material and not maximize recovery. On the other hand, I get more gold from the dry-washed material than from what I wash off the rocks because I can move so much more material.

This is my first year using the dry-washer so any incites will be very appreciated.

 

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[rodoconnor]

That is one of the reasons why a D/W is not as efficient as a sluice. Success is figuring out a system of comprimises that work for you. Best of luck

 

[nmhunter]

Thanks Rod,

I guess that is what I am asking. What "system of compromises" are other dry-washers using? Does anyone use the MD20 to check rocks while drywashing? What works and what does not?

 

[DesertNuggets]

Thanks Rod,

I guess that is what I am asking. What "system of compromises" are other dry-washers using? Does anyone use the MD20 to check rocks while drywashing? What works and what does not?

That would be a very long hard process.

You might consider saving up for a used metal detector. They cover much more ground.

 

[rodoconnor]

You should always use a MD when dry washing. obvious reasons. I don't worry about undetectable gold in clay balls and stuck to big rocks . Just move material! Make up for it in voluum. GL

 

[nmhunter]

Thank you guys. Over 120 views on this post and you are the only 2 to respond. Getting the Gold Bug 2 was my original idea but I am unemployed yet again so was hoping for other ideas until I can hit that really chunky paystreak

I was thinking the MD20 was too limited however for $200 might be a good compromise until I could get something better.

Do you both use the GB2? What are your experiences with it? Do you check both your fine and large tailings? How thin do you rake down your piles before checking them. Does the GB2 really catch very small, sub-grain gold?

Any and all feedback is very appreciated as always. I have been looking for videos of this aspect of drywashing, but all I have found are videos of others actually running or setting up the dry-washer.

 

[rodoconnor]

The GB2 is amazing. A very short learning curve too. It will find specks as small as the period at the end of this sentence. Same with the Lobo and Whites machine. I rake down the fines and the large tailings as well. only takes a couple of seconds. As for how thin , I don't know , an inch or so maybe.

 

[Joe Z]

Save your $200 and keep searching craigs list for a $400 used gold bug 2 with the 6" coil (I found mine for $415) but you have to move fast......... It's amazing how small this thing will find within say 3" +/- of the surface. Use it to find your first small flake and then drywash that area.
Joe

 

[rodoconnor]

BTW get Jim Straight's book " Follow the Drywashers" and read it several times. Very comprehensive. All questions will be answered.

 

[Joe Z]

BTW get Jim Straight's book " Follow the Drywashers" and read it several times. Very comprehensive. All questions will be answered.

At the recommendation of many i ordered that book about three days ago. can't wait to get it. about five months ago i was lucky enough to get a book called zip zip the unabridged edition by Larry Sallee.... It's going to be hard to beat that book and i'm on my fourth read of it.
Joe

 

[kazcoro]

I have to think that volume is the key. Theoretically, do you think you will find more gold with a large wash plant and a backhoe, or a bucket and a pan? I know that is bringing it to extremes, but it clearly shows that volume is a very useful tool. I only have limited experience propsecting, but I can tell you that the drywasher will process ten times the material in the same amount of time as a sluice. Once you include the amount of equipment required to bring to the site, (drywasher- blower, drywasher, shovel, gas) (sluice- pump, water, sluice, gas, shovel) you can see where you will make up in volume what you lose in efficiency within the first hour. The rest of the day puts you ahead. Not wanting to start an arguement, just my personal observations.

 

[nmhunter]

No argument here Kazcoro. Your observations are exactly what I am fishing for. We all have opinions about what works best.

At this point, this is the compromise I have so far because washing theses rocks is way to time consuming. I am scraping the bigger rocks as well as I can as I dig them out and I am moving the drywasher slightly whenever the tailings start to get to deep. I am leaving about 3' of exposed caliche downstream of the wash and hope to get either a Falcon MD20 or better still a GB2 by the end of Nov. I think that the exposed bedrock will catch any gold washing from the tailings and I will be able to recover it with the metal detector. Of course this leaves the problem of somebody else possibly coming along and using a metal detector to locate the gold I dug up.

Before leaving each day I am using my vac to clean my hole. The Gas Vac is amazing at sucking up those larger pieces and flakes that work their way into the cracks and notches at the base of the hole.


I am still looking for a copy of Jim Straight's books. Several copies available online, but until I find a job I'm limited to libraries.

 

[B H Prospector]

Kazcoro has it right. Volume pays better. I never worry about the rocks falling off unless it is quartz. Those I always check. The felcon is a good tool but has a very limited range of only a few inches. It is only useful for individual rocks or locating a paysreak. I have one and use it in that way.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

 

[Kingclean]

This is just my opinion, but unless you are in a really good streak or hot spot you probably won't lose much gold by not washing each rock. I work in the same area as you (Sierra county) and I have only found a few spots where you could pick up rocks and see dirt and black sand and the occasional small piece of gold stuck to it. Some washes around here will have thick bands of black sand right in the surface and you can pan that top stuff that's full of black sand and get no gold. If you dig down a foot or more under that black sand you might do a lot better. In a case like that, it's unlikely any of the rocks in that top layer of light stuff will have gold on them. Other spots around here where it's shallow to bedrock, you can see a patch of black sand, and when you start picking up rocks you can see little peices of placer trapped against them and in the cracks. If I find one of those streaks, I will just use my hands to brush all the dirt off each rock and then drywash it with every thing else. Or leave one big rock near you and each rock you toss out of your dig just bash it a couple times on your "anvil rock" and knock off the loose stuff. I have worked so many spots around here, I have found the best method for me, once I've found a spot I know has gold, is to just plain and simple run as much material through the dry washer as possible. I have a whites vsat gold master and I don't think it's quite as sensitive as the gold bug 2 but the whites finds some real small stuff too. This might horrify some people but I do not detect my tailings. There just aren't that many nuggets half inch or bigger left, and they probably won't just be rolling along in the loose gravel of a dry bed where I like to work. I have found two gram sized nuggets that both went through the grizzly just fine and they are the biggest I've seen from hillsboro after drywashing hundreds and hundreds of yards. I have found probably a couple dozen half grammers and tons of sub gram pickers. It certainly is possible that I could've lost a nice specimen piece off the grizzly but I doubt it. If I found a patch that was coughing up really coarse gold and lots of it, then I would swing the detector around a little and hit my tailings. Here in New Mexico there just aren't that many giant nuggets. I know there are some whoppers in hillsboro, if I was looking for those I would detect the hillsides and slopes near the old hard rock mines and look for float or old pockets just under the surface. Btw, I have seen much bigger gold from this area but not found by me. As a last resort, if I find a spot that is just packed with clods of dirt or clay that won't break up in the drywasher I will break out the rocker box. I will only do this if it's real good ground because the rocker doesn't run much dirt, and you need to haul five or ten gallons of water with you. A rocker is super easy to build and use, if you set it up with a tub under it you can use that ten gallons of water to wash dirt almost all day. It doesn't need a pump or anything and when you get them dialed in the recovery is great, especially on fine gold.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Metal detect the oversize when drywashing. It's part of the process and it's a lot faster than washing each rock with water.

You can often find good gold by raking down and metal detecting the oversize piles from old drywashing. The fact that they didn't have metal detectors to check their grizz piles is a bonus for modern prospectors.

Two other often overlooked places are:

1. Where drywashers have been working in damp soils. They missed much of the gold trying to run damp material. Drywashers need really dry material. If you are using the "ball" test to determine suitability for drywashing you are probably running damp material. Really dry material will leave a lingering cloud of fine dust in the air when dribbled through your fingers. Anything less and you will lose gold values.

2. If there is any clay in the soil, whether dry or not, the ground is unsuitable for drywashing. It doesn't matter how much you try to break up the clay it will always hold most of your gold in the clay.

When you encounter either one of those two situations in good gold ground you can often profit from others mistakes by wet processing their tailings. Good gold and much less work are the result since the digging and classifying have been done for you.

Drywashing is a very efficient way of processing material in the desert. If conditions are right you can process more material with a drywasher than any other method. If conditions aren't right it doesn't matter how much material you move, your drywasher will fail to retain the gold.