Mossing

[elijahhenry10]

I was wondering how many people on here have ever tried moss mining. I have trying it lately, and it seems to be about the best way to prospect in my area. There is a ton of moss in my local stream, so it doesn't seem like there is much better of a method to try.

I taught my friend to pan today, and he found one piece of flour gold. I wasn't panning much, I just gathered about 40+ lbs of moss and dirt to run through a sluice later.

For anyone that has done this before, what is the best way to get all the dirt and gold from the moss?

Thanks,
Elijah

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[old digger]

Maybe take a five gallon bucket and shred up your moss a little at a time so the heavies slowly acculimate in the bottom of the bucket. Try removing the moss, but leaving as much soil in the bucket. Now when that is done slowly run this material through your sluice. See if this doesn't help.

 

[mus302]

If you are taking the moss back home you could let it dry then burn it. Then pan the gold out of the dirt and ash that is left over.

 

[ohiochris]

I agree with old digger , put water in a bucket and then add a little moss at a time and really shred it up and wring it out , the heavies will sink to the bottom , then try to get as much of the moss material out as possible and repeat , and repeat, and repeat. Then pan out the sand on the bottom.

 

[Barndawg]

I was wondering how many people on here have ever tried moss mining. I have trying it lately, and it seems to be about the best way to prospect in my area. There is a ton of moss in my local stream, so it doesn't seem like there is much better of a method to try.

I taught my friend to pan today, and he found one piece of flour gold. I wasn't panning much, I just gathered about 40+ lbs of moss and dirt to run through a sluice later.

For anyone that has done this before, what is the best way to get all the dirt and gold from the moss?

Thanks,
Elijah

Buy a cheap blender at a yard sale and pulverize the moss, screen it and pan the sizes seperately.

 

[Gramps43]

Dag-nab-it Barndawg you beat me to the punch, I was going to say liquify the moss in a blender and then run it through a cleanup sluice with V mat. The itsy bitsy moss particles would just float on thru and leave all the gold behind.

Gramps

 

[ohiochris]

Seems to me like a blender is overkill but to each their own. Id rather not mess with lots of moss soup when if you rip it apart and rinse it good by hand all the heavies sink to the bottom of the bucket rather cleanly.

 

[Alaskan Adventurer]

Seems to me like a blender is overkill but to each their own. Id rather not mess with lots of moss soup when if you rip it apart and rinse it good by hand all the heavies sink to the bottom of the bucket rather cleanly.

Agreed, blending is definitely overkill. I wash moss frequently here in Ecuador and it makes a fine, fine gold trap. Gold is very heavy, so just by shredding the moss in water will cause the gold to drop to the bottom of the bucket. The dirt from the moss basically turns into a slurry and will drop in the bucket while the moss breaks apart into a mush that generally floats and is easy to remove.

I clean a lot of moss in addition to crevicing. Fun stuff.