Panning dirt,can anyone help.

[G Freeman]

Have panned out of creek water and getting better at it but I had a lot of red clay dirt in a quartz vein that is good soil but can a person pan this stuff as the mud balls are so many and wont dissolve. Maybe I need a sluice to separate the material. Has anyone tried to pan red clay dirt?

 

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[B H Prospector]

There isn't likely to be any gold in the clay. Work the material above the clay. The clay acts like a false bedrock and the gold will set on the top material. Sluicing won't help. Clay is called the gold robber as it will collect any gold that is in the sluice as it rolls out. The only way I know of is to manually bust up the clay with your fingers. Maybe someone else knows of a better way. It would take way too much clay-gone to disolve it.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

 

[roadrunner]

Soak all the clay until it is sopping wet. Clay balls included, even dry.
Then mix in some black sands, and take a paint mixer paddle,electric, or stir stick and mix together.
Then pan out, then or use a miller table maybe.

 

[wild eyed willey]

I ran into the same thing, you just have to bust up the clay to as small as possible,, you may want to consider an earth tamper and a piece if steel plate for the base. you can get a tamper at your local home depot in the garden tool section. once you have basically red sand, sluice it several times and send it to your miller table.

 

[fuseboxxx]

Have panned out of creek water and getting better at it but I had a lot of red clay dirt in a quartz vein that is good soil but can a person pan this stuff as the mud balls are so many and wont dissolve. Maybe I need a sluice to separate the material. Has anyone tried to pan red clay dirt?

Yes break up the clay. You might have more than one layer of clay in there which means there will be gold in the clay. Pain in the butt though

 

[fuseboxxx]

There isn't likely to be any gold in the clay. Work the material above the clay. The clay acts like a false bedrock and the gold will set on the top material. Sluicing won't help. Clay is called the gold robber as it will collect any gold that is in the sluice as it rolls out. The only way I know of is to manually bust up the clay with your fingers. Maybe someone else knows of a better way. It would take way too much clay-gone to disolve it.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector

I try to keep the chunks of clay separate from all other dirt. That way it doesn't get your gold

 

[TheNewCatfish]

This will dissolve red clay. You need an ion of floride and an ion of hydrogen. You get it at the Dollar Store. One big tube of floride toothpaste. One bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Add a few squirts of toothpaste to a one gallon jug of water and pour in some hydrogen peroxide. When the mixture turns "sky blue" you've got it right. This is the same stuff sold on the internet known as "Clay-B-Gone". Only it's a hellof'a lot CHEAPER. Learned this trick from the Archeology Department of the LSU University. A little brushing of your finger tips in a pan will turn the clay balls into red soup. Pour out the soup and add some more of the mixture. Pour that off and all you are left with is black sand, heavies and gold. It's that simple.

 

[Kruzman]

Don't discount clay. I've gotten some of my best gold out of clay. you need to figure out the why, where, and when of the clay. For example, the clay could have been layed down over the top of pay gravel. the clay could be in distinct layers of clay, pay, clay, pay, etc. in when slowly homogenizes over time. or clay could have been built up over time with gold being added to the mix evenly over that time making somewhat evenly spread through the clay. or it could be setting right on top with none in or below. only way to tell its dig through while sample testing.

 

[Ace 250]

Use clay gone I here it works great

 

[goldenIrishman]

Yup... There be gold in those clay balls! In my main thread I detailed out how a couple of guys were out here from Texas and trying to use a Gold Cube. Nothing wrong with that except they were not breaking up the clay balls as they classified their materials. They left about 2 full buckets of clay balls there and we ran them after they had left. Got almost 2 grains worth of gold out of them.

 

[Kruzman]

Yeah, don't run clay through your sluice since gold sticks to it! give that darn nasty stuff to me so I can dispose of it properly!