Placer Claim Mined Out?

[desertgolddigger]

I belong to a local club that owns a claim. This club has had this claim for many years, and acquired it after the old timers had mined it previously, and others after they commercial outfits closed up.
I walked quite a bit of the 160 acre claim, and noted that just about every wash had been worked. Most of the surface nuggets has also been detected by those with gold detectors. In other words, this place has been picked over and over and over.
But I m a stubborn type of person, and I figured, just watching how people ram their puffer and blower drywashers, that some gold was just being blown through them. maybe not much, but some small stuff that never got a chance to settle behind the riffles.
I know many of you would never go to the effort of digging for three to four hours through the tailings in these washes. Again, I'm a bit stubborn, and anyway, I just wanted to have some fun locally, instead of driving 300 miles roundtrip to something that gives a little more for less effort.
I've spent the last three weeks, digging a few times a week along about 30 yards of wash, and have recovered just about a gram of gold. That might not seem like much, but I have only dug up 5 grams, not counting this one gram in almost 20 years out here drywashing in the desert of southern California.
As you would know, things always seem to go wrong. My gas powered blower motor decided it was time for the repair shop, and haven't heard from the shop in two weeks. So I purchased a WORX WG521 corded electric leaf blower to use with my Royal Large drywasher. I'm using a portable generator to provide the power. And it actually is working better than with my old gas powered blower. I have to run the blower on the lowest speed, or I just blow everything through the riffles. Results are very good, as I am getting gold specks so small that I will have to use the Blue bowl in order to recover them.
I'm not only getting a little gold, I'm having some fun, and I am getting a good workout. I've lost 10 pounds since I started. So things are going well.
I'm still digging test holes around the old time hard rock mines in the hope I will find where the gold has drifted downhill below these mines. So far just a couple specks here and there. I figure I just have to move laterally one way or the other before I get something better Of course, I' don't really know if the old timers stripped the hillsides. Even if they have, they apparently aren't as thorough as I am. I hope that I may be lucky and find a larger piece of gold that the old timers, previous placer miners, and detectorists have missed.
Hope everyone is having as much fun as I have been having.

 

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[Jim in Idaho]

It’s 2’ by 4’ with diagonal slanted riffles and has built in catches for the concentrates I’m hoping to be able to separate many different materials with the table based on their weight. Not just separate the gold from the sand but also different weights of sands.

Should be the nuts. I'm sure you're building it with adjustability while running. That may be more important when separating sands by specific gravity. I can't wait to see it in operation.
Jim

 

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[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

It's been a pretty bad last three days financially for me. I returned home three days ago to discover a tag on my door from the water company, saying they turned off my water, and to call them.

The call resulted in them telling me I had used over 500 dollars of water in charges and over use fees. Apparently there was a leak of 2.7 gallons per minute.

So I got the leak detection company out because I couldn't find any wet spots on my property. They spent three hours trying to locate the leak unsuccessfully to the tune of $600 in charges for absolutely nothing found.

I then called the local plumber, who'd recommended the leak detection company, and had them come out yesterday. They found the leak, and today replaced my main line from the street, pressure control valve, and a sundry of other things to the tune of nearly $5000.

Needless to say I am devastate financially. I have months of yard repair that they did with their mini Bobcat tractor.

So tomorrow I'm going to take a break and go dig placer at the club claim just to unwind. Lately I've only managed a few hundredths of a gram per ton of material worked, but hopefully I might get luck this time around.

Additionally, my chain mill got metal fatigue on the housing, so I need to hire a welder to weld a thick metal plate over the 1/2 inch damaged area to keep it from spewing pulverized material through the hole. Probably another several hundred dollars at a minimum. But Just in case, I had to order another chain mill unit just in case the one I have isn't salvageable. I ordered the unit two days before my water problem. Wish I hadn't

I've been told these things happen in threes, so one more thing will put me in debt again, even more than I am now.

Guess you can see I need some kind of distraction

Wait now. Now you are confuzzling me. There was leak on the company side of your meter and you get nailed for it? How did they even measure it?

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Not a big deal. 5mm of stroke is 2.5mm from the centerline. 2.5mm = .0984". The angle derived from .0984" on a 5" length is oops, I made a mistake...I had gotten 5.61 degrees. It's actually 1.127 degrees. That makes the vertical motion considerably less. So the cosine of 1.127 = .9998. Take the inverse of that, which is 1.000193632 and multiply it by the radius, which is 5". That gives you the hypotenuse, which is the distance to the end of the 2.5mm line drawn from the center. Subtract the radius (5) from that number, and you get the vertical motion, but not exactly because the hypotenuse is on an angle, But the actual motion is a tiny bit less than that number. That number is .000968162", or virtually nothing as far as gold recovery.
Jim

So then, you admit and surrender?

 

[N-Lionberger]

I was thinking about having the whole shebang driver/table as a single unit and have three screws for slope adjustment.

 

[N-Lionberger]

So then, you admit and surrender?

You surrender!

 

[desertgolddigger]

You surrender!

No, the leak was on my property side, not the city side. The owner of the plumbing company said the city might not charge me for the water overage if I show them the invoices for the repair. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I think you'll find those 1/8" deep grooves work just fine. As long as you can adjust everything, you can make it work, no problem. A shaker table isn't a piano. Most people that build them worry too much about tiny details. Most tables back in the old days were built by the carpenters at the remote mines. They just shipped in a Wilfley mechanism to drive them. Those mine carpenters, in most cases, were not highly skilled at making the tables, but the tables they made recovered most of the metals. Perfect tables are great, but plain old tables do a pretty good job.
Jim

Thanks, this eases my mind on the table I'm attempting. I should start my first prototype in a couple of weeks. It'll be a small table, 18 x 36 inches. I'll try building the base out of scrap wood in the next few weeks, and making that water and desert proof. I don't know where I'm going to put it, as my littler 8 X 8 mining shelter doesn't have the room. Guess I can move my mini sluice outside.

 

[desertgolddigger]

really sorry about your financial problems. Keeping my fingers crossed you find a big hunk to solve them.
Jim

I think I know where another new vein of gold is, but unfortunately it is on privately owned land. At the time I didn't know it was private property when I sampled some dirt, and found oodles of microscopic gold in it. I just don't know where the source is, though I believe it is under a big rock outcrop. Sigh!!!! So that discovery is out. Someday I may find something again.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

So then, you admit and surrender?

Yup....you were right and i was wrong. You're also probably better-looking than I am, smarter, wealthier. So do I get a blindfold before I'm shot at dawn? It's a shame with all, that going for you, that you're also a jerk.
Jim

 

[desertgolddigger]

Just asking how many pounds per hour and what kind of returns is there with this shaker process?

I listened to, and watched a video by a mining equipment manufacturer, and he said that, yes, a sluice does very well, but running the shaker table with the same material that went through the sluice, provided ten percent more gold. Of course, it was the super fine stuff that I've found escapes a sluice on the first pass.

I'm sure if your ran the same material you ran through over the shaker table once more, you probably would get a fb it more gold that escaped

As to quantity, it is dependent on how rich your ore is. Mine is pathetic, so I probably would have to save up a long time to produce enough gold to actually show on a shaker table.

The reason I am building one, is for the enjoyment, just like my taking up hard rock mining. It's something that is therapeutic for me. I hate sitting on my buns doing nothing like many people do. My Dad did that, and went through three bypasses. He ran out of parts to do another, and his heart eventually failed.

I underwent a heart surgery, but it was because I was born with a defective heart valve, and found out in my late 60's because of multiple AFIB attacks. Got it fixed, and have been fine ever since, knock on wood.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I didn't go out placer mining. I need to fix all the landscaping damage the plumbers did yesterday, so no mining for about a month.

I found the third thing to eat into my money, a leaky toilet water level control valve. Gotta go to Homely Despotty to get one. I can do the repair myself.

 

[russau]

DGD I wish you lived closer to me because I'd weld er up for you for free !!!! But i AGREE WITH N-Lionberger on buying your own welder! It'll be so much more handy having your own at your disposal

 

[desertgolddigger]

DGD I wish you lived closer to me because I'd weld er up for you for free !!!! But i AGREE WITH N-Lionberger on buying your own welder! It'll be so much more handy having your own at your disposal

I'll look it up on Amazon, but for now I can't afford even a cheeseburger to eat out. I've given myself six months to pay off this new debt, and will not be doing much for the first eight months of this year. Maybe an occasional trip to the club claim, and I have to save on everything, including filling up my truck gas tank.

 

[Assembler]

I listened to, and watched a video by a mining equipment manufacturer, and he said that, yes, a sluice does very well, but running the shaker table with the same material that went through the sluice, provided ten percent more gold. Of course, it was the super fine stuff that I've found escapes a sluice on the first pass.

Thanks for the feed back as I had no real idea what the returns could be.

I like the idea of running what drops out of a wind tunnel setup of each different dropout zone area / traps.. For example the ultra fines will travel the farthest down the tunnel and drop out traps. The ultra fines can then be processed by re - run through the wind tunnel set up with a reduced wind force as a single batch or if you like a wet process batch.
The wind process has done much of the classifying for you each time the batch is run through the tunnel.

The shaker table would be a nice addition process or step.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Thanks for the feed back as I had no real idea what the returns could be.

I like the idea of running what drops out of a wind tunnel setup of each different dropout zone area / traps.. For example the ultra fines will travel the farthest down the tunnel and drop out traps. The ultra fines can then be processed by re - run through the wind tunnel set up with a reduced wind force as a single batch or if you like a wet process batch.
The wind process has done much of the classifying for you each time the batch is run through the tunnel.

The shaker table would be a nice addition process or step.

I wonder what would happen with graduated venting along the wind tunnel? The idea being to reduce the velocity as you go farther. That would encourage the flour to drop out without any negative side effects I can see.
Jim

 

[Assembler]

I wonder what would happen with graduated venting along the wind tunnel? The idea being to reduce the velocity as you go farther. That would encourage the flour to drop out without any negative side effects I can see.
Jim

I'm thinking the vents may be to much turbulence. However vents at the top side of the tunnel may be beneficial effect with the rolling action. NASA probably has some excellent wind tunnel test reports out there to look at.....lol

I'm just at the playing around stage of this so I'm open to anything at this time.

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Yup....you were right and i was wrong. You're also probably better-looking than I am, smarter, wealthier. So do I get a blindfold before I'm shot at dawn? It's a shame with all, that going for you, that you're also a jerk.
Jim

LOL @ my friend Jim. I am an excellent marksman. I have ( and earned, to distinguish from found or some such) a shooting competition trophy from the National Guard Armory so we can make this quick and painless even @ distance


But seriously, I was just trying to figure out the math. I also have a math minor. I'd be interested to know what you were actually on about.

As for looks .... dang you must have been hit HARD by the buttugleestick if I look better And I'm so poor there is a church mouse down the road worth more than me


are we all good now?

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

I think I know where another new vein of gold is, but unfortunately it is on privately owned land. At the time I didn't know it was private property when I sampled some dirt, and found oodles of microscopic gold in it. I just don't know where the source is, though I believe it is under a big rock outcrop. Sigh!!!! So that discovery is out. Someday I may find something again.

No veins of gold are new But why not approach the owner? Don't let on you know anything thing just go with you are doing your hobby around the area and can they let you prospect. Tell them you never find much but just like to have some fun exploring. What is to lose?

 

[desertgolddigger]

No veins of gold are new But why not approach the owner? Don't let on you know anything thing just go with you are doing your hobby around the area and can they let you prospect. Tell them you never find much but just like to have some fun exploring. What is to lose?

This is an area that is in one township section. Half belongs to the State school system, and for some reason, the other half belongs to a private party. This, I believe was established when the surveys were being done for the boundaries of the townships and sections. So whomever owns it now is a descendant of the original owner, more than likely a prospector. I haven't a clue who owns it, and really don't care. I won't intrude.

I'll just keep looking in areas that aren't claimed. I may eventually get lucky. Please don't press me on my decision. Another individual on this forums seems to like doing that, and I really do not want anyone to destroy my fun by keeping on pressing me to do something. I've had it done my whole life, and never could figure out why certain individuals just cannot leave someone alone that just wants to do something for enjoyment. I've quit many things I was doing because of such individuals doing that. I don't want to quit gold mining, pretty much my last frontier.

 

[Assembler]

DGD I wish you lived closer to me because I'd weld er up for you for free !!!! But i AGREE WITH N-Lionberger on buying your own welder! It'll be so much more handy having your own at your disposal

Assembler also pointed out if not buying a welder find someone who has a welder to make the repairs as needed.