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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[russau]

DGD can you park a small trailer in your back yard? If so put wheels on your new "trailer" like your neighbor has and run a extension cord out to your trailer with a Ground Fault receptacle and a surge protector. follow all your electrical codes that your city has ! Your doing a nice job ! The trailer doesn't have to really be able to haul on a road , just the wheels need to be on there for "looks"

 

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[desertgolddigger]

After some thought, I don't think the length of my water bars requires a splitter set of valves. I just inserted a 45 degree elbow between the pipes. That also solves the lengthy water hose I would've needed. It also keeps a water hose away from the motor and electronics.

Does anyone have a material drip system, so I can dump, say one gallon of material in, and have it slowly feed onto the sluice. I haven't figured out how to make one of these. I've seen big aluminum funnels the have a water feeder line
that keeps the material wet, and flowing. I really would appreciate any ideas.

 

[desertgolddigger]

DGD can you park a small trailer in your back yard? If so put wheels on your new "trailer" like your neighbor has and run a extension cord out to your trailer with a Ground Fault receptacle and a surge protector. follow all your electrical codes that your city has ! Your doing a nice job ! The trailer doesn't have to really be able to haul on a road , just the wheels need to be on there for "looks"

I'm not sure what you're getting at. Why do I need a trailer in my Back-Backyard? Is this related to powering the shaker table? If so, I already have power to my Back-Backyard for powering my Big and cleanup sluices, and my chain mill and electric sifter.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

That looks good, Caley. be sure and have the bars individually adjustable. You might want somewhat less flow on the angled one closer to the cons.
Jim

 

[Jim in Idaho]

After some thought, I don't think the length of my water bars requires a splitter set of valves. I just inserted a 45 degree elbow between the pipes. That also solves the lengthy water hose I would've needed. It also keeps a water hose away from the motor and electronics.

Does anyone have a material drip system, so I can dump, say one gallon of material in, and have it slowly feed onto the sluice. I haven't figured out how to make one of these. I've seen big aluminum funnels the have a water feeder line
that keeps the material wet, and flowing. I really would appreciate any ideas.

I just used a funnel with a very small opening, and ran a 1/4" water line into it. Doesn't need to be anything fancy. I hadn't seen your post when I posted about the individual adjustability. I do think it's a good idea. Too much water at that end of the table could wash your fine gold into the tails, or middlings. Jason at MBMMLLC has his separately adjustable. Granted our tables are smaller, but it may be more important with the small tables.
Jim

 

[desertgolddigger]

I just used a funnel with a very small opening, and ran a 1/4" water line into it. Doesn't need to be anything fancy. I hadn't seen your post when I posted about the individual adjustability. I do think it's a good idea. Too much water at that end of the table could wash your fine gold into the tails, or middlings. Jason at MBMMLLC has his separately adjustable. Granted our tables are smaller, but it may be more important with the small tables.
Jim

Guess the 45 degree elbow is out, and I'll just have to deal with mounting, and routing a lot of plastic hose. Appreciate your suggestion.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I just used a funnel with a very small opening, and ran a 1/4" water line into it. Doesn't need to be anything fancy. I hadn't seen your post when I posted about the individual adjustability. I do think it's a good idea. Too much water at that end of the table could wash your fine gold into the tails, or middlings. Jason at MBMMLLC has his separately adjustable. Granted our tables are smaller, but it may be more important with the small tables.
Jim

I'll see if Amazon has anything like that. Thanks again.

 

[N-Lionberger]

Hot damn that looks great!

 

[russau]

I'm not sure what you're getting at. Why do I need a trailer in my Back-Backyard? Is this related to powering the shaker table? If so, I already have power to my Back-Backyard for powering my Big and cleanup sluices, and my chain mill and electric sifter.

Sorry .I was thinking out of the box , maybe to far out !

 

[desertgolddigger]

I had to pause on the shaker table today , so I could replace the deteriorating fabric cover for the back of my sluice tent with plywood. That's done except sealing the seams and painting.

But I want to finish the water spray system, but need help. My table is fairly small at 24x36, and will have two spray bars. One is along the back, and the other is set at a 45 degree angle near the outflow end.

The question is, how big are the holes in 3/4 PVC pipe needed, and the best spacing. I couldn't build in a concave slope along the back and 45 degree barriers, so I'm guessing I need the spray to hit the barriers about half way up the sides so the water has time to spread out.

Based on the video I watched from MBMMLLC, the water is set like on a Miller's Table, a thin even sheet, strong enough to move the lighter material downward to the table's front edge, and allowing the gold and other heavies to travel along the riffles, and eventually separated into streams gold, sulphides, and black sands.

So I'm guessing the key is the size and spacing of the holes.

I have a splitter that has two valves for controlling the flow of water to each spray bar, just like the MBMMLLC shaker table.

NOTE: Today's daily gold fix was a bust, with maybe a few hundred specks so small, they were barely visible. At least I got something, but for four hours worth of sluicing, not really worth it. But it all adds up.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

On mine I had adjustable holes, so I'm not sure when using fixed openings. I'd start at 1/8", and about every 1 1/2" spacing. You can always make them bigger, but making them smaller is a PITA. Make the bars so you can rotate them a bit to aim the water. MBMM had the water flow at about 10"/second down the table, as I recall.
Jim

 

[arizau]

The question is, how big are the holes in 3/4 PVC pipe needed, and the best spacing. I couldn't build in a concave slope along the back and 45 degree barriers, so I'm guessing I need the spray to hit the barriers about half way up the sides so the water has time to spread out.

Not sure if this would have helped with your concave slope but, google "How to cut coves on a table saw".

Nice build.
Good luck.

 

[desertgolddigger]

Not sure if this would have helped with your concave slope but, google "How to cut coves on a table saw".

Nice build.
Good luck.

Thanks. I vaguely remember viewing such on YouTube. It definitely would take a steady hand, and with the super bad arthritis in both hands, I probably would have trouble, and more than likely hurt myself.

 

[desertgolddigger]

This morning I got out and sealed one seam on my new sluicing tent wall. Then I mucked out the two water troughs, and finally changed the chains in my chain mill. Why? Weatherman said howling winds for the next three days, so I figured I'd get a few things done before the Sun stirs the atmosphere up.

Since I'm stuck indoors, I decided to sift my 300 mesh material and smaller with my 4 inch 500 mesh sieve. There was very little material, but when I panned just to see what was there, my eyes grew wide. The picture shows 500 mesh and smaller. I'm not good with macro photography, but you can see a big line of the yellow stuff.

I guess my sluicing and panning are adequate. Based on my magnifying lense I used, some of this gold is probably close to 800 mesh

 

[Jim in Idaho]

That looks great, Caley. I guess if I'm mini9ng the Snake up here I need some finer classifiers.
Jim

 

[desertgolddigger]

That looks great, Caley. I guess if I'm mini9ng the Snake up here I need some finer classifiers.
Jim

Jim, the one's I have are from China, purchased on EBay. I knew when I restarted doing placer mining they would come in handy.

I also got a couple of super magnets to help remove the black sands

I usually classify things first, then use the magnets to remove as much of the black sands as possible.

Doing both sure makes panning a lot easier.

I'm sure the shaker table won't separate everything, so these things will help.

I'm going to try to build one of those stacked sieve vibrating machines for my 10 cm sieves, that way I don't have to sit for hours shaking these little things. Hopefully it won't be too difficult making one. The ready made ones cost thousands. I figure a good heavy solid base with springs attached to to an aluminum base plate, and a top plate on the stacked sieve held in by four rods should do the job. It may not be as simple as that, but I hope it is.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

I'm thinking of a set of Mike Pung's (Gold Cube) sieves. He makes them as small as 400 mesh. Should work OK. I figure I can either shake them or attach them to my vibrating classifier frame, if I have a lot to do. I imagine there is a ton of -200 gold on the Snake. I made a rotating magnet setup (like a spin-it-off) a couple of weeks ago, so should be good for dealing with the black sand. It's drying here, and the snow is gone in the valley, but rain the next few days, so back to wet again. It'll still be weeks before I can use the dry sluice. I'd like to try it on your bone-dry tailing piles, but too far to drive....LOL
Jim

 

[N-Lionberger]

I have a spin it off magnet and it has been really handy. Some guys from the club gave me a hard time when I bought it at a gold show. Curious what your setup looks like.

 

[arizau]

I'm thinking of a set of Mike Pung's (Gold Cube) sieves. He makes them as small as 400 mesh. Should work OK. I figure I can either shake them or attach them to my vibrating classifier frame, if I have a lot to do. I imagine there is a ton of -200 gold on the Snake. I made a rotating magnet setup (like a spin-it-off) a couple of weeks ago, so should be good for dealing with the black sand. It's drying here, and the snow is gone in the valley, but rain the next few days, so back to wet again. It'll still be weeks before I can use the dry sluice. I'd like to try it on your bone-dry tailing piles, but too far to drive....LOL
Jim

I have a gold cube/golden rule classifier set. Very well made. A spin it off seems really handy.

 

[desertgolddigger]

I'm thinking of a set of Mike Pung's (Gold Cube) sieves. He makes them as small as 400 mesh. Should work OK. I figure I can either shake them or attach them to my vibrating classifier frame, if I have a lot to do. I imagine there is a ton of -200 gold on the Snake. I made a rotating magnet setup (like a spin-it-off) a couple of weeks ago, so should be good for dealing with the black sand. It's drying here, and the snow is gone in the valley, but rain the next few days, so back to wet again. It'll still be weeks before I can use the dry sluice. I'd like to try it on your bone-dry tailing piles, but too far to drive....LOL
Jim

I've a Spin-it-Off, and it doesn't work all that well on anything except the larger magnetics. Wish I'd never wasted money on it

Wish it were bone dry. My drywasher still won't process anything because of the recent rains. And it's supposed to rain in a couple days, again. So, it's either the wind, or the constant slow rain.