Processing. How much is too much?

[goldenIrishman]

How much processing of your materials is to much to you? Where does you draw the line? Lately I've gotten some PMs form others wanting me to detail out my full process for running materials and I figured that it would be easier to answer them all with a post instead of replying to everyone individually. (That post is currently being worked on off line)

While I have no problem with sharing my recovery method with others, these questions brought a new question to my mind. That being "How much is too much?" I'm sure that everyone here wants to get all the gold they can out of the materials that they've sweated to unearth and that those of us that do this for a living have learned on where to draw the line on processing so they can keep moving materials instead of spending more time on getting every last bit of gold out of those materials.

Here is my take on this and I'd like to hear from others just where they draw the line.

1. Dig, classify and sluice the materials down to concentrates.
2. Initial clean up of cons. Panning and removing magnetic sands and gold.
3. Grind then Shake N bake black sands but only when I have nothing else to dig or run in the sluice or pan.
4. Save B.Sands for amalgamation at a later date.

I feel that this is a reasonable amount of processing for a small timer like myself and the only time I get really obsessive with getting EVERYTHING out is during testing so I know just what to expect as well as figure out the best way to work an area. If I was to obsess about getting everything out of the materials I'd spend more time processing than doing actual mining. The black sands will still be there for more processing later like when the weather is rotten, but when the weather is good I spend most of my time digging and processing materials.

Where is YOUR line at and why?

 

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[deserdog]

People buy black sand all the time, not only because it may contain some gold, but for other purposes also. From some mystical stuff to material to put in gardens, for all sorts of purposes.

 

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[Joe Z]

I remember some kids toys that used black sand with magnets to put beards and stuff on them..... maybe Etch-a-Sketch too

 

[KevinInColorado]

I ruse? I state that I take the visible gold out. What potential ruse? That I might not have taken out the visible gold? Or?

just ignore Follows Camp Craig when he starts being a troll...he has that tendency.

 

[DizzyDigger]

My processing process has been in a complete state of flux
for the past couple months. It used to be I would bring my
cons home, pan them out and that would be it.

Now that I have the Miller Table, and have read how so many
others do their processing, I plan to revamp my strategy with
quite a bit more post-processing.

Wife bought this off an auction site (not the bay) for $5.00,
and paid another $7.50 for shipping. Supposed to be cons from
the American River down in Calif., but no mention in the listing
of whether it has gold in it or not..



Step one is to just pan all the material out (into a tub) and
extract only the larger gold. Then, I'll take the material and run
it through #30 and #50 mesh classifiers, panning out (again)
anything larger than #30 mesh, and the rest will run on the
Miller Table.

Going to be interesting to see if there's any gold here, or not.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Good luck ,hope you find some gold in there! Sweet of her to do that for sure.

Processing tips:
1. Skip that first pan thru. Instead do the classifying immediately.
2. After panning the +30 material, pan the +50 ...that is still big enough grains that it's fairly quick and easy to pan ( especially with both the +30 and -50 removed...interesting how much it helps to remove the -50)
3. Use your miller table for the -50 still

 

[goldenIrishman]

Departure for the testing trip has been delayed and we won't be getting out of here until this afternoon.

Now I really shouldn't have to say this.... But there's a couple of people that have been arguing in this thread. If you two wish to have your squabble fine. JUST TAKE IT TO PMs!!!! This thread is intended to help everyone learn where to draw the line on their processing. NOT as a place to you two to go for each others throats!!! Either take it to PMs or leave the thread.

EDIT: It would also be nice if you would delete your argument since it does nothing to further the knowledge shared in the thread.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Ok, what is #3
3. Grind then Shake N bake black sands------I am looking at youtube right now to see if I can find anything.

RoadRunner,
The "Shake N Bake" is heating the sands up as hot as you can get them and then dousing them in either water or a mixture of vinegar and salt. By grinding them up first, you stand a better chance of releasing fine gold out of small rocks and or sand that is covering the gold. The vinegar and salt mixture will not only rack off the "varnish" but will shine up the gold by cleaning it. If you'd like full instructions on how to do this step, feel free to PM me. There are some safety precautions that you need to follow but nothing really major.

 

[mxer47]

For me, I enjoy being as efficient as possible. Some may enjoy squeezing every speck out of there process. I tried the shake-n-bake method and it wasn't cost effective with fuel and vinegars adding up to more than I was recovering. I personally think selling black sands might be a good thing because in my case I can't justify the cost due to gold recovery being low. I would assume these company's are doing analysts on the sample to see what valuable minerals ( not exclusively gold, silver, ) are present. Then chemically extracting them on a larger scale. It seems in my case selling black sands could help fund more fever.

 

[deserdog]

That is my idea too. I had panned all the black sand several times. I am sure there was a tiny bit of gold left in it. Then I got curious to see if people would buy just the black sand, not concentrates, but just black sand. Did a search on Ebay, and they do buy it!

 

[goldenIrishman]

That's the idea behind this thread. Figure out where recovery get to the point it isn't cost effective to take it any further. Now some people like to see just how much gold they can squeeze out of their materials, but when running a working mine you have to keep it cost effective.

As I'm in the desert, I've been thinking of building a solar oven to do the heating for free. If ground fine enough, you shouldn't need to use the vinegar/salt mix as water will work just fine. We're on a well so again no cost for the water. All it really costs me is the time it takes to do the process and if I have materials to run, I'm going to go for what is going to get me the highest return for my time. Shake N Bake is for when I don't have fresh materials to run.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Hard to believe that someone would sell a "Bag of Panning Concentrates"
knowing there may not be a speck of gold in it.

That's exactly what I found in this bag...nothing, nada, notadamnthing,
nil, zero and worse yet, not so much as a piece of -200 flypoop!

Kevin, the first panning step was just to see if there were larger flakes
I could pull out before classifying the rest. There wasn't. Then, I removed
all of the material from the panning tub, and then classified it to +30,
-30 to +50, and 50-. I panned out the +30 carefully, and saw absolutely
nothing in it. Following that I fired up the miller table, and ran the small
stuff there, knowing if was so much as a -300 speck of color there the
miller table would hold it. Still nothing.

I think all this seller did was scoop up some river gravel and dump it in
a bag, and then sold it.

Did find a few interesting stones though. We don't have anything like it
up here so I'm not sure what they are. Opaque to nearly clear, and they're
all kind of a root beer color. Also got a couple 1/8"+ garnets, but they're
pretty rough looking.

Tonight I'm bored out of my mind, so in desperation I'm going to go
scoop up some of the gravel off my driveway and see if it's caught
any small stuff. The driveway slopes off to a channel that goes right
down to the riverbank, so it's possible that there's some small gold
mixed in there.

I could walk down to the river (yes, in the dark..lol) but it's 30F out
right now, and if I were to fall there's no one that's gonna hear me
hollering till tomorrow...I'll pass.

As for the driveway, ya never know til ya look!

 

[DizzyDigger]

It was a moment of complete desperation when I threw on a jacket,
grabbed a 2 gal bucket and my short-handled pick and headed
out to the driveway. Rain/cold be damned...had to do something or
start going into withdrawals...

Picked a spot at the base area of a small slope, and just shoveled
up the driveway gravel. Brought it in, classified at 8, 20, 30 and 50
mesh. Saved the -30 and -50 for the miller table, and panned out the
rest.

Turns out I shoulda been prospecting my driveway last night instead of
messing with that so-called "paydirt" my wife had bought, 'cause I'd
have found more gold in the driveway gravel...

Yep, found four pieces of #50- when I ran it all on the table. Worth the
effort? Nope, but when I've got nuthin' but time at least it keeps me
busy and out of the nasty weather.

Got it all back in a bucket, and best go fill that hole up before the Queen
sees it...

 

[goldenIrishman]

Actually Mike I've heard tales of people finding gold in their driveways in California. Turns out the gravel pits that the materials used to make them were on gold bearing streams and rivers. I myself use the tailings of what we've brought back to the house to fill in holes on our driveway. Of course it's about a 1/2 mile long, unpaved and subjected to the monsoon rains every year. It's gotten so rough that we can't even get Robis Camero RS up to the house anymore. What I really need is to get about 20 yards of gravel on it and spread it out.

 

[kazcoro]

Actually Mike I've heard tales of people finding gold in their driveways in California. Turns out the gravel pits that the materials used to make them were on gold bearing streams and rivers. I myself use the tailings of what we've brought back to the house to fill in holes on our driveway. Of course it's about a 1/2 mile long, unpaved and subjected to the monsoon rains every year. It's gotten so rough that we can't even get Robis Camero RS up to the house anymore. What I really need is to get about 20 yards of gravel on it and spread it out.

Knowing you, you would have the gravel truck dump it all in front of the garage so you could run it first!

 

[Goodyguy]

Yeah I just ran a bag of play sand that I had been using as ballast on an offset umbrella stand for a couple of years, noticed a hole in the bag and thought what the heck got nothing else to do. Turns out I should have just patched the hole in the bag.

GG~

 

[kazcoro]

Yeah I just ran a bag of play sand that I had been using as ballast on an offset umbrella stand for a couple of years, noticed a hole in the bag and thought what the heck got nothing else to do. Turns out I should have just patched the hole in the bag.

GG~

HA! Suckered yourself into that one.

 

[mrlindeman]

I sluice or mostly pan at the river. Every pan is panned only until i see black sand, usually 1/8 cup per pan. I fan to check for gold and put into a 3 gallon bucket till time to go home. The cons are run through a homemade concentrator 2 times. I take the super cons and backwash/tap and suck up the gold. All tailings go to the garden or in my creek in my property.

 

[KevinInColorado]

I sluice or mostly pan at the river. Every pan is panned only until i see black sand, usually 1/8 cup per pan. I fan to check for gold and put into a 3 gallon bucket till time to go home. The cons are run through a homemade concentrator 2 times. I take the super cons and backwash/tap and suck up the gold. All tailings go to the garden or in my creek in my property.

Very smart to take all heavies home for serious processing. I've gone sampling several times where I saw nada in the pan while in the field but found -100 gold when I got home and did my finish process. My only advice is to consider selling your heavies when you are done with them. GoodyGuy can hook you up with a place that buys em!

 

[LP13]

Pan cons to get large gold, then classify to 20 mesh. Remove magnetic material with magnet. Throw waste material and magnetite in bucket. Pan again and remove the fines that I can get into a line. Put remaining magnetite free cons in a small bucket. Put all other waste into the large bucket. When large bucket has enough in it, re-process it through the 6" Gold Well sluice to recover all the gold I lost in processing. After I get enough in the small bucket, crush it all talcum powder fine and after prepping it (roasting, cleaning, etc.), then recover gold with aqua regia. I get about 3 grams for every 15 buckets of material put through my sluice in ultrafine gold that is recovered with the aqua regia that has gotten past my mechanical cleaning methods. Fortunately the Gold Well doesn't leave me much material to cleanup! 1/2 cup of cons for a full 6x36" Gold Well and 2 cups for a full 12x60.

 

[LP13]

Actually Mike I've heard tales of people finding gold in their driveways in California. Turns out the gravel pits that the materials used to make them were on gold bearing streams and rivers. I myself use the tailings of what we've brought back to the house to fill in holes on our driveway. Of course it's about a 1/2 mile long, unpaved and subjected to the monsoon rains every year. It's gotten so rough that we can't even get Robis Camero RS up to the house anymore. What I really need is to get about 20 yards of gravel on it and spread it out.

Oroville, California has a no basement law. That is where they washed away some mountains with hydraulic mining in the old days. A mining company once offered (1960's when I lived near there), to buy up the entire town and rebuild it for free nearby! Supposedly there is a huge amount of gold there still to this day. Wonder how many people have secret basements there