separating the fine gold from black sand ?

There are many, many, many threads on this subject. Cheers
 

A "blue bowl" "spiral wheel concentrator" or a "Miller table" would be the things I'd search for on here or google
 

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been many times I've put my gold in a plastic bag only to see a band of black sands show up.
I've seen people just use a sheet of printer paper, lay out the gold and blow off the black sands.

how I do it is, I first use a magnet, then lay a piece of butcher paper on the table then I put the dry gold
in my Falcon pan and tap and blow then use a toothpick and a magnify glass to make sure to get it all.

(edit) I also save what was black that was removed because I think to myself it may just be coated gold
then when I have a bunch saved up I'll soak them in vinegar and run them through a blue bowl again.
 

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CLASSIFY!!!!! If everything in your pan is the same SIZE, GOLD RULES (TM Mike Pung, the gold cube man)

simple as that, its a weight/density game.. A blue bowl isn't going to help you, neither is a miller table.. For those to work properly, you need to classify, and once you do that, its really easy to pan..

I went smaller than this pic, but the camera wouldn't pick it up. .0025" to .004", about the width of a human hair. Squeeky clean, in a pan... The writing on the paper,
standard ball point pen.
19901564351_874fc79d8c_c.jpg




Is .0025-.004" considered fine/flour?

If its not, the +400/-250 was even better... Squeeky clean with an easy panning, but the darn camera couldn't pick it up well.. And at that point you are pretty much
below what your naked eye can see...

Pick your device.. Table/blue bowl/wheel/pan..... If its relying on mechanical seperation, classification is the key.
 

Looking at classifiers, I think I want a set of the 4/6" size through 200 mesh?
Where is the better places of finding ?
I've looked online they want a lot of money for a small plastic bowl with stainless screen!
 

I wrote a blog on this including my method and a couple links to experts like Mike Pung and Doc from Goldhog. Look back thru the posts to find the one on concentrates processing at www.findinggoldincolorado.com
 

Great advice guys , like the magnet idea , I have about a gram of mixed up stuff
 

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Bob is right! The closer you can get everything to being the same size the better. Gold is approx 19X heavier than water. Black sands come in at around 9X and your typical sand is around 3X. Because of this, the gold is going to want to stay in the same place once you get it to the bottom of your pan. As you wash your cons, gold will be the last thing to want to move with the water flow. It doesn't matter which recovery system you use! If everything is the same size, the gold is much easier to get separated from the other stuff. It's basic physics. Given that everything is the same size, a given amount of water flow is going to move the lightest material first. Control the size, the angle and the water flow and you're going to be set.
 

goldenIrishman said:
Bob is right! The closer you can get everything to being the same size the better. Gold is approx 19X heavier than water. Black sands come in at around 9X and your typical sand is around 3X. Because of this, the gold is going to want to stay in the same place once you get it to the bottom of your pan. As you wash your cons, gold will be the last thing to want to move with the water flow. It doesn't matter which recovery system you use! If everything is the same size, the gold is much easier to get separated from the other stuff. It's basic physics. Given that everything is the same size, a given amount of water flow is going to move the lightest material first. Control the size, the angle and the water flow and you're going to be set.
Click to expand...

...which is why all you really need is a few classifiers and some smooth bottomed 10" pans.
 

winners58 said:
how I do it is, I first use a magnet, then lay a piece of butcher paper on the table then I put the dry gold
in my Falcon pan and tap and blow then use a toothpick and a magnify glass to make sure to get it all.

(edit) I also save what was black that was removed because I think to myself it may just be coated gold
then when I have a bunch saved up I'll soak them in vinegar and run them through a blue bowl again*
Click to expand...

* blue bowl or Miller table will work but not as fast a s a pan once your skills are honed in. My Miller table is 6 Months old and hasn't moved in 5.



A gold pan is all you need. The misconception comes in with doing all your cons in one run. Nothing beats the pan. But it takes me three runs to clean. You pan,tap, fan and feather, then snuffer. Rinse your pan. Now dump your snuffer and Tap,fan and feather again, then repeat on more time. Then you dry it. Dump onto a piece of paper. I like to crease it down the middle first. Play with it till you get it all in a nice little safe pocket. Then you bounce and blow... That's right bounce and blow. You get the gold in the air just ever so slightly and blow of the sand that is left. Heavy pans
 

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After last week.......... I'm kind of burned out on fines.... lol

fines60gs.jpg

There's a video up on finish panning but I'll have to go back and find it.
 

It takes a lot of patients but any of the above mentioned methods work you just need to find what works for you
 

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Even with jetdry I can see nano gold float away out of my pan. Well looks like it does?
I have to do a better job at classifying thanks guys!
 

flyadive said:
Even with jetdry I can see nano gold float away out of my pan. Well looks like it does?
I have to do a better job at classifying thanks guys!
Click to expand...

Might that just be mica you see?
 

Mica??? Silica?? I don't know?
Looks like a small speck of dust?
Too fast for my eye! That's why they say it "shoots" out of the pan! The speed of a bullet!
 

I'm starting to think maybe what you may have is mica. Tap the top of your pan. If it's gold it will walk up the pan.
 

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