Why doesn’t the micro fine gold separate from my black sand?

[Foulwind]

Lately I’ve been struggling to get all the micro fine flour gold to separate out of the black sand my local beach has. After I pan down to the blacks I’ll tap the cons at the top of pan then gently rock pan side to side while slowly tilting the pan down to move the blacks down and away from color. I’ll snuffer out the color then re tap the cons at top again and redo the side to side and tilting and I always have gold remaining. Have not figured out why yet. Can anyone explain this? I sometimes spend 1/2 hr to 40 min continuing to search the blacks for specks which seem to keep appearing long after my initial exposure. I realize this micro fine gold does float so I do use Jet-Dry in my pan tub. When I start a pan of my concentrates I agitate them for at least 30sec and during the agitation I rotate the cons and picture in my head any gold settling to bottom of pan. I rinse out very little amounts then continue agitation and repeat until time to expose the color. Each of the pans I do will expose anywhere from 50 to 200+ colors at initial exposure. Maybe another 20-40 colors will appear after many taps, side to sides and tilting. Any thoughts or Ideas of why all the gold is not concentrated for the initial exposure will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

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[N-Lionberger]

Tumble your sands with steel rods. The gold flattens out while the sand is reduced to smaller pieces, makes extremely fine gold recovery easier.

 

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[brph2002]

Though I’ve not worked with any of the super fine black beach sands I do have super fine gold in a ton of black sand here locally. For me to help speed my recovery’s I classify classify classify. By size and by magnetics.

Run it through every mesh that’s available. Once I know the materials I dealing with are the same size I pan of in small scoops. I also suck up each bit with my snuffer as it’s uncovered. You can waste a pile of time trying to avoid washing away multiple bits that have already shown themselves while working away more black sands.

As you’ve surly learned it’s a long process.

I did notice the fella from Washington beach mining would always use a finishing pan. I don’t know if that would be of any help to you. Possibly a miller table? I have used a blue bowl but like most guys mine is gathering dust somewhere.

Why do you say " like most guys mine is gathering dust" ? Referring to the Blue Bowl..I was thing of getting one to separate the flour Gold fond in the Black Sand in Michigan. Does the Blue Bowl not work well for this ? Any thought would be helpful...

 

[TDiver1715]

Hello! I've been mining since the 1970's; started out of Fairbanks and have learned from a lot of good folks over the years. Over time, I figured out what worked best for me from most everything I picked up. With that said, I make no claims for it being the "best" or "foolproof"; it's just what I've learned!

Once I get it down to what I call "microscopic gold in black sand"; essentially nothing I can separate or see much color in... I melt it!

Condensed version: I mix the dried black sand with flux, melt at about 2000°F, pour into a conical mold, cool, break black "glass" (melted black sands), and recover the gold "button" at the bottom.

That being said, there is a small cash outlay, some education, and safety to be considered before embarking on this method. It works and it not very difficult. I easily recovered the cost after a few good dredging outings. Geology tells us that the largest percentage of gold is in the "micro" category. Again, I make no promise, but in my case, I have been significantly surprised in what I have recovered from "invisible" gold in black sands. If you have any interest, let me know and I can share more. I fully understand this is not an option for everyone; just sharing.

Attaching a couple photos... I cannot remember how much black sand this was, but I'm thinking around 4-6 oz. I was amazed at the weight of that button; way more than I expected to see!