Post by mushmouse on Apr 4, 2014 23:14:55 GMT 10
Hi Guys
Thanks for the invite. Love the prospecting and just got back to it after a few years absence. Had an awesome spot that got cleaned up by a dredger one weekend. Put a real dampener on it , knowing there was many weekends of good deposits to sluice.
Moved upstream a couple of Ks and have brought home some nice alluvial. Wash dirt is a whole lot different in this area. Sand is really heavy.
Creek has high deposits of stream tin and shallow bedrock - so I always keep an eye out of that Tin when i spot check. The bigger pieces the better.
Method we use is a 2 tiered sluice box with hose running from a battery and a 360gph bilge pump. We get about 3 hours of power. Just shovel the gravel on top of the mesh and the finer stuff washes down. Usually take the carpet home at the end of the day and rinse it out there in a bucket.
I pan out(at home)what I rinse from the carpet, which consists of stream tin, small gemstones, gold and fine gravel. I keep panning until all is left is the bigger tin, gold and some very fine, small grit.
Next Step is I get a fine hole tea strainer and put this through it wet. What gets caught in the strainer gets put aside to dry out. This consists of the larger black Tin, gems and the bigger flakes of gold. Gold is very easy to see among this lot. Once dry, I line the mix out onto a black surface (a desk writing mat is what I use) then just go though it with a fine paintbrush and brush all the gold pieces out, scoop up and put in the jar.
What falls through this strainer is the finer gold, tin, gems and very powdery grit. This i pan down until there is only gold left. Takes quite a while using a lapping technique with the water but its a lot easier without the bigger tin to worry about, which can mess the gold around, being almost the same weight.
Even though the alluvial is pretty clean by the end - I still like to put that out on the mat and just flick out any stray grit. Managed to score an old doctors magnifying glass with light that you see sometimes attached to a GPs desk or exam table. This has been a huge help on the eyes.
Anyway - Happy Hunting Everyone.
Thanks for the invite. Love the prospecting and just got back to it after a few years absence. Had an awesome spot that got cleaned up by a dredger one weekend. Put a real dampener on it , knowing there was many weekends of good deposits to sluice.
Moved upstream a couple of Ks and have brought home some nice alluvial. Wash dirt is a whole lot different in this area. Sand is really heavy.
Creek has high deposits of stream tin and shallow bedrock - so I always keep an eye out of that Tin when i spot check. The bigger pieces the better.
Method we use is a 2 tiered sluice box with hose running from a battery and a 360gph bilge pump. We get about 3 hours of power. Just shovel the gravel on top of the mesh and the finer stuff washes down. Usually take the carpet home at the end of the day and rinse it out there in a bucket.
I pan out(at home)what I rinse from the carpet, which consists of stream tin, small gemstones, gold and fine gravel. I keep panning until all is left is the bigger tin, gold and some very fine, small grit.
Next Step is I get a fine hole tea strainer and put this through it wet. What gets caught in the strainer gets put aside to dry out. This consists of the larger black Tin, gems and the bigger flakes of gold. Gold is very easy to see among this lot. Once dry, I line the mix out onto a black surface (a desk writing mat is what I use) then just go though it with a fine paintbrush and brush all the gold pieces out, scoop up and put in the jar.
What falls through this strainer is the finer gold, tin, gems and very powdery grit. This i pan down until there is only gold left. Takes quite a while using a lapping technique with the water but its a lot easier without the bigger tin to worry about, which can mess the gold around, being almost the same weight.
Even though the alluvial is pretty clean by the end - I still like to put that out on the mat and just flick out any stray grit. Managed to score an old doctors magnifying glass with light that you see sometimes attached to a GPs desk or exam table. This has been a huge help on the eyes.
Anyway - Happy Hunting Everyone.
