Difficult gold

I guess it's me but I'm having a hard time panning this gold.



What ever I try I can't stop the gold heading over the side of the pan. It's very flat and not nice clean nuggets in fact it's very fine with the biggest at perhaps 0.1g. I've manually picked out the majority of the lead and there's heaps of it. Then after drying it I've removed as much black sand as I can with a magnet. There are still a lot of little bits of what looks like sand but it seems to be as heavy as the gold. I started picking out the bigger red bits until I realised they were actually gold with a red stain.

This is 18.69g after five hours on the dryblower. It's performing much better since I slowed it down but the gold is so fine that a lot of it is no bigger than a grain of sand. The melt didn't reduce the weight as much as I thought it would so perhaps a lot of what looks like sand it really gold.

Did you put in a little dish wash in with the water Phil

I can not remember the one that I use and it is out in the shed and it's raining

Panning takes time and patience

Don't worry about going OTT panning it!
Chuck it all in the furnace and burn all the crap off??

goody2shoes said:

Did you put in a little dish wash in with the water Phil

I can not remember the one that I use and it is out in the shed and it's raining

Panning takes time and patience

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Yes Goody I did add a tiny bit of dishwashing liquid.

All the pro miners I know, pan wickedly.. no doubt...
But they don't go to the fiddley panning...
Get the best, then melt the rest!

Phil just take you time with it

Try just panning out a small amount at a time

A small bag of paydirt I would pan that out in 3 or 4 small amounts at a time

Then I will redo it again later

At the end of it I put the gold back into the pan and redo with what is in the pan , so then you end up with cleaner gold

I have a very small amount to do myself but I am waiting on doing it until I have a little more to do

Nice bit of gold there Simmo

Easy fix.

Sorry, About the double post. :Y:

Tathradj said:

Easy fix.

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Which is..?

Simmo said:

Tathradj said:

Easy fix.

Click to expand...

Which is..?

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I think he fixed my double entry. We usually have very good internet but tonight I have to hit the button twice and then I should have only hit it once :8

goody2shoes said:

Nice bit of gold there Simmo

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Yeah love, unfortunately not my gold!
That was a closing scene to a video did years ago!

I rang Frank and said I want an old miners hand grabbing on to his gold as he died....
That what he did, and thats what went in the video back then!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VvaI2QIRyg

Moneybox said:

I guess it's me but I'm having a hard time panning this gold.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3960/1621851409_18.69g.jpg

What ever I try I can't stop the gold heading over the side of the pan. It's very flat and not nice clean nuggets in fact it's very fine with the biggest at perhaps 0.1g. I've manually picked out the majority of the lead and there's heaps of it. Then after drying it I've removed as much black sand as I can with a magnet. There are still a lot of little bits of what looks like sand but it seems to be as heavy as the gold. I started picking out the bigger red bits until I realised they were actually gold with a red stain.

This is 18.69g after five hours on the dryblower. It's performing much better since I slowed it down but the gold is so fine that a lot of it is no bigger than a grain of sand. The melt didn't reduce the weight as much as I thought it would so perhaps a lot of what looks like sand it really gold.

Click to expand...

Looks as though you didnt get it hot enough or use a fluxing agent, Good plan is to remove all the magnetics first. Then add about the same weight in anhydrous Borax. and a fifth weight in bicarb soda, Then melt, pour into a angle iron mold greased with a bit of candle wax. Turn out the ingot into water while its still very hot and the slag should fall off. erfect:

jethro said:

Moneybox said:

I guess it's me but I'm having a hard time panning this gold.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3960/1621851409_18.69g.jpg

What ever I try I can't stop the gold heading over the side of the pan. It's very flat and not nice clean nuggets in fact it's very fine with the biggest at perhaps 0.1g. I've manually picked out the majority of the lead and there's heaps of it. Then after drying it I've removed as much black sand as I can with a magnet. There are still a lot of little bits of what looks like sand but it seems to be as heavy as the gold. I started picking out the bigger red bits until I realised they were actually gold with a red stain.

This is 18.69g after five hours on the dryblower. It's performing much better since I slowed it down but the gold is so fine that a lot of it is no bigger than a grain of sand. The melt didn't reduce the weight as much as I thought it would so perhaps a lot of what looks like sand it really gold.

Click to expand...

Looks as though you didnt get it hot enough or use a fluxing agent, Good plan is to remove all the magnetics first. Then add about the same weight in anhydrous Borax. and a fifth weight in bicarb soda, Then melt, pour into a angle iron mold greased with a bit of candle wax. Turn out the ingot into water while its still very hot and the slag should fall off. erfect:

Click to expand...

Thank you jethro. Now that I'm going to do a little smelting I'll find some of those old species that we've brought home over the years. Some got lost and sold with the rock piles when we left Capel, some have made their way into garden beds, some are tucked into corners about the bus and I know Mrs M has a few hiding in clear view in the display cabinets. Then of course there are a few put aside for the dolly pot. With winter on our doorstep it's a great time to start playing with fire

You have it all over the place Phil :lol: :lol: :lol:

Think I live in the wrong spot

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put a little mercury in it ?

numpty said:

put a little mercury in it ?

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I have a bit coming for the really difficult tasks but I think it would only work with free gold. Some of this is attached to a rock, a tiny rock.

goody2shoes said:

You have it all over the place Phil :lol: :lol: :lol:

Think I live in the wrong spot

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I've seen a photo of the spot where you live. Nothing wrong with that Goody this is not gold you could find with a pan. I've extracted that 18g from about 30-40 tonnes of dirt.

Yep have seen all the posting on it

I think you are doing amazing job with it all

Phil,
Make your self a small recirculating 12V sluice, pans are a PITA.
Plastic boxes from bunnings, connected together with an overflow pipe.
PVC pipe laying around
10mm square door seal for riffles
Couple of layers of shade cloth in bottom section to catch anything that escapes.
**Most important** A bottle of el cheapo dishwasher liquid (The blue solution used to shine your plates.)

pulverize it in a very small tight fitting dolly pot tube type of gizmo, might help break the crap off ?

or a small tumbler with some big ball bearings to knock off some of it.