Highbanker information and questions

Well seeing that its absolutely bucketing down here let me fill you in on how we went last weekend. (hope the uploads work)

So we headed up to Dereel (Enfield state forest) and had a ball.
We always know when the kids have had a good time when we pack 3 changes of clothes for them and the little buggers are on the last change when we leave and sleep all the way home.

I think the last time Mt Misery creek ran going by hearsay was maybe 8 years ago but at the moment there are plenty of pools of water to pan out of.



This is the eldest pretty chuffed with the new gear


So we ended up running about 8X8ltr buckets of dirt cleaning it out about 3 times in total taking the concentrates home.
Another great thing about the mini max power sluice is the ability to set it up as 3 things a (sort) of highbanker, a concentrator and a river sluice

this pic is of the top riffle mat catching some shiny stuff


and this one is the finished product


found a nice sappier out of it as well just to keep the wife happy, She quite happy to dig in the mud with me if she know the gems are in there too lol



Sorry I didn't get any video of it working ill get that next time.
If any one has any suggestions on better setup or questions fire away

Cheers,
Mark

awesome mate thats as much water as ive seen out there for years!! well done

Excellent update Mark. Yeah, even with all this rain the waterways are as dry as . . . ummm well, lets just say they are dry

Nice chunky stuff in the pan :Y:

My 2 favourite spots are not far from there!
We've been panning and banking in large puddles.

Just found another pic of how small it packs up


Cheers Golddigg@

Hey DM might see you in the field one day

Yeah we like do go a bit further down stream

Yes Mark, we are mainly in the Linton Forest. Can't miss us. :lol:

That Keene packs down nicely :Y:

Nice :Y: ya gotta love a good day out with the kids they love it even when the pickings are non existent. I'm picking up a Walbanker this weekend and hope to give it a run in the next month or so, got a bit on as usual.

Hi guys i have a highbanker and was wondering your thoughts on putting in a rubber mat in the sluice box to slow down the water flow as well as make it more even. Just like they have on the dredge systems ! Any knowledge would be much appreciated

hey mate

there's some advantages and disadvantages to running a rubber flap over your highbanker. You want to make sure you dont' interrupt the transition to your recovery system too much however using one can force air under water and can aide in recovery.
the main reason wed use one in mining is to reduce the force of flow from a large output or to add a secondary impact to bust small clay balls up when belting through a sluice,.

either way doesn't hurt to try it out and see what works for you

Dredges have a very unstable water flow. Surges and blow outs.
Thus mats and flow baffling helped stop this.
Unsure of your set up.
Put a couple of picks up, and we might be able to give you a few tips.
Too much flow? To much angle ?
To many revs on your motor perhaps?

At the very start of the sluice run I use large expanded mesh, 50mm across 30mm width and around 15-20mm high.
Use a section of around 15cm before your dream matt or other collection method.
That REALLY evens out the flow nicely. I stumbled across it while trying to remove the ski jump effect of the dream matt clamp and it's just brilliant.

Occasional_panner said:

At the very start of the sluice run I use large expanded mesh, 50mm across 30mm width and around 15-20mm high.
Use a section of around 15cm before your dream matt or other collection method.
That REALLY evens out the flow nicely. I stumbled across it while trying to remove the ski jump effect of the dream matt clamp and it's just brilliant.

Click to expand...

i actually used to run a fluid bed above the my recovery systems before i started using dream mat and removed this from my highbankers to get better stratification. i've found with enough flow its not an issue, if you run a bit lean on water then ramping can be amplified.

i've got a clamp design to deal with this i haven't finalized but if i remember i'll finish one up and sent it to you for testing if you'd be up for feedback mate

Thanks for the offer Goldigg@, I have mine sorted out, I think just put a vid on youtube would be enough.

It's really not a big deal with the ski jump effect as it only disrupts the first line of cells.
I had a particularly long sluice run and had the room to put the mesh in so I did.

If it wasn't that long I simply wouldn't have bothered as the recovery amount would be the same anyway.
99% gets caught in the first few cells, so yeah, it's a good product.

ASpehr, you haven't said what recovery material you are using but give the expanded mesh a go, flip it over too to see the difference.
One way up normally lets more water to flow under it as well.
You'll see what I mean when you try it.

All of the above is top advice! I run the 12" Gold Rat with Dream Mat and a section of expanded mesh above it.
I too thought about running a 'deadening flap', however after testing on a few occasions and finding all but nothing in my tailings capture...I realized there was no need to addd it....combined with it adds more weight.
Also, consider how the flap interupts the transition to recovery as GOlddigg@ said.
Not running it allows stratification to continue...honestly if your running Dream Mat at the right angle, water volume and speed...your can't go wrong! ickshovel: :goldpan:

I was thinking of running the deadening flap too, but as Rusty_G said losses in tailings are minimal.

G0lddigg@ said:

Occasional_panner said:

At the very start of the sluice run I use large expanded mesh, 50mm across 30mm width and around 15-20mm high.
Use a section of around 15cm before your dream matt or other collection method.
That REALLY evens out the flow nicely. I stumbled across it while trying to remove the ski jump effect of the dream matt clamp and it's just brilliant.

Click to expand...

i actually used to run a fluid bed above the my recovery systems before i started using dream mat and removed this from my highbankers to get better stratification. i've found with enough flow its not an issue, if you run a bit lean on water then ramping can be amplified.

i've got a clamp design to deal with this i haven't finalized but if i remember i'll finish one up and sent it to you for testing if you'd be up for feedback mate

Click to expand...

Can you explain that a bit better on how the fluid bed interfered with the stratification of the mat?
I cant grasp the theory of it. At most perhaps the first row of cells etc.

If find fluid beds are exceptional good if made correctly. And swear by them as a primary first catchment point.
Then dream mat after it..... cant go wrong!
Fabrication of having such is more complex I admit.
But for a DIY, do it correctly and you only have to do it once!

Don't get me wrong! I use and swear by the dream mat over any other riffle system personally!
Yet I use it a my secondary catchment principal only.
As I beleive the fluid bed as a principal first catchment is fantastic if correctly made.
Foolish to think otherwise I beleive.
I do not have financial gain to promote either as the only choice, or any reason to defame the other concept.
Would I suggest run one without the other? !!!
NEVER!
Would I suggest to run both..
Every time!
Fluid bed firstly?!!!!....Evertime!
Perhaps the very high catchment % of such a simple process may scare a promoter of a differennt method of loss of sales, enough to defame its justice of validity, from denial of simplicity and loss of personal income gain....?

lol Mudgee this business has never been about personal gain i'm a prospector this is my life 99% of all my ,mates are prospectors and i come from a trade and hospitality background so my whole model is service based. i make a heap of gear i dont enjoy making, fluid beds are easy but let me wind your thought process back a few steps and perhaps you haven't noticed something about dream mat.

Each vortex is a centrifugal fluidised bed

if you'd seen some of my early highbankers i used fluid beds under the crack box which slowed everything right down and this was great for moss/mesh even gold hog with a series of drop riffles, i particularly liked the downdraft gh profile after the fluid bed. some call it a nugget trap call it what you want they work really well.

if you look at the pioneer series water tray that transfers from hopper to sluice you'll notice this is a adjustable that originally was designed for a fluid bed.

stratification is bloody hard to explain in words you really need to see what happens with bulk tests to show the effects, we use tungsten for testing, few ozes varied size mostly 200 mesh and smaller.

with a min 20cm smooth surface to allow the water to spread evenly and material to stratify before the ramp on the clamp and whatever recovery medium you use you will see a much more concentrated load of heavies very early on in the system and waste material will clear more freely.

on the other side if we negate ironstone, pyrite and other heavies from the system the effects are far less.

We ran a project in PNG last year 40 year old mine 3 engineers rerunning tailing, basically pure black sand. the project had a series of fluid beds /hydraulic riffles followed by moss/mesh riffles then centrifuge to discharge to sluice to jig to ball mill to sluice.

best they could dial in was 22.5% recovery from waste whihc was still pretty darn good at 4 g/t capture.

We recommended our spec on commercial dream mat with width and length, the engineer flew in collected them and we had the debate about hydraulic riffles and fluid beds he couldn't quite get his head around the need for a slick plate either.

anyway try to keep it short they ran for a few weeks got up to i think it was 16 tonne per hour which was double what they could run before and got recovery up to 43% they were very happy but still were running the hydraulic riffles. i asked them to try straight slick feed with 3/4 inch of water over the area at all times and to ramp up the angle to 11.5 fall this went against every bone in the engineers body hes got alot more experience than me.

I had a call not from him but from a company who owns an interest in his mine 2 weeks later asking if we could retrofit their 3 mine sites as a project they had been struggling with was at 64 tonne per hour and 65% recovery using just sluices and our mats and that they had read the test reports for themselves.

there is a correlation between the smooth surface before a capture system it seems to work more efficiently provided there is enough water. I don't tell anyone how they have to run anything i encourage people to test and use what works for them. when they get stuck i offer advice nothing more

lets face it we all use fluid beds to some extent the hoppers in our highbankers are essentially fluid beds, moss mesh inch of water boiling away

G'day all just after your opinion on this highbanker seems alright for the price i thought cheers.

https://www.aussieprospecting.com.a...cessories/products/eldorado-8-inch-highbanker

Great prices!