Buying gold and concentrates/paydirt

[cecc]

Yeah good one Tathradj, sometimes i will use some drops of dish washing detergent in a bit of water and scrub it with a scourer, but just recently had a hard one, got a Garrett Gravity Trap, and it was very shiny, no amount of scrubbing with scourer and soapy water helped, went and put through a lot of gravely dirt from panning through it, that helped, but then i got some very fine wet and dry, do not go to course, and I started with the finest one just lightly, i think it was like 1500 then I think I got down to a P800 and that did the trick, never had to do that before. So there you go, hope our tips help.

 

[cecc]

Well done Len. Good amount of colour again from the 2nd bag, very consistant, did you end up getting a chance to weigh it at all?

Seeing the results from the 2nd bag just makes waiting for my bags just that little bit harder, lol

I bought my first pan today, I've heard the oils in the plastic can cause grief whilst panning, what is the best way to pre prep the pan and get rid of any oily residue from the surface of the pan? I read that leaving it out in the sun for a couple of days helps, does this work?

Thanks,
M3

Hey how are you? Yeah thanks, it was not bad aye? You'll be so happy when you get them and start panning, and see that color starting to show, great feeling.

Best of luck with it, and see another guy has given a tip about the shiny pan, that should resolve that problem.

 

[rockerfella]

Well done Cess, Toms bags are the best in Australia, bar none
And a fantastic bloke to boot
I wish him all the best
Cheers
Mark

 

[M3talmiliti4]

Hey thanks guys for the hot tips i think i will try the warm soapy water and sand method, see how that goes. I also have some old sapphire wash that i might run through it and practice with first, might help season the pan aswell.

Found this article on floating gold and an interesting video. Worth a look

http://coloradogoldcamp.com/tutorials-articles/floating-gold/

Thanks again for the tips, look forward to more videos of panning diggertoms cons Len, keep em' comin

M3

 

[cecc]

Well done Cess, Toms bags are the best in Australia, bar none
And a fantastic bloke to boot
I wish him all the best
Cheers
Mark

Yeah Rockerfella, I agree 100%

 

[cecc]

Hey thanks guys for the hot tips i think i will try the warm soapy water and sand method, see how that goes. I also have some old sapphire wash that i might run through it and practice with first, might help season the pan aswell.

Found this article on floating gold and an interesting video. Worth a look

http://coloradogoldcamp.com/tutorials-articles/floating-gold/

Thanks again for the tips, look forward to more videos of panning diggertoms cons Len, keep em' comin

M3

Good on ya M3 I reckon the soapy water and sand should work a treat, yeah I have had a lot of floating gold while doing those two bags, I just use some Finish Rinse Aid...and others say you can use some cheap rinse aid, or others say you can just add a drop or two of cheap dish washing detergent. And yeah next time I get some will certainly do some video's for you all.

 

[cecc]

I like that video M3 never seen anyone just put a drop on the finger and dab the water,very interesting, and I'm going to try that, I think I put too much in sometimes because I get bubbles, which isn't good. Thanks for that.

 

[AtomRat]

Yeah just a little dab is enough most the time.

Ive always listed the three ways to break surface tension on water:

Heat
Turbulance
Surfactant ( dish washing liquid )



Helps keep mossies out of water dums too if you have them about the house like me

 

[cecc]

Yeah thanks AtomRat I remember 'Doc' from Gold Hog mentioning when he is doing a clean up that he uses hot water.

 

[M3talmiliti4]

That video shows how easy it would be to lose gold from your pan due to water tension. Its all very interesting learning this for the first time.
Good tips AtomRat thanks mate.
Would you put the drop of dish washing liquid into the bucket of water you are panning from or into the gold pan?

Thanks.

 

[cecc]

Hi M3 I would put it into the tub you're panning into, and sometimes I put a dad in the pan, but that's really no use as you're panning that water out. Yeah when I lost that bit, I don't think it was due to floating, as it was quite small, it was flowing out with those heavy black sands, that's why it's so important to keep taking that dirt back into the pan and shaking it, (stratifying) the black sand is a pain, but also good indicator of gold, but not always. What do you think AtomRat?

Len

 

[M3talmiliti4]

Hi Len, thanks for info on the black sand, what is the best way to deal with the black sand? Ive heard using a rare earth magnet helps to get rid of it but is it required, or would alot of patience and stratifying surfice?

Thanks again for being so generous with your advice everyone

M3

 

[Tater]

I think it is tin so non magnetic

 

[cecc]

Hey M3 yeah some use a magnet, have to be careful with that too as the gold can get caught up in the heavy black sand, people will empty the black sand into another plastic container and do it again to ensure there is no gold in it. I will get you a video. 'Doc' from gold hog show you how to separate the black sand just using a top and swirl method, I do this and practice. You can use a tiny bit of lead split shot to practice or if you have some gold specs use then, I have some specs from my Eldorado gold that went into the safety pan, so I use them, and black sand and the methos Doc uses. Oh....I have the video. Enjoy.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/8wwC4cb8qpo[/video]

Len

 

[cecc]

M3 here is another good vid by Mike Pung, the inventor of the 'Gold Cube". Enjoy. I love wathing Mike, he really knows what he's doing, so does Doc, Mike has been mining for a lot of years ans knows his stuff.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/GOB7XRE5XcE[/video]

Len

 

[Diggertom]

Firstly, Thankyou Len and others for your wonderful words. It's really nice to see what I do is appreciated.

And regarding the magnet, that does work in some places, not eldorado though. The black sands up here are roughly 80 percent tin (non magnetic) as someone mentioned before. To get it clean it's mostly just patience, my best suggestion is getting the gold first, then cleaning afterwards. Makes it a lot quicker when your only trying to clean a Little black out of your gold, then trying to only get clean gold in your snuffer bottle.

Thanks guys.

Tom

 

[cecc]

Hey Tom, good to hear from you mate, my pleasure Tom, to do some video's. Thanks for the info on the black sand, good advice. Yeah I agree, I tend to do a check, snuffer up what I find (gold that is) haha....then get rid of the other material, tips my gold from snuffer bottle back into clean pan and do a nice clean up, what do you reckon Tom?

And for those interested, here is another techinque from Paydirt Joe, love his voice, would love to meet the guy, I just love characters.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/PCAXgYfE01w[/video]

Len

 

[Jaros]

Makes me wanna go and get some of Granny's Possum grits and have myself a right 'ol feast there ya all!!!
Jaros :8

 

[Diggertom]

Hey Tom, good to hear from you mate, my pleasure Tom, to do some video's. Thanks for the info on the black sand, good advice. Yeah I agree, I tend to do a check, snuffer up what I find (gold that is) haha....then get rid of the other material, tips my gold from snuffer bottle back into clean pan and do a nice clean up, what do you reckon Tom?

And for those interested, here is another techinque from Paydirt Joe, love his voice, would love to meet the guy, I just love characters.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/PCAXgYfE01w[/video]

Len

Yea spot on there Len, I use to l both angles but I have away all but one of my snuffer bottles. But I would take the real clean gold out from the edges with one bottle, and remove the black with the other one.

 

[cecc]

Hahah Jaros good one, when do you think you'll get out for a pan, do you live in QLD? When you're able we might be able to go out for a pan.

Hey Tom, yeah good Idea, what I do is get the gold that I can out, into a snuffer bottle, then do a quick check of what's left in the pan. If there's nothing, then i put that back into the safety pan, I think I mentioned this above, then I tip the gold from the snuffer bottle back into a nice clean pan, and gently clean it away from any bits of black sand, I think I put a video of the finished cleaned gold in one of the video's.

Cheers guys

Len