Fine Gold Recovery information and questions

[markhowl59]

Hi,
Just building a small sluice with rubber ribbing (Bunnings) and have tested with some sand I brought back from around our campsite at Turon River (Hill End) .
After panning the concentrates I'm finding a tail of very, very fine gold in the pan.
What's a good way of separating the black sands from the gold?
Mark

 

[Pedro]

Hi Mark, Not into the gold detecting however I did see on another site where a guy was in the same situation as you and he was speaking with an elderly panner. He was told by the elderly man to wrap one of those super magnets in gladwrap, run it over the black sand, and the gold is left behind in the pan, peal the gladwrap off the magnet and it is clean to go again. the gentleman said you don't loose any gold. may be worth a try, and hope it works for you.

 

[the duck]

you can buy neo magnets off ebay cheap wrap them in glad wrap and run them over the black sand then just remove the glad wrap and start again

 

[Ag Man]

Use a pan with a big bottom( Garrett super sluice or one of the big metal pans).
Then pan off in small batches. Coupla table spoons at a time.

The big bottom of the pan makes it easier to do clean up as you can get a nice slow & long swirl. Then use a snuffer bottle to collect the gold.
You may need to repeat the process a few times as it's easy to snuff up small amounts of black sands as you go.

 

[WalnLiz]

Agree with Ag Mans method....The magnet will still leave most of the black sand no matter how dry you get it . Panning off small amounts at a time and adding a drop of detergent to stop the fines from floating is your best shot...Cheers Wal.

 

[joe]

Fine Gold Recovery of selected sluicebox configuration by University of British Columbia
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8xbrc5nn7dvek7x/fine_gold_recovery_sluiceboxes_ubc.pdf

 

[shivan]

Interesting read.

 

[elbowgrease]

Not all black sand is magnetic, for instance somewhere like Eldorado in Vic probably only 5% (or even less) would be magnetic so using a magnet in that instance won't help much at all. Other places may have a much higher content of magnetic black sand so it really depends on where you are prospecting as to how much success you are likely to have with a magnet. Also be aware if you have black sand cons that has a really high amount of magnetic content when you use a magnet to pick it up you still need to be careful that you aren't picking up gold with it. Although gold itself is not magnetic it may get caught in the clump of magnetic material as it attracts and travels to the magnet.

A bit like AGMAN I too now use a Garrett 15" Super Sluice pan however, instead of panning a tablespoon or so at a time, I put a day or two worth of sluicing cons in the pan at a time, work it down before pulling a little bit of the top layer back to the other end of the pan (wash back method) and sucking the black sand up with a snuffer bottle. I've found this to be a hell of a lot faster than going a tablespoon at a time, but do whatever works best for you.

You can also double check the black sands you suck up into the snuffer bottle by dumping it into a second pan.

I'm currently working on a mother load of 5 days worth of sluicing cons in the pan at once, let me say I've learnt my lesson that that much in a pan at once is way to much LOL It was very hard going at the start because the pan was so full I basically had no where to wash back to. Its been slow going and I've checked every bit of black sand I've sucked out with the snuffer and so far zero gold found which means its all still in the pan. The upside is there should be a pretty nice ring of gold in the bottom when I finally reach it LOL! Also remembering that this gold all came from Eldorado so there is going to be heaps of tiny tiny gold in there as well, which shows that this method of recovery works well with even the finest of fine gold.

Cheers
Adam

p.s. you might be able to save yourself some money and pull apart an old computer hard drive, as you'll find two really strong rare earth magnets inside.

 

[JeffU]

Very good reading. Will change the way many people build their sluice boxes.
I have the complete report by Prof. Polling and Randy Clarkson. It was required reading for my Masters.

Jeff

 

[taz]

ill listen to adam, cheers m8.

 

[heavymetal]

I find that a Blue Bowl works really well. I have a home made one that I use all the time and it catches the finest flour gold and leaves no black sand in there. I have been really happy with my home made one but it's time to buy the proper one so I can feed more cons into it. I also run a fine rubber sluice under it and I have never seen any gold in the sluice so that tells me that no gold is escaping from the bowl. I have also heard that the spiral wheels work really well on black sand too.

 

[Ramjet]

Now that I actually have a little gold, I have to look at how to separate it from the concentrates.
I've been having a look at different methods.
Joe's miller table looks the business. I have a piece of granite.
The blue bowl looks like an easier build.
Love to hear ideas from anyone on any method to separate the gold from the sand.
Thanks in advance.

Rod

 

[Ag Man]

Keep it simple,
I just use a pan & snuffer bottle at home.
Pan off in small batches & snuff up the gold, then repeat as necessary until only gold remains.

Use a pan with a big bottom - Garrett 15" or a large steel pan work great(you can get a nice slow, smooth swirl going on in them.

Maybe not the cool gadget you were after but they work fine.

 

[dezman]

One guy here drys out the cons then uses a magnet to remove some of the black sand in a stainless bowl, and now runs mercury over the fine gold which picks it up like magic. I'm sure there is a lot of fine gold hidden from view that mercury would find, of course care is needed in the treatment of the amalgam.

 

[XIV]

i use the desert fox gold wheel
works great
i might get a peace or 2 if i run my cons through it a 2nd time but most of the time it picks it all up
really does help if you put it through at +20,20,50 and 100 mesh
the wheel can remove the gold 10 quicker than i can pan it out and it saves my back

 

[calala]

The old timers used a sardine tin with the end cut out, put the dry cons on one side and gently blow down that side, the gold stays at the bottom turn and the junk blows out the front. (wear glasses)

 

[TenOunce Tone]

What a great problem to have..

Just a pan and lots of patients Rod, for fine stuff, i use the 10 inch pan from the garret kit and pan out into another pan. Small amounts at a time..

or make a blue bowl, they work if the fine gold is big enough, one tipif you do make a blue bowl, make sure the cone is a tight fit to the bowl or you will get gold getting wedged in the glue... just a tip.

Good luck

Tone

 

[Ramjet]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
Ag man, I am using a pan at the moment. But I fear as I am a beginner I'm losing gold.
Guess I will improve with practice. Will take me forever to go through all the sand I have

Dezman , I'm not keen on using mercury. I have run a magnet over it as I go.

XIV the desert fox maybe in the future when I accumulate more cons.

Calala I don't like sardines

Tone I think a blue bowl maybe the go. Until then I'll stick with panning. Keep all the cons and see how much I miss when I run it through a bowl

 

[rc62burke]

Hey Ramjet
Google "Catch it II" water table, looks like it works a treat.
I will be making one in the off season, with a few other things including 1 large & 1 small dryblower & a finishing sluice.
cheers
Lee

 

[rc62burke]

Here is the you tube link



cheers
Lee