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There is gold on them there hills

When I was at the work cabin last summer I saw gold being sluced by water run off from my water tank and a spring at the property line with my neighbor. I put a shovel full in a bucket and brought it home, it’s very fine and flat but there is a lot of it in the sand, first I tried a blue bowl but if you turn the water flow up enough for it to work the gold went out with the sand, a little time on YouTube led me to the milling table design, was simple to make. I used chalkboard paint as recommended but the flat gold was still flowing out with the sand, it actually floats on the water without dish soap in the water to break the surface tension. Next I took 80 grit sand paper and sanded the bottom across the tray, that did the trick, now the sand flows out and leaves the gold behind, I can continue to experiment, but yesterday got a gram in a few hours. It’s slow but with gold approaching 5k an ounce I think it’s worth it.
 
m1west said:
When I was at the work cabin last summer I saw gold being sluced by water run off from my water tank and a spring at the property line with my neighbor. I put a shovel full in a bucket and brought it home, it’s very fine and flat but there is a lot of it in the sand, first I tried a blue bowl but if you turn the water flow up enough for it to work the gold went out with the sand, a little time on YouTube led me to the milling table design, was simple to make. I used chalkboard paint as recommended but the flat gold was still flowing out with the sand, it actually floats on the water without dish soap in the water to break the surface tension. Next I took 80 grit sand paper and sanded the bottom across the tray, that did the trick, now the sand flows out and leaves the gold behind, I can continue to experiment, but yesterday got a gram in a few hours. It’s slow but with gold approaching 5k an ounce I think it’s worth it.
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That's about $157.00 in today's money.
How many hours did you work panning?

Need any help doing more? :rolleyes: :clap:
 
FrancSevin said:
That's about $157.00 in today's money.
How many hours did you work panning?

Need any help doing more? :rolleyes: :clap:
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That’s the beauty of the milling table, after you figure out the table angle and water flow, jut put some material in then go do somthing else for a couple hours, when you come back, brush what sand is behind where the gold has collected, turn the water off and suck it up with a snufffet bottle. I could make 10 or more miller tables and run them all at the same time easily.
 
EFNFAST said:
Are you sure it's gold?
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Well I can’t be 100% sure until I smelt it and have it assayed, but it’s in an area with a history and lots of gold mines around me, the creek close by is gold run creek. When panned it’s much heavier than the blonde or black sand. The only other thing is pyrite and that is about the same weight as the sand so it should flow out with the sand. There will be some loss due to impurities when I smelt it, but I’m 99% sure it gold.
 
Actually figuring it out if gold is presently $5000 per ounce, 1 gram would be about $176.37.
 
So far I have collected 9/10 of a gram. The way I am doing it now is just let it run un attended for 2-3 hours then brush the sand collected behind it back, then tap the tray and the little bit of sand over the gold flows over and out of the end of the pan, then shut off the water and suck the gold up, re start the water and go do something else for a few hours. If I can get a gram a day I will make more pans and multiply the output by running them all at the same time, 10 pans running could net an ounce in 3-4 days. Tomorrow I’ll be running the pan while I rebuild the front end on my d250, I think I will buy a 12 v power source that plugs in the wall and get off the battery, that way they could run all night too.
 
m1west said:
Today it’s $4454.48, but at the rate we are borrowing/ printing money, it won’t be long before it hits 10k
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That figures approximately to the $157.oo I calculated.
Gold may reach $5K but I doubt it. Current price is attained b the uncertainty of the US Dollar which is growing stronger under President DJ Trump. I am no expert but my prediction is the ballon is about a full as it will get right now before bursting. As things, like inflation, begin to settle along with political tensions worldwide, Gold will settle around $4K this summer.

Full disclosure, my crystal ball has a small crack in it. Matching the one in my skull.
 
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m1west said:
When I was at the work cabin last summer I saw gold being sluced by water run off from my water tank and a spring at the property line with my neighbor. I put a shovel full in a bucket and brought it home, it’s very fine and flat but there is a lot of it in the sand, first I tried a blue bowl but if you turn the water flow up enough for it to work the gold went out with the sand, a little time on YouTube led me to the milling table design, was simple to make. I used chalkboard paint as recommended but the flat gold was still flowing out with the sand, it actually floats on the water without dish soap in the water to break the surface tension. Next I took 80 grit sand paper and sanded the bottom across the tray, that did the trick, now the sand flows out and leaves the gold behind, I can continue to experiment, but yesterday got a gram in a few hours. It’s slow but with gold approaching 5k an ounce I think it’s worth it.
Click to expand...
That's awesome. Do I detect a retirement project? Maybe a little sluce run going? I've been into all the gold mining shows on TV. I'd love to dabble in it but no clue where to get started.
 
NorthernRedneck said:
That's awesome. Do I detect a retirement project? Maybe a little sluce run going? I've been into all the gold mining shows on TV. I'd love to dabble in it but no clue where to get started.
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I just happened to see it on the mountain in little piles wherever the water was flowing, it kinda naturally sluced itself by the spring and the overflow on the water tank. The dirt has a lot of it in there but it’s flour fine and a lot of it is flat, lifts and flows out if the water is too fast or the angle of the pan is too steep. Good place to look is any streams out of the mountains that contain black sand, wherever there is black sand there is gold.
 
That gram was got out of 4 tablespoons of classified material at about 100 mesh, window screen size. Learned everything on YouTube. For fine gold the milling table is the only way to go and I’m still losing a little. As I go I’m sure I can refine the process some more, in one weekend I went from 90% going out with the water to 90% capture with 10% loss.
 
Separation of materials is interesting. One thing I do not see being done is the use of air in the process. Maybe some have tried and it failed?
In farming a combine uses some of the same principles as a sluice uses to separate out gold. It crushes the crop and separates the remains. Air is a key component. Air filters could be used along with air in a system for separation, I think.

If I lived near m1west I would be there in a few days! :thumbup:
 
Getting better at it with much less input, got another gram today by letting it run for a couple hours, then clean up, then run some more while working on my truck, got 2 full grams now, the crucible and melting furnace showed up today, so when I get a quarter oz. I’ll melt it and see what I get, there are losses with contaminants to be expected.
 
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