It's a little more complicated than that. Look behind big rocks, sunken logs anything that acts like a riffle and will concentrate the heavies. Black sand is a heavy sediment. But rarely will you see that collection in the stream. You will have to dig down a ways and pan off the lighter materials (yes big rocks are lighter material).
The heavies get concentrated in your pan and typically you will start to see the black sand. In the sand and under it is where the Gold will be.
If you are a beginner and you can't find the gold in the black sand DO NOT THROW THE BLACK SAND AWAY. Save it in a bucket until someone can show you how to pan the heavy black sand.
When I taught my wife I had a second tub for her, I had her dump all her fine black sand in it after she picked out the visible chunky gold. Later I would pan the concentrated sand for her and she would have more gold from it than she had from all the pickers and chunkers she would pick out. Now my job hasn't changed, she still picks out the pickers and I still pan out the fine gold ( i have several process and tools for that) and she still gets it all.
I will post soon a few great sites for panning for you and also my favorite black sand cleanup tool of all, because it's highly effective and costs less that $20 to build and will get all the gold for you, nuggets, pickers, flecks and specs.
If we don't connect again do a google search for "poopsluice", better yet check out this forum first. My blue bowl and hours of panning concentrates don't even compare to the poopsluice
Posted on: February 25, 2011, 01:44:25 PM
Lots of info on poop sluice or gutter sluice. I actually do a combo of both.
I actually use this setup for 2 purposes:
1 to cleanup my concentrates, before the final cleanup.
2. As a primary sluicebox when I decide to collect the material and bring it home with me.
In fact this weekend we are having a blizzard and can't go anywhere so I'm going to process some dirt I've collected and stored since September, that's how we prospect in the winter In Alaska.
Take a 10 foot section of basic plastic gutter and a 10' section of 4" corrugated plastic sewer pipe. Split pipe in half and then cut it into 2 4' sections. Get a 1x4x10' board as a support back board. Stating from the bottom of the gutter lay in the 4' of pipe, next put in an overlapping piece of ribbed batting about 15" long (cut to fit inside the gutter). Next put in the next 4' pipe overlapping the lower ribbed piece, and then repeat at the top the ribbed matting. Use those small bungee cords to wrap around the board hooking it onto the ribbed matting and corrugated pipe that's in the gutter with a 1x4 under the gutter this makes for a great stiff sluice. I support mine using 2 4' folding step ladders . At the top is where you pour your material in. Hook up a water supply to the upper part at the beginning of the sluice. I also use the Gutter cap to suspend a hose or water valve/spray (get creative) at the top of the setup, put the sluice at an angle of your choice based on practice, mine is usually a 2' drop in 10 feet and start running concentrates. (or raw dirt, usually screened to 1/4 inch, it will handle 1/2 material too)
When the lawn or garden needs watering I will let the water runoff on to them.
When nothing needs watering I use a collection tub with a pump to recirculate the water. Get a big enough tub to sit a 5 gallon bucket in and be sure the sluice is dumping the material into it and the water overflows into the tub. Easier to dispose of buildup this way.
After running as many as 10 5 gallon buckets I'll do a cleanup. It's beautiful to let the clear water run a while and see the gold pop up. Oh yes, about every 2 buckets I'll let the water run and lightly shake and vibrate the whole sluice, further concentrating the heavies. Look for pickers and nuggets in the top. I have rarely ever had any spec's even make it past the 5 feet, but if it did I will get it all using a 10ft poopsluice gutter combo.
This is when panning is it's funnest, when you pan out the remaining concentrates. Pan into a safety tub because you want to save all the black sand for another processing in a blue bowl or poopsluice with only small ribbed matting.
This is the best cleanup tool I've used, without spending big bucks on this hobby. If I had a $400+ spiral bowl I wouldn't depend on this sluice alone. But that's for another purchase later.
If the guys from Oregon on that Alaskan Gold used a poopsluice for cleanup instead of panning I'm sure they would have doubled their gold. I'd love to have the dirt they panned to process it one more time.
Linkback: You are not allowed to view links.
Please Register or Login
http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,21557.msg148616.html#msg148616
|
« Last Edit: February 25, 2011, 02:27:34 pm by bradalaska »
|
Logged
|
|
