It arrived yesterday, I've got some paydirt samples I can run through it to test it out, will post a report shortly. Granted, this won't be an accurate substitute for a field test with a shovel, but at least I will be able to see if it's classifying ability is verified. The bucket will be placed into a high sided pan while processing to catch anything that may escape, all offal will be run through a 4' drop riffle sluice to catch anything missed.
Posted on: July 12, 2013, 12:36:53 PM
Results from the backyard first test drive.Allow me to preface this review with the disclaimer that this was
not a pick and shovel field test.
Equipment used:Gold Rush Nugget Bucket System.
High Sided tote to contain water and catch offal, GRNB mounted above the rim of the tote.
Water with Jet Dry added to restrain micros.
10" standard finishing pan.
Concentrate separator. (Couldn't use 4' drop riffle sluice after all, but concentrate separator is same design.)
Classifier screens. (20,30-50,100 mesh.)
Paydirt sample from known gold producing source.
Preparations:GNRB mounted to tote and leveled.
Water and Jet Dry added to tote in quantity sufficient to allow use of the GNRB bucket for washing the sample.
The beginning process:1) Following the manufacturers instructions the sample was added to the top classifying screen, then washed with several buckets of the water.
2) Catch cup was observed to ensure that a fluid bed environment was being generated, it was.
3) Three scoops were processed with the provided Fiskars trowel in the described manner above.
4) Sample cup was removed.
5) Sample was water washed through the classifying screens reducing the sample to the described mesh sizes.
6) Classifier screens were separated by size, washed into separate cups, and observed.
The verdict.The sample was verified to contain gold before testing, no gold above 8 mesh was present in the sample material.
Sample was panned with 10" standard finishing pan. While I'm not a world class panner, I don't miss much.
Final sample contained approximately 15-20 sub 1/16" flakes, but the offal in the tote contained visible trace gold.
No gold smaller than 16 mesh was captured other than extremely tiny micros.
Results of the tote clean up:Offal was recovered from the tote and classified.
After processing with the concentrate separator the cup containing sub 100 mesh had tons of micros, expected for the material used. Sub 100 mesh yield could be discounted since the majority of prospectors do not expend the effort to recover it, and I don't have a shaker table.
The 100 mesh cup contained a substantial amount of micros.
The 50 mesh cup contained approximately 2/3 the micros volume of the 100 mesh.
The 30 mesh cup contained approximately 1/2 the micros of the 50 mesh.
The 20 mesh cup contained almost no gold other than a tiny flake (Approx. 1/32")
Conclusion:The GRNB, in this decidedly unscientific test, performed as expected with regard to separating gold from paydirt, though the small granular size of the material filled the sample cup rather quickly. There was, however, sufficient grain size variance to create the fluid bed environment. The abundance of micros in the sample also inhibited my ability to pan the finished sample effectively, requiring the concentrate separator to properly reduce the sample. Nearly all gold less than 16 mesh evaded the GNRB, though in fairness the concentrator missed the sub 20 mesh micros as well. I live in Indiana, where the only gold is glacially deposited placers, so the GNRB, other than functioning as a rapid reducing method, might not be suited to my general use. Nuggets larger than 1/4" are not commonly encountered here, so the offal from the GNRB would have to be captured via a secondary containment and further reduced after the outing. All in all I'm inclined to think that for me it would be better utilized as a sampling method than for actual production level processing, though leveling it properly in the field could prove challenging. I do feel that it will be of value to me to speed up my field sampling compared to panning, and I don't regret buying it, nor do I plan to return it.
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« Last Edit: July 12, 2013, 04:12:32 pm by kevin1 »
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