# Gold from the sediments



## dorki22 (Jan 12, 2010)

Hello prospectors.

I would like to ask some of the experienced and skilled goldhunters, what would be the most efficient way, to find gold dust in the sediment of a river. In my case its the river Drava (Drau), it was known for its gold in the previous centuries. 

I found an article, where 2 old-timers find gold with an oldschool sluice made of wood. The gold particles are about a millimeter in size, the biggest found was 3 millimetres.
http://www.google.si/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=9&ved=0CCkQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dlib.si%2Fv2%2FStreamFile.aspx%3FURN%3DURN%3ANBN%3ASI%3Adoc-O60VLR5H%26id%3D9da2ae65-4920-496f-ba72-85b0454c815a%26type%3DPDF&ei=NmtMS_-MB9D-_AbZpZCgDg&usg=AFQjCNFOFrlqv1oKUtf2N-Ku1p1WA_o7nw&sig2=i8Ed7AkDPb_Qu36asqECmg

Question: the most efficient way to collect this gold dust would be.. :roll: ??

Simon


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## Richard36 (Jan 12, 2010)

Hello Simon;

Welcome to the forum.

I suggest that you read the material in my thread titled "GoldBug University".
On the second page I have a post with Info about working Stream Sediments in order to recover the gold, and Black Sand.
I also cover the process of Amalgamation to recover that fine gold with Mercury from the Black Sand, and how to recover the gold from the Mercury, then recover the mercury as well.

If you have any further specific Questions after reading all that, make a post, and I will answer.

Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".


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## pinman (Jan 12, 2010)

Google beachboxes. They are a useful tool for extracting flour gold from your concentrates.
If you are considering a larger scale operation research shaker tables. Know that with micron fine gold you will need to concentrate all your material as far as possible for proper recovery.


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## blueduck (Jan 13, 2010)

there are various commercial made tools available, and the catalog on my website can give you a good idea of what they are, I suggest though taking a look and fabricating some classificaton screens to remove the larger non-bearing material, and then using a mudflap in a homebuilt wood box to recover the finer gold, like the beachbox suggested. I say this merely because the cost of shipping the commercial made items i have for sale is outrageous into other countries it seems, I made a sale last summer to Australia of a couple items and it cost more to ship it than the cost of the 3 small items [couple that with the post office misquoting me shipping cost so i could quote to the customer, and i lost $13.00US on the deal] Anyhow the catalog is a pdf with prices from last year, i have not got the 2010 catalog yet, and my supplier tells me everything is going up [imagine that in today's economy]. Most of the equipment listed is what folks use here in the several states "recreationally" and on small scale prospecting expeditions and ventures..... 

Personally I suggest getting some screen with 6mm x 6mm opening or such which will remove quite a bit of the larger non-bearing material, and use a plastic bucket similar to what another fella is selling on the big online yardsale for something like that will last awhile and you will move a lot more material than the smaller units like is in the catalog above.... and make one similar!!

a shovel the classifier screen and a couple buckets and the beachbox with a small water pump and hoses will keep 2 to 3 folks busy all day long. and when you get enough gold saved up, then use it to purchase some commercial machines for recovery.... a reverse helix is what i personally like, and they come in many different sizes and costs.

William
Idaho


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## markqf1 (Jan 14, 2010)

The first thing you need to find the gold is a good pan.
It is the pan, along with with good technique and knowledge that helps you "find" the gold.

Once you have found what seems to be a good concentration area, you can then move on to some of the other equipment mentioned above.
Where you end up locating the pay streak dictates what the best type of equipment to use is.

There are sluiceboxes,trommells,highbankers, rockerboxes, longtoms, dredges, spiral wheels,concentration tables, beach boxes, and about anything else you can think of that has been used in the past, to collect gold.

But first you've got to find it.

Only then, will you know what further concentration equipment is needed.
If you get a chance, go check out one of the gold shows.

Mark


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## Richard36 (Jan 14, 2010)

I find that a pan and sluicebox are the two pieces of equipment that I use the most.

The slope of the sluicebox should be about one inch for every two feet of box.
So, a sluicebox that is 4' long should be set to level, then adjusted to have the discharge end 2" lower than the input. 
Then pour some birdshot in at the head and watch where they settle out in your box.
( It helps if the shot are spray painted some sort of high visibility color, such as orange.) 

The shot should settle out within the first or second riffle of your box, If they settle out further down, you need to adjust the slope of your box, or decrease the amount of water flowing through the sluicebox.

Using a few small pieces of lead in your pan the size as that of the gold that you think is available, and intend to collect ,as a safety, is a good trick as well. 
If the way that you pan causes you to lose your lead safety, then you will lose your gold as well.
If the way that you are panning does not cause you to lose the lead safety, then you should be panning correctly.

I hope that this has been helpful.

Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".


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## dorki22 (Jan 15, 2010)

Guys, you have been very helpfull, thanks to all of you  
Will have to process all this information, ask questions later.

Simon


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## Richard36 (Jan 17, 2010)

dorki22 said:


> Guys, you have been very helpfull, thanks to all of you
> Will have to process all this information, ask questions later.
> 
> Simon



You're welcome.
If you have any further questions, make a post, and I will reply.

Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".


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## dorki22 (Jan 18, 2010)

Rick, being "The Rock man" makes you a perfect candidate for my next question :twisted: 

I can guess that u dont know much about specific areas of Slovenia, but with a little help from me, and your precious knowledge could result some informations.

This is a link to a document Geomorphological Interactions (in my area). I have this idea, that I could find gold in an abanded river channel or "paleo-channel" from the river Drava. It is all forest now, but there are some small streams in the rain season. 

http://www.biologiezentrum.at/pdf_frei_remote/MittNatVerSt_134_0045-0055.pdf

Drava is a gold bearing river, it collects its gold about 500 km away in northern Austria and Italy, so the gold particals are reasonably small, a few milimeters being the max.

Sorry for my English, did my best 

Simon


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## Richard36 (Jan 18, 2010)

dorki22 said:


> Rick, being "The Rock man" makes you a perfect candidate for my next question :twisted:
> 
> I have this idea, that I could find gold in an abandoned river channel or "paleo-channel" from the river Drava.
> It is all forest now, but there are some small streams in the rain season.
> ...



Hello Simon,

Without even looking at the document, I can tell you that you are absolutely correct. 
You can find gold in Ancient River Channels of Gold Bearing Waterways.
You stand a good chance of finding Nuggets in that waterway, not just fine dust.

Yes, the Ancient Channels of the Drava would be prime ground to go look in.

A Trommel, or Highbanker would be prefered equipment to be using to work the soil in the Paleo Channel of the Drava.
Recover the Black Sand, and any fine gold within it.
Use Amalgamation to recover the gold from the Black sand.
I cover how to do this on page 2 of "GoldBug University".

Finding the Ancient Placers will be a little more difficult due to the fact that it is now a forested region, 
but doing so is still possible.
Dig and wash the sediments from these placer deposits all the way down to the Bedrock, or Clay Bottom.
It is within the first 14 inches of soil above the Bedrock, or Clay Bottom in that Channel that you will find the most of the fine, and coarse gold.

Good Thought Simon.

You were spot on with where to look,
And looking in an area that most likely has not been worked before.
That gives you the advantage of being able to find Placer loads with higher concentrations of gold.

I will check out the link, and if I have any more to add, I will make a post.

I hope that this has been helpful.

Sincerely; Rick. "The Rock Man".


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## One Blanket (Jan 19, 2010)

Hello Simon, I hope this information helps you.
I see you intend to dig to bedrock somewhere - sometime.
The "modified Chicago method" of hand digging a water well involves keeping the hole from caving in with you in it. You will have to make or find metal rings to put inside vertical wooden planks which keep the shaft walls in place. 
What you want to build ( a few pieces at a time ) is like an old wooden barrel ; but with the steel bands on the inside.
A SAFETY CAUTION 
As you dig your breath leaves carbon dioxide in the air. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air and builds up in the bottom of your hole. 
TOO MUCH IS DEADLY you will have to get the bad air out of the hole somehow. As the hole gets deeper you will notice a pressure on your chest.
That is the sign I felt. Luckily it was time to seal up the shaft & return another time - - - so later I learned about the CO2 hazard & now use a vacuum cleaner with a long 2 inch flex hose to get the bad air out periodically.
Good Luck Persist 

One Blanket , one Jackass Prospector


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## Vagadero (Mar 26, 2010)

Just one thing. The gold of Drava is about 100 mesh.(100 mesh=0.254mm)


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## Irons (Mar 26, 2010)

Vagadero said:


> Just one thing. The gold of Drava is about 100 mesh.(100 mesh=0.254mm)



If the gold is all sub 100 mesh, screen out all large rocks and gravel down to about 20 mesh or so(1mm). It will save you a lot of work and Gold.


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## goaldspektre (May 10, 2010)

Irons is right , if you can afford it buy a drop riffle sluice or better yet a small trommel. Flour gold doesn't recover as easily as larger gold because of its ability to float. I built a small highbanker setup with an Angus Mackirk drop riffle sluice and can't believe the effectiveness the riffles have over traditional sluices . Mind you a highbanker isn't the best for flour gold recovery either but I can't afford a trommel right yet.Also, recirculating your discharge water through a series of settling tubs (i use three 30 gallon tubs) with a shot of surfactant in the water to drop the fines along with a piece of 6 mil poly placed in the sluice so that it kind of floats on top of the water to break the surface tension and force the gold down will increase recovery efforts immensely.After you shovel all day and put a few yards through your sluice there will be a lot of black sand to process through a bowl , spiralwheel or other method.Try to avoid mercury, there is no need these days and you're looking at a couple grams of flour at the end of the day so it hardly justifies the risk . Using merc or cyanide isn't as cut and dried as the internet says , there are sooo many variables that can go wrong. That aside happy Au hunting .


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## blueduck (May 10, 2010)

goaldspektre has a nice sounding set up, one thing that can be added is a set of rare earth magnets across the sluice to pick out magnetic fines, which will allow less gold which is smaller to be displace in the sluice in the higher riffles. Aluminum sluice with aluminum riffles or plastic sluice is needed cause steel riffles interfere with the field just enough to cause headaches.

There are commercial made tubes that fit into different size sluices, and probably are decent enough but a person can build one for a whole lot less...... While i dont think a person needs to use a N42 strength, the small size needed to go inside a pvc tube makes it worth the little bit extra I figure to put a small non-magnetic spacer between the magnets of like 5-10 mm to allow each magnet to deploy its field better but testing will show me if i am correct or not. The folks at K and J Magnetics seem to have the better prices ive found on the net plus they have pictures of the magnets fields in colors so a person can judge a little for what they are wanting to do. I believe the D6X0 might be the best choice to use in a one inch or 25cm PVC tube with spacers between, if you check the technical details you can see the magnetic field and where the best pickup is at..... and 10 for about $25-30.00 USD is not a bad price. I pulled apart a few older hard drives to retrieve the magnets from them but they are oddball shape and the wrong field and require a much larger tube..... but pull the black magnetic sand out of the mix they sure do [i used a plastic sandwich bag to keep the magnet clean..... cleaner]

Once you get rid of that bulk of magnetic sand remember to pan it too cause it will hold some micro fines in it too if you pull it out wet, and even pulled dry it will take a host of other sands and gold along with it, for its the nature of the way the magnetic field works....

William
Idaho uSA


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