Riffles and sluices

[Sierra Sam]

Sorry pickaxe - yah lost me at, New 49ers

[pickaxe]

Sierra Sam, I understand your distaste. But if you can ignore Dave Mack in the pictures etc, it's a good read with a lot of info. If you can't get past him, well, understood.

[bill-costa rica]

that is a good read, lots of info. take it for what it is worth, not who it is from.

bill-cr

[micropedes1]

Sierra, a complete cleanup on a 8-10" dredge yields up to 3 five gallon buckets of material (which is why we usually only clean the uppermost part). The LeTrap will reduce everything down to about a quart. Much easier to carry this out. Minimal loss. But this is from standard riffles.

But we are working a deposit with an abundance of 100 mesh gold. Standard riffles have way too much turbulence to catch more than an occasional bit of this size stuff. This sluice has multiple levels of screening each with its own recovery. These panels are exposed to approximately 25% of top flow. They are akin to Keene's undercurrent but are much more efficient at catching and keeping that fine stuff. Unfortunately, I can no longer rely upon the LeTrap due to particle size. More cons, but more gold. Get to play with chemical recovery, shaker table, & fluid beds.

[micropedes1]

Sluice dimensions:
6" dredge: 28" x 8'
8" dredge: 30" x 12'
10 dredge: 32 x 14'
Micro recovery panels under 1/8" punchplate extend for roughly 1/2 of sluice length. 1/8-1/2 dumps onto a section of 4# grating over Nomad. 1/2"+ stays topside to drop onto short section of Hungarians before discharge. Have never found anything in the 1/2"+ section, but ya never know what slips by. At least the classifiers keem the big stuff outta the recovery area.

The biggest problem with big dredges is getting the fine stuff to settle out of the water column before exiting sluice. That means real long flare. Its all a balancing act; clasdify and separate.

[Bonaro]

I must have missed something, what's the problem with Dave Mack?

[umpqua_gold]

Thanks pickaxe for that link. I wish I had found that before I had modified my A52. It would have saved me a lot of trial and error. Very interested in the recovery of fine gold, as my area has an abundance of it.

[russau]

yep i thought Dave Macs entire artical was a good one to keep and share with others!

[Sierra Sam]

russo, Bonaro - Riffles and sluices... Riffles and sluices

micro - Sounds like a real cool setup. I've been thinking of multi-layered classifying, but the mechanics of it all hasn't quite sunk in. The Physics of achieving the end product is ever evolving. Trouble is, I may die of old age or... before I ever get it figured out, and by then it wouldn't matter anyway.

In the mean time I've gotta think of an easy way to get my 16' "New Tom" from one place to another, up and down the creek, and just get it in and out of the creek single handedly.

For some unknown reason I just bought a 16' conveyor. It's tube-frame, 12"x 16', with a heavy rubber tread, which has holes for paddles. It's 110V electric, but I can either convert it to 12 or power it by gas if I don't want to use the generator. You'd think I was starting a mining operation. Truth is, I'm finding I'm not smart enough to move rocks far enough not to be moving them again in a year or so to get to what's under em.... ...but again, it's big enough to give me a bad time just trying to figure out how move the thing. And first I've got to figure how to get it to the Sierras

[russau]

probly under the cover of darkness!