When I go out to the creek if I find a area with some gold I bring home a half a 5 gallon bucket to pan at night. I have a big round tub that I fill with water but after a few pans the water is all ready starting to get muddy and after 6 or 7 pans it IS muddy. The stuff I brought home yesterday had a little more clay than usual and the problem is even worse. Is there a way to wash the dirt before panning? I have allways been told "No such thing as a stupid question" but I just asked how to wash dirt!LOL! Any help or ideas would be great! I am using a 25-30 gallon round tub that is pretty deep.
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I wash all of the dirt that i bring home now! I took a piece of 3/4 pvc pipe and put slip adapter onit that goes to garden hose threads and put an apliance hose( washmachiene hoses are flexible so it stays in the bucket better) to it then hook it to the garden hose, take a bucket that is 2/3 full of cley turn on the hose half way and stick it in the bucket once the bucket fills with water i gine it a stir to liquify the cley. Then i let the water run. The pvc is a stir stick and it puts the water at the bottom of the material. Just let it keep runin over ang give it a stir when it starts to clear. Ill do that untill it is prettymutch clean. This method removes all of the cley, soft dirt and plant matter.the gold stays in the bucket because it is heavy.
I use this method to irrigate my lawn by washing each bucket in a diffrent area of the yard. I havent used the sprinkler system since i started using this system!
Now when you pan or sluce w/ recirculating system the water will stay clean for a long time, depending on how well you wash the cley out of it
Try putting the dirt in a 5 gallon bucket and use the solid stream nozzle on a garden hose. Churn the dirt as hard as you can without splashing it out. When the bucket is nearly full with water, stop and give the dirt about 20 to 30 seconds to settle, depending on how fine the pay dirt is. Dip out as much dirty water as you can and discard the water. Try submerging the edge of a cup just under the surface so that you skim only the top level of water. Repeat two or three times and you will remove an amazing amount of clay. The trick is to use minimal water each time and to use several rinses.
BTW (by the way), do NOT use soap. Any gold that is in the dirt might become attached to the soap bubbles and leave with the water.
Good luck
Good advice David, about the soap. I've seen people using dish soap in their recirculating sluice with so much foam it would be better to toss your dirty socks in the sluice for a good cleaning! Soap bubbles led to the invention of the floatation system after the Chinese laundry workers discovered there was gold in those bubbles and offered to wash the miners clothes for free to harvest the fine gold.
I use a second pan or smaller container in my tub when I have real muddy material. I work out of the second pan with the material I'm working until the water in the intermediate pan is too thick. I then empty the muddy water in a bucket to settle and start again with fresh water in the intermediate pan. I continue in this manner letting the filthy water settle in the bucket overnight then I can reuse it the next day. I can get away with reusing about 10 gal of water for a long time this this way and occasionally just add water when needed. The mud that settles in the bottom of the buckets can be disposed of when the water is in the panning tub.
If I'm feeling lazy I will use my recirculating pump to transfer clear water to my tub or a clean bucket. At the present time I have a tub full of water, one bucket settling and one bucket drying waiting to be cleaned out wit about an inch of mud in it.
Footlooose
Hello all :-)
The Clay Gone works quite well, as others have noted. I will add that it & other flocculants Will settle the particles to the bottom. Try letting your panning tub set overnight after use & you'll see what I mean (some ads for flocculants specifically mention the effect for using in ponds). It will try to settle things while you're using it, but the constant agitation makes alot of it stay suspended. The trick is to not stir it up, or to suck most of the sediment out when using it again. A little goes a long way & I re-use the water in my tubs for the recirculating sluice until to much has evaporated or I have more silt/sediment than I care for. I also use a catch bucket (in the tub under the sluice output) for all the larger particles, so only the small sediments remain in the recirculating tub.
What I am trying to find is an equivalent generic form of the Clay Gone which I can get in larger bottles for less. (the Clay Gone is getting pretty expensive in those little bottles. I try to buy larger amounts of generic for everything I use around the shop or house). In the end, the least expensive way to reuse the water (everyone should be trying to waste as little water as possible) is with two tubs. When the water gets to loaded up, let it settle (will take awhile to naturally settle) & carefully pour the water off into another tub then dispose of the sediment in the garden or useful area. Because this takes so long is why most either get used to the muddy water, or use Clay Gone or equivalents.
Well, that's long winded enough for my two cents. Hope you all have fun finding that yellow dirt!
Go to the drug store and buy a small bottle of Alum powder. See if that works about the same as the Clay Gone. Also, you are probably aware that Clay Gone doesn't get rid of the clay, it just makes it settle to the bottom along with all of your heavies. I like to churn the dirt in a bucket, give it 20-30 seconds to settle and then dip out the clay water, skimming from the surface and then repeat several times.
Goolge or check with Minning Store for (Mud be gone) it works I can't rember if it is 1 word or 3 But I'm sure if you google it you will find it. May your water be clear. Jim
howard i thought you n jane only made mud pies and cakes lmao
When Jane and I are in a dry area and have to haul water in, we pan and recirculating sluice in the muddy water but as we get to the bottom of the material and need to see better what we are moving we dip clean water from a bucket set aside just for that !
Clay-be-gone is actually a flocculant, which means that it is used to participate clay or small suspended particles. Such things as clorine, or other chemicals in the water, will effect the use of any flocculant.
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