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  • Thx people I should have thought of the paint paddle since I am a painter duh. I will try this weekend to see if any goals is in it.
    • I've recently run across some of the same issues but 1/2 is above water 1/2 below.

      I ended up picking it all - taking it bucket by bucket to a 50 gal, letting it relax and soak over night and using a shovel + water to clean a lot of it out - it breaks down semi easy after a soak.

      Real late I know,

      My .02

      • I went through about a 5 gallon bucket of it and didn't find anything. I shoveled it in 2 5 gallon buckets filled with water and used a propeller paddle on my drill to break it down. But thx for the tip
  • Great idea Bob, a paint mixer would work quite well if you have accessibility to do use this option. If you have to hike all your gear in a drill might not be an option, depending on the location. Hard labor may be the only option to get it all broken up. I know it take forever but the gold could be worth it. Is the clay wet (below the water mark)  or dry (above the water mark)? If dry I would just break it up with a rock hammer or a flat rock as small as you can. then run it. 

    What equipment are you running? Pan only, hand Sluice, highbanker, ect. There is ways  to work with it depending on what you are running.

    To save on time and efficiency. I would sample the entire layer to figure out where the pay is at. More then likely if there is gold present above the clay it should be right on top or around 1/2"-1" into the clay maybe depending on how dense the clay is. This should help with the amount needing to be ran, save time. More production = more gold.

    • Nice tips, Casey. I agree on sampling the area around that layer. If the pay is above then less work to get the gold. If it is clayish then more work is needed to break it up, a trommel even hand operated can do a nice job in reducing the clay in your cons.

  • or soak in a buck of water till it comes apart.

  • put it in a 5 gallon bucket and beat the heck out of it with a paint paddle mixer

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