I have 2 5gal buckets of blacksand left over from the blue bowl. I know there is still a lot of flour and micro gold still in it. I do have a way of getting most of it out but its a long and tedious process. So i was thinking of making a fluid bed to re-concentrate the 2buckets of blacksand, then classifying and run bake through the blue bowl. My question is will a fluid bed work with just blacksand? Or are the blacksands and remaining gold too close in density for this to work? Any thoughts or alternative ideas are welcome. Thanks guy/gals i appriciate your time
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I do use a Cal bucket sluice which is a fluid bed to get rid of most of the black sand, but I have to run it several times, to make sure to retain most of the gold.
In order to keep the gold the heaviest thing in your concentrator, to insure that the gold stays put you’d have to classify. I classify down to #100 mesh, then pan.
I met a Native American once that was mining old bench gravel half way up a mountain. He was using a rocker box due to no water on the sight (everything came up the side of the mountain on ropes). He would not do more than concentrate the material down to black sands and then go home and heat them until the gold ran out. Might be quicker for you if you can heat up the black sands. Angus McKirk advertises a smelting set up that uses a 1000W microwave that might also work.
if your going to use merc then retort it there are a few wqys to help you get the gold out of the black sand i use a sprial panner to retrive the gold has worked good for me in some of the pic s i have posted it shows a little over a 1/2 ounce that was not visable to the naked eye since tat gold wae recovered we have roasted the black sand and are getting some more gold out of the sand, fine gold recovery requires classification but it get harder to pecover i for one have never been impress with the blue bowl but to each their own this is just one pic of some micro gold that was recovered how i do it with a sprial panner and mercury http://www.goldprospectorsspace.com/photo/001some-of-the-gold-from-...
ken brant > KEN AKA BIG FOOT MOUNTAIN MAN IDAugust 15, 2012 at 1:48pm
Thanks vry much,would like to learn from you onthis,will be contacting you.
I do this only when im not going out for a while since its to hot to hike the canyon to my spot im cleaning up the old cons and changing the water to my cleanup machines, get all my gear organised and work area cleand up. There is enogh fines to make it worth while to do this especially if i can find ways to speed up the process. Some of the left over gold is like little round balls abot the size of the sprinkles on a cupcake. They roll around the cone of the blue bowl until they reach the right speed and plop right over the cone. You cant pan them they just roll to the bottom of fhe pan. I get quite a few of those pesky pieces
Scott,thanks so much for starting this tread(first time ive seen it),on the average how much gold does your friend find in the black sands using merc & retort,cause some of the gold i find is very,very fine(barely see with the naked eye)& hundreds of pieces per pan.I pan it several times till allmost no color, but wonder how much could be left in the sand itself.Could you explain how the merc & retort system works.
I personally dont do the merc\ retort. I just give it to my neighbor who becuse of health reasons cant prospect any more. He runs the blacksand trough a homemade ball mill until its a fine powder, at that point im not around to see exactly what he does, and i dont really want to know because i just might try it.. I have two young kids and dont want the merc any where near them, especially my 4yo boy. My neighbor enjoys it so i let him have at it. As far as the amount it always varys. Depending on where the majority of the sand came from. He has pulled about a half oz on the first load i gave him and 1\3 oz on the last we split it. I got another 5 gal bucket waiting for him when he gets around to it. Ill let you know the results when its done. One thing i do know for a fact is that when messin with merc proper safety is of the utmost importance. Good luck and be safe
I do too. It all comes apart and stores in the same bucket and the battery also fits, so it can go anywhere. It takes time to learn to be gentle on the flow and slowly open the tap as needed. The pic shows a lot of slop and dirt but it was me. If you keep things clean it doesnt splash or make a mess at all which surprised me. To build one yourself is super cheap as well.
I like your set up. Im doing the same thing as we speak (type) minus the feeder. For now im just using my small drop riffle box and a 750gph pump . Sometimes i like to try and learn new things im kind of a tinkerer and im intrigued with the fb. Something ive not done yet. My thinking was i could quickly re concentrate 10 gal into 1\2 gal then screen down to different sizes then run the blue bowl again. Then i can give all tge black sand to my neighbor to crush in a ball mill and he pulls the gold using merc and a retort. He cant prospect any more due to injury so i give him my sand to play with and he makes cool looking sponge gold.
Replies
I do use a Cal bucket sluice which is a fluid bed to get rid of most of the black sand, but I have to run it several times, to make sure to retain most of the gold.
In order to keep the gold the heaviest thing in your concentrator, to insure that the gold stays put you’d have to classify. I classify down to #100 mesh, then pan.
I met a Native American once that was mining old bench gravel half way up a mountain. He was using a rocker box due to no water on the sight (everything came up the side of the mountain on ropes). He would not do more than concentrate the material down to black sands and then go home and heat them until the gold ran out. Might be quicker for you if you can heat up the black sands. Angus McKirk advertises a smelting set up that uses a 1000W microwave that might also work.
if your going to use merc then retort it there are a few wqys to help you get the gold out of the black sand i use a sprial panner to retrive the gold has worked good for me in some of the pic s i have posted it shows a little over a 1/2 ounce that was not visable to the naked eye since tat gold wae recovered we have roasted the black sand and are getting some more gold out of the sand, fine gold recovery requires classification but it get harder to pecover i for one have never been impress with the blue bowl but to each their own this is just one pic of some micro gold that was recovered how i do it with a sprial panner and mercury http://www.goldprospectorsspace.com/photo/001some-of-the-gold-from-...
Thanks vry much,would like to learn from you onthis,will be contacting you.
THANKS
Scott,thanks so much for starting this tread(first time ive seen it),on the average how much gold does your friend find in the black sands using merc & retort,cause some of the gold i find is very,very fine(barely see with the naked eye)& hundreds of pieces per pan.I pan it several times till allmost no color, but wonder how much could be left in the sand itself.Could you explain how the merc & retort system works.
THANKS
Scott
Boy I like that setup FlourMike
I do too. It all comes apart and stores in the same bucket and the battery also fits, so it can go anywhere. It takes time to learn to be gentle on the flow and slowly open the tap as needed. The pic shows a lot of slop and dirt but it was me. If you keep things clean it doesnt splash or make a mess at all which surprised me. To build one yourself is super cheap as well.
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