gold mining

[highdesertranger]

so not really sure where to post this.  mods feel free to move.  I finally learned how to cut the size of pictures down so I could post some more pics of my gear.  I am starting with prospecting gear.  I have the gear to do any type of small scale prospecting/mining.  so first off I will share some dredging pics.  so without further ado.

moving gear down to the river.

assembling the dredge.

I am in the foreground adjusting my mask.  my buddy Robert is ready to go.
 
dredge is out in the river.  the green hose is the suction hose the yellow hoses are the hookah lines(fresh air for divers).  notice the tank connected to the yellow hoses this is your breathing tank.

here I am under water and Robert is backing up.  notice the green hose.  that is 4 inch hose and will suck up anything that will fit in it.  you do not want to get your fingers in front of that hose.  it will pick up a softball size rock and send it up though the dredge no problem.
more to come.  highdesertranger

 

[highdesertranger]

some more.

another shot I am under water here at the end of the green hose you can't see me because of the reflection on the water.  to give you an idea Robert is 5'10" and he is standing up.

here is Pat tending the dredge.  no wet suit Brrr.

notice the mass of hoses. not really not really sure what Pat is doing here,  but the pump suction hose is right between his legs. :huh:

Pat sitting by the gold wheel.  more on the gold wheel later.

enjoying a cold one at the end of the day.  Pat has the visor on and I have a beer in my hand. on this shot you can see the jumper cables running from the gold wheel to my truck.  this is to power the gold wheel I have since upgraded this and now run the wheel of a battery box more on that later.  highdesertranger

 

[PeacefulSoul]

This sure looks like a sweet set up! Thanks for the pics.

 

[highdesertranger]

total shift of gears.  here we are 300 feet from water and 20 feet above the creek level.

ok look at this pic and notice the different colors in the layers.  the top layer that is almost black,  are cobbles.  then there is a layer of light material almost white.  I sampled this area and found very little gold in the light colored material and the cobbles.  so basically all this material had to go,  so we could get down to the gold bearing layer the bottom dark area.

in this shot you can see we have removed a lot of over burden.  Robert is explaining something here.

in this shot you can see the high banker set up with water running though it.  we are ready to rock.  literally.

yea up and running.  in this shot Lou is feeding the high banker I am making sure everything is running though smoothly.  you can also see that more over burden has been removed and there is a black dog(scout) taking a nap where the over burden has been removed.  ah nice and cool.

another view, again I am keeping everything moving.  notice the pile of cobbles to the left of the pic those all came out of the high bankers hopper.  I through them out one at a time.  btw the job I am doing no one else wants to do because you get soaking wet.  head to toe.  more to come.  highdesertranger

 

[highdesertranger]

I want to point something out. if you notice the 3rd pic, the one were clear water is running down the high banker. you can see a 2x6 on the ground next to the HB. this is because this area gets totally flooded. this is so I can walk the sluice and kinda stay out of the puddle that forms. you can also see there are no cobbles next to the HB. in the last pic you can see the pile of cobbles and the 2x6 is gone. that's because it didn't work. highdesertanger

 

[highdesertranger]

ok you have seen 2 different ways to find gold.  now I am going to show some clean up equipment.

here is my gold wheel.  so after you clean out the sluice box on whatever method you are using,  HB,  dredge,  dry washer.  you then must do a clean up.  first off everything gets screened(classified).  first screen number 8(8 holes per inch).  anything that can't go though a 8 screen gets scanned with eye balls and a metal detector.  then everything goes though a 20 screen.  everything that doesn't go though a 20 gets panned the old way with a gold pan.  remember everything is smaller than an 8 but bigger than a 20.  I can pan this pretty fast because it's all about the same size.  anything that goes though a twenty goes into the gold wheel.

another shot of the gold wheel.  notice the kiddie pool to the right.  this holds water for our processing.  we fill it off my pump about once a week.  gives us over 150 gallons(guess) of water to work with.

here Robert is feeding the gold wheel while everyone else watches.

Robert adjusting the water flow on the hopper.

here's the wheel doing it's thing.  the spiral grooves carry the heavy material up to the center hole,  then it falls though to a bucket.  if any body remembers the opart spiral wheels from the 60's that make your stomach turn,  this does the same if you stare at it.  this will take about 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket and concentrate it to about the size of a 1 lb coffee can.
more to come.  highdesertranger

 

[highdesertranger]

I forgot in the 4th pic where Robert is adjusting to water flow you can see a plastic ammo can in the lower left. this is my new battery box that I use to power the wheel and blue bowl. I am going do to a future write up on that. highdesertranger

 

[highdesertranger]

last for today.

that's me panning.  remember I hand pan all the -8+20.  I can do this fairly fast.

this is my blue bowl.  it's for super fine gold recovery,  so everything that passes though a 20 screen gets run though the wheel.  then it gets screened 3 more times with a 30,  50,  and 100.  then these separate screening get run though the blue bowl,  one at a time.  first the -20+30,  then the -30+50 then the -50+100 and finally the -100.  just to give you an idea a 100 screen has 100 holes per lineal inch that means it has 100 holes on each side of a square inch and then the holes to fill in the square inch so it has 100,000 holes in a square inch.  that is some fine sh*t.  the blue bowl will separate the gold out of this fine material.

here's a pan from one day.  this is only the stuff I could pan by hand,  this is not the finer stuff.

another day another pan.  sorry about these being blurred these were taken with my old camera and it didn't like to take close ups.  my new camera should do much better.  yes the light colored material that is bunched up is gold.  highdesertranger

 

[akrvbob]

Great stuff!! Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
Bob

 

[jimindenver]

I agree. Thank you

I bet that water is cold too.

 

[janncoo]

So interesting. What a setup. When I had TV I enjoyed Alaskan Gold. Looks like a lot of knowledge and hard work that you enjoy. Thans for the pics.  Jan

 

[cyndi]

Really interesting, HDR!b Thanks for taking the time. Only now I want videos! (just kidding ... kind of)

 

[Sabatical]

Wow HDR this gives a new appreciation for the amount of work that goes into mining.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Thanks very much for the pictures, HDR.

I never got past the "reading the Keene catalog and dreaming about it" stage.

If anyone else here is interested, Keene Engineering https://keeneeng.com/  is the principle manufacturer of most of this stuff and you can download a free pdf catalog from their website if you're really curious about it all.

Regards
John

 

[WriterMs]

I know it is repetitious, but wow what a set up. And a lot of hard work and exercise for sure HDR. But a benefit, I would guess, is that you get to see the rewards for your work most every day in the bottom of the blue bowl. Work = payoff.

In one pic, it looks like Scout has a blonde playmate dog sometimes. I bet he is a happy camper to be living out there.

You've written more than once about sleeping on your cot outside, so now we can see how that set up works, too. I was sure what the blue pool was really for, but my first thought was: nice big bath tub after a muddy day!

With all the threads I've read about staying warm in rigs, you'll have to do another series on how you set up to keep warm in winter -- or do you travel to a claim in the south?

 

[bigsallysmom]

That's an awful lot of environmental damage. What happens to the area after yall no longer are looking for gold? Will yall close up the cuts and try to put it back the way it was?

 

[ahh_me2]

Very nice pics of your setup!
We are not allowed to dredge where I am.
I do gold mining every summer/fall but we only have flour gold here as it was from glacial deposits, gold isn't native to our province.
I use a LeTrap drop riffle system, then for clean ups I use a bluebowl and then finish off with a Miller table.

I could post some pics of my gear if your interested.

 

[Sameer]

THANK YOU...THANK YOU! I have always wanted to see what you do....my Grandmother taught us all to pan for Gold when I was a kid...and I was born a Rockhound! This was wonderful! Made my day!

 

[ilovemyvan]

That is so great. Lots of work. I don't want to know how much gold you get but do you find gold every time you set up? I sure hope so.

Nicole

 

[highdesertranger]

wow over whelming response. thank you all. I will try to answer all your questions.
1. jimindenver asked about the cold water. hell yes that water is cold. I have a cold water wet suit. it is actually 2 wet suits farmer john bottoms and a long sleeve spring suit upper. this gives me 7mm suit over my body core. I also have dive boots, these are not booties but boots. 5mm with a boot sole. once I tried to just dive in my spring suit, it was a hot day and the water didn't feel that cold, I only stayed in about 2 hours I was freezing. took me the rest of the day to warm up.

2. Cyndi wants to see video. well my new camera does good video. your wish will be granted at some future date. of course I will still have pics.

3. gsfish asked about his pump. Guy by going off the specs of that pump short answer is yes. more detail, a dredge needs a high pressure/high volume pump. the specs on that pump and the outlet size says it should run up to a 3 inch dredge. what fittings does it have I notice they come in both standard pipe and standard fire hose. they are both workable it's just something that you have to pay attention to. as far as the jet goes you would be dollars ahead if you just bought one they are not that expensive. the angles of the jet and placement in the nozzle is critical, errors in the design have dramatic effect on performance. I pointed this out on that picture of the home made AC. Guy ask more question I will be happy to answer them to the best of my knowledge.
highdesertranger