Upcoming Gold Trip

[highdesertranger]

com'on we need more than that you're teasing us. lol highdesertranger

 

[ahh_me2]

My DH and I met up with Bama, "Ikky" and company and we were treated to a lesson in gold panning!  It was really fun.  And we got gold!  Yay!
That was one of my first successful tries.  We got a good bit more.  Pretty addicting though....  Thanks Bama and "Ikky"!

That's some mighty fine colors!
A lot bigger than we get in my area

They don't call it "gold fever" for nothing!

 

[StarEcho]

Here's an album I'm putting together of this trip.

https://goo.gl/photos/9iF6k54mtdGaZSxP7

I tried to add a description to some of the pictures and I'll go in later and add more descriptions.  We had a pretty good day today!

 

[highdesertranger]

Cindi thanks for the great pics. some nice gold too. when you add captions let us know. who's fur baby? he/she looks into it too. highdesertranger

 

[StarEcho]

All the pics are in the album now.  If you click on the "i" at the top right in the album, you should be able to see a description if there is one there.  I'm hoping Bama can add to those descriptions when he gets home, which will be a couple days.

Fur baby is mine, Kili and he liked to dig but we think that was just to find cooler sand to lie in.  He was pretty good to just hang out with us in between his jaunts off to who knows where.

We ended the digging with around 1.3oz or so total, Bama can give the actual figures, so overall it was a very good haul.  But the best thing was the fun we had even with all the backbreaking, sweaty, hard work.  We learned a lot and unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view, we got hooked.  

 

[highdesertranger]

thanks Cindi, once you catch the fever you're done no known cure. but where is this album with the pics. teaser. highdesertranger

 

[WriterMs]

thanks Cindi,  once you catch the fever you're done no known cure.  but where is this album with the pics.  teaser.  highdesertranger

I think Cindi means she added more to the album at the first link she provided. I didn't see them when she first posted, but there are a ton of pics now. QUITE the production it looks like!

 

[highdesertranger]

thanks WriterMs, that is quite the operation. boy that's some nice chunky gold. Bama you got to give some details on that vacuum. what provides the vacuum? how far will it suck? that sounded funny. thanks Cindi for posting those pics and taking the time. highdesertranger

 

[Gary68]

dry trommel and washing it else where?

 

[StarEcho]

Bama's going to have to get in here with the details - especially on the vacuum, but the general day started around 9am, setting things up, driving out to the site, deciding where to dig, etc.  Then we did our thing until the holding tank on the vacuum was filled, which was around 10 full buckets.  However, since none of us wanted to tote a full bucket of dirt over to the vacuum, we did 1/3 to 1/2 full buckets.  Generally we were done in about 3 hours.  Now you might think that it shouldn't take 3 hours to fill up ten buckets, but.... we didn't just shovel and dump in bucket.  We didn't want the big rocks or stones, so there was a certain amount of rock tossing that occurred.  We strained the dirt so that the larger stones got tossed.  Also, we were digging until we hit bedrock (throwing out that dirt) then moving around in each direction, by bedrock to see in which direction the bedrock sloped.  Bottom line, there was a good bit of "prep" work involved before we even started filling buckets.  I was very impressed with how Bama and Icky used science and engineering principles to determine where to dig.  We weren't just digging blindly and hoping for the best.  Well, we WERE hoping for the best and one day we did have a bust of a day, ie little to no gold, but the other days were very good and made up for it.  I think that was the key to the reason we did so well in the 4 days of digging.  So while luck certainly plays a part in prospecting, Bama and Icky showed me how using your education can up the odds in your favor.

Ok, got off track there for a bit...

After the holding tank was full, we'd clear the site up and put the buckets in the holes for the night and drive back to the processing area which was in the campground.  We'd dump the holding tank into the blue rubbermaid container you see in the pics and then scoop the dirt from there to the 5 gallon buckets so they could easily be poured into the rotary washing apparatus.  We called it a trommel, but Bama said it wasn't a true trommel it was just easier to say than rotary washing doohicky.  Ok, so it goes into the trommel and water is cleaning it up and grinding a bit and the gold is trapped in the slats.  The tailings go out the end.  When all the dirt is processed, then the water is turned off, the plate with the slats is taken out, hosed down a bit and we see if we got anything. The filter is washed out in a container and the dirt that possibly contains the gold is also washed into that same bucket.

We then take that container and pour off most of the water and Icky would scoop a little bit of that dirt into the twirling blue mechanical panner.  Now that's my technical made up name for it.  I can't remember what Bama called it, so please chime in Bama.  You can see it in the pictures.  The dirt from that is washed into the little tupperware bowl and the gold will march up the rings of that panner while it's twirling.  It's cool to watch.  We're all exclaiming, "there's another one!" and counting the nuggets as they crawl up.

There's a bit more to it than this, but basically the gold goes up the rings of the panner and into a cup in the center and that's the gold.  Clean it up, dry it off and weigh it.  That process seemed to take about an hour with everyone doing something.  I supervised a lot and cracked the whip when needed.  NOT!  LOLOL  It was a hard work, but good company and a fun way to spend the time.

 

[BamaDuke]

WOW!!

Cindi hit the nail on the head with her descriptions

I am back at work and got my laptop fixed, so I will give some better info over the next couple of days. We got a total of 1.635 oz, or just a smidge over $2000 worth of gold. Many thanks to Cindi and her crew, as we wouldn't have gotten near as much without their willingness to dig. This is a great hobby, if you start in your early teens and quit at 25 LOL.

Bama

 

[BamaDuke]

This was our total haul, 1.635 oz.


This is what we panned out of Percha Creek in downtown Hillsboro.  It was just over a quarter oz.


Cindi's pics were much better, and very well documented the process.  I will try to add info on the pics in her album as time allows.  Right now, work is screaming LOL.

Bama