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Our Gold and Meteorite Collection Methods
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We mostly look for placer gold fines, gold nuggets and Gold Basin chondrite meteorites on club claims and verified unclaimed BLM land in the Gold Basin Placers and Lost Basin/King Tut Placers areas of Northwestern Arizona with occassional trips to the Stanton/Rich Hill & Black Canyon gold placer areas in west-central Arizona.
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We start by doing extensive sampling collecting 5 lb. samples from each potential site.
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The samples are classified and then run through a RCM Enterprises 'Black Sand Concentrator' mini-sluice. Quantities of gold nuggets and gold fines that collect in the mini-sluice ribbed mat are noted in a log and these notes are compared to determine which sites might be the most productive.
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Once we have an area selected that we believe will produce placer gold fines & gold nuggets we then proceed to the digging stage using picks, shovels and a gas-powered vacuum (vac-pac) to thoroughly clean bedrock/false bedrock of its placer gold fines & gold nugget bearing material. The raw material is classified (-1/2") into 5-gallon buckets using a pair of Angus MacKirk Bucket Grizzlies.
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All oversize material is scanned with one of our Fisher Gold Bug II metal detectors to make sure we don't miss a big gold nugget or a Gold Basin chondrite meteorite. We then load the buckets of placer gold fines & gold nugget bearing material into our truck for the trip back home.
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Once we return home the placer gold fines & gold nugget bearing material is run through our 8' recirculating power sluice system. Our power sluice was modified from a JOBE 12 Volt Magnum Power Sluice with a JOBE 45 Yellow Jacket Stream Sluice added to the tail end.
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The riffles from the upper sluice section have been removed. The original ribbed carpet has been replaced with 3M Nomad (miners moss) with a full-length v-rib rubber mat underlayment. On top of the miners moss are three sections of different sized expanded metal giving us 5' 6" of Popandson style fine gold recovery with a 2' gold nugget trap (lower riffle section) at the tail end. This setup will catch gold nuggets and fine gold down to +20 microns reliably.
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The Mayfair 2000 GPH 12 volt pump is provided with consistant power using a Pyramid 110 volt to 12 volt regulated power supply, this eliminates surging and underpowered situations common when using a battery alone.
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A large tub is used for the Jet-Dry enhanced water recirculation. The tailings which have been liberated of their placer gold fines & gold nuggets are collected in buckets which are drained of water and changed as they fill to make the water last as long as possible.
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The placer gold fines & gold nugget bearing concentrates collected from the main sluice are further classified and then run through a Gold Genie 'Miner Model' 18" spiral panning machine run on high speed and at a shallow angle to produce "super-concentrates" of black sands, platinum group metals (PGM's), gold nuggets and fine gold.
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The placer gold fines & gold nugget bearing super-concentrates are then run through a RCM Enterprises 'Black Sand Concentrator' mini-sluice. The clean gold nuggets and gold fines that collect at the top of the mini-sluice are gathered with tweezers and a snuffer bottle. The remaining material is "ultra-concentrates" which are mostly PGM's and very fine placer gold.
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Finally the placer gold fines & PGM bearing "ultra-concentrates" collected from the mini-sluice are classified to -100 mesh and then run through the Gold Genie 'Miner Model' 18" spiral panning machine on slow speed and at a steep angle to get the fine gold as clean as possible. Placer fines this small are difficult to get completely clean without leeching or smelting so they are generally sent to the refiner or made into dore.
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Final placer gold fines & gold nuggets processing
The gold nuggets and +50 mesh fine gold that has been collected is soaked in a mixture of vinegar and salt to remove iron oxide stains and caliche deposits.
-50 mesh gold is smelted into gold dore bars and buttons or sent to a refiner.
We are currently checking into getting our fine gold refined into certified .999 pure gold bullion bars with serial numbers and custom logo. If and when these certified .999 pure gold bullion bars become available it will be announced on our Home page.
The gold nuggets are weighed and numbered, photographed and placed on the Natural Arizona Placer Gold Nuggets For Sale page where they are offered for sale to the public.
The fine gold is classified for size, given a final inspection to remove any remaining non-gold material and a specific amount (generally 5 grains to 1 troy ounce) is photographed, placed in a plastic vial, sealed, numbered and placed on the Natural Arizona Fine Gold in Vials For Sale page where they are offered for sale to the public.
Although hauling the material is an added chore we have found that wet proccessing our placer gold fines & gold nugget bearing material in this way significantly increases our recovery of +20 micron fine gold. A drywasher can typically only recover gold to 30 mesh (595 microns).
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Once processed fully, all the material is returned to its original site to fill the holes. Since the soil is still damp from processing we will usually spread some seeds from nearby plants (when available) to help speed up the reclamation process.
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DesertDrew.com is not affiliated with any of the companies linked in the above text and only provides these reference links as a satisfied customer. The Popandson style fine gold sluice is a concept, not a product, very detailed info on how to design and build your own Popandson style fine gold sluice is available by clicking the link which takes you to the Alaska Gold Forum page on which it is discussed.
(NationalAdventurer.com)
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