Desertsunburn Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 well, I'll be darned. For the 26 years I worked in the desert areas between YPG and La Paz County, I always was on the look out for what i thought were good areas for gold. Let's just say I use to run aound the deserts installing portable radio systems.So, in my journeys, I'd see a wash that looked kind of good. I'd stop and scratch the rock cracks and such and put the stuff in buckets or jars or coffee cups...whatever I had handy and I'd go about my business.Well yesterday and today it is raining and I figured I'd go out in the garage and tinker. I found one of my old coffee cups full of stuff. So I figured I'd get the pan out and pan it. Now keep in mind, I did this for like 26 years! I noted I could not read anything on the cup except Cibola. So I know somewhere around Cibola is where I dug it up.So the first thing I do is drop the freaking cup on the garage floor. It breaks and I can sand all over my garage....But I'll be a SOB I see a little yellow. Actually a little more than a little. So, I sweep it up and put it in my pan. I walk to the house to get a little bit of soap. so I am carrying the dawn dish soap back to the garage, getting rained on the whole time. Get to the garage and enter. My shoe being wet, cause me to slip and I went in with a slide....hitting the gold pan full of sand knocking it all over my garage floor AGAIN!!! Can you believe this! So I carefully sweep it up, put a little soap and water in a bucket and then begin to pan. SOB!!! GOLD!!! And not a little! SOB! SOB! I can not believe it! Either I hit a hot spot or one of my "buddies" is FN with me. SOB! Naw....ain't my buddies, they can barely squeeze out a turd let along leave that much gold laying around as a joke!So here is the result of panning a large coffee cup. SOB! IT's been an hour and all I can think to say is SOB. I freaking can NOT remember where I got this cup of sand! SOB!Okay....so now is where I need some help. There is a butt load of fines in this sand. I do not have any mercury. What is the best way to extract this short of smelting...as I do not think I have the right flux to do this. I already sucked out the magnetic sand. See picture below and thanks for suggestions. SOB!JimPS...I suck at panning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockhunter1620 Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homefire Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Rule Number 1,223,472!Always document your samples! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Just pan it a couple of times. With that small of an amount of material, you should be able to get it all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kat Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Wow Jim! That is awesome!! PM or email Johnno, he has something that you would be looking for, just don't know how to mail it to you.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desertsunburn Posted December 15, 2012 Author Share Posted December 15, 2012 Well, I've been PUNKED. My wife was in on it! I saw her smiling aweful big and put two and two together. Sooooo... SOB! They ain't getting their gold back! She said they did this like 6 months ago and just waited! Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kat Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 OMG... That is so funny, but yet not. Oh my goodness.High fives to your wife ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desertsunburn Posted December 15, 2012 Author Share Posted December 15, 2012 I've been working on that all morning! Not only am I keeping the gold, I am going to get even! Man, I was all excited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaimi Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Aloha Jim,I always knew Wendy had a sense of humour but this was soo funny I could not stop laughing. Oh now I can just see the wheels turning in your head planning a come back. Good Luck on that one.Aloha and stay well,Stan aka KaimiPS: Tell Wendy I said Aloha and give Franny a pet on the head for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldfinger Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 You'll never get even with women. I've tried for 62 years and haven't succeeded yet. They keep going at you over and over again until you just give up... Something about having the memory of an elephant....Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Dorado Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Women and their tricks. I am my X were dredging full time on the Yuba River. It was 1/2 way through the summer and I had not found a single big nugget yet, pounds of amalgamated fines but no biggies. She took a turn at the nozzle and I was sitting on the bank just watching and quaffing a beer. She came flying out of the hole with a giant nugget in her hand screaming. She was hootin and hollerin and running toward me. I could see it was going to be an ouncer or bigger. The beach where we were at was all soft sand and she hit the sand running, tripped and the nugget went flying. Spent an hour grovelling in the sand a only to find it and she had painted a rock gold and was laughing so hard she pee'd (in her wetsuit)........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam Posted December 15, 2012 Share Posted December 15, 2012 Dangit ! ...I grabbed all my gear and was half way to Cibola ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desertsunburn Posted December 16, 2012 Author Share Posted December 16, 2012 I smelted them babies later in the day! (Side note: Had to make a mad dash to Havasu today and just to let ya'll know....snow on top of Crossman Peak...Awesome)So, I had 5 grams total (they were a little wet when I weighed them. After the smelt, 3.4 grams. But it sure turned out to be pretty. Still working on my smelt flux...still not sure I have it right! I will be sending this sample in for seperate assay just for my own edumacation to see how my smelting is doing. My flux sure seems thick....poors like molasses. Maybe not enough Borax??? HmmmJim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Furness Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Had planned to head to Cibola in the morning anyway so you had me thinking as I read through the thread. Going for a little striper, cat and larry fishing along the Colorado River. Think I'll throw in the MXT just in case I tire of fishing out of my kayak!!! Now where was that wash? Hmmmm! Mike F Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoser John Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 FIRST FORGET THE SOAP--all it does is make bubbles that carry away the microfines, float tiny flat thin flakes and NOT any help. I mark samples and TAKE PICS of sample areas but when water under the bridge so jus' forget it as a lesson learned -John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desertsunburn Posted December 16, 2012 Author Share Posted December 16, 2012 FIRST FORGET THE SOAP--all it does is make bubbles that carry away the microfines, float tiny flat thin flakes and NOT any help. I mark samples and TAKE PICS of sample areas but when water under the bridge so jus' forget it as a lesson learned -JohnInteresting! I've always used it as a surfacant to break the surface tension of the water. Which makes things sink. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sledge Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 That is a soooo not funny joke to play on you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlakMagnet Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 that's a classic... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoser John Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Jet dry is a surfactant and NOT soap as soap does the EXACT opposite. To measure you need a stagliometer to measure surface tension in the dynes mode and all will be revealed. what can I say as a ol' AFLCIO apprenticed class "A" lab technician in the GULP dare I say 60's I can attest to that factoid. Google floatation cell and all will be revealed and you'll say O John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heybeerman Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Funny stuff!Can you tell your wife to play a joke on me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlennM Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 What Blake said!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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