Test Run - 40 lbs = .4 grams

[GeoJack]

Just crushed some ore, about 40 lbs wet, classified and then Gold Cube. Got about .4 grams. Keep going or look for a better spot?

[LipCa]

About 2/3 oz/ton..... Not enough if you have to dig it by hand.

[GeoJack]

Loose stuff on tailing piles.

[Swampstomper Al]

More like 6/7 oz metric ton.. Allllmost enough difference to...

Not bad if usin' moderate volume equipment or larger..

By hand tho..? Think I'd keep the co-ords & keep lookin'..

Its bein' loose tho definitely makes it a nice 'rainy day' supply..

Swamp

[GeoJack]

Nothing by hand, jaw crusher, impact mill. Screening it down took the time but I wanted to see where the bulk of the au was after classifying.

[Swampstomper Al]

Nothing by hand, jaw crusher, impact mill. Screening it down took the time but I wanted to see where the bulk of the au was after classifying.

And it was -- where..? I assume you mean size-wise..?

I should have been a bit more specific by what I meant by hand GeoJack, but then again at that time

I didn't know you have jaw crusher & impact mill..

From a practical and realistic POV, I'll sit n drop rock into an impact mill all day for just under an ozT.. Jaw

crusher shavings can be a bit of a pain, but again -- same answer.. Impact mill gets you almost entirely

to 20- & smaller..

I guess what I'm trying to say is if the tailings are within easy reach or always seem to be "on the way home,"

to me it doesn't seem to be all that bad an idea stopping by to fill some buckets or the bed of a PU to build

a stockpile at home base for processing during a bad weather stretch out in the field, since you do have that

equipment available..

Swamp

EDIT: I'm assuming easy new tailings disposal from home base doing this.. sa

Edited February 8, 2016 by Swampstomper Al

[GeoJack]

Would sure like to catch all this in the recovery. Swamp, it is very close to home, very close.

Did a bit of hand sorting under the microscope.

Edited February 8, 2016 by GeoJack

[Swampstomper Al]

Nice..!

You have a gold cube; you'll catch it..

Swamp

EDIT: The way I see it, someone set out a buncha free gold for you.. sa

Edited February 8, 2016 by Swampstomper Al

[GeoJack]

1850 diggin, and they did leave a bunch for me, no crushers running at the time they dug, high grade was tossed aside.

This is 50 micron or smaller. Top picture you can see my hair running across the screen.

[boulder dash]

20 grams to the ton is definitely worth running.

[Swampstomper Al]

That entire setup sounds purt sweet.. Kinda hard to turn one's back on.. And it does fall within 'worth recovering'

guidelines, especially in this day and age with our tools and especially if the vast majority of the tailings contains Au..

Lesseeee -- 50 microns.. That's about 300 mesh, right..? A Gold Cube'll recover that fine at a high %,

but I'm thinkin' of Lake Superior black sands at that fineness.. Don't know how well a cube'll do on crushed ore

%-wise without finer crushing, but there's a surefire way to find out..

Swamp

[Swampstomper Al]

I just took a closer look at the magnified pix, and the fines appear to be nicely separated..

The only possible problem I see is is the need for an one-step finer screen than most folks

have on hand.. Alternative would be a friend's RP-4 or similar..

Swamp

[GeoJack]

Swamp, I have a tub full of the organic goo from the crush and I'm sure the finer stuff is in there. I ran all meshes from -8 to -100 with the 12, 20, 30 and 50 meshes in between.

Any way to flush the organics from the tub and leave the Au or should I just run the sludge through the Cube and hope for the best and do the clean up after?

[Swampstomper Al]

Good question..

I don't know of any quick and easy way to get rid of the goo from the tub..

I DO know of a way that might or could work and be quick and easy, but I've never tried it, much less tried it with gold as fine as what'll be in there, and it would require manufacturing an inexpensive, quick and easy to make piece of equipment..

Ever hear of the two-bucket method..? It's based on centrifugal force.. I'll follow up with how to make one if you'd like..?

Next best thing would probably be your Blue Bowl, if it was set up properly.. Actually that's most likely the best way to go to begin with.. But since that isn't an option at the moment...

After that most likely a pyramid-type pan shakeout in a clean tub of water..

Or, maybe the best way IS by thinning the goo a bit then re-running it through the Gold Cube.. If it's just organic sludge and no roots n twigs n the like, the cube may be the best choice..

I really don't know.. But I will be happy to follow up with how to make a two-bucket setup if you'd like.. Just say the word..

Swamp

EDIT: Actually, it WILL work.. The 'might' and 'could' is all about it being superfine gold and its being

in a thick organic sludge.. sa

Edited February 8, 2016 by Swampstomper Al

[GeoJack]

Swamp,

Thanks for the offer and assist.

Had the two - bucket system here and hadn't thought about it lately but good idea.

Sludge came out of the impact mill (water feed) output bucket that overflowed, expect a lot of floaters. Haven't classified it or otherwise, just saved to one bucket. I may set up the Blue Bowl again and give it a go after I wash it through the Cube to catch any heavys and then low and slow in the Bowl and see what comes out.

I save all my cons so no worry of losing any material. Still have to take a look at the -8 +12 material under the scope to see if I have any AU hung up in the quartz still after the crush / impact x2 cycle. Need to replace chain links in mill so I can continue to the minus 20 cutoff I'm wanting.

Will report my findings.

[Swampstomper Al]

Now yer talkin'.. The only way to do it is to do it right with Au that fine.. Slow is the way to go..

That's cool to hear, your knowing about the two-bucket method.. Most don't.. As said I've never built one but have seen

'em in action.. Costs all of maybe a dollar to put one together if you've gotten three buckets from AlwaysDirty lol.. Are

you using a 2" or 3" hole & test cap..? The 2" cuts out a lot of excess material without any heavies loss.. Reuse your

soapy water.. That way when finished you can add a coagulant & capture the nano gold too..

Since you're reclassifying the goo that makes picking up a piece of 200 mesh sensible and affordable.. I've only ever

seen then at scientific lab supply outlet sites, and you'll probably need to make your own frame, but if a goodly

quantity of the Au is smaller than that it does seem like the right thing to do adding in that screening..

Definitely interested in hearing how & what works best..!

Swamp

[GeoJack]

I had ordered three screens, 100, 50 and 20 mesh from McMaster Carr expecting to run the outflow from the mill over them to classify. I now know that wouldn't work, you need to work the material rather than just send it over a screen.

More to come.

[GeoJack]

Drying out the cons, will cook me a button and get a weight.

[chrisski]

I am coming up with an ounce per ton, but my math says that 40 LBS of wet material equals 28 LBS of dry material.

Certainly no expert, but I would say if the ore was really consistent quality, and you had access to tons of it, I would think you could crush it and get the gold. 1 tons is about 40 five gallon buckets full of crushed ore. That does include most of the money going to tool up for the operation. Small time as I am I think I'd probably spend a month doing this from decision time to clean up, including transportation of equipment and milling the ore.

I would be more worried about the consistency of the material. I'd also be afraid if I scooped the material up with equipment, Id get a large amount of Dirt mixed up in this ore, turning my one ounce per ton of ore to a real 1/3 ounce or less per ton.

[LipCa]

I missed "wet"

[GeoJack]

Chris,

Hand seperation of the quartz, not mechnical, and cleaning dirt off prior to crush. Haven't run any of the gossan material to see content yet. Will stay with the quartz until I get to the lesser stuff.

How many tons per yard for quartz?

Braun crusher operates at 400 lbs / hour, impact mill much slower. I should be able to crush about 5 to 8 buckets per day. 4 per day to mill.

Crusher and mill on site with material already.

[Swampstomper Al]

I'd have to say you're over-thinking a point or two and also introducing false variablesl, Chriski..

I mean, there's nothing wrong with thinking, planning, making contingencies etc.. But...

And there's different degrees of 'wet' as well..

Let's make the assumption the Au ore is entirely quartz.. Six soaking wet pieces of gold bearing quartz weighing 1 lb. is going to weigh less than those same six pieces crushed and drained but still saturated.. I don't know the formula you reference but I do know about surface area, along with the filling of otherwise empty or air-filled cavities now filled with water -- surface area and cavaties not present prior to crushing.. Dropping a metric ton of the now-crushed wet ore onto a scale may read 2800 lbs., but that's a false reading becaues you're reading both the ore and the on-surface & trapped H2O.. The tonne of ore is still a tonne of ore.. Assuming uniformity of testing, recovery rate remains unchanged..

The same holds true for the scooping of unwanted material(s).. Let's look at a couple of variables.. Assume the ore is fist-sized quartz chunks and all the debris is sand.. That's easy enough to get rid of; drop everything onto a big piece of expanded metal and give it a shake.. Problem solved.. Sand, dirt, leaves and twigs..? Same thing.. Exceot this time the crane (or whatever) moves the expanded metal over the tank (settling pond, wide flowing mountain stream, Sargasso Sea, whatever,) dunks it, gives it a li'l shake, turn on the fan to blow away the floaties, and voila! -- clean ore.. And so far no worries about losing any Au because it's all still locked up.. We haven't begun to process it yet.. But that three tons of 'material' is now again one tonne of ore.. Recovery rate remains constant for the ore even if you were to process everything.. The 1/3 oz per tonne recovery = false..

Actually, I can't perceive a case or instance where your worry about excess dirt comes into play processing this type of ore by the method being discussed, assuming the ore is indeed quartz.. 'Dirt'-y gold-bearing material..? Different story.. Because if it was a different kind of material you'd be processing it in a totally different manner to begin with.. It wouldn't be beginning its journey via jaw crushers or a hammer mill..

I simply can't see or forsee the problem(s) you envision.. They either aren't there or there are easy enough solutions.. What I am saying is case specific, though.. And I only assume I've culled enough information from GeoJack to make what I'm stating valid.. I could be making false assumptions due to my not having enough information about possible pitfalls.. However, what I have been saying appears to fit the situation as presented thusfar with the exception of the ore being 100% quartz yet still viable enough to begin processing via jaw crusher and/or hammer mill..

Swamp

Oh, one other thing: Sounds like you're talking about bringing Mo to the mountain.. I've been talking about bringing the mountain to Mo.. Does this make a difference in the overall scheme of things, the end recovery..? With the exception of already existing shelter and some conveniences I doubt it.. sa

[Swampstomper Al]

Well, that just answered the question about Mo & the mountain, GeoJack, lol..

Swamp

[GeoJack]

All cooked out at only .2g. darn lots of work for that bit.

[boulder dash]

Often you loose some making a button. Amalgam, then remove quick silver, than weigh. Worked well for me.