looking for advise on equipment

[jubilation]

Wow! This thread is quiet. I'm going for it anyway....

I could spend ALOT of $$ trying to figure out the best options for me, but Id rather not. I'd like to find a piece of equipment to run a small amount of dirt. off and on- nothing big, however effective. There is some gravel there, but alot of sand & silt as well.

Last year, I ran a blue bowl after classifying. I found a couple of flakes in the screened material- but the blue bowl gave me nothing. I thought about trying one of the spirals, but Im not into paying for one, if it isnt right for what I need. What is the best option for a hobbiest like myself?

 

[Daveinthebush]

I don't know everything your doing so I'll just let you know what I do. 1. Once I find promising gravel, I load it into a 5-gallon bucket of water with a sieve on top and classify to 1/4 or 1/8" depending on my hopes. I wash and shake the sieve filling the bucket pretty full dumping the larger stuff out of the sieve as I go. I then head to my sluice box and slowly run the 5-gallon bucket thru the sluice. When the sluice gets too full I dump it into a 3-gallon bucket and keep going until everything is run only pulling the matts on the last emptying. I might pan a little of the sluiced product to see if my effort was worth it. I then decide whether to continue or go home. 3. I then take the 3-gallon home, pan it in a tub, then run it in the yard in a micro sluice. 4. Suck it out in a bottle and put it in a quart jar. (or a very small vial.)

 

[TintedSnow]

Gold Cube. Works wonders.

 

[Gerberman]

I got a Gold cube last summer and had the grandkids run the sand after classifying it to 1/8", they ran 4 buckets about 4 gallons each, we ended up with 3/4 of a pop bottle of black sand and gold, now I need to get the gold out of the sand. Is there and easy way to do this?

 

[jubilation]

I don't know everything your doing so I'll just let you know what I do. 1. Once I find promising gravel, I load it into a 5-gallon bucket of water with a sieve on top and classify to 1/4 or 1/8" depending on my hopes. I wash and shake the sieve filling the bucket pretty full dumping the larger stuff out of the sieve as I go. I then head to my sluice box and slowly run the 5-gallon bucket thru the sluice. When the sluice gets too full I dump it into a 3-gallon bucket and keep going until everything is run only pulling the matts on the last emptying. I might pan a little of the sluiced product to see if my effort was worth it. I then decide whether to continue or go home. 3. I then take the 3-gallon home, pan it in a tub, then run it in the yard in a micro sluice. 4. Suck it out in a bottle and put it in a quart jar. (or a very small vial.)

What sluice are you using? and micro sluice.

 

[Daveinthebush]

What sluice are you using? and micro sluice.

The clean up is from Gold Prospectors, part of their clean up kit. Looks like a rain gutter.
https://gpaastore.com/collections/frontpage/products/tom-perry-clean-up-kit

 

[avidflyer]

Late to the party, but the goldhog stuff works. The piglet mini highbanker will actually take a pretty good feed rate and does amazing. The multi sluice does awesome for clean up and you can run it out in the field as well for testing areas.

I normally run the highbanker till I'm tired of shoveling then pull the matts and put them in the bucket to clean out when I get home or back to the trailer then run the cons through the multi sluice. You can take 3-5 gallons of cons down to a few table spoons of super cons to pan out in real short order.

This year I built a couple of trommels to play with.

 

[jubilation]

Anyone find any cool new equipment?

 

[akaviator]

Anyone find any cool new equipment?

I'm just launching into prospecting this year. So far I've gathered together the usual good stuff, pics, prybars, pans, classifiers, vials, snuffers, etc. Got a MineLab Gold Monster 1000 for Christmas and a pinpointer, and just picked up a Keene Mini Max highbanker/sluicebox/concentrator. I have a plane and am going to fly out to some areas that I've dreamt about prospecting for many years and am finally going to move some dirt.

 

[Chez]

Anyone find any cool new equipment?

I seen good reviews of Dream Mats and plan on trying them this year

 

[MacGyver]

I seen good reviews of Dream Mats and plan on trying them this year

Really!! Dream Mats LOL If you want more gold move more dirt...........

 

[Chez]

Really!! Dream Mats LOL If you want more gold move more dirt...........

Whats your experience with them?