Indoor Gold Cons Cleanup - Winter Fun, wheeeeee! Options

[swizz]

I did some cleanup yesterday and thought I'd share some pics.
I plan on adding a recirculating cleanup sluice to the system (probably the new Keene Super Recirc.) this spring for the #20+ mesh stuff.... for now I'm panning that. Mesh #30 and smaller go into the Blue Bowl .
I ran two separate batches of concentrate through the system, both from our very own CP!
Each were 2lb dry bags.
The first was concentrate was sent by Dan & Denise from the shavings and grindings (panning sample) included in the incredible gold/quartz cab that I won in the CP drawing (1st item down): CP Stash
The second 2lb cons bag that I ran through was a special bag that Dan & Denise put together (which I requested) for Colorado gold (to be included in a project I'm working on). I am very grateful, exactly what I needed.
If you've got the cabin fever or just want to stay sharp with your cleanup techniques I highly recommend picking up some CP cons and gettin' busy. Me.... I'm still learnin'. I had a blast!
Here's how it went:

My indoor system is very tidy. As you can see I'm setting up shop on my nice area rug with no worries. Well, that and.... since my last girlfriend moved out there are no more rules here . I'll also be wearing a tuxedo during the entire process (the umbrella in the pic is for camera lighting)


Some of my cleanup tools:


This is my basic recirculating setup The 36 gal Rubbermaid tub contains all of the splashback. I'll be attaching the spray nozzle (for rinsing classifying screens, etc.) and the Blue Bowl to the end of the recirc hose for each process.


This is the first stack of screens - #2 mesh down to #30. Since I know I have a tendency to get these screens mixed up (and the magic marker will eventually wear off) I've taken the liberty of burning the mesh numbers into each screen rim with a rounded attachment on my woobuning tool.


Dirt


Rinsing it down trough the stack one screen at a time


Starting to see colors in the #20 mesh


#20 - #2 mesh goes to the pan. Here's the #30 mesh and smaller that went to the bottom of the bucket. It will be classified in the next stack of screens:


Next stack of screens #30 - #100. Each mesh class will be Blue-Bowled separately at different speeds.


continued....

[Donny]

Wow, I'd like to say thank you too everyone on multiple levels. It's an awesome vibe joining guys as your all very welcoming. It was an honor to serve, thank you all very much! Getting out and in a sense "having my leash taken off," lol It feels like a great area of freedom and exploitation. I look forward to getting to know all of you better and learning from you all. I'll keep the questions down a minimum of 50 per blog. Lol jp. Thanks again all

[Crusty]

Got in 8 hours of classifying today. Did 3.5 buckets down to 8, 12, 20. I've got 2 full buckets of -20, waiting to get 30, 50, 100 classified.

Only saw some really small gold, but I did pull a nice garnet out of the 8 and 2 out of the 12!

[Donny]

Got in 8 hours of classifying today. Did 3.5 buckets down to 8, 12, 20. I've got 2 full buckets of -20, waiting to get 30, 50, 100 classified.

Only saw some really small gold, but I did pull a nice garnet out of the 8 and 2 out of the 12!

So what does all that mean?

[Donny]

Wow, I'd like to say thank you too everyone on multiple levels. It's an awesome vibe joining you guys as your all very welcoming. It was an honor to serve this country, thank you all very much! Getting out and in a sense "having my leash taken off," lol prospecting feels like a great area of freedom and exploration. I look forward to getting to know all of you better and learning from you all. I'll keep the questions down a minimum of 50 per blog. Lol. Thanks again all

Stupid smart phones. Don't know how I messed my first reply up so bad but this is what it was suppose to say.

[Crusty]

So what does all that mean?

If you look at the first page of this thread, you'll see Swizz's photos. The green "things" stacked on top of the bucket are classifiers. They have screens in them that only let material of a certain size through. The numbers are the # of holes per inch, so a #12 classifier has 12 holes per inch, a 30 has 30, etc. Classifiying makes pulling the gold out of the material easier, even if you just sluice it, as gold (and garnets) are heavier than most like-sized material. When you get to trying to get the super fine gold, classifying it down to super fine particles is a must; the 100 classifier hardly looks like it has holes in it!

In the field you can get away with only going down to 2 or 4 and then running the concentrates through your sluice and then bringing home what you pull out the sluice to classify in to the smaller stuff, but on my last trip I wasn't able to sluice, so I am forced to classify everything versus just the stuff that stuck in a sluice, so it will take much longer to get through.

Hope that makes sense, since I'm just a rookie myself! :)

[MikeS]

So what does all that mean?

I know how you feel. I have been Gold panning since I was a teenager in the 90's and the lingo and the techniques they use on this topic is a bit beyond my scope.
I do understand why they need to refine larger amounts of material to get the Gold out though.

[Crusty]

OK, in my recirculating tub there is a lot of sediment, from the light sand that is suspended in the water. Is the fine gold light enough to get caught up in this stuff as it floats about and should I be panning it or saving it for the blue bowl? Or is it pretty safe to assume it is all just waste?

Knocked out another bucket... only 7 to go!

[Caveman]

Since this is from Chris's claim, I would not worry about the sediment as there are very little fines in his area. You might find a speck of -100, but I doubt it. Also, if you are properly using a surfactant (like "Jet-Dry", and producing no foam), fine gold will not get caught up in the fine sediment. I'd toss it - Try as you might, Crusty, no matter what, you can't catch it all. Some will get away for whatever reason, and it's just not worth the time/effort to try and catch it.

[Crusty]

Since this is from Chris's claim, I would not worry about the sediment as there are very little fines in his area. You might find a speck of -100, but I doubt it. Also, if you are properly using a surfactant (like "Jet-Dry", and producing no foam), fine gold will not get caught up in the fine sediment. I'd toss it - Try as you might, Crusty, no matter what, you can't catch it all. Some will get away for whatever reason, and it's just not worth the time/effort to try and catch it.

Definitely using jet dry. Glad to hear that, as I did quickly pan the first 1/2 bucket I pulled out and didn't see anything. If it was in an area that had more fine gold, would it be prudent to process it, or is even the fine stuff heavy enough not to get caught up in it?

Thanks for sharing your smarts! :)

[swizz]

I agree that most of the Gold from that latest hole is +50.... not much in the minus 100 class. I'm never too excited about processing minus 100 from up there, takes longer and doesn't yield as much... but has to be done.

[Dypheron]

When I get down to the -100 cons I run the bowl really slow for a few minutes, roughly 1 1/2 down from the lip. That slowly pulls the light blondes off the top, then I stop the flow and spread out what has built up around the cone and push it to the outside. I keep doing that while slowly ramping up the speed until all I can see is a little bit of black sand left. I'll pan that slowly and watch for color trying to move with the black sand. The hard part is getting it out of the pan, I have an insulin syringe that I filed the point off of that works pretty good, but I have to check the rubber piece inside because the gold loves to stick to it. It really is more trouble than it's worth for the super fine stuff, Chris is right that most of the gold is 50+ up there from what I've seen in both of my cleanups.

[Crusty]

copy, thanks fellas!

[EMac]

He's right! I'm in the "just bought a new pan + one season"

Jessie - I'm pretty sure you now have a sluice, and a clean up sluice from Swizz (which is elegantly simple with a really nice construction IMO). That seems to be how it goes....you build up gear along with knowledge over time.

Donny - if you fancy a trip to just west of Golden on Clear Creek, Jessie and I will be up there Saturday (US 6 headed west, ~mile marker 261....first major turnout to the left after you pass Mayhem Gulch's paved parking lot). While at the creek, I generally use my pans to test and keep the sun off my sodas cooling in the stream, so you could use those. I also take #4 and #8 classifier screens (smaller ones stay at home for cleanup), and have a Wolftrap sluice you could use. You'd just need to dress to be in the water, and bring a shovel. I can show you how I learned to pan (backwash and tap technique primarily), and lessons learned since then if you need that. Let me know. I figure I'll be up there around 10-10:30 unless I don't end up sleeping in tomorrow.

[fenixsmom]

There is no sleeping in! We have gold to find!!!!! Donny you are more than welcome to join us.

[Denise]

That is very cool of you EMac and Jessie! Have fun and stay safe out there............ and I hope the gold lines your pans!