Newby Cabin Fever Questions, Questions, questions Options

[Easygoer]

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It has been kind of quiet on the board lately! I am trapped in sunny Louisiana waiting for the summer to head to Colorado to start prospecting. Having nothing but time on my hands, or too much time actually I have some questions that I hope some of you would be kind enough to answer if possible. Newbie questions to be sure but I haven't seen them answered elsewhere and they seem to be somewhat specific to the Colorado area. So here goes!!

" The Arkansas River has very fine gold mixed with black sands, what is the black sand? Reading about it on the internet (I know that can be dangerous) it could be several different things, does anyone know what the Arkansas holds?

" What are waste materials are typically found with the gold, meaning when you have classified down to where you are separating out the gold, what else is left in the pan? Garnet? Lead? I know depending on the area you prospect these will vary, I will be in the Arkansas River.
" The reason I ask is has anyone tried upgrading their cons to see if you can capture a higher percentage of the ultra-fines. Specifically has anyone tried the rod mill detailed by Randy Clarkson. I have two PDF documents that he sent if anyone would be interested in seeing them. Basically, cons are run for 7 minutes in the mill, contents screened to remove large flattened gold pieces, the remaining contents can be rerun on a finishing table, the rod mill will have flattened the gold and allow for additional recovery, above 90% in his trials. According to his findings some of those coffee cans contain gold in the amounts of 50,000g/mt.

" Again, I know there is no absolute answer to this question, I am just curious what size is the fine gold typically found? I know the "big" could be anything, but how small is small? Is there any value to increasing the % recovered or is there not enough there there?

" Back to the black sands, I know black sand can be present without gold, but apparently in the Arkansas black sand and gold seem to go together. In one of the posts (I believe it was Crusty, couldn't find it again so if this isn't correct sorry) there was concern that the black sand would overwhelm the dredge sluice box very quickly. If this is the case has anyone ever tried to further process this black sand to see if there is micro-fine gold in the sands? By further process I am referring to some type of grinding in a mill or other mechanical methods?

Any answers to any parts of these questions would be greatly appreciated! I am not sure as to the appropriateness of attaching links or embedding PDF's if it is not an issue and anyone would like to read them I will be glad to post them.

Thanks

Easygoer