Hi, All!

This is a new thread, inspired by the 2004 thread I started when I first got my hands on the old "Gold Separator" tiny unit which I purchased off of eBay on a hunch and then wrote about here, when Gat chimed in and helped make it work better but not as good as what I'm introducing here today.

Here's the OLD, Original CP forum thread from 2004:

Old CP thread I started on Gat's and My tiny gold separator

Here's my existing unit, GOLDIE I call her, which I'm currently beta testing for Sluice Goose Industries out of Albany OR which has not put these into production yet:

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THIS ONE, My GOLDIE, totally HAS ME JAZZED.

Miner, Refiner, and entrepreneur, David Emslie right there in your sweet state, Denise, has seen this at the GPAA shows since May of 2018, and is also Jazzed about this unit and its performance for his reclamation mine which will be online in the next 5 weeks, and start chewing away at those tailings piles around his site. Colorado Approved, and county licensed, and lining up the old mines in the area, Dave wants to use units like my GOLDIE which John built, instead of totally relying upon gynormous tables already built and ready to be site mounted.

David Varabioff of "Motherlode Gold" (GoldBay Gold) is jazzed about getting his hands on a Goldrop unit shortly for his Colorado Quartz Gold Mine in No. California. Yes, the one he sells paydirt from and also finds those scarey beautiful Crystalized Gold Specimens, which just take my breath away.

Thirdly, Yuba Industries, a well known-- at least on this left coast-- miner, is also Jazzed after their initial salted cons test returned very high percentage of gold in their run of table cons when they just completed testing Goldrop. Salted 14 grams, recaptured 13g, aka 93% capture. I know nothing of the mesh sizes nor the composition of the con, nor the beginning weight/volume of cons, just got the report.

THIS 31" unit (adding the changeout catchment jar at the bottom of this "goose" adds another 5" in height), is a verrrrrrry small footprint unit and I predict will obsolete Shaker tables in both speed and rate of capture in the very near future.

This unit, since it is a closed system ELIMINATES the skating/kiting High Corey Factor gold losses from those flat, FLAT gold flakes, and all the floaters, too. ALL THAT, yes, They ALL end up in the catchment jar, and thus into your snuffer bottle for taking directly to the bank, and in short order. This is so satisfying.

I can process a 5 gal bucket of 3/16 screened cons in my GOLDIE in less than 20 minutes, and smile like a Chesire Cat.
Uses an 1100 GPH bilge pump, only 3 AMPs DC, and a gallon a minute. This is IDEAL for portable Solar Panel constant charging while processing, AND a recirc system, since it uses a gallon a minute in water.

I LOVE my "GOLDIE!"

Let's visit about this, CP'ers!!

Glad to be back with such good news, after 15yrs "doin' my thang" but never far away from my pan...which, BTW, I've traded in for the fabulous GOLD CLAW pan. WHEW!!! This is a WALK-OFF, 2 - Run homer to use Colorado Rockies' Baseball color commentary!!!

Good to have you back! Sounds like a great adventure you have embarked upon! I wish you all the best of luck.

Thank you, Denise. So good to "hear" your voice again, in this forum. I have been gone a long time. Yes, this is quite the adventure. The gold is so pretty and yellow which gets caught in the jar at the bottom, I'm really tickled.

I'm trying many dirts from multiple sources. I have been also using a DC powered sieve shaker for the top of a 5gal bucket unit which makes short work of the classification process. Since most the gold I have access too is pretty small, this just helps my time on the GOLDROP to be more effective.

This elutriation process is the BEEEEEEE'S KNEES! LOL

Here's what it looks like when it's not set up and I want it moved. (Well, sure I could carry it...it only weighs 9# after all) Somebody had to take the pix, right??? I'm no good at the "selfie" stuff. Click to view attachment

BTW, Just out of curiousity, I took a GC tray WITH vortex mat to the USPS to put it on "official scales". Then I multiplied, 1 tray x 4 to get the 4-stack GCube weight without pump or stand.

DIMENSIONS:
GOLDROP : 9 lbs total.
GCUBE 4 stack: 22 1/2 lbs total

HEIGHT/LENGTH
GOLDROP: 31" stem to stern
GCUBE: 4 Stack 20" top to bottom

GIRTH/WIDTH
GOLDROP: girth--> 2" Diameter
GCube: girth 13 inch width

These are just some comps I thought to measure.

ANNNNNNNNNNNNND, then there's this:
I don't have to wash out the GOLDROP like I do the GCube trays/mats, NOR pan out the GCcons out of the GC mat, etc.....
Elutriation does that collecting and sorting for me, and collects the gold into an unbreakable jar at the bottom. VOILA

TIME FROM BUCKET TO GOLD IN HAND: using scoop and plop method:
(and yes, I'm working using putting my continuous feed, Joel Farmer of USProspector, vibratory hopper in line for this GOLDROP Not happy with GCube surge and scour feed system. I'm scooping and plopping with the GOLDROP, too, currently.)

Scoop method of 5gal bucket
GOLDROP: 5 gals raw material every 20 minutes or less.
GCUBE: haven't ever measured that one. Maybe someone would chime in and tell me how much time it takes to run a 5gal through a 4 stack? I truly don't know.

GRAB the gold, once and done >>>>if I do it right with the GOLDROP. AND FAAAAST? WHEW!
That's why I'm practicing with this test unit. I LOVE those effeciency and speed and weight numbers:

Now you see a few of the reasons I'm so jazzed with this puppy!!!!!

This is my own photograph of my running through Cape Disappointment Blacksands Beach Gold, (Ilwaco WA--mouth of the Columbia River) on June 22, 2019. I was invited to participate in an official field test with others who had already learned how to use this GOLDROP, and I was the green newbie. Only seen it at GPAA shows. I'd never touched it before and was there to learn. I was scooping and plopping into the funnel as I was shown how to do, and this was what popped out of my first 5gal bucket of blacksands.

The size of the feedstock was 3/16ths. YES, I had my "Pocket Pan" , the smallest size GOLD CLAW into which I dumped the contents of the catchment jar. That's the unusual shaped pan you see the gold in when I'm taking a snapshot.

The largest piece below, that oblong one, was -15, the next larger pieces were -20 mesh. The bulk of the deposit were easily minus 200 mesh and smaller.

Part of the reason I was so excited about the gold pictured, the larger mesh pieces were very HIGH Corey Factor Gold flakes which would have kited right out of a normal sluice, dredge, GC, etc. Since GOLDROP is a CLOSED system, nothing floats away, Corey or the tiny "floaties." AND!!! We were on beaches which are also clam beds, so NO JET DRY nor DAWN DISHWASHING surfactants can be used. With GOLDROP, I didn't need them. YAY!!!!!

THRILLED ME!

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Enlarged about 10 power

I'm continuing to dial in this GOLDROP these last 7 days, and am pulling some amazing gold. Now, please realize I'm not the world's best photographer, but I did manage to grab this pix, complete with my first ever photo with a silver dime in it (which I got in change at the hardware store 2 wks ago)

This particular photo GOLDROP captured gold is from roughly 2 gallons of concentrates from north of Boise in a Mining Region everyone likes to drive up to, near Idaho City, ID. You Coloradoans have your Idaho Springs, we have our Idaho City. LOL

This is some very very small stuff, and it's beautiful!

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I asked Denise for permission to post a video from the inventor of this unit, John Richmond of Albany OR. She said yes. I'll put that in the next reply to this thread.

Inventor of GOLDROP elutriation tower (2" diameter individual prospector model) posted a fascinating short vid clip on the company website on Labor Day Monday, this week.

The backstory is, this was material sent to him by someone who has a hardrock mine, who'd pulverized a sample down to "talc powder" size which is pretty generally accepted to be approx. MINUS 200 mesh (<75μm) That's pretty fine. The payshot/results of what John pulled, from this man's ore shows the versatility of this unit. After wetting it into a slurry, pulverized WET MUCK, John poured from a miner's tin water cup and into the Goose. Obviously, it wasn't pre-screened, the -200 is the general estimate. You can see how fine it is on John's fingers in the video. Watch in amazement at some of the sizes of gold flakes John's GOLDROP grabbed for Don were waaaay bigger than -minus 200. Just shows the versatility of this unit, all in the same pass.

John shared that mine owner Don was told by the assayer Don took his ore sample to that he was going to have to agree to "a fee for pre-treatment" of Don's Ore: $14,000 to remove the iron from Don's sample, and THEN he'd perform the assay for the curious mine owner.

Inventor John gave Don his gold answer, and in about 5 minutes. See it happen right in front of your eyes.

It's obvious John is proud of what he did for the Don, and of course, he's sending Don back his gold so he can examine under a microscope for more information, or to go ahead and pick another assayer to determine purity, etc. OBVIOUSLY, the bulk of the "iron" is gone.

VIDEO LINK HERE: GOLDROP Grabs Gold from -200 Talc Powder paydirt

Enjoy. I know I did!!

A question has arisen from a reader on another forum: (go ahead, join CP. Denise won't mind a bit, will you, Denise?

"How can there be bigger gold in a crushed sample's results than the -200 mesh crush?"

Good question.

Just because the ore went through a crusher that crushes down to -200 mesh does NOT mean the gold will also be
the same uniform sized result, as the crushed host rock.

It can emerge in larger form due to malleability of the gold vs the iron in this instance. And smaller than -200, too. Same holds true if the host is quartz, or any other mineral host.

This newest vid (link above) of John's work with Don's sample is visual illustration of this reality.

Well, I'm having more fun than a pig in slop, as they say down on the farm.

I've been continuing my experiments with this fabulous GOLDROP Elutriation tower of inventor John Richmond, Sluice Goose Industries, Albany OR. It was approximatly 11 pounds before the bilgepump, etc., and I've got it down to under 7 pounds now, and have it mounted onto an aluminum tripod what was originally an easel tripod, with extendable aluminum legs.

It is such a joy to set up, and run now. Where as my 5'7" frame could barely see over the very large hopper for the he-males amongs us.

One of the things I've also done is change out that gonzo black, OEM round hopper of John's for a sloped bottom, offset, automotive funnel. Inserted into back of the red funnel in the pix, I've slipped the top water feed so that it makes a gentle arc and due to gravity, the 1/2# of cones slips and slides at a pretty steady rate into the funnel neck and down into the tower for separating then capturing.

I'm having so much fun, primarily because I'm seeing gold in darn near every capture jar that I dump into the regular sized GOLD CLAW when I empty the capture jar, which is often now that I've got this working jiiiiiiis right!

The relaxing sound of falling water out of the tailings pipe fitting, and the certain knowledge that I'm more than 95% guaranteed to get at least some color out of everything I'm running whether from local creeks, sandpits, Oregon beach cons, or sacks of "Washed" Quik Crete sand from HOME DEPOT, or black beach sands from Cape Disappointment in Washington State, you name it.

I'm seeing gold.

Boy, seeing gold every darn time takes the work out of running and finishing off "run of mine" or all the potato salad containers of cons I've never finished up until now, from years and years and years ago.

I'm operating now this test unit as primarily a finishing machine...only running material from -20 down to -50. Since I can clearly see through this unit's crystal clear elutriation chamber, I know when the material has worked down the same con twice. Then I crank up a specific value increasing velocity, send the gangue spinning up and into the tailings tube, CLOSE the gate valve above the capture jar, untwist it, empty the jar. VOILA...all those pretty gold specks and flakes. JUST WOW.

I haven't had this much fun since 1988 when I first learned to pan and thought I'd died and gone to heaven, getting to actually do THAT one on my bucket list.

I can't wait until this thing is on the market for the rest of you, that's how close to being done with the testing that John has me doing.

Just had to check in and give an update.

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Hi, Denise et al...

I'm happy to return from the blackhole of the internet and let you all know this GOLDROP is now officially for sale, as of the first GPAA Gold Show TUCSON AZ this past weekend.

The new North American Distributor for the entire continent is a well-known and highly respected gold miner and fine, cordial character, Dave Varabioff, of Motherlode Gold. Dave almost single-handedly cleaned up the wild and wooly eBay gold paydirt and nuggets business of 20+ years ago. And he's earned himself the right to be the Point of Sale contact for the GOLDROP.

The price point is now established, in two tiers: on the basic unit, with bilge pumps, hoses, etc., and comes boxed in a 9x9x9 by 42" sturdy cardboard box, and the other option, is the one with the two stackable recirc 1-30gal and 1-20gal barrels and shipped anywhere in the world in a steel retainer ring barrel. $500 more if you want the 2 barrels recirc model where you can leave it set up for days in the interior when you're off the grid.

John Richmond, the inventor, just completed an exciting set of artisanal miner trials under the watchful eye and invitation of the small miners association in Ghana, West Africa, the Department of Mineral Resources of the Ghanian govt, and the primary University in Ghana's Geology department.

The govt of Ghana has joined with 9 other nations in what is called the "Tokyo Treaty" to eliminate and outlaw the introduction of mercury into artisanal/placer mining in that nation. The govt of Peru just made a big splash as they seem to be the next in line to announce their intent to get serious about pulling mercury out of mining.

The Ghanian representatives, local, educational and governmental are so jazzed about the GOLDROP, they have already sent an official letter to Mr. Richmond of Sluice Goose Industries, Albany OR, announcing their delight, extending their deepest gratitude for coming and the demonstration, and indicating a desire to further collaborate in distributing the GOLDROP, especially in Ghana.

Another primary distributor (outside of USA sales) , Mr. Toby Pomeroy of Mercury Free Mining was the one who headed the Ghanian delegation for Mr. Richmond.

I'll post photos later of the set up, NA Distributor Dave had at the Phoenix GPAA show just concluded.

It's getting real, folks!!!! Stay turned. I'm as jazzed now than I was back in early summer last year when I got my beta test unit shot at working with this amazing, technology disruptive ELUTRIATION gold separator, All 7# of it, sopping wet

JUST IN: Dave Varabioff of Motherlode Gold's famous Colorado Crystal Gold Mine in California, has just posted his official demonstration unit photo of the GOLDROP he's now North America's only Distributor for. He had this set up at the Pomono Cali gold show a week ago.

One 5 gal bucket for a clean water reservoir (or recirc into for cleaner water), and 1 5gal bucket for holding his goldpan to pour catchment cup gold contents into!!!

Oh, and a catch bucket below this 32" unit for catching any drips from unscrewing catch cup

Goldrop with Run of Mine Large Funnel intake

The LARGE FUNNEL for cramming through 5 gal buckets in a hurry for testing, and the small funnel--scroll up 2 posts, the small one is "red"===> for finishing to capture anything below -100 consistently!!! (I get down to -300 using this incline funnel) Sure beats panning!!!!!!!! And eliminates RP4, which I sold, and has mothballed my Angus MacKirk "Orofino" aluminum deck shaker table.

Three new developments in the world of GOLDROP gold separator tool for miners are mentioning.

1) It just had its first genuine field test in the desert around Duisenberg and was successful. While others were creating billowing dust clouds enveloping themselves and their dry washers, etc., inventor John Richmond hauled 2large 5x5x4’ cubed‘ containers of water to his dig site, and recirculated his water,, and got not only the larger pieces the dry washers were producing, but also the fine gold aka tiny gold that the dry washers blow right out of their units.

2). John had Alum As a floc available but chose to not use it in his recirc system.

3). John has now installed a. Magnetic gutter sluice between the discharge pipe and and the settling pail sitting atop the recirc blue 33 gal water buckets, to passively capture the blacksands before entering the tailings. This all but eliminates his preferred use of 5e Spin-it Off rotary blacksands separator upon discharge.

And finally, John is experiencing my deliveries now that Dave Varabioff turned over th KellyCo company the exclusive USA distribution rights, selling directly from their own two showrooms as well as online. So many ticked to death users of this latest greatest tool to hit the goldminer market place.

If you haven’t seen this demonstrated yet, the videos keep coming as miners all over the western USA in particular, send in their “discards, and problem ores, and watch John pull their gold out for them in test after test after test.

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Recognizable Gold YouTube videographer, teacher, gold claim owner, and long-time Patreon content creator, prospector/adventurer Dan Hurd, is one of the newest users of the Sluice Goose elutriation gold separator, GOLDROP which I have been featuring on this forum since about May 4, 2018 when I spotted it in person at a GPAA gold show in Boise ID before I became the first outside the family, individual beta testor. KellyCo is now the national distributor and doing a fine job.

Dan has some pre-YT. full-color publicity stills currently in a collage format, and now out on the net, advertising his intent to demonstrate and showcase his use of this new fascinating GOLDROP tool in the goldprospector's universe.

Stay tuned for my follow-up post, with the url to his new YT when it is released. OR, go ahead and beat me to posting the link. Won't hurt inventor John Richmond's feelings in the slightest.

Get out and get some shiny this year. Enjoy the hunt, Colorado Prospectors, and the rest of us!

GOLDROP inventor John Richmond, reported this 14 of June 2021, in another forum that he is shipping three units at a time per day more frequently now, now that word is getting around and more satisfied buyers look at his price, the price of gold and do the math, especially in light of the time savings and portability of the stripped down 7.5# elutriation unit. KellyCo is doing a fab job nationally rep'ing for him. And as his original Beta tester, I couldn't be happier. The following graphic will help put the cost vs relatively quick cost recoup argument into quite sharp, favorable bias relief. (vc.13,398)

Yes, the trusty Garrett Green GPAA gold pan

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I'd be happy if I could just get a day off when it WASNT RAINING.

New advance word has been released that Ole Slim’s sidekick, none other than Jeff Williams of YouTube Channel fame, has put his GOLDROP through its paces, LOVES IT, and is preparing video of him using this Sluice Goose and endorsing it via these YouTubes to be released very shortly.

Just a heads up for my Colorado gold mining buddies!



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Dan Hurd just released this hot, July 25, Sunday morning, his 3rd YT video showing how he used the GOLDROP as a separator, to harvest 10 GRAMS from an 84 CY small machine operation. This is the contact layer of topsoil and first gravel layer, a test just to see how much gold was in this first phase of machine mining his claim. About 28 minutes long, and pretty fast moving, it's a nice paced video.

Grab your beverage and take a look. $8-ish dollars a cu yard is not economical, but for a test, and $600+ real, sellable gold in his pocket, it's not a poke in the eye, either. Trommel, two sluices, then Angus MacKirk, 12v. Tremor Sieve Shaker (still available) , Dan quickly hand-panned the 2 larger size, sieves, AND saved the smaller +1/8th mesh, and +1/16 mesh for the GOLDROP. Good plan, Dan

I would hope he'd save the cons which fell through the 1/16th and would actually table them, frankly. Even for contact zone topsoil/gravel, there are definitely smaller, fine gold in this 84 cy layer. The fine fine, under .0625" is most likely quite startling, which is why one needs a table, Dan.

Dan Hurd uses GOLDROP elutriation separator in 84 cy test run

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More exciting news from the world of GOLDROP Gold Separation technology, for the small scale miner, including the artisanal miners in other lands who rely heavily on mercury to recover their tiny-sized gold. I found the following news announcement on another forum. Couldn't wait to get here and share with y'all!!!

John Richmond
I have been invited to participate in this 2 Day Virtual Exhibition, Oct 6-7, 2021 and introduce the GOLDROP as a device that will help eliminate the use of mercury in the artisanal gold mining community. I am looking forward to presenting the GOLDROP as a viable option. Here is an introductory video I produced to accomplish this introduction.

https://youtu.be/maILAhEWWpE


John makes undoctored videos since he is a fabulous engineer and machine shop owner over in Portland Oregon/Salem OR area. One of his claims to fame in the mining world besides GOLDROP, is his astounding repair and re-installation of the horrendously huge dredge sand screw tips for keeping the Columbia River open to ship and barge traffic. He's posted some tremendous photos and vid clips over the years of how he seriously loves his work. Check them out sometime.

Looking forward to seeing you In October in your virtual presentation, John!!!!

Loved this 11 minute video you've made for the presentation.

PS. John has 954 Subscribers to his YouTube SluiceGoose GOLDROP channel!!!

Thanks Colorado Prospectors for your support. This forum was among the very first to learn of this fabulous elutriation separator for gold, a huge time saving, GOLD GETTER!!!

You and Toby are cleaning up the earth, air, and oceans one drop of mercury at a time!


14,201

Hi,
I've been watching all the tips & tricks to running the Goldrop unit on YT and the Sluice Goose page, just read your comments on eliminating the flat & floater gold issues. How are you running the Cape Dissapointment materials with all those heavy micro black sands? I am waiting to buy a unit from KCo and they won't be back in stock until December. Santa is coming early this year!

Hi, B.Moore, thanks for your message. My response is going to be kinda long, because I'm long on details, and only write about what I can back up with personal experience.

Here goes.

I frankly have run Cape D micro sands, same as I run the various beach sands up and down the west coast. (Haven't been to the east coast, yet, prolly won't get there either...I'm in PacNW, as this forum knows.) First thing I do NOW, is I mag separate them, using the MagnaSort clip on unit by TheGnarl, on the internet. I am building a rotating 12v DC sorter, but it didn't get finished this summer. So, I'm using the slower Colter Young mag sorter product, with its relatively tiny funnel.

You ask why? Because gold is NOT magnetic, altho' tiny gold fines can be occasionally trapped between two magnetite particles in the bulk of the blacksands. THEN I run them through the SWEEEEET GOLDROP!

The inventor has added a new wrinkle, and as his #1 beta tester, I'm waiting for my upgrade any day now. He is SLAMMED with his regular machine shop business, as well as manufacturing GOLDROPs! I just called him on his cell and asked him when K.Co will be shipping his new add-on with the Basic Unit, and he wasn't in...went to voice mail. John's new add-on is the magna-sluice you've seen off the discharge end of the GOLDROP in his more recent videos. When I hear back from him, prolly this evening (11.14.2022), I'll come back and update you. Deal?

He basically has created a magnetite sandbed on that metal U-Channel chute, that fits under the discharge pipe off the back of the GOLDROP, which acts as a sinking bed for the itsy bitsy gold fines, down to all kinds of minute sizes. I've been astonished, frankly at the minus 200+ gold, and more, he is catching with the GOLDROP. You'll still have to wash out the chute, separate magnetite and gold with the Spin-It Off, and finish with the GoldClaw <<< LOVE this little dude, as well. But who minds catching darned near ALLLLL gold bitsy's? Not this prospector!!!

Truth be told, the tiny-er the bitsy gold, the more pure those little hummers are, so it is well worth the effort. To grab, dry and pour into your plastic gold vials, with their screw top lids.

I just do the "mag seps" step first, is all. And since I don't have a Spin-It-Off, I grab the magnetics first, one of the only 2 volume ways I know, which are listed above.

I sure hope this helps. So Glad SANTA has you on the "NICE LIST" for you new GOLDROP! You'll be over the moon with energy and fun and results. Since it is a recirc unit, so you shouldn't have any problem using it on the Peninsula Beaches, both there and at Long Beach, just north of Cape D.

Thanks for asking. I love pix. Send yours, okay?

Sincerely,
Megan "Yellow Chick" Rose
aka Gold_Tutor
---19,127

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Hi Megan "Yellow Chick" Rose,

I sent John an email and he thought KellyCo would be back in-stock on 1 Dec, he's just waiting on parts...empty shelves in the USA everywhere! My dredge group runs 4 dredges on private claims on the Arkansas River between BV and Leadville and we recover lots of -50 to -200 gold. You can imagine how many hours it takes to process 10 gallons of cons per day, first thru the Gold Cube, then the GH Multisluice, finally removing the magnetic black sands and hand panning for several hours. I've gotten so frustrated trying to pan the micro flour gold that I take my cons home and work on them in Winter.

I watched the GoldBay guy use a Goldrop to do a final cleanup on crushed "dust" from his mine, WOW amazing results in a couple of minutes.

What I was interested in was your "Technique" on Cape Disappointment 200 - 300 mesh gold. After watching a couple of John's YT videos, he mentioned that you ran the material 2 times at a slower feed rate into the Goldrop and 5 Gals of cons took 20 minutes to process. I imagine you can over load the 2" grey tube & elutriation chamber, and end up pushing gold out of the discharge port.

From my last outing.
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Bill

NICE PIX, Bill. THANKS!

Glad you heard from John. He didn't get my voice mail, I guess, he normally is so very quick to reply.

Have you been watching John Schoonover's pics on FB? He has some kind of multi-sorter by size, honking size weight wise...I've seen earlier fotos of it taking 2 men to lode the heavy metal unit into a trailer and strap it down. I recall maybe 3' x 3' by 4" thick unit only he and the inventor and a literal handful of custom built Micron Gold mechanical gold sorter units' owners understand and use in the last 20 yrs.

His photos are impressive, and he's got a chunk of change already tied up in his Micron Gold sorter im thinking it was over $6K 20 yrs ago, an that was when gold was waaaaaaaaay less than it is currently. He posts interesting pix. The MOST interesting thing is, he use's GOLDROP after he's thru running the heavy square unit described above, to get the REST of his missed, truly micro gold.

I've been following, and always compliment him and his efforts. He checked with me, after he'd bot his Micron unit, for my opinion on what John's GOLDROP would catch, subsequently bot it, and thanked me genuinely immediately upon adding GOLDROP to his circuit as the final-final clean up tool.

He's got a master plan, and I don't know what it is...but he is accepting custom work from miners who have talings buckets left over they don't want to mess with. He works for only 10% of his total harvest and returns 90% back to the tailings' bucket owners. He's busting his hump trying to prove and advance whatever he's up to, and I admire that.

The important part to me is when his MICRON mechanical scavenger unit does its darndest, John S. then turns to the GOLDROP to finish off the tiny gold capture, thanks to the magnetite sluice bed on the GOLDROP, before returning gold and remainders to the original owner.

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Yes, I actually have contacted both John Schoonover & Shane Klesh regarding their thoughts on the Goldrop. I'm still interested in your technique, what do you do for Cape D cons:

What I was interested in was your "Technique" on Cape Disappointment 200 - 300 mesh gold. After watching a couple of John's YT videos, he mentioned that you ran the material 2 times at a slower feed rate into the Goldrop and 5 Gals of cons took 20 minutes to process. I imagine you can over load the 2" grey tube & elutriation chamber, and end up pushing gold out of the discharge port. bash.gif


Bill

Hello, again, Bill.

I see now, what you want me to address in particular. Some background.
1) I was trained by John initially, on Cape D beach, Jun 21, 2019. So roughly 3.5 years ago.
2) I was the first one outside of the family and one test customer to be issued a GOLDROP for beta testing purposes. The other prepublic rollout tester was a client of John's, of the Family Owned Yuba Dredge Company in California who are still mammoth dredging (visualize Tony Beet's Indian River size operation) on their own massive property, right there in California, in front of God and everybody. LEGALLY.
3) My stated mission was to test the Goldrop as many ways as I could think of and report back my results as well as methodologies.

John has his way. I have mine. And in fact, I started with classification way more exact than John did...he was basically recommending two pre-screens: thru 3/8 max size, and secondly through -30 mesh smallest size sizing before he'd scoop dump into the top funnel intake.

4) I've experimented with various funnel configs, a/w/a changed out flow valves, we still disagree on that one (grin). For example, I cannot be dissuaded from 10-turn valve as they are called in the hardware trade. John tried them, and then changed back to the lever ones seen in current film footage.

5) My unit is field stripped to 7.5#, and I love it that light.
6) We concurred on altering the config of the tailings' bucket supports, to what is yellow and adjustable today.
7) I don't even have a vertical, transparent Flow Meter on mine any longer. It was a problem and John disabled/bypassed it when I sent it back for him to recalibrate. I mean, between the two of us, we have put this sweetie through her paces. It is a joy to use, to this day.

There are so many things that have been now standardized, that I would be hard pressed to ID them all for you.

Now, as to "technique", to work with in sizes that small, let's pick up the convo at the mesh size question which you are trying to get me to get specific on.

Any -200 (74 micron) to -300 (48 micron) I'm catching accidentally, because I'm using other harvesting methods for my bulk feeder system. It is my custom, and a long recommended practice to
-- sieve in increments of -10 mesh, from -8 mesh down to -100 mesh, and then either
----chemically treat anything smaller than -100
------harvest manually using the very relaxing "feather sort method" from minus 40 on down to minus 100. YES, Feathering is slower than molasses. Feathering is a method I devised many years ago, long before the Goldrop came along, or....
--------Direct Smelt with MY proprietary blacksands' flux, which i sell to my existing customers, who LOVE it.

My "blacksands smelt flux recipe" was invented LONG before Chapman and his goofy manganese dioxide black flux baggies were ever mixed up from dumped batteries at his scrap yard by the trucksful. That Black Chap Crap is sold all over the nation. For those that don't know, Chapman's black flux ingredient, yes the Magnanese Dioxide LOCKS UP up any silver values in a complex residue. THAT BE A FACT. And you might as well take the tax write off because you ain't getting that silver out without tedious, sophisticated, expensive, pokey chemistry. I detest Chapman fluxes. My flux will also harvest the gold trapped in the Chapman black flux SLAG by the wannabe's who won't listen to me, and others, like Brad from GPAA forum on FB. Disappointed smelting beginners and "experienced" alike...well THOSE are where my customers primarily come from. Word of mouth from that one distinction, alone, has been fun for me.

So, I'm going to eventually get my new U-Channel magnetite sluice add-on from John...when his new supplies get in, and will begin testing that for him, to see how creative I can be.

As you can see, I think I'm pretty thorough. No, not clever. Just thorough. And it is my duty to report to John first anything I learn every time I discover something. I've already got a couple ideas for the new U-Channel tailings sluice unit, but can't experiment until spring because my preference is to work outdoors and enjoy the sunshine and getting wet and getting THE GOLD, regardless of size.

I hope this adequately addresses your question, 'cause that's all you're getting. LOL Nothing more to "reveal." I customarily avoid public bulletin board discussions of chemistry. I simply won't argue. And it's too darned long to teach. Besides, It's already in hard copy from years ago, when I sold it on eBay, and my own website. Not anymore. I'm through teaching smelting instructables for the small footprint set.

All the best, Bill. Hope you're not too disappointed. Oh, and PS...I'm going to leave alone your reference to Klesh's review of the Goldrop. I was disappointed in it, as he left out even the most rudimentary and well documented "how to's" that John's videos over the last 3 years have clearly shown to do as the most basics of the basics to be effective from day 1 of GOLDROP HARVESTING. That bummed me.

Thanks for all your responses. I agree with the 10-turn valve recommendation as they are "way more" precise than lever ball valves, guess I'll have to make some mods like everything else in gold prospecting equipment to suit your area and gold. I may be interested in your"blacksands smelt flux recipe" as one of our group tries to smelt his gold. Lastly, when I watched Klesh's video I couldn't believe what I was watching.

You're very smart, thorough and I think clever.

Bill

Well, thank you for the compliments.

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I DONT REVEAL MY RECIPE. I only sell it in measured and mixed charges. Once proven by the customer who CAN demonstrate they can actually read and follow simple directions, then I can create and sell multiplied into bulk deliverable, papersack sized and delivered charges which can be dropped entirely, sack and all, into tilt-pours for smelting.
Just want to be clear. I limit my customer base for my custom black sands smelt flux to TWENTY customers.

It comes in 2 mixtures:
With magnetics already removed from fusion samples (Blue Blazer labeled)
With magnetics still included in the fusion samples (Grasshopper labeled)

Just want to be clear.

Updating 2.25.2023 Jeff Williams had some personal adversity in his life shortly after his made his promise to edit and post his GoldDrop video, way back in July 2021. I've been using Messenger to try to reach him and have asked politely 2x in the last 90 days for him to please follow through and post his video so we all can benefit. I just wanted to clear the record as to why I have not followed up on my Jul 11 2021 post (copy below) with the promised video. I have been unable to connect and provide the promised video.

Thank you, all who have read this closing the loop on this post.

I'm happy to report that the GOLDROP elutriation gold separator is going back, by invitation to Columbia, 6 years after first introducting them to the Golddrop. Some very significant, independent, university level testing for capturing mercury from contaminated soil, and gold bearing cons, as been completed and the scientific result posted for all to study.

This is an exciting development for the non-profit, Mercury Free Mining, headed by Toby Pomeroy, of Oregon.

Thank you for your kind attention.

For those of you who have not been keeping up with the connection between Mercury Free Mining and the amazing GOLDROP by inventor, John Richmond, of Albany OR, of Sluice Goose Industries, sole manufacture of GOLDROP gold separator, this reduction and elimination of mercury in artisanal and hobby mining is John's over-riding passion and has been since day one.

I concur.

For those of you who have not been keeping up with the connection between Mercury Free Mining and the amazing GOLDROP by inventor, John Richmond, of Albany OR, of Sluice Goose Industries, sole manufacture of GOLDROP gold separator, this reduction and elimination of mercury in artisanal and hobby mining is John's over-riding passion and has been since day one.

I concur.

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