What to do with the real fine stuff to get the gold out

[Bman]

Now that you have built or designed a add a trap for your equipment. How can you separate that very fine gold from the heavies that are caught? Most of the captured gold can't be gotten by panning, it's far too fine and easily displaced by the other heavies in the cons. Btw, I would keep the trap's cons separate from the other cons from the riffled box. This way you can see how much the trap helps you to catch.

A good question that can be answered by watching one of 2 videos, 1 of which is in the club library (Hint, Hint!).

Gold Recovery without Mercury This video gives one a good idea how to get the finer gold dust out. The other one on cleanup is on the Prospector's channel the last time I looked. Both of them will start you on the path to getting the glittering dust freed.

Both videos will help you to understand that the key is Classification, classification, classification! As long as the pieces of the cons are at or near the same size, the gold will always be on the bottom of the pan. Each size of cons will need to be run thru the separation process to get the gold. The club store has some of screens needed to get the real fine stuff, but there are gaps in the inventory right now. Maybe in the next order the officers might want to get some of the missing sizes.

For our glacial gold here are the recommended screen sizes...in wpi (wires per inch) 6 sizes are recommended, but you can go down to 250 if so desired.

16, 30, 50, 70, 100, 150
(Each size will need it's own bucket, labeling them helps to keep from mixing them up during classification. You will need one extra bucket for the >150 cons.) Classify and put the cons left in the screen into the correct bucket. 16+, 30+, 50+, 70+, 100+, 150+, 150-

Of all of the screens the 70 is the hardest to find as most dealers don't bother to carry them. (Can be omitted if you can't find one, just makes it easier.) After the first classification with the 30, the gold going thru the screen will be small enough to potentially be lost in the panning process. It can be done mind you, but you will spend an awful lot of time to miss much of what is there. The size-step down helps to prevent the small gold/larger rock displacement problem.

[Bman]

Don't forget to remove the magnetic black sand from the cons after classifying. Let the magnetics dry out totally and go thru the process of using the magnet on these bone dry sands. Some of the fine gold may have stuck to the wet sands during your cleanup, add any non magnetic remains back into the cons for processing.

The processing of the different sizes of classified cons left is best if done with a blue bowl type setup. If you watch the cleanup video on the gold lab on prospector's channel or this link that shows how to set one up yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PWBVkcON7I

This gives some hints on how to set up the blue bowl and not spend a bunch to get out the super fine micron gold. This is the guy that is selling the cleanup system for over a grand per unit. This is part 4 of his instructions on the unit he sells. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6X6PtIYKfE