Experimenting: Sluicing vs Dry Washing: which works best to get the most gold?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- Lets do an experiment to see which works best, sluicing or dry washing. Ever wonder how efficient dry washing is? It depends on a lot of different factors - mostly how coarse the gold is and how much clay in is the gravels. Under the best conditions dry washers with coarse gold they can capture well more than 95% of the gold. However, with fine gold, you may recover well less than 50% of the gold. In this video, I am testing what I would call almost worst case conditions. I will be testing with my recirculating sluice box. We will see if we gold more gold by the sluice or by the dry washer.
For those who want to learn more about Prospecting and finding gold check out my book, Fists full of Gold. It’s an encyclopedia of everything on the topic of prospecting. It’s available on from High Plains Prospectors. (Affiliate) You can find it at:
highplainspros...
For even more information on prospecting, minerals, gems and other related information you can also check out my website at:
nevada-outback-...
The other week (around memorial day) you released a video about drywashing in the desert while I was alone in Randsburg setting up and running a drywasher for the very first time in my life. Now, while researching about how to make and set up a recirculating sluicebox of my own to go through the concentrates from that trip (once again) you release another related video...Coincidence or just good timing?? Anyways, your videos are really helpful for newbies like me. Thanks for everything and God bless you, Mr. Ralph!
Thank you so very much for the kind words. May God bless you as well.
You know you got the gold fever when you run a sluice box in your backyard!
I'd be doing the same thing if I lived near gold deposits 😂
There aren't any near Dallas are there?
Closest I know near Dallas are in the Llano River near the town of Llano, Texas. I know that is not "near" Dallas, but they are the closest.
@@ChrisRalphCool, thanks!
Goggle "Llano River gold Texas" - for more info.
I've been anxiously waiting for this video ! I loved watching it because you were going through the exact same experiences I've encountered ! Your demonstration has completely validated my reasoning behind the development of the Gold Rattler desert wash plant. 😃 Most desert placers I've encountered contain fine gold mixed with clay, silt, or pumice. This makes it difficult to recover by dry washing methods. There's plenty of pros and cons for both modalities. Wet sluicing is much more efficient but requires substantial more support equipment. The viscosity of the water can become problematic over time as well. The development of a dewatering unit combined with sand filtration help extends the "life" of the water, enabling more material to be fed through the plant. Thank you, Chris, for this wonderful demonstration series. Keep up the great work, and best of luck to you prospecting ! Cheers !!
There are desert placers with coarse gold and low enough clay that they can be worked with a dry washer and achieve good recovery. One just needs to know what the situation is at your particular location - and there are a lot of fine gold placers. The Gold Rattler is a great machine with a well thought out design and it is well suited to work those fine gold placers that just cant be worked with a regular dry washer. I've enjoyed watching your channel and the adventures in the development of the Gold Rattler.
Great and informative video as always. Thanks professor Ralph! - I do always get a kick out of your standard intro - "Hey, I'm Chris Ralph the Professional Prospector. And today, we are...." - I 100% agree about a smaller finishing pan. Some people make fun of me when I do test pans with a 15" pan and then transfer the last bit of black sand to a 10" so I can evaluate the results easier.
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Fun video! I live in the desert, so I also have a drywasher I use occasionally. It fits just fine in the back of the old Willys Jeep. I don't like breathing all the dust it puts out on windy days though - so I more often will use my recirculating sluice. Mine is configured of 2-3 sluices in series (depending on that day's setup), with two 12V bilge pumps and a series of three plastic half-drums used as settling tanks to help to drop the sediment before the pumps pick it up. I'm fortunate to also own a 5/4-ton 6x6 military truck - so I can easily carry all that stuff as well as a 330 gallon IBC water tank, along with a gold wheel for cleanup, and camping gear, etc.
Sounds like you are well set up for getting some nice gold.
@@ChrisRalph Thanks - but "well set up" only goes as far as our perseverance and our luck go on our outings. We do usually find some colors - but they sure ain't going to make us rich! I mostly go out (when I can break away) to enjoy the experience. Like all hobby prospectors though, I'm always hopeful!
Greetings from Greece. Thanks a lot for the infinite scientific and practice information.
Greetings to you my friend in Greece.
This looks very similar to mine, lol. I did a two tote water setup to work exactly like a septic tank would. The water stays cleaner longer. You are the best gold reference we have. I watch Jeff Williams only sometimes. 8)
So how did you connect the two totes so water flows from one to the other?
If you haven't watched him, check out Two Toes! Gary is a very knowledgeable miner!
Heavy Pans!!!
Nice AU! Thanks for the great video. I too have a Pre 1980 Keene A52 that I have upgraded to an A52S.
Heavy Pans!!! and keep the knowledge flowing!
Thanks! Will do! Glad you enjoyed the videos.
Great video as always. Reading you're book now. Thank you Chris.
Awesome, thank you! I'm sure you will enjoy it!
I work the desert also. I don't enjoy wet sluicing unless I am at home because of carrying water and limited production. I might test catching just the smaller material coming off the drywasher and re-running that. Screening down to 12 mesh or even 20 mesh. The royal drywashers catch a lot of the very fine material in the bottom of the box because of the design.
Run a test for fine gold recovery using the methods I used in this video and see what the results are.
Hi Chris this is in relation to the rock I found which is roughly 2 times bigger than a ryobi 18v battery. When I heated it and dropped it in water nothing shattered. A couple of pieces dropped off but did not shatter. The surrounding rock is a bluish green and the top layer is fairly green. It is 6 inches long, 4 inches thick and 4 inches across. Has the look of grease on all sides. I hope that you have a wonderful day. Heat source I used was a propane torch.
I get quite a few people every day who want me to ID their rocks and minerals. I do not offer a mineral ID service, mostly because it’s not as easy as you think. Usually, minerals cannot be identified from just a picture. General verbal descriptions are not much help either. Please watch my videos on how to Identify minerals for yourself. Part 1 can be found here: th-cam.com/video/MpkW58ZeQlc/w-d-xo.html and Part 2 can be found here: th-cam.com/video/zOWo49X90gA/w-d-xo.html and Part 3 can be found here: th-cam.com/video/_ab5NngRlVw/w-d-xo.html - Those videos should answer a lot of your questions.
Wow thats some nice gold! Mr Ralph! awesome vid!
Thanks You. Glad you enjoyed the video!
Learning a lot, great stuff..greetings from New Zealand
Thanks for watching! Glad the videos are helpful.
Great video energy!
Glad you enjoyed it!
All kinds of good info on dry-eashing vs. recirculating sluice! Thankyou! I love the look of that beautiful coarse gold in your pan. How do you remove the iron staining on the smaller gold?
I use whink to remove iron stains.
Always enjoy your videos !!!
Thanks. I appreciate that!
getting all that Gold !!!!!!!
Did you ever get with Gary on arrangements?
Thanks from Australia well done
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed the video.
Another great video Chris. Are landslides near creeks a good place to look if it was a old placer mine before? The landslide is above that area about 500 feet up the creek. Thanks and I had to buy your book. And I have been combing the pages for info on that subject.
If a landslide somehow brings existing placer gravels from a bench down into the river, that would be a good enrichment. If it just brings the general hillside down into the river, that's probably not a good place to look.
@@ChrisRalph Thanks for getting back to me Chris. I haven't been there yet. But it looks like from the Google maps that the landslide actually gave way and at the very top you can see bedrock that was buried with that overburden dirt that slid down the side of the mountain. I love your book. I wish there was a little more on Sniping for gold.
I will defitively build me a sluice box with a water pump and filter. I will send you some photos next year !
Please do!
Good stuff keep it up.
Thanks, will do! Glad you enjoyed the video.
Yeah Chris!!
I will see you in a couple months on Jordan's BIG day. I'm bringing my dad with me.
Great video! Been looking into dry washers here in cali because water is an issue and cant use highbankers. But i do have a odd question, about twice a year or so i visit Goldfield NV with some friends, is there any placer gold that i can prospect or is it almost all lode gold?
Goldfield is lode gold and all very fine sized. I did a whole video on Goldfield, you might enjoy watching it. See: th-cam.com/video/nHTuvFeSuv0/w-d-xo.html
Wetter is better... Always. Dry is only for when there's no water, or clay.
But there are lots of places with no water nearby.
Great watching your videos!
My question is why do you not just set up the dry blower to drop into the wet washer? so you can process both... I understand from watching your dry blower video that you process half a bucket at a time but surely as you dont get the big bits through the dry blower as you brush them off with your hand, could the wet washer not handle the fines that work its way out the bottom?
If you are setting up the sluice, then the dry washer is unnecessary. The sluice would get all the gold the dry washer got, so why worry about it. The sluice is a lot of stuff and out at the site I don't have a hose to fill water up. I'd need containers to take all the water. The dry washer would be unnecessary extra work and equipment.
Chris is the small gold lost blowing out or off the end, also is there much difference of the recovery rate between a puffer and a blower style drywasher? Thanks.
The small gold does not settle in the riffles and goes out the back with the rest of the sand. There is not a lot of difference in recovery between the different types.
I like watching your videos especially for me I’m new and very easy to understand , my question is idoes a $300 metal detector x-Terra pro Good enough to detect gold mainly in the rocks very close by rivers with all my other tools ⚒️ I’m talking about the San Gabriel river in Azusa ?
No, the coil is too large and as far as sensitivity, even Minelab says its for coins, jewelry and relics. Note that they don't say prospecting. Much of the San Gabriel is not off limits to prospectors. Look into joining one of the southern California prospecting clubs.
Yep, gotta change the water every 4 or 5 buckets on a recirc setup
I put a second bucket under the end of the sluice to speed up the emptying process and keep the water cleaner
definitely need to change the water - more frequently when there is more clay and silt.
@@ChrisRalph my water, at the back of the wash plant often had flocculent in it... Definitely felt heavy
👍👍👍👍👍
Glad you enjoyed the video.
So when you get down to small pan, would it be better to dry and classify then finish panning each
When I switched to the small pan, I had already removed the small rocks, so no need for further screening.
I've found gold in the swift River in Maine new Hampshire has a few good places and the Google maps on the Dimon gold prospecting erias are a myth and it's not a good reading when you prospecting the erias just to let you know pass it on if you want to your not going to get rich but it is a good hobby happy prospecting my friend
Glad you enjoyed the video.
Old timers definitely got most of it!
Depends one where you are as to how much the old timers got.
@@ChrisRalph brokenfridge... Metric shit ton... Dredges and such