In a different thread Forum member Johnedoe first posted a link to this article, and in response I posted a few of my observations concerning this New Zealand extreme fine gold beach sluice. After thinking some more about this operation I thought this topic might deserve its own thread.
Here's a link to the article/ad from a New Zealand beach gold miner that manufactures and sells jewelry from the beach gold they mine.
https://www.ashhilton.com/pages/pure-ne ... beach-gold
I don't know these miners and I am not promoting the sale of their beach gold jewelry, but the photos they published of their sluice and operation seem very interesting to me. Assuming that my analysis of these photos is correct we may be looking at a 48 foot wide extreme fine gold sluice. I have concluded this sluice is 48 feet wide because I see eight 4-foot wide sluices running in towards the ocean and then an additional four 4-foot wide running in the opposite direction. That makes a total of twelve 4-foot wide sluices with an effective width of 48 feet. I further estimate the length of this sluice is approximately 2 meters or 6.5 feet. The total capture area of this sluice should therefore be approximately 312 square feet.
First photo from article/ad:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0438/ ... _large.JPG
This first photo is interesting because it shows the operation at idle, i.e. the beach sand slurry pit is not in a liquefied state such that you could probably walk on it. I also see a total of 6 blue 4 inch suction hoses, the number of which would be consistent with my previous observation in that each of these 6 hoses would supply two 4-foot wide sluices.
Second photo from article/ad:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0438/ ... _large.JPG
In this second photo we see the sluice, with eight 4-foot wide sluices visible, in clean-up mode with an active (liquefied) sand slurry pit.
Third photo from article/ad:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0438/ ... _large.JPG
In this third photo we also see the sluice and operation in clean-up mode with the additional four 4-foot wide sluices sloped opposite the slurry pit with two 4 inch diameter discharge pipes returning the tails of these sluices to the sand slurry pit.
I've made a few more interesting observations from these photos and I'm sure there are many more I haven't found yet.
Did you catch the two NZ style boil boxes on each of these sluices?
Did you notice the staked poly sheeting preventing the sand slurry pit from undermining the foundations for the beach sluice trailer?
For your reference, I've counted pixels and applied some trigonometry to determine the sluice slope angle is approximately 13°.
Do you think I've made any mistakes in my observations and/or analysis?
Has any forum member here ever seen or heard of a sluice 48 or more feet wide?
dragline
The case of the 48 foot wide sluice.
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Johnedoe
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Re: The case of the 48 foot wide sluice.
Hey Dragline..
As you know I Contacted the fine people at Ash Hilton ... Ash responded and told me a little about the operation and that it was his father that did that. I replied with a few more questions and am awaiting the response. I am looking forward to communication with his father.
Here is the first reply I received.
Hi William.
Nice to meet you. Sure thing, I'm just about to head away on a road trip so I might be late in responses but I'm more than happy to let you know the deal - if you have any specific questions let me know.
This was a beach operation my father worked on. I can put you in touch with him as well, he knows more of the details than I do.
In general they were working a beach claim that had been mined previously by old timers.
The gold there was very fine. They had water from a local pond, a tractor on the beach for power which drove the pumps and tumblers. They created a pond on the beach which slowly moved along as they created a slurry of sand with venturys and pumped it over mats. They sucked the mats regularly with a wet and dry vaccuum.
Once they had gold laden sand they tumbled it with mercury to make amalgum then burnt off and collected the mercury to make a sponge gold which was then melted into an ingot.
That's a broard overview but let me know if you'd like any specifics. They could only work the beach in winter once the wave action had removed the lighter sand on top of the heavier black ironsand where the gold was.
This area is Charleston in NZ, you'll find info online about how the old timers dug down to ancient beaches and mined the fine gold with mercury and copper plates. More large scale but still relatively low impact mining happens there still.
I'll see if I can did out some more photos for you.
I'm interested in what parts of the states have this type of gold - each westcoast beach here almost needs a different specific technique depending on the type of gold and beach conditions.
All the best,
Ash.
As you know I Contacted the fine people at Ash Hilton ... Ash responded and told me a little about the operation and that it was his father that did that. I replied with a few more questions and am awaiting the response. I am looking forward to communication with his father.
Here is the first reply I received.
Hi William.
Nice to meet you. Sure thing, I'm just about to head away on a road trip so I might be late in responses but I'm more than happy to let you know the deal - if you have any specific questions let me know.
This was a beach operation my father worked on. I can put you in touch with him as well, he knows more of the details than I do.
In general they were working a beach claim that had been mined previously by old timers.
The gold there was very fine. They had water from a local pond, a tractor on the beach for power which drove the pumps and tumblers. They created a pond on the beach which slowly moved along as they created a slurry of sand with venturys and pumped it over mats. They sucked the mats regularly with a wet and dry vaccuum.
Once they had gold laden sand they tumbled it with mercury to make amalgum then burnt off and collected the mercury to make a sponge gold which was then melted into an ingot.
That's a broard overview but let me know if you'd like any specifics. They could only work the beach in winter once the wave action had removed the lighter sand on top of the heavier black ironsand where the gold was.
This area is Charleston in NZ, you'll find info online about how the old timers dug down to ancient beaches and mined the fine gold with mercury and copper plates. More large scale but still relatively low impact mining happens there still.
I'll see if I can did out some more photos for you.
I'm interested in what parts of the states have this type of gold - each westcoast beach here almost needs a different specific technique depending on the type of gold and beach conditions.
All the best,
Ash.