Remote Prospecting?
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Jim_Alaska
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
Do you use a special auger bit for drilling on gravel? I would think that gravel and the associated rocks would be quite hard on the bits.
Jim_Alaska
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Geowizard
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
Jim,
Yes, although the auger bit is considered "standard" in terms of applications, the flighting is 1/4" steel and quite strong.
- Geowizard
Yes, although the auger bit is considered "standard" in terms of applications, the flighting is 1/4" steel and quite strong.
- Geowizard
Last edited by Geowizard on Fri Nov 25, 2022 10:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Geowizard
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
Now what?
Glen asked a very important question. The question every prospector must eventually ask!
"Now what?";
Now, prospecting and mining enters into a NEW Chapter...
The NEW Chapter involves prospecting and MINING Dragline tailing piles containing TENS of thousands of ounces of GOLD. Not your average gravel pit!
Stay tuned this coming season, as mining shifts into "TURBO".
- Geowizard
Glen asked a very important question. The question every prospector must eventually ask!
"Now what?";
Now, prospecting and mining enters into a NEW Chapter...
The NEW Chapter involves prospecting and MINING Dragline tailing piles containing TENS of thousands of ounces of GOLD. Not your average gravel pit!
Stay tuned this coming season, as mining shifts into "TURBO".
- Geowizard
Last edited by Geowizard on Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jim_Alaska
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
To my simple mind the prospecting part of the tailing piles has already been done. I say that because you stated that there were tens of thousands of ounces of gold in them. So, run everything that can be determined to not be overburden. Overburden has a different consistency than classified material that went through the sluices.
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Geowizard
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
Jim,
The words of a wise man!
Yes, Thank you. To begin with, when I arrived in 2010. It was ALL PAY DIRT!
I noticed that some of the "Tailing" piles looked different. Why is this?
By "different", The tailing piles were "beans" in some cases. The tailing piles were "ripped shale and dirt" in other cases. Hmmm. After sampling and in a few cases, spending time and money mining the tailing piles, it became evident that what you say is true! Not all tailing piles are "tailing" piles. Some of the piles are "overburden" or stripped gravels that have little or no value!
One pile of "Dirt" had GOLD!
Now what?
Early miners suffered the same failures that "Modern" miners suffer; they assume things and things are not as they assumed. Running a dirt pile gave me a pleasant surprise! It was really dirt as dirt can be!
Going forward;
The plan during the off-season is to design a wash plant. I designed a wash plant back in 2010. It works. It catches GOLD. The Next Generation needs to be a higher performance version of the early version. Basic math using Clarkson's recommendation for slurry in a sluice is 15 percent solids. Given a 600 gpm pump = 600 x .15 = 90 gallons per minute x 60 minutes = 5400 gallons per hour of solids. There are 200 gallons in a cubic yard. So, the feed rate for solids must be 27 cubic yards per hour. Prospectors need to be handy at math!
To double the output, I ran TWO 600 gpm pumps and TWO in parallel.
Now what?
Stay tuned!
- Geowizard
The words of a wise man!
Yes, Thank you. To begin with, when I arrived in 2010. It was ALL PAY DIRT!
I noticed that some of the "Tailing" piles looked different. Why is this?
By "different", The tailing piles were "beans" in some cases. The tailing piles were "ripped shale and dirt" in other cases. Hmmm. After sampling and in a few cases, spending time and money mining the tailing piles, it became evident that what you say is true! Not all tailing piles are "tailing" piles. Some of the piles are "overburden" or stripped gravels that have little or no value!
One pile of "Dirt" had GOLD!
Now what?
Early miners suffered the same failures that "Modern" miners suffer; they assume things and things are not as they assumed. Running a dirt pile gave me a pleasant surprise! It was really dirt as dirt can be!
Going forward;
The plan during the off-season is to design a wash plant. I designed a wash plant back in 2010. It works. It catches GOLD. The Next Generation needs to be a higher performance version of the early version. Basic math using Clarkson's recommendation for slurry in a sluice is 15 percent solids. Given a 600 gpm pump = 600 x .15 = 90 gallons per minute x 60 minutes = 5400 gallons per hour of solids. There are 200 gallons in a cubic yard. So, the feed rate for solids must be 27 cubic yards per hour. Prospectors need to be handy at math!
To double the output, I ran TWO 600 gpm pumps and TWO in parallel.
Now what?
Stay tuned!
- Geowizard
Last edited by Geowizard on Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jim_Alaska
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
Doubling the output with more high velocity water can be very tricky. Did you confirm efficiency by testing tails?
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Geowizard
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
Jim,
Good question. I doubled the sluice area using TWO. So, the velocity remained the same.
Yes, Good point! I regularly check for GOLD at the output of the sluice box! This takes us to the subject of recovery and measuring lost GOLD. The tailing piles have a variety of sizes of GOLD. Take into consideration very fine GOLD that runs right out the end of the sluice when the sluice is tuned for more coarse GOLD. The problem that happens is very fine GOLD may actually end up in a test pan, but... without going to a laborious process of screening, the fine GOLD will not be recovered in the test pan! Very fine GOLD will not be recovered in the test pan, The assumption is that NO GOLD is being lost. When in fact, FINE GOLD is being lost.
More on this to come!
-Geowizard
Good question. I doubled the sluice area using TWO. So, the velocity remained the same.
Yes, Good point! I regularly check for GOLD at the output of the sluice box! This takes us to the subject of recovery and measuring lost GOLD. The tailing piles have a variety of sizes of GOLD. Take into consideration very fine GOLD that runs right out the end of the sluice when the sluice is tuned for more coarse GOLD. The problem that happens is very fine GOLD may actually end up in a test pan, but... without going to a laborious process of screening, the fine GOLD will not be recovered in the test pan! Very fine GOLD will not be recovered in the test pan, The assumption is that NO GOLD is being lost. When in fact, FINE GOLD is being lost.
More on this to come!
-Geowizard
Last edited by Geowizard on Fri Nov 25, 2022 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Jim_Alaska
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
Yep, the age old problem of miners losing gold they are not even aware of, even when they test it.
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Micropedes1
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Re: Remote Prospecting?
Now we are getting into the realm of economics. Or put another way: “how much gold can I afford to lose?
The old timers undoubtedly were recovering a good percentage of course gold and nuggets. But the sheer volume of tailings that I saw dictated a very high thru-put. That means that if you are going to catch what they missed, you will need a very efficient recovery loop for high volume. OR you will need to slow your slurry waaay down and classify, classify, classify. You can get gold and go broke doing it either way.
I saw operations around Fairbanks that were re-running tailings for the third or fourth time. Each recovery loop tuned for a different size gold. They were getting gold. Economically? Who knows? A lot depends upon fuel costs. I have walked away from several places that held pocket gold that were not rich enough to warrant bringing in all the equipment.
The old timers undoubtedly were recovering a good percentage of course gold and nuggets. But the sheer volume of tailings that I saw dictated a very high thru-put. That means that if you are going to catch what they missed, you will need a very efficient recovery loop for high volume. OR you will need to slow your slurry waaay down and classify, classify, classify. You can get gold and go broke doing it either way.
I saw operations around Fairbanks that were re-running tailings for the third or fourth time. Each recovery loop tuned for a different size gold. They were getting gold. Economically? Who knows? A lot depends upon fuel costs. I have walked away from several places that held pocket gold that were not rich enough to warrant bringing in all the equipment.