Australian Desert Sluice (the old blokes would have loved this)

Australian Desert Sluice

This aluminium and stainless machine collects the gold fines 98% in the miners mat under the ali grid.

It sorts the shovelled dirt into lumps at back, medium sizing (max detectable size) in a bucked underneath, and fines run through the sluice.

Water needed to run 40 ltrs and uses 15 ltrs water in evaporation per day.

Basically if we carry 5x20 ltr containers in the cruiser we can stay bush for 6 days

Small 2 stroke runs beautifully starts every time and stays on idle.

This can be used with damp dirt and the unit can be disassembled easily and carried by one person.
Designed to do 3 ton + plus per hour.

Easily keeps up with two guys on the shovel

The two piles lumps and medium size materials are detected as you go along.

Easy operation and solid built.

Regards Majindi
a career small miner/prospector
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Added after much debate
I am also sorry if some don't understand how this desert sluice works
Just describing is often not enough
It is being used almost every week in the wa goldfields as said the little vid was made soon after it had been on it's first trip , I always look after my gear, just look at the exploration trailer after two trips into the Kimberleys last year.
It's called high pressure cleaning
One point I may have explained better is that the desert sluice is basically designed for the hot dry summers and where soils are usually very dry
Ie an alternative to the dryblower
It screens the shovel intake dry and that falls to a pile at back
The material then falls to the second screen still dry and the + 2.5 approximate falls dry to a trough under the machine
These first two dry piles are detected as they grow
The -2.5 dry material then falls to the internal hopper and is fed to the top/ back of the final screen/ sluice it is sprayed( found it just needs a gentle regular flow) and the fines easily work their way down the sluice grill with the miners mat underneath
If there is a build up the water vol are increased an the hard bristle Broom is used to work the fines up or down
The desert sluice was made to recover the fine gold only and as such the fines are usually the far smaller
portion of a shovel load
In wa have approximate 65% of a shovel load is fines silica and magnetite/ iron oxide
So in this case we find the clowdy water settles quickly, and when we work limestone areas and decomposed calcretes Ther are far less fines
Water usage really is good naturally with care
One could use three troughs if need be, to rotate if the 55 liter black trough is filling up to fast
We have found it doesn't need this and it would need more water in the circuit
I repeat this machine is easy and a gem to use and this choice of pump was spot on
I will still, attempt to respond to anyone else that has constructive questions
Majindi

Thats a great build!! do you have a vid of it in actual use? I cant believe you can use that in clay ground with only 40l of water ? I've seen similar units in Vic during the recent drought and the water dirtied so bad in the first half hour that it was deemed a failure ! so I'm really interested to see this unit in the field -- i see you are in WA, as ive never been there can you tell me is the dirt so different there ? again a great build ! what do you do for a living?

Intresting setup indeed, I have done a bit of recycling the pumping water. My question is how do you filter the water you are recycling to keep the silt out of your system? Just wondering that’s all. I would love to see a video of the unit in operation. Cheers

Goodaye James
More detail for a closer look and how I carry it outback, this was sandstone early this year
Now this lot of pics IS when it had just been built! Nice and new with the deeper trough we use, the small one becomes the middle size screens bucket and we have two of each
The SS mesh is very costly and hard to get even over here the tread plate ali is 3.5 mill and there are about 350 ss rivets in it and scored degreased and Sikered joints.

[img:5198]https://i.servimg.com/u/f45/16/65/00/89/img_0119.jpg[/img

Thanks for the reply mate, it was not the pump that was on my mind more so the water or jetting dispersal in the top hopper getting blocked. We have had great success with a 3 tub system where the water from the first tub is filtered into a second tub which has sand in it to act as a filter to remove any rubbish which will block the water dispersal system of our units. From that tub the water then passes into the 3rd tub for pumping but even then it still gets very murky but still workable.
Cheers
James 101

Very interesting, I was curious to know if anyone has used a flocculant to deal with suspended silts etc.
Not knowing alot about sluices I am not sure whether the use of such an agent would create other problems with the normal operation of a sluice.

Whats flocculant? you may ask, some info here.... FLOCCULANT

Goodaye Goldstalker

Flocculants, interesting, in this application the miners mat and the ali grill that sits on it, in the sluice tray, drag all the slightly heavier particles down, as does the flocculant.

So may not be of any value; in the trough I suppose they would help to concentrate the silt, but I think they absorb water and increase volume which may not help.

Regards Majindi

Sorry mate I have never used flocculant, I think it would depend on just how much material processed as to how well it would work? but having never used it I cant say. cheers

majindi you didnt answer my question about what do you do for a living as the unit looks very professional ,do you make these for a living?

Murachu It does in deed look well made, I want one!

Just a thought! Wouldn't it need a hopper on top to slow the slide down and of the end and lost?

Cheers~Chris.

Goodaye Someday,

I looked at this and found that the shovel when thrown on at the top easily disperses the material as it slides down.

The screen and the runoff is pretty long.

The unit is bigger than it looks.

The angle of the top screen can be adjusted by opening and closing the legs.

Regards Majindi

Hi Majindi,

A great build thanks for sharing. I have never used a sluice before, and I think one of these would work great here. I live in Central Australia were there is no clay. (it would compliment metal detecting brilliantly)

Do you have any plans of selling sluices, or the plans to make one myself?

Regards Jim.

Goodaye Jim,

Thanks all for the good comment, I love it when a forum and guys just talk good stuff about what we all enjoy.

To answer you question , I have been asked now to build these desert sluices by a dozen blokes that see what you have , a good addition to the gear we carry while detecting/prospecting.

I started this design because I last year came across three patches while using a 300 mill auger, I put the Joey coil down the 300 mill holes , one meter down and had to my surprise ground noise that was a concentration of fine gold. This was in a riverbed of calcrete and dolomite rubble in inverted topography on the top of a hill?

Anyway decided to initially build a dry-blower and then realised this desert sluice design was more workable with some good design, and as I travel with a cruiser I can carry good water, decided working with water was more fun, so this is the result.

In half a day on a good patch I get fines that total often much more than a good nugget day.

I figured that where ground has been flogged with the 4500 and now the 5000 the same ground has often never been looked at with this sort of recovery.

I have even gone to the extent of building a special prospecting trailer (in pics) with 8 kva gene (jackhammers,and flood lights work at night over here, it is often 48 plus in some places during day) galley, camp and welders, augers, chainsaw, fuel, solar for sat tv laptop fans in the cruiser, fridge and recharging the detector etc.

To be honest its bloody hard to come home, much as I love my bluehealer and the wife and kids.!

It is amazing just how much fine gold we miss with a good detector.

I am looking at the poss of building half a dozen units in the off season, but will have to look at the real costs and time.

Regards Majindi

Majindi you still have not answer my question on silt & fine roots chocking the water or jetting dispersal System in your top hopper?
Cheers James 101

I've been involved in a bit of production over many years as can be seen by these photos and I still have a big concern that your project hasent been tested in the field !If as you say you would only need 40l of water to use your machine all day (less evaporation ,15l as you say) and giving the whetting loss per tonne of dry dirt im awaiting as I said before a vid of the unit actually in the field

Hi James sorry,

The polypipe that the water spray comes from is drilled and not a spray nosle.

The odd occasion a spray has started to splash and not spray is easily cleared by the stiff brush we use or turning the spray rate up.

Never had any problem with the tiny roots you mention any roots we have are screened out by the second screen

Majindi

what size hole in the polly pipe is used as the spray hole? have you classified the spray water debris before it gets to the spray bar area? these are critical areas of any Tromell/ highbanker -Banjo/ in fact any machine that uses water .It will be interesting to follow your posts on these and many other issues that will come up im sure

Marachu,

Sorry you have trouble in believing me but never mind, I am not trying to sell anything.

You got my interest up mate can you post some still photos of your setup??
Cheers
James 101

When we have wet conditions and horrible sticky clay, eg a meter down in the bottom of a creek bed we break it up and put directly on the sluice tray and work it with the hard bristle brush , (see on the side)

???? this is a contradiction of this statement -----we only run water through the final fines screen

The other sizes remain completely separate and dry

?????????????????

Let me see if I get this right the top part of the unit is a dry blower derived system --ok--- the bottom part is a hybrid dryblower/sluice with water at the top of that screen --ok -- so the minus 3mm or whatever you have screened to is then wetted and shaken ? down that bottom screen and all the tailings end up in the tub? what filtering device do you have for the pump? Its only a cheep Chinese transfer pump and I know from actual usage of these pumps that they do not like anything but clean water .
Majindi its not about whether you are selling this or that its about making claims of such a small water usage for this unit -- If as you say the water usage is fact ,you have found the Holy Grail of desert mining !! but you have to expect people who have decades of experience in mining to be sceptical !! So please next time you bring what I suppose is the other unit into the desert ,because the one in the vid has not seen a bit of dirt, take a camera or a mobile phone with you and show us the unit in real conditions .

majindi a forum is for discussing an issue -- ive asked respectfully for information on your unit as some aspects of it just don't add up in my book but that is my opinion .

I have never asked anyone in this forum or elsewhere for money on any of the items I have posted in fact I have stated all my Banjo pics are here for all FREE! and if people need explanations of those pics they can pm me and I will supply for no charge .

I will stand by my posts that they were respectful to you and only asked questions which would benefit the whole forum as in gaining knowledge that is supported by fact .

I am afraid you and I are from different sides of the track.
As said this desert sluice has absolutely nothing to do with highbankers.

Different Conditions, soils, targets, and it is designed as a water efficient machine, unlike your thing, or what ever you call it.

I did ask about the science behind you machine as a very efficient water user, as in my opinion it IS the Holy Grail of all mining ! the efficient use of water!! and as you have posted IF you have achieved 40l water usage with 15l evaporation per day you have reached that goal and should be congratulated !!!

As for different designs and different usages all these machines rely on specific gravity and inherently have the same problems such as silt /debris -grass seeds /burrs ect. which will play havoc with your spray bars --- powdered clay mixed with water will clog any pump no time at all ,so if you have as you say swept aside these problems in this machine ,I take my hat off to ya!

Thats enough. A misunderstanding has occured and gotten out of hand. Lets keep it civil.
I am not going to take sides only to say majindi, it seems that you have built a machine that is a bit different to the norm.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention and irregardless of what has been posted before, it shows that many of our members are interested and would like to know more particularly about what makes to different to the wet condition sluices.

Lets just keep this in perspective.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff

I am also sorry if some don't understand how this desert sluice works
Just describing is often not enough
It is being used almost every week in the wa goldfields as said the little vid was made soon after it had been on it's first trip , I always look after my gear, just look at the exploration trailer after two trips into the Kimberleys last year.
It's called high pressure cleaning
One point I may have explained better is that the desert sluice is basically designed for the hot dry summers and where soils are usually very dry
Ie an alternative to the dryblower
It screens the shovel intake dry and that falls to a pile at back
The material then falls to the second screen still dry and the + 2.5 approximate falls dry to a trough under the machine
These first two dry piles are detected as they grow
The -2.5 dry material then falls to the internal hopper and is fed to the top/ back of the final screen/ sluice it is sprayed( found it just needs a gentle regular flow) and the fines easily work their way down the sluice grill with the miners mat underneath
If there is a build up the water vol are increased an the hard bristle Broom is used to work the fines up or down
The desert sluice was made to recover the fine gold only and as such the fines are usually the far smaller
portion of a shovel load
In wa have approximate 65% of a shovel load is fines silica and magnetite/ iron oxide
So in this case we find the clowdy water settles quickly, and when we work limestone areas and decomposed calcretes Ther are far less fines
Water usage really is good naturally with care
One could use three troughs if need be, to rotate if the 55 liter black trough is filling up to fast
We have found it doesn't need this and it would need more water in the circuit
I repeat this machine is easy and a gem to use and this choice of pump was spot on
I will still, attempt to respond to anyone else that has constructive questions
Majindi

Thanks Jeff point taken

Majindi thanks for posting the still photos, they give a much better understanding as to the thinking which went into the units design. cheers
James 101

Majindi
Take my word for it unfortunately at times it is better to keep your inventions and ideas
to your self as there are always the knockers and disbelievers.
I keep my ideas to myself and will tell to only a very few trusted people what I am doing or thinking of
doing to get their opinion and change my plans if the need arises. apart from all that it's a great looking piece
of equipment and hope it will work well for you.
Happy Golding
Eagle653

In regards to pumps. It's only the impeller that causes the problems, so choose a pump with an open vane like all sludge/Poo pumps, they will not let you down, no matter how crappy the water becomes?

Cheers~Chris.