Liteweight alluvial prospecting

1. Backpack
2. 2ltr water blader
3. Goldpan
4. Food
5 .Pocket knife
6. Bumbag 1st aid kit
7. 3 car rubber floor mats
8. Post hole shovel(weapon/walking aid)
9. Sat phone
Rubber floor mats are as efficient as any store bourght product.Just dig a trench,lay the mats in, and get the flow right.No need to classify the material, ya just rake the rocks out with the shovel.Clean up in the pan.
bye
PS For hunting coins and relics only,no licence or permits required.

Hey cairns27,

> Rubber floor mats are as efficient as any store bourght product.Just dig a trench,lay the mats in, and get the flow right.No need to classify the material, ya just rake the rocks out with the shovel.Clean up in the pan.

Now thats a novel approach, I have seen people take guttering lined with rubber mat and use that as a sluice but not digging a trench and lining that. Certainly saves having to carry a sluice with you.

Where do you get your floor mats, are they fine or course riffles?

Regards,

Grant

Little squares, rectangles, it does't seem to matter.
I seen German Pete at kingsborough do it.
Rich people buy miner's moss, the poor use an old polyester pillow.
bye

Hey cairns27,

It really doesnt matter what you use as long as it catches the gold.

I think it shows the great aussie can do attitude to make do with whats available that harks back to how the early diggers did it during the gold rush days.

There was a great show on the origin of the "golden fleece" from legend which showed how the russian peasants were using sheep fleeces instead of miners moss. It worked really well. They didnt even pan it afterwards they just washed the fleeces into a large frypan and then burned off all the water / residue over their camp fire to leave a pile of burnt gold.

I built my own PI metal detector as I couldnt afford the $6000+ to buy a minelab. Even the low end ones were in the $1000+ range. I managed to build it for around $300 and I did that over a long period just getting bits and pieces when I could afford to.

I am building my own high banker the same way, I found some great plans on the web. I am making it out of the bits and pieces I have around the house. The only thing I will be buying for it is the bilge pump which costs about $60 from BCF and maybe some hoses. I am going to set it up so it recirculates water in a large plastic tub I have. That way I can bring buckets of concentrates home to process.

Have you been getting some good colour with the floor mat trench sluice?

Regards,

Grant

Never had to, but use them in what at first glance might appear to be a dredge,dosen,t seem to lose any, and allows easy cleanup.

Here,s Kingsborough Ike,s river sluice/highbanker



and rotary gold pan



bye,

Another photo of sluice/highbanker



bye

Hey cairns27,

Looks like a nice setup he has there.

What is a rotary pan I have never seen one before?

Regards,

Grant

Ya fill the container with 50lts of water,put the material in the basket, and turn the handle,the basket goes back and forwards,the gold falls into a dish under the basket.Catches everything, but not much fun to use.The container needs to be drained every 5-7 pans, and refilled with clean water.

I got it off George at Miners den for $50.oo. New chum thing.

bye

The best car mats that I used were made by Cannon in the U.K. They had deep small square holes but the holes did not through. I am not sure if they still make them. I had them all the way down my sluice box. I only cleaned the top one on a daily basis, the rest after a long week end. Washed all the stuff into a 20 lt. bucket, easy !

Up in the diamond fields in Seirra Leonethe local illicit miners - (working the company claims usually at night) used a simple sieve. A springy branch is bent into a circle and tied off to form a hoop. Then chicken mesh wire is used to make a support base for the finer mesh which was usually about 1mm aperture mesh size The mesh and supporting chicken wire were secured to the rim of the hoop but not taut - just slack enough to give a shallow dish shape when loaded with gravel.

Two shovelfuls of wash were loaded onto the mesh and the owner stood in knee deep water and worked the sieve in a circular motion on the surface of the water. The motion included a vertical lift - Sort of quick lift and flick to the right. The wash would very quickly be rotating in a clockwise circular motion in the seive.

After a few moments of this 'washing' it was lifted clear of the water and allowed to briefly drain. Then neatly flipped upside down on an old sack. All the heavy concentrates would have formed an "eye" in the centre top of the upturned wash - if you were doing it right. Any diamonds (3.52 SG) and +mesh sized gold could just be picked out of the eye.

A hell of o lot faster than panning - but you would not recover any small gold less than the aperture of the mesh. You could create exactly the same recover using a standard steel seive - but out in the bush up there they employed whatever materials were at hand - or could be flogged from the company!

Cheers John