The
gold pan is the first tool of a placer gold miner. Once a miner learns to pan gold, he or she can pan about one-cubic yard
of dirt per-day. The gold pan is considered a sampling and finishing tool.
If
you find “pay dirt” or, a rich deposit of gold as you sample with your gold pan, you would then use a tool that
can process much more material in a day – like a “sluice,” or “dry washer.” A gold pan is
inexpensive and a lot of fun for the entire family.
You
will also need a gold pan to “finish” your “black sand” or “concentrates,” from
other gold separating machines like a gold dredge, sluice box, high banker or dry washer. It is important to learn
and use efficient gold panning techniques.
*Learn from a pro how to separate your flake and fine
gold from black sand concentrates! Watch Mel, Arizona Gold Adventures' Chief Gold Prospecting Instructor, teach AGA
guests how it’s done:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ5qkSQBb58
Engineering,
Manufacturing & Repair of small scale mining equipment for gold prospecting: Drywashers
– Vacuums – Final Clean Up systems and more!
Email: Bret@AZDesertGold.com or call 602-628-7555 - Ask about your Arizona Gold Adventures DISCOUNT!
Drywashing for Gold Part One:
Drywashing for Gold Part Three
Arizona Gold Adventures uses and
recommends AZ Desert Gold
Dry Washers (above) and Crevice Vacuums!
*
Dry Washer:
The
dry washer is a waterless version of the sluice box. The prospector shovels dry pay dirt into the top of the dry washer, which
has a built in screen (classifier) to sort out rocks too big to go down into the next section of the machine.
*
When
the dirt falls into the lower part of the machine, a battery- or gasoline- powered fan blows the lighter dust and dirt up
and over the riffles (just like water would in a sluice), and down and out of the washer.
*
The gold stays trapped in the top few riffles because the fan is not powerful
enough to blow the heavy gold into the air and over the riffles. Some dry washers even create an electrostatic
charge that makes gold and other metals “stick” to the riffles. Another dry washer option is a vibrator, which
helps the gold settle to the bottom of the riffles.
*
Watch this four-part Arizona Gold Adventures
Instructional video on the art of "Drywashing for Gold," with Bret Chilcott.
Drywashing for Gold Part Two:
Drywashing for Gold Part Four
The Sluice:
This gold prospecting tool can process up to one-cubic yard of dirt per-hour! That’s eight-times what
a gold pan can do.
The sluice is powered by water flowing down
its flat, narrow surface which is divided by “riffles.” When the water flows over these "disruptors,"
it creates turbulence at the face of the riffle allowing the heavy gold to drop out of the flow and settle
to the bottom of the sluice.
Wherever a flowing stream
is available you can set up a sluice. When water is not available – such as in the Arizona desert, you can use a “re-circulating
sluice,” placed over a tub of water. A small electric pump connected to a motorcycle battery will circulate water through
the sluice for eight-hours or more.
You start by feeding your pay
dirt into the front of the sluice. The heavy black sands and gold will be caught in the riffles and fall into the “miner’s
moss,” that carpets the bottom of the sluice. Miner’s moss, is a course material that simulates the wild moss
that grows along streams and is known to trap gold during floods and high water runoffs. While the lighter dirt and sand will
wash out the end of the sluice, the heavy black sand concentrates will build up at the riffles and on the miner’s moss.
Make sure not to overload the sluice by feeding in too much pay
dirt too fast, or gold can be washed out of the sluice. You can tell if the sluice is overloading by watching to see if the
dirt is filling up above the riffles.
AGA Guests, Tim and his Son from Glendale, AZ, share a day of "Nugget
Shooting" with their Prescott-made, Tesoro "VLF" metal detectors in the
shadow of Rich Hill.
Metal Detector
A “Very Low Frequency” or, “VLF” metal detector works using electro-magnetic
energy, or radio waves. In a VLF metal detector, there are two distinct coils. The “transmitter” coil is the outer
coil. Electricity flows through this coil, first in one direction and then the other - thousands of times per-second - creating
a radio wave. The number of direction changes per-second establishes the "frequency" of the unit.
The
inner coil, or “receiver,” acts as an antenna to pick up and amplify these waves as they interact with metal
objects in the ground. Think of a gold nugget as a conducting antenna. The gold nugget is surrounded by the radio waves sent
into the ground by the transmitter coil. The gold nugget captures these signals and re-transmits its own signal back up to
the receiver coil. * Specialized VLF gold detectors like the Tesoro Lobo SuperTraq, have a very
sensitive receiver to pick up and amplify the signal frequency of gold. The soil and rocks in the area being hunted can also
influence the ability to detect gold nuggets. * Soils and rocks with various conductive
salts and moisture also have "eddy" currents. This makes a heavily “mineralized” area hard to detect,
as your detector will also detect “hot rocks,” which makes hearing smaller gold nuggets almost impossible. The
Arizona-made Tesoro Lobo SuperTraq VLF metal detector was designed to overcome this hurdle, and will find gold nuggets as
small as a BB!
*
Unlike VLF machines which use a uniform alternating
current at a low frequency, a ”Pulse induction” or “PI metal detector,” fires a high-voltage pulse
of electricity into the ground. If no metal is there the pulse will decay at a set rate. If there is a gold nugget in the
ground, a small bit of the current will flow through the metal and the pulse time will increase.
*
The Minelab GPX-4500 represents cutting
edge gold finding technology. Incorporating new Smart Electronic Timing Alignment (SETA) technology alongside Minelab’s existing Multi Period Sensing (MPS) and Dual Voltage Technology (DVT), it is quieter and more immune to interference than earlier models, making
it a real pleasure to use.
No matter if you've never picked up a detector before, the GPX-4500 offers a number
of pre-programmed search modes that your AGA gold prospecting instructor will teach you to use right away! Quieter threshold,
louder target signals, improved discrimination, and more versatility, the GPX-4500 is the gold detector Arizona Gold Adventures
uses and recommends.Offering great features and high performance, the Minelab GPX-4500 is proven, field-tested
nugget detecting technology for the professional prospector that simply wants the best.
Today's gold prospector needs both the VLF
- and the PI metal detector in their gold prospecting tool bag! At Arizona Gold Adventures Gold Prospecting School
in Congress, you will learn to use both with confidence, gaining a solid knowledge base.
High Banker / Re-circulating Sluice / Suction Dredge:
The high banker is a Gold concentration
tool based on the sluice box. Like the re-circulating sluice, a “High Banker” uses water pumped into a hopper,
where the pay dirt is shoveled in. The water jets wash and break up any clay or soil lumps that may contain gold particles.
*
The material then drops though a wire or metal mesh classifier called a “grizzly,”
and then down into the sluice box. It is also possible to pump the water from a “suction dredge” into the hopper.
*
A suction dredge is basically an underwater vacuum with a long hose and nozzle specially designed for
sucking out crevices in bedrock, and material that has settled in dead spots in streams and rivers.
>
Watch a short clip of ArizonaGoldAdventures.com guests
learning to use a gold prospectors re-circulating “Highbanker,” to clean drywashing concentrates
near Rich Hill, Arizona:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oghi8YZSWsw
Name: Gold Symbol:
Au Atomic Number: 79 Atomic Mass: 196.96655 amu Melting Point: 1064.43 °C (1337.5801 K, 1947.9741 °F) Boiling Point: 2807.0 °C (3080.15 K, 5084.6 °F) Number of Protons / Electrons: 79 Number of Neutrons:
118 Classification: Transition Metal Crystal Structure: Cubic Density
@ 293 K: 19.32 g/cm3 Color: Gold Gold is heavy, many times heavier than
anything else in your gold pan. That is the key to recovering this precious metal. “Au,” is the scientific symbol
for Gold. Gold, silver and platinum were squeezed by volcanic pressures into fissures in harder material such as granite and
quartz. Gold is associated with quartz, because it takes the same geologic forces of heat and pressure to create both of them.
While
you can find small amounts of natural gold in many states, large nuggets and concentrated placer gold deposits are most common
in California; Alaska; and Arizona. It takes a lot of experience – and a real knowledge
of how and where to look for gold to be a successful prospector.
*
As rain, wind, and yearly freezing and thawing moves the earths surface around, gold
is released from its host rock or vein and starts its journey to the lowest, deepest point gravity will take it. Gold is almost
20-times heavier than water, three-times as heavy as iron. Because of its weight gold will always sink until it gets stuck
in the crevice of a rock, hits bedrock or, a layer of “caliche.” Caliche,
is a false bedrock layer made from calcium carbonate that cements together gravel,
sand, clay and silt, to make a natural concrete.
*
Think about a hard rain on the side of
a hill. As the rain falls little rivulets form and flow down the hill forming larger and larger streams. As the water moves,
it erodes the earth and rock beneath it freeing trapped gold. The gold, caught up in the fast moving water, will cascade down
the hill looking for the first crack, undercut or obstruction along the way to sink into. Over the years more freed-up gold
will collect in these cracks and form pockets or, “patches” of gold.
The same thing happens in a stream bed. Look for where the water slows during a flood. If the gold has a chance,
it will sink. Sample or test where the stream bends or widens, or where there are natural obstacles or falls. Even a rock
or boulder in a stream will disrupt the flow of water causing the gold to fall to the bottom and collect.
“The Arizona Gold Adventures Gold Prospecting School at Rich
Hill, strongly
suggests
our beginner and intermediate gold prospectors read ‘Fists full of Gold,’
by Chris Ralph. Chris has written the perfect textbook
for anyone interested in
gold
prospecting and placer gold mining. The book is easy to understand, and
fully illustrated.” – Terry Soloman,
COO – Arizona Gold Adventures.com
“Fists Full of Gold” – By Chris Ralph - Cover Price $29.95
Some of the information contained in the book includes: How to use a gold
pan, including crevicing, mossing and sniping for gold How to get the best recovery out of your sluice
box or highbanker How to use a suction dredge to find and recover paystreaks
How to operate a dry washer for gold An extensive section on metal detecting, perhaps the best on
the market Building your own equipment: including building your own: Portable
sluice box Lightweight suction dredge Desert dry washer How to get the most out of your black sands How to get the best prices for your gold, specimens and
nuggets Full coverage of the geology of gold and silver mineral deposits How to do research to find your own rich
concentrations of gold: Using and understanding topographic maps, aerial photos and GPS Where to find little known sources of information on gold deposits How to use
geology maps to find gold Mining law and how to stake and maintain your own claim Platinum
placers and deposits – How to prospect for them Diamonds in placers – How to recognize them Plus hundreds
of photos, diagrams and illustrations
Get your copy now with FREE SHIPPING-just $29.95
Make your check out to, Arizona Gold Adventures Inc,
and mail to:
Arizona Gold Adventures Inc
260 Church St. Suite 3-B-1
White Plains,
NY 10603
Congress Bob, the "Tunnel Rat," moving gold-rich ancient riverbed material on private gold claims in the
shadow of Rich Hill, Arizona.
Please ask! We love
to answer your questions. Call 914-589-3985
