I get that what you’re saying about the black sand is that when the black sand and the gold particles are the same size, the gold, being heavier stays behind, while the black sand which is lighter, is swept away. Right? This was a real fun video to watch!
It was a crazy amount of work and if I were handling this stuff all the time, I'd develop a more efficient system to process it. The smallness is bad enough, bu the flatness of the flakes causes them to stick to everything. Anyway, thanks for the challenge. I look forward to chatting with you about Nevada placers.
Yes it sticks to anything, and other commenters say why i don't heat it up in a pan and dry it out. They just don't get it. I go with clean gold from snuffer bottle to the vial, drain excess water from vial with a Q tip and apply a slight breeze from a small fan into the vial. Drys overnight for me and i don't loose any gold.
I also thought possibly using a sheet of sand paper. With a hole in it. Glued to the bottom of the bowl. Something fine depending on the gold. 2000 grit to ,5000 grit maybe 10,000grit , so the tiny peaks and valleys can hold the gold in place and the water can get under the Lighter "stuff" hopefully much faster!
I don't waste time with a magnet and I don't use a bowl. I crush the black sand with ceramic plates. Both gold and PGM are malleable while the brittle minerals get crushed. I don't pan. Once the material is fine enough I carefully decant. I have found diamond, platinum and gold. Interestingly I have also found Lots of native copper as well.
I think a pulsed electromagnet could be used with or without the blue bowl, with a low frequency pulse, 1Hz or so. That only last 1/100 -1/10 of a second or something. The pulse could create just enough of a disturbance in the mixture to help the bowl to do it's thing ! So fast of pulse , nothing sticks to the magnet !
When you dumped the gold from the blue bowl into the gold pan, you observed gold was "sticking" to the glass bottle's wall. Why didn't you use a surface detergent earlier because my problem with fine black sand and fine gold is those two continue to somewhat stick together. But will it stop the surface tension bond completely? So, did you re-process your black sand to see if any more fine gold could be recovered from it? Additionally, when you are removing black sand with a magnet, using a black colored gold pan the color black certainly helps to identify the fine gold particles, but it maybe hides some of the fine black sand. What color would be best? I was very interested in your work with this fine gold/black sand sample. Thanks for making this important video. We all have some very fine black sand and gold dust to deal with, I'm sure. If a prospector doesn't think he has gold dust, maybe he should re-test his black sand after watching this video.
Sticking to a solid smooth wall (like the glass) is different than repelling water and floating on the surface. I did use some detergent - I like to not use a lot so I don't generate bubbles. I also did go through it again and there wasn't much - just a trace.
Thank you for sharing this valuable resource and information. I had been told by other prospectors that the “Blue Bowl” was a waste of time because it took a very long time to get the material. However, after reviewing your methodology and key setup information, I am planning on getting that system. You also mentioned and showed me the use of magnets to aid in further separation of magnetic material. What strength of magnets should I look to procure for doing this? All I currently have is a mechanics magnet on a telescoping rod for recovering small nuts and bolts, that is what I currently using to separate out magnetic material from dried concentrate. Your method of panning is very unique and it helps me to see the value of patience and practice. Thank you so much for this great lesson and knowledge.
describing the strength of magnets as a general thing is not easy. I would say your bolt picker is weak to medium at most. If you have 50 pounds of cons to work every week (like from a commercial operation), you dont want a blue bowl, but if you have just a few pounds it is great.
@@ChrisRalph Thank you for responding. Really enjoy your vids. Just a beginner in GA, where we have a lot of mica to mess with. Gold colored mica! And lots of garnet sand. 😎
Mica is light and will wash off easily when panning. When you have panned down to the black sand, the mica will be gone. Garnets will remain with the black sand.
I don't think I'll ever be that good - Methinks you just showed us the pinnacle of panning skills, and it is an eye opener. I'd be excited if I got a 10th of what you recovered from that sample :)
Chris Ralph, Professional Prospector So having both in the recovery arsenal would be important if one doesn't have a penchant for hours of panning. I'm a new sub and I'm enjoying your videos!
Barite. That nasty white non-magnetic is barite in my part of the world. The tiny crystals lock togther like concrete in the pan. Great work as always Chris! Hope to get your book for Christmas :)
Instead of using Jet Dry, I used old mouth wash. I didn't want to waste it by flushing it down the toilet, so I used it, and it helped. I noticed that it moved differently in the water, too. [Edit : grammar]
is it the alcohol (metholated spirits) concentration? I remember from my geology unity that they use alcohol to change (and measure) the wetability of a soil. if window cleaner works well, then it is likely that it is alcohol that makes the difference. Your thoughts?
@@vk2ktmI didn't realize that you asked a question. I honestly don't know what chemical will do the trick. I assume that there is a soapy substance that helps. The problem will alcohol is that it will evaporate. I think that mouth wash has something else to it.
In general, are high elevation, active volcanic areas common areas to find gold? Too simple of a question, I know. I'm still new and learning. The area is famous for its geothermal properties. I was thinking maybe the heat pushes nuggets to the surface, then trickles down to the river beds. Thank you 🙏
I think I have a gallon jug of black sand from the south shore of lake Ontario. I've found some gemstones, mostly just Garnet and olivine. Going to try the thing you showed in the video, I doubt I'll find anything, but I mostly just like sitting on the beach 😆
Future video suggestion; "Diving/Sniping for Gold" ... I noticed there's a few guys who are having some recent success diving/sniping for Gold - they are just using hands tools to snipe the Gold out of bedrock crevices (without the use of a Dredge) ... I guess the reason they are having some success, is they are reaching crevices in the channel that have never seen human hands before ... while the bedrock crevices along the river bank above low water have generally been picked out multiple times.
Good idea. I definitely plan on doing some sniping videos, but the locations where I would do that are at the beginning of winter and the water will be ice cold. I am going to wait to do some sniping videos until next year when the weather warms. Glad you enjoyed the video.
If you think a good miller table ( which one would that be), is more effective that the blue bowl, would you please demonstrate its use in an upcoming video, please? Thank you!
I got about 20 specs from a pan of a black layer of sand on our local beach. So now i have about 100 kilo of black sand in my shed. I will pan it all it if we go into lockdown. So i am looking for a more efficient way.
Get a gold cube,or gold hog multi slice to process it to something pannable or Just smelt it with a flux ,sand and all...you will eventually need to smelt as gold fever worsen's 🤣🤣 it's a very expensive hobby 😁,you better off buying a welder that can weld aluminum and making all your own equipment as that's the direction I'm going after thousands spent 🤣🤣🤣🤣 if I'm being honest 😂 good luck hopefully your family and friends can get together with your hobbies! Take care ✌️👍👍
How do you which beach sands might have gold ? Also, there is a very long creek here in Martinez, Ca. that flows from the hills out to the Bay and then up towards Benicia. I wondered why that creek and this area seems to have no gold, while a relative few miles away, gold is found in creeks and rivers. I do enjoy your videos but I tend to skip forward at times to the final results. Once we get a car again, I will save up for MY 4x4 and even my girlfriend wants to go look for gold. One thing no one has covered that I have seen. Whether you find flakes or nuggets or gold in sand, what percentage will a dealer take out when you go to sell it ? If we found one ounce of gold and assuming they take out 10%, it would pay my rent for 6 months. I live in senior housing owned by my county. $247 a month. My silver is worth a lot more. I started buying silver at $5 an ounce 12-15 years ago.
I enjoy learning from you. I live near the Snake River below hells canyon. We have alot of ultra fine flour gold and black sand everywhere. Definitely have decided to get a blue bowl. What do you think about Miller tables ?
The blue bowl worked, but honestly, I think a good miller table would be better than the blue bowl for this stuff. I dont own a miller table or I'd have used one in this video. Glad you enjoyed the video.
So I was reading some stuff, and apparently you can actually get gold from the black sand if you grind it . Apparently some values are really rich. I was going to try some
Can I send you some black sand from southeast Mississippi? I have found a lot of super fine gold here. I'd like to see if it actually is gold. Thank you.
Hi Chris, great videos thanks for sharing your experience. I have a question, if I have a small bag of concentrate (300 grams) which contains gold, silver, copper, and smaller amounts of platinum and palladium, is there a similar simple method of separating all of these? Platinum has the highest SG of 21 which is close to the SG of gold which is 19, so I assume that these two minerals would be together at the end of the blue bucket, but the other minerals although lower than the SG of gold also have a relatively high SG. I assume it would be more difficult since silver, platinum, and palladium are similar in colour, but If you have any method for separating these minerals when they are found together in black sand I would be interested to hear your method. Thank you
@@forzastella1 does it make sense to extract the gold and platinum, then repeat the process with the tailings? the logic seems to be that you can extract the lighter from the heavier.
I wish you would have given close up views instead of trying to rely on your verbal description. I struggle with refining my black sand at this stage and am sure I loose gold!
I think some people use mercury to do the process that you did... not environmental. If that mercury comes in contact with the gold... won't it harm the wearer of the gold?
The gold - mercury alloy mix is heated, driving away the mercury. Therefore the final gold product has no mercury - but the mercury often leaks into the environment.
@@ChrisRalph yes, but there are places were wi fi and the internet do not reach. books are a reference that work everywhere. Of course, you could publish it on a cd set or pdf that one could read on a dvd player or laptop Or Ipad. All of which I have acquired over some 20 years.
Why not talk how your right channel sound is annoying, it is no wonder you got downvotes. We do not want a video where someone put gold in the black sand, we want to see you get gold from natural black sand.
