I've had a head cold for a couple weeks and I didn't even get a 1/4 of a five gal bucket of river sand through the sluice when I stopped. Then the creek was getting low so I adjusted the sluice and waited for the next rain. I finished that bucket and did another half bucket while the flow was going so nicely though the sluice. At the end of that, I removed the field stones from the sluice and let it run straight though for a few hours. Yesterday, I took the sluice out and cleaned at the house and panned the sluice material.
Now, I had done a pan here and there before cleaning the sluice and didn't see any color. I kept thinking is that gold? No. Is that gold? No. I was thinking I got skunked and began to wonder why, until I got into the last bit of material from the sluice. The last few pans had produce five nice sized flakes. There is no doubt when you see that color in the pan, it screams GOLD!
I cleaned up the vial and recollected the flakes then added the new ones and now have 16 gold flakes in the vial, six more then before. Not much, but it proves its there and I'm getting better at bringing it up out of the creek sand.
The flour gold is all through the black sand and I have never been able to recover that, so I'm saving the black sand for future experiments. I want to get a spiral gold wheel to extract that fine dust that teases me when I see it.
Now, I had done a pan here and there before cleaning the sluice and didn't see any color. I kept thinking is that gold? No. Is that gold? No. I was thinking I got skunked and began to wonder why, until I got into the last bit of material from the sluice. The last few pans had produce five nice sized flakes. There is no doubt when you see that color in the pan, it screams GOLD!
I cleaned up the vial and recollected the flakes then added the new ones and now have 16 gold flakes in the vial, six more then before. Not much, but it proves its there and I'm getting better at bringing it up out of the creek sand.
The flour gold is all through the black sand and I have never been able to recover that, so I'm saving the black sand for future experiments. I want to get a spiral gold wheel to extract that fine dust that teases me when I see it.
A trail goes two ways and looks different in each direction - There is no such thing as a timid woodland creature - Whatever does not kill you leaves you a survivor - Jesus is NOT a bad word - MSB