I just thought I'd report on my latest efforts on the creek here. A few weeks ago, I made a new sluice and have been able to use it since the rain finally came to fill up my creek. I did some panning as I filled the sluice and allowed the current to work for me.
I took down my mining camp for the season and brought the sluice up to clean it and flush the bedding material. This bedding material (known as "moss" to prospectors) is a fine tight carpeting, not as coarse as the last sluice. It is five feet long and a little over a foot wide, so I had more surface to collect gold dust on when in use.
I ran a moderate amount of soil through and noticed there was a greater concentration of black sand and with very little effort I extracted a half dozen gold flakes. There are even more particles so small I can't pick them out, and flour gold as well. A super teeny tiny amount of Dawn dish detergent in the pan water works wonders to keep the flour gold submerged in the pan water. The real prospectors use jet dry for automatic dishwashers and not dish detergent.
Next season will be better after I make improvements on the new sluice and set up two new campsites on the creek.
I took down my mining camp for the season and brought the sluice up to clean it and flush the bedding material. This bedding material (known as "moss" to prospectors) is a fine tight carpeting, not as coarse as the last sluice. It is five feet long and a little over a foot wide, so I had more surface to collect gold dust on when in use.
I ran a moderate amount of soil through and noticed there was a greater concentration of black sand and with very little effort I extracted a half dozen gold flakes. There are even more particles so small I can't pick them out, and flour gold as well. A super teeny tiny amount of Dawn dish detergent in the pan water works wonders to keep the flour gold submerged in the pan water. The real prospectors use jet dry for automatic dishwashers and not dish detergent.
Next season will be better after I make improvements on the new sluice and set up two new campsites on the creek.
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