2023...

[silver]

Could you run it through a rotating 3mm mesh to clarify it first, so as to reduce the amount you need to put through your crusher. That way you would have some ready to go through your new/old concentrator.

 

[Moneybox]

Could you run it through a rotating 3mm mesh to clarify it first, so as to reduce the amount you need to put through your crusher. That way you would have some ready to go through your new/old concentrator.

Yes that's a good idea. That way I'd get to see if there's any gold worth the effort. There will be gold but I don't know if it's free gold or attached to the little rocks. I might have to cart some dirt home first and put it through the Knudson and see what shows up. I don't have a screen set up to reduce it further but I'm off to a station this weekend to see if I can get my hands on an old trommel that I know is lying in their dump.



We haven't discussed money so I could come home without it. The mesh size is too big for this project but it looks like a good starting point.

I have sites scattered over two leases at this point. I've worked about eight separate areas, most for no more than a couple of days (my days, little ones) and they all have gold, not enough to get rich but too much to leave behind.


This is the concentrates from the site I'm working now. It's an old mine dump and the gold is more sharp and difficult to separate from the lead, tiny copper nails and all sorts of stone. I've found it easiest to remove all I can by pan without wasting too much time then shoving it into the melting pot and letting the flux do the work. All the stone goes into the flux and if I think there's too much lead then I melt it in a cupel to extract that.



This is off the other lease and it pans easily leaving just beautiful clean gold but it's not as plentiful as the dirty stuff out of the mine dump. I think the site with the dirty sharp gold will also have a lot more very fine gold that the dryblower misses.

Setting up any sort of wet plant is going to be difficult because of the amount of dust that will just turn to mud and stay suspended in the water making recycling the water a messy job. I don't want to set up a big enough plant to have a settling pond, I want something small and mobile.

I have a POW going through at the moment on a third lease. It has gold too but I'm tempted to just flog it off along with China. I'm spreading myself too thin and I'll more than likely run out of time before I run out of dirt.

 

[grubstake]

Why did I immediately think of Moneybox when this advert popped up on my screen today?

 

[Moneybox]

Plan-B

Today was a bit of a mixed bag, some went well and some not so good. I started out with the idea of using the big flange on the end of the 50mm shaft as a pattern in a sand mould. It was going to be quite simple, just sit it vertically in a sand box to create a depression and pour it with molten aluminium.

I started out by cutting down a 5kg fire extinguisher to make an aluminium crucible. That idea soon went out the window when I found it was too fat to fit into my new furnace. Then I did something I really didn't want to do, I cut down my oxy bottle dolly pot and gave it a little spout. Then after a quick calculation I worked out that I could only melt a litre of aluminium and for that big flange I need two litres. I quickly knocked up a couple of ingot moulds as well incase I have a bit of the molten metal left over.



The easiest fix was to aim for a smaller pulley.



Even in the smaller size I still had to cut holes in it to reduce the aluminium needed to cast it.



Before long I had something resembling a pulley with mounting flange but minus the V-groove but that'll come later.



I rustled up a bit of scrap aluminium, well I hope it was scrap because it might be difficult to put back together



then I used a piece that I cut off the top of the dolly pot to make some tongs to lift it in and out of the furnace. It was a busy day but tomorrow I've got other things to do. I'll be cleaning off the back of the truck in case I pick up the trommel and I'm going to refit the roll bar on the quad. I took it off to get the quad into the little van but this season I'll most likely be in the bus with the trailer behind.

 

[Bora68]

Plan-B

Today was a bit of a mixed bag, some went well and some not so good. I started out with the idea of using the big flange on the end of the 50mm shaft as a pattern in a sand mould. It was going to be quite simple, just sit it vertically in a sand box to create a depression and pour it with molten aluminium.View attachment 8643

I started out by cutting down a 5kg fire extinguisher to make an aluminium crucible. That idea soon went out the window when I found it was too fat to fit into my new furnace. Then I did something I really didn't want to do, I cut down my oxy bottle dolly pot and gave it a little spout. Then after a quick calculation I worked out that I could only melt a litre of aluminium and for that big flange I need two litres. I quickly knocked up a couple of ingot moulds as well incase I have a bit of the molten metal left over.

View attachment 8648

The easiest fix was to aim for a smaller pulley.

View attachment 8649

Even in the smaller size I still had to cut holes in it to reduce the aluminium needed to cast it.

View attachment 8650

Before long I had something resembling a pulley with mounting flange but minus the V-groove but that'll come later.

View attachment 8651

I rustled up a bit of scrap aluminium, well I hope it was scrap because it might be difficult to put back together

View attachment 8652

then I used a piece that I cut off the top of the dolly pot to make some tongs to lift it in and out of the furnace. It was a busy day but tomorrow I've got other things to do. I'll be cleaning off the back of the truck in case I pick up the trommel and I'm going to refit the roll bar on the quad. I took it off to get the quad into the little van but this season I'll most likely be in the bus with the trailer behind.

Industrious bugger. There must be something in that Cue water that gives heaps of extra zing.

 

[Aries]

Dunno about that, I drink it all the time and you don't see me running around casting pulleys.
I think the man was just born talented and picked up a whole heap of skills along life's journey.
Besides the waters crap and shouldn't really be drunk but what the hell tastes alright with a bit of coffee.

 

[Moneybox]

Dunno about that, I drink it all the time and you don't see me running around casting pulleys.
I think the man was just born talented and picked up a whole heap of skills along life's journey.
Besides the waters crap and shouldn't really be drunk but what the hell tastes alright with a bit of coffee.

Aries, the headmaster, a Mr Bill Leach, told me I was a dummy back in about 1960 and I believed him. It took me about thirty or forty years to work out that he might have made a mistake. Everybody is good at something and I know now that I am but I keep trying new things so that one day I'll find out what it is

 

[Moneybox]

I got the roll bar back on the quad and nearly finished emptying the back of the truck ready for the weekend but I had to walk past my recent jobs to do it.



I watched a couple of YouTube videos and saw that they are using a hooked wire to lift and and another to swing the crucible. It looks like a much safer way to handle it so I put a couple of bolts in the side an a half chain link on the bottom. Now I just need a nice piece of solid wire from a vehicle roof lining to do the lifting. I don't have one but I know where to look



My sand mould turned out a bit ratty but the main structure is there and it has to be machined anyway so I think it'll do.

 

[Moneybox]

Well that was a bit of an eye opener, I must have missed the memo, they don't put suspended roof lining into cars these times.



Fortunately they keep a bit of old stock over at CueBunno and I found what I wanted in a Nissan Patrol.



Now I can lift it with one hand and swing it to pour with the other.

 

[Mackka]

Excellent skills and Bush Ingenuity again Moneybox. Mackka

 

[grubstake]

Well that was a bit of an eye opener, I must have missed the memo, they don't put suspended roof lining into cars these times.

Or crank handles.

 

[Davent]

Aries, the headmaster, a Mr Bill Leach, told me I was a dummy back in about 1960 and I believed him. It took me about thirty or forty years to work out that he might have made a mistake. Everybody is good at something and I know now that I am but I keep trying new things so that one day I'll find out what it is

I think Mr Leach was mistaken!
I have known you long enough to know you are definitely no dummy, I wish I had your drive and ingenuity!

 

[Moneybox]

The mother-in-law's funeral is delayed for a while while somebody makes the difficult decision to proclaim her dead. Surely some medically qualified person could check for a pulse and sign it off

Anyway there was no point in me rushing off to Perth so even though I was delayed for a day due to inclement weather I went ahead with my plans.

View attachment Muddy road.mp4

I'd decided to take the van just in case I had to head for Perth and I didn't want to take the truck all that way.



It proved to be a bit of a challenge in 2WD towing a trailer and it was nearly a bit too much fun but I'd planned on catching up with Olden.

View attachment Specie.mp4

I eventually found my way to the pending lease that was nine kilometres of track off the muddy road.



The track was a bit rough but it wasn't too muddy. The handle of my jocky wheel must have struck the ground on the way in because it wasn't there when I needed it.



It was late in the afternoon when I got there and I hadn't told Olden that I'd decided to come after all. The pending lease was over 300 HA in hilly country so I guess I was expecting too much to actually find him and his wife. The first minesite I came to had a nice level elevated spot to camp so I stopped there and took the trailer off so that I could get the quad out.

I took the quad to the top of a nearby hill and gave him a call. I'd stuffed up a bit because he wasn't due for a couple more days. Well I couldn't waste time so I returned to camp and used the last bit of daylight swinging the 6000 through the nearby bush. Within 15 minutes I uncovered this little quartz specimen. I couldn't see any gold but it went off ok on the detector so I smashed it between two larger rocks. I should have wrapped it in a cloth because it shattered far and wide but I did rescue this bit with the gold.



It soon turned dark but before returning to camp I ran the detector over the quartz reef in the mouth of a nearby mineshaft. I got a small but definite signal in a solid bed of quartz. The pick wouldn't touch it so I returned to camp for a torch and a hammer but the hammer was nowhere to be found.

There was only one thing left to do, I climbed the hill and told Olden of my predicament. He said he'd be there at first light in the morning with a hammer and chisel. He actually banged on the door of the van before I'd left dreamland but it didn't take me long to raise my head. The quartz reef was made up of these chunky rocks solidly bonded together so it took a while but Olden is pretty good on the hammer and soon had a hole under one side before handing me the hammer and another chisel to attack the other side.

After getting it out we could see the tiny nugget in the photo sticking out of one side where we chipped it and another bit of gold showing in the other end. It wasn't much but it was a bit of gold to start the day.



Olden brought along the Garrett Axiom for me to have a look. It has that solid feel reminiscent of the ATX but of course much lighter.
He had the 6000 as well with a similar sized coil but there wasn't enough gold about to have a good comparison between the two.


I found a couple of nice little nuggets after Olden directed me to a spot where he'd been earlier. The biggest one is just over a gram so I ended up with a couple of grams all up.



I stayed one more night and headed off in the morning. It was a good trip but I had a few strange things going on with the electrics. This voltage reading is on a 12v system and I saw it over 28v while the engine was running. The new 600w pure sinewave inverter self-destructed while travelling even though it wasn't turned on but there was a fair bit of smoke. Fortunately it has a 5 yr warranty.



I couldn't come home with my new trommel without a gift for Mrs M so I found this old lamp. I know she'll love it

 

[Qlden]

Good to finally catch up with you after all these years MB.
Sorry I missed you at the homestead the following morning, never thought you would be decamped so early. Popped out to another spot closer to the bitumen for a couple of hours and missed you by 45 mins. (Got 3 little tiddlers).
Wife was delighted to entertain you in my absence…

 

[Moneybox]

Good to finally catch up with you after all these years MB.
Sorry I missed you at the homestead the following morning, never thought you would be decamped so early. Popped out to another spot closer to the bitumen for a couple of hours and missed you by 45 mins. (Got 3 little tiddlers).
Wife was delighted to entertain you in my absence…

Yes it was great to catch up. We rarely meet people from the forum, well really I don't meet many at all

I think I should have stayed there. The rain has hardly stopped since I've arrived back home Sandra is back too so we'll get a couple of days about here before heading for Perth. We have the problem of a house full of a lifetime of collections, although somewhat depleted over the recent months, to find a somewhere to put it all. I'm not looking forward to carting it all to Cue but at this point I don't have a plan-B.

I hope your roads are dry enough to move camp today? At least you know where to find gold nearby there may be more in that old mine but you'll need to dig out the dolly pot.

 

[Moneybox]

My laptop battery died right on its first anniversary. The rest of the machine is a mess with multiple cracks in what was once a touchscreen. I ordered a new computer off the LG website on 28th February and they shipped it on DHL. DHL offloaded on onto Startrack but it never turned up. When I eventually tracked it down it was sitting in Sydney because it was addressed to a PO Box and StarTrack (Australia Post) don't deliver to PO Boxes.

After several phone calls I managed to get LG to email DHL to change the delivery address to a street address. Now that that seems to have been done a week or so back the computer cannot be found. I've requested a replacement computer from LG but they are still investigating it more than a month after they sent the first one. I paid by PayPal so I think I have it covered if something can't be sorted out during the next week although I'm going to be out and about most of the time so we'll see what happens.



Meanwhile I'm struggling to keep this one going. Last night I tried to close the screen down but it wouldn't fully close. I worked out that the battery had swollen so much that there was a big lump in the keyboard. This morning I removed the problem so I'm up and running again. I just googled this lithium cell and it's a common battery so I should be able to grab one while I'm in Perth. It's only about $10 from China so I might end up getting one at a reasonable price.

 

[grubstake]

Watch out for that swollen lithium battery, Phil - the next step after deterioration is incineration!

 

[Mackka]

My wife and i both replaced our laptop batteries virtually at the same time. They would charge and within a couple of hours they were dead and the only way use them was attached to a power source. Spoke to a trch guy snd he said” mate this thing is 4 years old, get a new one” so me being me I got the crap off it I wanted, took out the new battery and took it down the shed and put a hole through the harddrive with a 1/2 “ bit and put it in the bin. Next will be this ipad .

 

[silver]

Yes it was great to catch up. We rarely meet people from the forum, well really I don't meet many at all

I think I should have stayed there. The rain has hardly stopped since I've arrived back home Sandra is back too so we'll get a couple of days about here before heading for Perth. We have the problem of a house full of a lifetime of collections, although somewhat depleted over the recent months, to find a somewhere to put it all. I'm not looking forward to carting it all to Cue but at this point I don't have a plan-B.

I hope your roads are dry enough to move camp today? At least you know where to find gold nearby there may be more in that old mine but you'll need to dig out the dolly pot.

If you have to take everything, you could build a great museum shed for it all first(need a lot of organising though).

 

[Moneybox]

If you have to take everything, you could build a great museum shed for it all first(need a lot of organising though).

I hope my wife doesn't read this