Breaking up clay

[Marked]

So people just to clarify, if your from Victoria there is no quick way to break up clay without the good old elbow grease ? (While at the creek)

As long as you dig it out by hand you can break it up however you wish - trommel, highbanker with a boiler box, cement mixer, etc. Powered processing is fine and dandy in Victoria - just necessary to excavate by hand.

 

[Wintersnake]

You need a Ball Mill.
Most people use hand cranked Stone/Gem polishing machines.

For me a cement mixer would be too heavy you would rarely fill it to capacity and turn it by hand.

Using a 20L steel drum sized barrel clamp a screen over the opening so the rocks (balls) don't fall out but the fines can be poured out. Crank the hell out of it. Throw a few buckets of water in to help break it down and then you can tip it straight onto you sluice.

 

[XIV]

A cement mixer connected to a Jenny works well. But a bit hard to transport through the bush.

 

[deepblue]

Hey guys after many years of trying to breakdown clay to pan out the gold I found that the easy way is to bake the clay on a BBQ then break it up. Works a lot quicker then cement mixers and dish washing liquid. The red clay is the worst to handle just rolls into little balls in the mixer and wont break down.

 

[GoldStreak]

For my small amount of clay, I simply use a cordless drill with a paint stirrer and a lot of water in a bucket, it works quite well, however, I'm going to cut into the end part of the stirrer, and slightly bend little bits of it to make it more aggressive on the clay.

I change out the water a few times during the process as it will only absorb so much of the clay, then run it through the sluice.

Cheers, Paul.

 

[Nugget]

Great idea Paul, I'll be adding that one to the memory bank for future use

 

[xray1982]

I have been getting around the mullock heaps lately and the clay is small pea sized bits that breaks up by filling half a 20 ltr bucket with clay and water. if you get a wire handled welding hammer, and swirl it around a bit it works pretty well and the heavies go straight to the bottom as well. I reckon an easier method would be instead of stiring by hand get the 18v cordless and paint stirrer.

 

[Old Mate Cairns]

Re: How do you get gold out of clay?
Got it. This is a cheap and simple solution. One sm. bottle of hydrogen peroxide to half a tube of toothpaste. Add a squirt of Dawn and a quart of water. Cost is about $2 dollars a gallon. Clay will liquefy, release the sand, gold and heavies and just pour out as muddy water. Got the tip from the geology department at Tulane University. Hydrogen peroxide and fluoride together liquefy clay. The Dawn just helps with separating things a little more. You don't need a bunch of expensive chemicals.

Tried this mixture out yesterday on some really thick nasty red clay that was driving me absolutely crazy. Works like a charm.

 

[Old Fred]

Only one name comes to mind on that bit 'inventive' thinking Gm!

Oi there Agman .. A very simple solution for you that be worth a try, at least for 'testing for colour' purposes .. The Cement Mixer tool .. Loud her up, add a few good rocks, add water to get your slurry going .. The rest is obvious. .. Hire or borrow if you don't have one.
Good Luck!

I use a cement mixer with half a bucket of smooth stones in it . Put a piece of timber on the bottom stop plate so when u tip it u ha e about 2 inches of water left in it and most of the sludge annd stones run out .add clean water till ithe water coming out is reasonably clear then pan or sluice u fines . I goot bore water but if on tank or buying it yust use the mixer to slurry it up