High-Banking Simply Stated

Prospecting Australia

Help Support Prospecting Australia:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Well done digger.
1452659977_1476364148.gif
 
Marking your dig.

This seems to one topic that comes up on every trip, so can I ask what are your thoughts on this subject. It has been a long standing practice to mark your dig with X sticks and a drink bottle to let other prospectors know the hole is still been worked. While you are back at your camp and intend to return to the spot the next day. This is done as to avoid any misunderstanding between fellow prospectors.
 
lets look at pump silt protection. What I mean is when your pumping dirty or murky water it is a good idea to make a sock that fits over your strainer. This sock is tied off around the strainer so no foreign material can enter the system.



 
Worth mentioning make sure your pump can hande the restriction. Alot of pumps will overheat and go into oil temp cutoff if you're sucking through a pinhole. At least the rated intake is the minimum surface area you should have free for water intake
 
One thing that will happen to you while out in the field is your lay-flat getting a holed in it for one reason or other. Below will give you a very quick fix that will last as long as your hose dose. cheers

Step one mark the hole a few inches either side of the hole.



Step two remove the hose fitting from one end and gut a length off the hose long enough to cover the hole as marked.



Step 3 slid the bit of hose you cut off over the lay flat till it covers the marks you made over the hole.



How this works is when the hose comes under pressure it will expand and seal the patch to the hose and it works a treat
 
Mate their are some great people on this site who will go out of their way to help you. All you need do is ask. Cheers digger and welcome to the site. Jembaicumbene
 
LOL it is a big read indeed. But as i said their are some great people on this site who know their stuff. When you get a idea of the in's and out's so to speck you will be able to ask any type of question that comes to mind. cheers digger
 
for dirty water with lots of roots I bought a 1" & 2" hiddels pump set up, they are trash pumps I can run gravel up to 4mm & small roots & stuff get chewed up & run through with no damage to the pumps- been going for 4 years now & no problems at all.
Also another way to save money on pumps is to find your nearest Koshin dealer, they build pumps for the Honda factory's in japan , so Honda builds the motors for them same as a Honda 40% cheaper exactly same motor.
Pumpmaster is the koshin dealers name.
 
Thanks for that information mate, but I dont think that type of pump would be any good for a Banker. Cheers Jembaicumbene
 
Successful Prospectors Tools

I posted this on another site a few years back but it fits in well here also. please enjoy. cheers.

Since you are a prospector, you probably now take particular notice of the unending types and means of recovering gold that cross your path. In your travels you will be aware of, and at times actively seeking to find and evaluate, all sorts and types of new or old equipment. From the humblest pan to the latest detector on the market there are hundreds of tools to make you successful in the field.

Keep in mind, though, that they are only tools, invented to help locate and recover gold, but that is all they are. It is up to the person using those various tools to make the best use of them!

The way you approach prospecting plays a big part in your successes. Your attitude towards the hunt is, and always will be, the most important tool in your Prospectors Tool Box.

The person out in the field must constantly maintain a positive outlook to overcome their occasional setbacks. Thinking Yes I certainly am going to find gold today! is the way to get into the right mind set, while thinking Bugger, only the lucky ones are finding the gold, what chance do I have?, results in a mental defeat even before you start.

Lets step back a bit here and have a look at two different prospectors and how they use another Successful Prospectors Tool Knowledge through Experience .

Prospector one, Skipper, chooses to travel all over the region, traveling from place to place while only spending a short time at each location. Every year he briefly works a new field before moving on to the next place on his list. He is searching for richer fields each trip, yet on his return he wonders why he has so little gold for such a substantial effort.

Prospector two, Steady Eddie, stays to his local fields. He has worked them over and over for years now, and he knows their characteristics in detail. Occasionally he journeys to a location, just outside his boundary, to explore its potential. He may spend a few weeks, or even a month, in that new area, systematically working the ground to learn its specific character. On his return home he is quite pleased with his successes that came from the effort he invested.

The big difference between Skipper and Eddie is that Skipper never really takes the time and effort to become familiar with his areas, while Steady Eddie really understands the secrets in the ground he is working. Eddie knows his ground in such detail because he has systematically explored it trip after trip, year after year. He knows the good ground on sight and he also, more importantly, knows how to recognize and avoid the poor ground.

No one can show or teach you all the fine points of your ground, it is a situation where you must just learn them for yourself.

Skipper may get lucky from time to time but at the seasons end it is Steady Eddie who will come out ahead every year.

Another quick Tool for your Prospectors Tool Box would be proper footwear. Whenever you are working a river sluice, high banker or even just panning, it is paramount that you have the right footwear and that would be properly fitting gumboots. In the cooler months you need them even more so, as the streams water can get quite cold. If you are unprepared you will suffer painfully cold and uncomfortably wet feet.

And now. back to working your ground and another tool for your Tool Box -- Feed Rates going through Your Equipment.

An important thing you must teach yourself is the best feed rate for the unit you are using. If you push too much material through your unit, in too short a time, you will find one or two things happening.

First you may check the unit from time to time thinking Yes, Sir, She is handling all I am shoveling now. In fact, what you are not seeing is the momentary clogging of the units riffles. In those few seconds you are loosing a small amount of gold from your unit each time it happens. You cant see the inefficiency, but the end result hurts your recovered gold. Slow and steady wins the race.

Second your unit may be fully clogged from top to bottom with just too much material. What could then happen is that you think you dont have enough angle, and so you increase the sluice boxs angle to help clear the unit. If you succumb do this, you will increase the speed of the water over your riffle section and blow any fine gold through your unit, and back into the streambed. If you do need to change the angle of your unit while working, it must be done very, very, very slowly, and certainly not in one go. Once again, Slow and steady wins the race.

Overall fatigue is a silent killer in the prospecting game! You will loose your edge and enthusiasm on a long trip if you wear yourself out day after day. Also, the type of shovel you should use is, most certainly, a round nosed one, which will offer less resistance when driven into the wash material and will result in a substantially reduced rate of fatigue.

While mining is exciting, and an intense activity, there is a lot to be said for a work schedule which mimics your normal, yearly one of work and rest. Work 5 days a week and then rest, do camp work, restock supplies and do an overall camp assessment.

Thanks to Kaeoj & Murachu for assisting in the documents drafting.

1460287433_thumb.jpg
 
The trick with hiddles pumps is to research your required flow rates, my 2" does 6000gph & the 1" does 2000gph more than enough for my small & large highbankers.
Best thing is you can run crap through it & not break it.
 
JTGOLD said:
The trick with hiddles pumps is to research your required flow rates, my 2" does 6000gph & the 1" does 2000gph more than enough for my small & large highbankers.
Best thing is you can run crap through it & not break it.

Good info mate thanks for posting. And your quite right when you say to do your research more so when your looking at pumps. Any chance of a photo of your setup? cheers Jemba
 
just look up koshin pumps they have what ever type of pump you could want, like I said in an earlier post look online for pump master you'll be surprised how much you can save, top quality pumps & motors not cheap Chinese knock offs.
 
Thanks i will check them out. It would be interesting to see your Banker setup if possible. cheers Jemba
 
KOSHIN LTD.

Top brand loved in 160 countries.
In 1948, KOSHIN Ltd was founded in the ancient city Kyoto, Japan.
Since then, KOSHIN has been striving for the manufacture of products applied for agriculture, construction, industrial, marine, and household. One of the main product "HIDELS PUMP", which is evaluated for portability, lightness, and high quality, is used in 160 countries and counts around 30% global market share.

http://www.koshin-ltd.jp/english/products/new/pabool-pump/

Nice pump this one I love the special carbon ceramic mechanical seal.

Honda SEH Series (2)

Complete Range of Water Pumps
Powered by Honda EngineSEH_icon.gif

- Highly effective mechanical seal made with special carbon ceramics provides extra durability.
- Entire unit is protected by sturdy rollover pipe frame.
- Strong and lightweight die-cast aluminum pump.

http://www.koshin-ltd.jp/english/products/2015/07/honda-seh-series-2.html
 
look at the koshin motor & pump combo much cheaper.
I have 2 sluices a gold fox lil monster & another *******ised & modified set up,I wont reveal the manufacturer because it was originally a crap set up & I don't want to give him any advertisement.
I modified & changed out the mats for gold hog mats, much better set up now-actually catch's gold & the hog mats mean clean ups take 5 mins on the gold fox & 10 to 15 mins on the larger banker. :D
 

Latest posts

Top