Highbanker advice...

[InteroBusteerio]

I'm toying with the idea of building myself a highbanker. I have a rough design scratched down but just trying to work out some of the intricacies for now. I initially wanted to go with a bilge pump for one reason...the noise, or lack thereof. But after a little research found out they're not really good except for cleanup highbankers due to the lack of pressure out of a spray bar. So resigned to the fact of a 4 stroke petrol pump. Now to decide what size...

At this early planning stage am thinking about making the sluice section 200mm wide and 900mm long. No rhyme or reason behind those numbers. My initial thought was to go with just expanded mesh, on top of miners moss, on top of v rib matting for the entire length. What do you think?

Okay, so now you know some basic dimensions and possible riffle set up we can get back to the pump issue. I've seen a few people going with a 5.5hp pump with a max flow of 500+lpm. But I don't see why I would need that much flow. So I am considering a 2.4hp or 3hp pump with a max flow of 250lpm. I figure i can get the smaller pump a little cheaper, and it might be slightly less loud too. Again, what do you think?

Cheers

 

[Goldtarget]

That all seems reasonably well thought out. I ran a box 200850 with a 12000 lpm 1 inch no worries, expanded over Moss. A thinner width will give you greater scope for a smaller pump input, as the water velocity and depth stays higher.

 

[Marked]

Have a good read of the Walbanker threads-everything possible is discussed from pumps to riffle/slick plate ratios. Not just specifically the walbanker - others throw their own 2cents worth in along the line.

 

[Twapster]

I beleive the top say around 25cm of your sluice should have NOTHING to allow for good liquifying of your material, then either mat (both not required) under the expanded. Make sure you are not blowing material UNDER the mat, miners moss has no bottom so suggest the bunnings mat which is the same as the moss but has a bottom so gold wont fall thru and under the mat. Most of the gold should drop pretty quick so I wouldnt be expecting much gold in the last foot of the banker.

While she may not be the prettiest banker out there, almost all the gold is in the top section which is the black ribbed mat with expanded. If I was just going for gold I could prob lose the bread crate section completely and still do fine. The bread crate uses the moss under it. The top "Nothing" section I believe is important as it seems to really help clear the lighter stuff so on cleanouts my concentrates are less than one pan. Anyway just my two cents worth.

I use a two tier banker, and its mainly to save my back but I absolutely love the classifier section. In the last pic (with the sapphire extension) you can see mum doing the classifying/gem checking without strain. She could barely walk over the river to the spot but was happy to classify for about 2 hours straight with this design.