Question time

[Haydos]

hey all,

So ive been out and about doing a little panning and ive come away with 20-30 bits of gold which im quite stoked about, however ive also got a fair few garnets(i think)and alot of slightly pink to deep red gems and ive no idea what they are or weather they are worth anything, the creek i got them from near morrisons VIC was pretty sandy and clayey if that helps.

Also how fine do you guys go in regards to the gold, my biggest bit would be maybe a 2mm square and then all the way down to a pin tip, im saving for a blue bowl or something similar (maybe a gold wheel, any thoughts on whats good but not bank breaking?) but when is it to fine to worry about?

sorry for the essay,
Thanks Haydos

 

[Silversurfer]

In my humble opinion anything 200- mesh or smaller is not commercially viable and the extraction process would be toooo lengthy and time consuming to process it.....unless you used some kind of leaching agent or amalgam ,but you will find most of the 'chemical' options are either dangerous or illegal. I'd recommend a blue bowl to extract the fines. You can see some pretty cheap copies on YouTube of how to make one. There's also a Miller table option...again you can YouTube it. I'd also recommend drying the cons out and then running a neodinium magnet over it to get all the black sands and other ferrous material out of it.....anyway,that's my 2 cents worth. Good luck.

 

[Haydos]

thanks for the info silver ill check youtube out, thanks a bunch man