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Not Enough To Be " Just A Letrap "


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I always considered the LeTrap a good Au catcher as designed..
If the gold is as fine as you're indicating however, I can understand the probability of increased
recovery in the form of less loss by having a slick plate plus punch plate over matting prior to the riffles..
What's your initial-testing classification aim-point..?

Swamp
 

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I'll probably classify to 1/4 inch for ease of running.   The material is dry so it should classify easily

You're right, the LeTrap is a great Au catcher as is.  My problem is that there is LOTS of black sands. I'm hoping the fine gold will work its way into the ribbed mat and hold there.

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Good job on the mod.

Angle and water speed are very important in getting the material to exchange, otherwise you will just plug up the matting and no additional exchange of material will happen and the gold will just wash on out over the top of the heavies.

How much black sand is in the material you will be sluicing?

What kind of material are you running? bank material or river bar martial?

Your on the right track classifying that makes a huge difference even though it can be burdensome.

All of my mining is beach mining and I have very little classifying to do in most of the places I mine.

There are a couple where I do have to though.. Here are a couple pics of the equipment, perhaps they will give you some ideas.

 

 

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You might like this video from gold hog about incremental processing. It has a good bit of info that may give you some insights on how a sluice really handles and processes the material you run.

 

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JD,

My original intent with the LeTrap was to make a highbanker out of it until the crazies in California banned motorized equipment. I thought about gravity flow but that really limits use.

This material is along edge of existing flow but still within floodplain.   Removing cobbles leaves maybe 3 to 6 inches of material on bedrock that is rich in black sands and gold.  So much black sands that if I put a strip of magnets across the header, it would probably be loaded up with a couple shovels of material.

I'll probably classify 3 or 4 buckets before I feed it so I can keep a constant feed.

I'll probably still lose a lot of the really fine gold but  I'll see...

That video doesn't say much except don't let your riffles load up!  I've see it before.

Built my first sluice box 60 years ago......

 

 

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I don't envy what you have to put up with in Cali.....  It is almost as insane here in Oregon... Just a matter of time though I suppose.

To bad you can't use a high banker, here is a design that would capture both course and fine gold...

Use the LeTrap as the header with maybe some classifying and then run a boil box under it with the tails of the LeTrap going over a 1/8th classifier then into and down the boil box section..

 

 

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Great job on the LeTrap Harry. I have the full length one. I like the aluminum frame you're using. I;m sure it stiffens it up quite a bit.

Not to long ago I ordered and received a Gold Hog Stream Sluice. I really like this sluice. I run it in quite fast water and basically don't classify at all. Just toss aside larger rocks (+3") as I fill my buckets. It catches small gold really well while kicking out most of the black sand.

Post some results Harry.

Hope all is well for you with the fires. We are getting a lot of smoke and ash from the Chetco Bar fire just over the border, east of Brookings, Oregon.

Mike

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This was a full length one until I shortened it.  There is never, ever anything in those last 5 riffles.  Might as well cut them off.

Yes, the frame does wonders.

JD, that is a good design..... or, maybe just put the Gold Cube under it?

I'm at the drawing board now... The black sands would not clear out from under the punchplate. No matter how slow I fed it. I had plenty of water in the box and good slope.  It was like there wasn't enough water getting through the punchplate.

I may just run the v mat with no punchplate... have to sleep on it.

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I was wondering how you would get the flow needed to clear the b.s. under the punch plate.

How much clearance do you have between the mat and the punch plate?

Is the mat a deep "V" or standard shallow "V"?

The "V" mat alone can be pretty effective but it will wash out unless you have everything really tuned... It would possibly help to put a slick plate ahead of it to allow things to stratify before they go over the "V" ... That's what I have with my beach sluice is a large slick plate ... It allows the material to stratify and the gold gets to the bottom of the slurry so it then just slides along the bottom till it hits the capture medium where it is entrapped.

Here is a little vid of that.

 

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