John-Edmonton

15 °C/59.0 °F was what it was today. (probably even hotter in the valley, south facing slope) I got out this morning and had  some serious gold getting in mind. I drove to an area which sometimes opens up early in the spring. Good karma today!

I brought along my climbing rope along. I work healing people with broken bones at a hospital for a living. I don't want to be a patient on my unit. It's nice to have a unit that runs on a 12 volt battery. The highbanker is ABS plastic, strong and light. No gas pump, heavy hoses or gasoline to tag along. My unit runs quiet all day, and allows me to hear all the bird's sounds with spring mating in mind.

I safely made it to the river's edge. A thick layer of ice was still intact in most places on the banks.

I did manage to find a small open, exposed area. Hacked another 10 feet more with my shovel to expose some more gravel.

The gravel had a lot of sticky silt mixed with it and little gold, so I dug up a lot of dead vegetation and washed the roots in my hopper. That got me more gold then just the gravel.

Here's the flour gold after my final clean-up. I might head down again tomorrow if the weather is suitable.

Took my California Mini highbanker back to the chunky-flour-gold river, and did mostly free digging, as the frost is starting to thaw out. I managed to move a lot more material, as I wasn't screening it into buckets for feeding the mini. And, the results speak for themselves.

I have done quite well with this little unit. The whole system fits in a 5 gallon plastic bucket, and my 12 volt  60 amp/hr lithium ion battery (very light) fits in my back pack. I can either pack it in my sled or just carry it in a bucket to get to those far away places.

I dug down to about 18 inches below these old gravel beds. Beyond that, the ground was still frozen. I dug for a bout 3 hours, which is plenty for me. Filled in my holes, went home and ran my concentrates through my micro sluices in the basement.

Here's the shiny from today! I should sleep well tonite.🥱

9 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Wish I had so much nice areas that you have for gold, here is harder to find it, but when you do it is about the same size that you are getting.

Good luck out there and stay safe .

Sometimes half the fun is searching for those places.

Well, the little river turned out to be a bigger river, as the temperature was rising and the snow was melting. I had to find a new river crossing to get home where the river was more shallow.

I haven't tried this location.....so, that's what I dug.

Adding water to my 1/2" screened gravel turned it into a sticky cement. I prefer feeding dry material. I just drop the material from a greater height to make that flour gold punch through the water's surface tension so that it doesn't float away.

And.....here's todays shiny fly poop. Gonna sleep well tonite!🛏️

On 3/10/2024 at 2:15 PM, Dean Stone said:

Whoo, i wish i had a creek close to me with that much gold. I dredge in OHIO, and get about that much in a year. Don't know if i could handle that ice or not, I can't do like i used to. I soon will be 73 years old, broken back, metal plate in my neck. I still keep going.  Good job.  Dean

Just remeber, it's flour gold. I enlarge the flakes with my camera, because they look so much nicer.

On 3/10/2024 at 11:12 PM, Valens Legacy said:

You are a true inspiration  to a lot of people because of how you area able to get every grain of gold from areas that are not wanting to give it up.

Good luck and stay safe out there.

Thanks. My grandfarher's saying was that "where there's a will, there's a away." I never understood what he meant untl I was  grown man!

On 3/10/2024 at 8:54 AM, Ridge Runner said:

John 

Looking at the video he’s using it the same way we use our gold pans. At the same time he’s making out the best he can with what he’s got and doing a great job at it.

 Chuck 

Except, he could do without wearing his underware using that pan.🤣

1 hour ago, jasong said:

Nice skills. But that is also one beautiful batea. I'd love to own one a handmade one with great character in the wood like that.

Agreed! I's love to have one shellacked, shiny hanging on the wall showing such wonderfull detail of the wood.

Back to the same river spot I was yesterday. Because there was such a small amount of water flow to operate my river sluice, I brought my California mini highbanker. And that made all the difference.

I previously had to chop a hole in the ice. Can't really dam up water when the river is covered with ice.

This amount was much better then my small previous attempt at this site.

8 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

good video and thanks for sharing it.

Always interesting to see other ways of doing things.

9 hours ago, Ridge Runner said:

He knows what he’s doing for sure .

 Chuck 

 Make a great waiter serving drinks.

Of course I count my blessings.....each and every morning I wake up I am thankful getting in another day.😉

3 hours ago, Ridge Runner said:

John 

Look at all the times you hit a home run on your gold adventure but just this one time it wasn’t to be .

 Remember my old saying and that’s A little of something is better than a lot of nothing. 
Best to you John!

 Chuck 

6 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Sorry  to see the ice slow you down on this trip, but it is going to warm up soon and I'm sure that you are going to get the gold.

Better luck on your next trip, and stay safe out there.

Oh well, I slept good overnight. That in itself is a good thing.

 Crude  way of collecting gold from a highbanker. This guy really goes to work to process his gold using a batea gold pan, made out of wood.

Got spanked today! I hiked down to a river, only to find it was covered with ice. I cut a hole in the ice big enough for my California river sluice, only to discover very low water flow. Luckily I brought along the "Ity-Bity sluice, which kind of worked. I only ran half a bucket of gravel screened to 10 mesh.

If you do not resize your super concentrates to a smaller mesh and re-run them a second or third time, you will lose a significant amount of gold. Tonite, I screened my super concentrates from this year down to -50 mesh and ran them down a double clean-up sluice. Now, these superconcentrates were previously run at about 10–20 mesh twice. Tonight would have been the third run. Now, these superconcentrates were by no means from very rich gravel. All my gold-rich gravels are all frozen ice. However, I like to stay in shape, so I will happily dig gravel with about 20 colors or less in a pan. So, if you guesstimate what I pulled out today and multiply it by a year worth of superconcentrates, you have a substantial amount of gold. You could have either thrown away or saved it had you taken the time to rerun your concentrates. The larger pieces of heavies in the sand will knock out the small pieces of gold, and they will fly right off the end of your sluice or highbanker.

He makes fantastic videos. I have been following him for some time. He sure gets a lot of gold. I made a snuffer bottle following his instruction video.

Kind of neat the way she used old technology.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2124940954527990

On 2/24/2024 at 4:21 PM, orgone500 said:

Just saw this post on the Australian Garrett facebook page "A storm is coming".  AT Pro replacement?

 

And, this is also out there......

https://www.facebook.com/Garrettmetaldetectorsusa/

Hiked into an area where I often go during the winter, as it usually (but not always) doesn't freeze over. Nice hike and travelled with a light load.

I screened my gravel through my garrett 1/2" classifier. Two buckets dry and two were from the river gravel. Total of 4 buckets today.

This is feeding the sluice wet material. The dry material is fed about 18" above the sluice to get the gold to punch through the water's surface tension to keep it from floating out the end.

The days are getting longer. Not too long ago, the sun would have set at about 16:30.

Here's the gold as per clean-up today. I run my concentrates through a kitchen sifter screen, down my 3" VDR clean-up sluice x 2 then backpan the rest.

That rocker is a nice looking piece of working art. I built one a few years ago, that fits on top of a bucker to keep some strain off your back. I like to use it occasionally. 

On 2/10/2024 at 1:57 AM, Valens Legacy said:

Seems like any time of the year you always get the gold in you pan.

Great job and I know that it would be easier with a much bigger sluice, but much harder to get it to your location.

Good job for your hard work and good luck on your next outing, stay safe out there.

I am blessed. There is gold bearing gravel close to home in all directions. I love the fresh air and exercise.

On 2/9/2024 at 7:30 PM, MSC said:

Good looking unit John, good luck. 

Thanks.....it's served me well.