Gold Mining Equipment

Rock Tumbler

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:57 +0000

If you spend enough time gold prospecting you are almost certain to come across some interesting rocks that have real collectors value if they are polished up correctly.

And nothing turns plain looking rocks into beautiful works of art faster or easier than a good rock tumbler.

A good rock polisher does not have to cost a fortune. The Lortone Kit (seen above) includes everything you need to get started in rock tumbling and costs under a hundred bucks.

A rock tumbler will often turn a plain looking piece of rock into a valuable commodity and sometimes reveal an actual gemstone to the inexperienced rock hound. Of course, rock polishers do not turn lead into gold, but they can take average looking rocks and give them a beautiful wet look that can be used in jewelry or other decorative arts.

If you are an old hand at rock tumbling this Thumler's AR12 will make your friends jealous.

In fact, one of the best ways to decide on which rocks to polish is to observe which rocks really look good wet. Generally, rocks that look good wet will also look good after polishing.

Rock polishing is an easy and interesting additional hobby for many gold prospectors, because you spend so much time looking at rocks when you are gold mining. Also, a rock polisher is a nice addition to your hobby if you have young children or other less obsessive gold prospectors in your family (and I am not naming any names) because you can always find some cool rocks to polish up.

Rock Tumbler is a post from: Gold Mining Equipment

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Gold Mining Equipment

admin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:09:23 +0000

Gold Worth Billions of Dollars Still Waiting to Be Discovered!

“Many miners, who are currently working the California gold fields believe that only 10 percent of the gold in the Sierra Nevadas was discovered in the original gold rush,” according to a 2009 Associated Press report.

That means that there are BILLIONS – literally BILLIONS – of dollars in gold waiting to be found in California and just about nearly other state in the Union.

High technology gold mining equipment, such as gold detectors, elegant modern dredges, and lightweight sluices will allow a new generation of gold miners to strike pay dirt, because the gold is there. It has just been too hard to get to until today…

The basic gold mining equipment is simple to use, powerful, and not very expensive:

Gold Pan - These are a great way for beginners to get started prospecting!
High Banker - A highbanker is a piece of gold prospecting equipment that uses a pump to force water through a sluice box to mimic the natural flow of a stream.
Gold Detector - These are not the heavy metal detectors that you remember from the 1980s. These are modern electronic tools specifically designed to find gold in tiny quantities and much deeper than older devices and toughened to withstand the harsh environment of the gold fields.
Gold Dredge – Dredges often allow weekend gold miners to become full-time prospectors.
Highbanker - A highbanker pumps water through a sluice box to mimic the natural flow of a stream – very useful in the desert or other places where water is not redily available.

The gold is out there if you are willing to make the effort, and with modern gold mining equipment even greenhorns stand a chance of striking it rich.

Gold Mining Equipment is a post from: Gold Mining Equipment

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Mining Blog

admin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:01:35 +0000

Mining Blog is a post from: Gold Mining Equipment

Highbanker

admin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:44:56 +0000

A highbanker is a piece of gold prospecting equipment that uses a pump to force water through a sluice box to mimic the natural flow of a stream. Sometimes a hopper box with spray bars and a classifier screen (or grizzly) is employed. The gravel is added slowly by shovel into the hopper box and washed over a classifier screen to remove pieces of rock that are too large to go through the sluice.

The water pump can be either electric or gas powered. If the unit is designed to catch and recirculate the water it is called a recirculating power sluice, or recirculating hibanker. These are generally powered by 12 volt batteries available at Walmart for around $19.

Benefits of highbankers:

Rather than haul material to the water, you can bring a lightweight, efficient power sluice to the source. The power sluice can work remote placer deposits hundreds of feet away from the water source. In the case of recirculating units they can be operated in desert areas with very little water.

The typical hopper design washes clay and debris with a high pressure washing spray bar and all washed material becomes classified to less than 1/2 inch for impoved recovery of smaller gold. The spray bar may be equipped with a water valve for ease of controlling the flow in the sluice.

The sluice box itself is constructed like a normal stream sluice except it is equipped with an adjustable independent leg support system that enables the power sluice to be assembled on any type of terrain in a matter of minutes.

Combination Dredge / Power Sluice:

If a power sluice uses a high pressure gasoline engine it is relatively easy to adapt it so that it can also function as a small dredge. Combining the popular power sluice and portable dredge creates an efficient recovery system that can be used in most any situation. Typically these dredges have 1 1/2 to 3 inch suction nozzles and are designed to work in shallow water without the need of underwater diving equipment or air compressors (hookas).

The sluice box may also be modified for dredging with deeper Hungarian style riffles to accommodate the increased water flow and velocity. Other modifications can include adding miners moss or special carpets and ribbed rubber matting to catch fine gold.

See more highbanking for gold tips below.

Highbankers and small recirculating sluices from Gold Buddy and Micro-Sluice are available below.

Highbanker is a post from: Gold Mining Equipment

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Gold Dredge

admin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:44:29 +0000

Gold dredges provide the ultimate step for the most dedicated weekend prospectors.

The original gold dredges were barges sometimes the size of an apartment house. They were developed from harbor dredges used by the corps of engineers for clearing channels into American ports and they used scoops or buckets to rip up vast portions of river bottom.

They cost a small fortune and only the largest mining companies could afford them, but for many mining companies, especially in Alaska and on some of the larger rivers of the Pacific Northwest, they were literally worth their weight in gold. The barges often generated obscene profits with some generating hundreds of times their original purchase price over their careers.

You might not be that lucky, but a dredge does offer an enormous technological improvement over simple sluices. First, they can reach down and pull material off the bottom in spots where the water is simply too deep to dig and most today are also equipped with power sluices that allow you to wash gold even in water with no current.

This means that you can hit spots that have not been as worked over and produce more gold even in spots that earlier prospectors have already worked hard.

The old time dredges usually used a dragline or a conveyor belt digger in shallow water, but today’s recreational dredges work on a completely different principal. Known as suction dredges, they are essentially vacuum cleaners. They suck up the gravel and sand from the river bottom and process it through a power sluice like this 2.5 inch Proline.

Suction dredges are easily the most efficient way for one or two men to mine placer deposits.

However, you do need to check the regulations in the area you’re considering using your dredge, because the regulations vary. In general, dredges with an intake larger than 4 inches, like this 6 inch Keene is consider a commercial dredge on Federal lands, but in most places this 4 inch Proline is considered a recreational dredge.

One really great development in recent years is the development of the backpack dredge like the 2 inch Keene. It only weighs 65lbs and is designed to packed deep into the backcountry.

Much of the gold produced in Alaska was mined from placers, often with the use of gold dredges, and today on state lands any dredge 6 inch or less is considered a recreational dredge.

In 1901 this Californian steam dredge was state of the art, but within a few years it would be small by comparison to the big Alaskan dredges.

Gold Dredge is a post from: Gold Mining Equipment