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  1. dewam

    How It All Got Started

    Good voice, good story! Please continue. Den
  2. dewam

    Lode Vs. Placer ?

    Freegold, I remember there being a couple articles in the CMJ in 1982 that dealt with the problem. Perhaps Google or Chris can give you a lead to them. Den
  3. dewam

    Anybody Remember

    Mike I do not know anything about that kit. Thread drift: When the neighbour was "proving-up" his placer claims for patent, the BLM boys had cards with graduated sizes of gold on them. They would take measured amounts of gravel (5 gallon bucket), pan it down, and compare the gold pieces to the ones on their card to estimate weight. No weighing was done. Of course to an old Swede, that wasn't the way it should be done. You must weigh everything. After losing a couple bets to the BLM boys, that old Swede carried a card with graduated gold specks himself. I guess once you got beyond the microscope size, rough and dirty came pretty close to weighed out with an experienced hand.
  4. Scott, I hear a lot about the disconnect between physical and paper gold. The problem is I have heard it most my life. If I take gold to the smelter, my price is based on the London afternoon closing on the day I wish to close the sale. My physical is now VERY connected to the paper price. I suppose I could wait till all those shorts JPM has blow up before I sell gold, but the fuel man and the parts gal are not going to wait. For now it is the Banksters game, and we have to decide if we want to play or not. Unfortunately, being a poor old guy, life makes too many of those decisions for me. Being able to roll with the punches has made life a pretty good ride.
  5. Chris, the "castle" entry mat is a common mat found at hardware stores. It is a series of about 1/2 inch circles with a number of fingers coming out of the circumference of the circle, similar to the crenelated parapet on a castle. Being an entry mat, it passes the durability test. I still have some that I was using in the 70's (and like the Astro Turf, I like the old stuff better). It cleans up in one shake unless you are working a lot of clay, then a thin fine silt does tend to build up in the bottom. Both those attributes are just about necessary for any sluice matting, but what I really like is it seems to hold just the rite size of material in each of those little parapets to grab and hold gold without getting clogged. Carpet, miners moss, and Astro Turf catch and hold by having voids that hold gold. The "castle" mats rely on the material the parapets catch to provide the voids to catch and hold gold. Just another tool in the sluice box. The original posters question had to do with clogging his miners moss, "castle" mat is one of the few things that always seems to be working, but I would not make it the only thing in my box. The thread also asked about matting/riffle combination, so I should mention that I am using 1 and 3/4 by 3/4 crescent expanded metal as my riffle.
  6. Over the years I have run a lot of different matting or carpet. Each type holds the heavy sediments in its own way, and cleans up in its own way. I currently use five different types in my box (24"x12'). A heavy indoor/outdoor is the first as it is easy to read, you can look at it and see gold. I have tried the vortex matting first, but is does not seem to hold as well as the carpet This is usually followed by a "castle" type entry mat, as this seems to hold heavy slates and gold and not much sands. Next comes either a miners moss or older astro turf depending on what material I am running. This is followed by Vortex or indoor/outdoor again to get a read on how much gold is showing that far down. The rest of the sluice is mostly alternating pieces of miners moss and "castle" matting. I always leave a small gap between the first couple mats and there is always fine gold lining up there. I don't worry about it working its way down the box. The real key is different materials hold and clean differently. I'll change up my layout and spacing depending on what material is running through the sluice. Try different things and see what works for you. P.S. I retried a piece of cocoa matting towards the end of my sluice, I just wasn't sure if it was catching fines, or they were leftover from the last time I used it