| HOME | ETHICS | CONTACT | NEWS LETTER | CHAPTER ACTIVITIES | GPAA EVENTS | SAFETY TID-BITS |
| MAP | MEETINGS | PHOTOS | EQUIPMENT | HOW TO'S & TERMS | GUESTBOOK | JUST FUN |
EQUIPMENT and some AU
 "Photo courtesy of SonoraDesignWorks.com" A gold mining "Gold Nugget." Name: Gold Symbol: Au Atomic Number: 79 Atomic Mass: 196.96655 amu Melting Point: 1064.43 °C (1337.5801 K, 1947.9741 °F) Boiling Point: 2807.0 °C (3080.15 K, 5084.6 °F) Number of Protons / Electrons: 79 Number of Neutrons: 118 Classification: Transition Metal Crystal Structure: Cubic Density @ 293 K: 19.32 g/cm3 Color: Gold Gold is heavy, many times heavier than anything else in your gold pan. That is the key to recovering this precious metal. “Au,” is the scientific symbol for Gold. Gold, silver and platinum were squeezed by volcanic pressures into fissures in harder material such as granite and quartz. Gold is associated with quartz, because it takes the same geologic forces of heat and pressure to create both of them. While you can find small amounts of natural gold in many states, large nuggets and concentrated placer gold deposits are most common in California; Alaska; and Arizona. It takes a lot of experience – and a real knowledge of how and where to look for gold to be a successful prospector. As rain, wind, and yearly freezing and thawing moves the earths surface around, gold is released from its host rock or vein and starts its journey to the lowest, deepest point gravity will take it. Gold is almost 20-times heavier than water, three-times as heavy as iron. Because of its weight gold will always sink until it gets stuck in the crevice of a rock, hits bedrock or, a layer of “caliche.” Caliche, is a false bedrock layer made from calcium carbonate that cements together gravel, sand, clay and silt, to make a natural concrete. Think about a hard rain on the side of a hill. As the rain falls little rivulets form and flow down the hill forming larger and larger streams. As the water moves, it erodes the earth and rock beneath it freeing trapped gold. The gold, caught up in the fast moving water, will cascade down the hill looking for the first crack, undercut or obstruction along the way to sink into. Over the years more freed-up gold will collect in these cracks and form pockets or, “patches” of gold. The same thing happens in a stream bed. Look for where the water slows during a flood. If the gold has a chance, it will sink. Sample or test where the stream bends or widens, or where there are natural obstacles or falls. Even a rock or boulder in a stream will disrupt the flow of water causing the gold to fall to the bottom and collect. Many Thanks to Arizona Gold Adventures.com for their kind permission allowing our club to use these equipment descriptions from their website. |
 A gold mining "The Gold Pan." The gold pan is the first tool of a placer gold miner. Once a miner learns to pan gold, he or she can pan about one-cubic yard of dirt per-day. The gold pan is considered a sampling and finishing tool. If you find “pay dirt” or, a rich deposit of gold as you sample with your gold pan, you would then use a tool that can process much more material in a day – like a “sluice,” or “dry washer.” A gold pan is inexpensive and a lot of fun for the entire family. You will also need a gold pan to “finish” your “black sand” or “concentrates,” from other gold separating machines like a gold dredge, sluice box, high banker or dry washer. It is important to learn and use efficient gold panning techniques. Many Thanks to Arizona Gold Adventures.com for their kind permission allowing our club to use these equipment descriptions from their website. |
 A gold mining "The Sluice." This gold prospecting tool can process up to one-cubic yard of dirt per-hour! That’s eight-times what a gold pan can do. The sluice is powered by water flowing down its flat, narrow surface which is divided by “riffles.” When the water flows over these "disruptors," it creates turbulence at the face of the riffle allowing the heavy gold to drop out of the flow and settle to the bottom of the sluice. Wherever a flowing stream is available you can set up a sluice. When water is not available – such as in the Arizona desert, you can use a “re-circulating sluice,” placed over a tub of water. A small electric pump connected to a motorcycle battery will circulate water through the sluice for eight-hours or more. You start by feeding your pay dirt into the front of the sluice. The heavy black sands and gold will be caught in the riffles and fall into the “miner’s moss,” that carpets the bottom of the sluice. Miner’s moss, is a course material that simulates the wild moss that grows along streams and is known to trap gold during floods and high water runoffs. While the lighter dirt and sand will wash out the end of the sluice, the heavy black sand concentrates will build up at the riffles and on the miner’s moss. Make sure not to overload the sluice by feeding in too much pay dirt too fast, or gold can be washed out of the sluice. You can tell if the sluice is overloading by watching to see if the dirt is filling up above the riffles. Many Thanks to Arizona Gold Adventures.com for their kind permission allowing our club to use these equipment descriptions from their website. |
 A gold mining "Highbanker." The high banker is a Gold concentration tool based on the sluice box. Like the re-circulating sluice, a “High Banker” uses water pumped into a hopper, where the pay dirt is shoveled in. The water jets wash and break up any clay or soil lumps that may contain gold particles. * The material then drops though a wire or metal mesh classifier called a “grizzly,” and then down into the sluice box. It is also possible to pump the water from a “suction dredge” into the hopper. Many Thanks to Arizona Gold Adventures.com for their kind permission allowing our club to use these equipment descriptions from their website. |
 A gold mining "Drywasher." The dry washer is a waterless version of the sluice box. The prospector shovels dry pay dirt into the top of the dry washer, which has a built in screen (classifier) to sort out rocks too big to go down into the next section of the machine. * When the dirt falls into the lower part of the machine, a battery- or gasoline- powered fan blows the lighter dust and dirt up and over the riffles (just like water would in a sluice), and down and out of the washer. * The gold stays trapped in the top few riffles because the fan is not powerful enough to blow the heavy gold into the air and over the riffles. Some dry washers even create an electrostatic charge that makes gold and other metals “stick” to the riffles. Another dry washer option is a vibrator, which helps the gold settle to the bottom of the riffles. Many Thanks to Arizona Gold Adventures.com for their kind permission allowing our club to use these equipment descriptions from their website. |
 A gold mining "Metal Detector." A “Very Low Frequency” or, “VLF” metal detector works using electro-magnetic energy, or radio waves. In a VLF metal detector, there are two distinct coils. The “transmitter” coil is the outer coil. Electricity flows through this coil, first in one direction and then the other - thousands of times per-second - creating a radio wave. The number of direction changes per-second establishes the "frequency" of the unit. *The inner coil, or “receiver,” acts as an antenna to pick up and amplify these waves as they interact with metal objects in the ground. Think of a gold nugget as a conducting antenna. The gold nugget is surrounded by the radio waves sent into the ground by the transmitter coil. The gold nugget captures these signals and re-transmits its own signal back up to the receiver coil. * Specialized VLF gold detectors have a very sensitive receiver to pick up and amplify the signal frequency of gold. The soil and rocks in the area being hunted can also influence the ability to detect gold nuggets. * Soils and rocks with various conductive salts and moisture also have "eddy" currents. This makes a heavily “mineralized” area hard to detect, as your detector will also detect “hot rocks,” which makes hearing smaller gold nuggets almost impossible. * Unlike VLF machines which use a uniform alternating current at a low frequency, a ”Pulse induction” or “PI metal detector,” fires a high-voltage pulse of electricity into the ground. If no metal is there the pulse will decay at a set rate. If there is a gold nugget in the ground, a small bit of the current will flow through the metal and the pulse time will increase. * These new PI machines have a major advantage over VLF detectors: They are impervious to the effects of highly mineralized soils like those found in the deserts of Arizona. Arizona Gold Adventures' prospecting instructors are required to have both types of detectors, for use in different areas and situations. Many Thanks to Arizona Gold Adventures.com for their kind permission allowing our club to use these equipment descriptions from their website. |
webmaster@goldenvalleyprospectors.org
Copyright 2012
Designs by Shaman Grafix