Gold Equipment

The results of the concentrating tests should also be studied. Was all of the gold in the samples found in the concentrate or was some of it found in the mids or tails? This lighter gold, if it is present, may be difficult to save in an actual placer operation. Laboratory equipment is designed, and can be controlled, to make a very high recovery. Production equipment will not necessarily make such a high recovery, and gold which was difficult to save in the lab very well may be lost in the field.

The best way to get a final answer is to move temporary equipment onto the site and run several hundred tons of material. This is costly, but it should give definite answers. The equipment that would be needed includes a screening device, a sluice, and a front-end loader or suction device to pickup the material. If large rocks are present a grizzle will be needed ahead of the screen. The material is screened and then put across the sluice box and the concentrate saved. This type of sampling not only gives you large samples but also gives you an opportunity to attempt improving your recovery. Experimenting can be done by changing the pitch of the sluice, changing the amount of water running over the sluice, changing the screen size, trying different riffling in the sluice, and rerunning the tails under different conditions to see if any gold in them can be saved. These changes and others should give a good indication of just what you may expect to recover if the deposit is worked.