Good day from the UK

[Oldie-Goldie]

Hello from the UK,

I'm a metal detectorist and have been for about ten years, I search for historic artifacts and coins which range from celti, saxon, roman and medieval and everything after that.

Your all probably wondering why I'm on a gold prospecting forum in another country?..

Well let me explain! recently I've done some research and may have discovered a untapped source of gold.. Its not going to be a mining operation as the rules in the UK pretty hash on that ,but as a hobby and a few flakes but most likely flour gold. It going to be a adventure.

Ok so the untapped gold is a glaciers that swept in into the UK many thousand years ago carrying gold bering deposits, stones clay ect.. It's located at the bottom of the cliffs in what I can describe as iron looking solid hard clay mix with stones and sand clumps.

This where I could do with your advice! What would be the best method of subtraction of the gold? We're talking of really dense hard clay lumps.

Advice is warmley welcomed.

Cheers!

 

[goody2shoes]

Welcome to the PA

 

[CreviceSucker]

Hello from the UK,

I'm a metal detectorist and have been for about ten years, I search for historic artifacts and coins which range from celti, saxon, roman and medieval and everything after that.

Your all probably wondering why I'm on a gold prospecting forum in another country?..

Well let me explain! recently I've done some research and may have discovered a untapped source of gold.. Its not going to be a mining operation as the rules in the UK pretty hash on that ,but as a hobby and a few flakes but most likely flour gold. It going to be a adventure.

Ok so the untapped gold is a glaciers that swept in into the UK many thousand years ago carrying gold bering deposits, stones clay ect.. It's located at the bottom of the cliffs in what I can describe as iron looking solid hard clay mix with stones and sand clumps.

This where I could do with your advice! What would be the best method of subtraction of the gold? We're talking of really dense hard clay lumps.

Advice is warmley welcomed.

Cheers!

If you use a petrol powered auger or tractor mounted auger if you happen to have one , you would first drill some exploratory holes to see how deep the resource is.

If you use a 200 - 300 mm auger then crush what you excavate then run it through a sluice you can calculate what the return is likely to be per tonne of excavated material.

There is no point in spending $ 150 on diesel to extract and process it if you only yield $ 25 per tonne.

If it is payable you would need an excavator with a GP bucket or possibly a single point ripper , then load it in to dump trucks and transport to a crusher , then put it through a wet wash plant.

If the clay is really soft and still holding moisture it wont crush well and would need to be broken down in a modern day puddler which can be done with a modified cement mixer

Is that the scale you are thinking of or did you hope to do it on a smaller scale ?

 

[Oldie-Goldie]

Hello Crevice Sucker,

Thanks handy advice, laws over here do not allow mining on that scale we can only pan in streams (creeks to you guys)

where I live which is close to the sea there's to much overburdened and then there's a sand layer under that. The gold pretty non existing due to the geology being all wrong for gold. No quartz vains or gold carrying ore only what the glaciers dragged in.

Were are planning to just fill some buckets up as there smallish clumps that we can collect, I've should have been more clearer in mentioning that. But most of it looks like bedrock however its breaking up due storms by the sea.

I liked to know what you guys use to break up rock hard clay clumps with. I know you use a dolly pot. Like the idea of a small trommel.

Thought about a diy washing machine drum with some kind of plumbing for a spray bar connected to a motor with a sluice box underneath arrangement?

It be interesting what you guys use and methods..

Cheers!

 

[Oldie-Goldie]

Thanks and nice meeting you! :Y:

Welcome to the PA

 

[CreviceSucker]

concrete mixer is the way , they are cheap to buy and plentiful to borrow.

If the clay is stubborn perhaps throw in some medium sized round lead sinkers ( 20 - 30 mm ) or ask the local inn keeper if he would like the billiard balls polished this week ?

actually the numbering might disappear off the balls so you better skip that but you will find something similar.

 

[grubstake]

I liked to know what you guys use to break up rock hard clay clumps with. I know you use a dolly pot. Like the idea of a small trommel.

A dolly pot is for breaking up solid rock, which fractures upon impact and can be pulverised into smaller and smaller fragments. I doubt that hard clay would behave the same way, unless it was bone dry (perhaps if it was roasted in a fire first?) :fire:

 

[Oldie-Goldie]

concrete mixer is the way , they are cheap to buy and plentiful to borrow.

If the clay is stubborn perhaps throw in some medium sized round lead sinkers ( 20 - 30 mm ) or ask the local inn keeper if he would like the billiard balls polished this week ?

actually the numbering might disappear off the balls so you better skip that but you will find something similar.

Never thought of that great idea!

Thanks!

OG

 

[Oldie-Goldie]

I liked to know what you guys use to break up rock hard clay clumps with. I know you use a dolly pot. Like the idea of a small trommel.

A dolly pot is for breaking up solid rock, which fractures upon impact and can be pulverised into smaller and smaller fragments. I doubt that hard clay would behave the same way, unless it was bone dry (perhaps if it was roasted in a fire first?) :fire:

I didn't think of that, That's going save me alot of time. :Y:

I'd like to show you folks some pictures of the stuff I'm dealing with as soon I get back out there and forum allows me to upload pics.

Cheers!

OG

 

[user 12139]

You can't just jump out a vehicle and detect, know where you can and have a GPS to confirm
Vist a gold museum here somewhere, lots can be learnt from them
Drop into local prospecting shops and get some localmaps
Obtain permission FIRST to be on any private land

Drop into the local pubs and buy some knowledge from the front bar, and don't forget to buy us beer's on the way out.. we heard about you poms!

 

[Mackka]

BigL, mate that comment is three years old and i don’t know ifgolden oldie is still around. Mackka

 

[user 12139]

Been more than 3 years since a pom bought me a beer Mackka

 

[Mackka]

They never shout mate.

 

[user 12139]

Tell ya what if they do shout they'll certainly winge about prices, now we ain't cheap
There ya go I'm done. Hang on, no I'm not.. it's hot here, whats the word starting with S, slip, slop, slap.
Hey OG.. best thing you could do is bring some good pommy humour here, bold a few over with a few good pommy cracks

 

[user 12139]

On the clay front, pretty sure most here dealt with it using a puddler.. washing