HOG MAT

[glot]

Has anyone played around with gold hog UR Mat? I have seen a piece but wondering what sort of water flow would be needed to make it work. Also, what sort of material? Would it be okay for material up to 6.5mm. It looks like it would need a pretty fast flow.

 

[G0lddigg@]

Hey mate ur works well in medium to high flow. Angle and velocity is more important than flow.

I use a combination of bedrock downdraft and razorback myself

 

[Metamorphic]

Your pump should be rated well within your sluice parameters as it stands, miners moss, gold hog matts or otherwise.

Golddigg is correct in angle and velocity, although velocity is directly related to GPH from the pump.

If your getting color at the lower end of the sluice, angle is too steep and velocity maybe too high.

I reckon the gold hog mats are the ants pants compared to whats out there, expensive, but you only get what you pay for!

Cheers

 

[Goldslave]

Hi Everyone,
I'm back in the land of the living, not sure if I want to be though!!!
Well I took the sluice to Nth Qld to try it out but was extremely disappointed by the reception I received from my so called "friend" who assured me last year that my partner and I were welcome on any part of his property!!!
I can tell you that going onto Maitland Downs at the Palmer river Road house is out for everyone, apparently there were some unscrupulous individuals who ruined it for everyone, even myself and my partner who have known the station owner for many, many years.
I happened to acquire permission from another family who have leases in the area and was allowed on to their lease, phew!!! trip for nothing it seemed.
I played around with my sluice and it certainly come up with the goods, I couldn't bog it no matter what I threw at it and I only found one small speck of gold in the bottom sluice, it appeared to all be trapped in the top deck which I was pleased with.
On a more technical not though, one of the members suggested I use a "boil box" not sure if that is the right word for it but instead of allowing the dirt to just run straight onto the sluice he suggested I mix it up to breakup the sticky clay that the gold sticks to, I agree, and modified the top part of the sluice to do this and have good results.
It certainly draws the attention of all those in a caravan park when someone starts to construct something of interest, especially when all the tools and pieces of metal, wood, etc are strewn across the annexe floor and your busy drilling and hammering, "gold does funny things to people".
If you build a sluice like mine with an upper and lower section don't make the mistake of having the top sluice too short, give the gold a chance to settle and surprise, surprise, the gold will stay in your sluice.
Also when using your sluice try to maintain clean water at all times, muddy water will rob you blind and your gold will get carried out of your sluice.
A down side of using the hog mats is they are hard to clean or get all the gold particles out of,(if someone has a suggestion on how to successfully do this please let me know) as my bottom sluice is 1.5mts long I opted to not glue any of the Hog mats together, because if I did I was wondering how do I experiment with the individual sections if they are stuck together?? and being that long would make them difficult to manage when cleaning, ( I am happy with my decision and those of you who opt for hog mats will understand why when you use them).
Another down side to the mats is they are heavy when using a big amount and when the sluice needs to be carried further from your vehicle than intended makes hard work of it.
I spoke with a user of these mats in America and he suggested to use 1/2 inch expanded aluminium mesh over the top of them and this will improve the recovery rate, I will try this on mine when I return the nth Qld
I have some photo's of my trip and will get them on here as soon as I am able, also 8oz of the real stuff (all in one night) not mine though (I wish) 16oz in three nights, not bad going I thought.

Cheers everyone

 

[G0lddigg@]

Your pump should be rated well within your sluice parameters as it stands, miners moss, gold hog matts or otherwise.

Golddigg is correct in angle and velocity, although velocity is directly related to GPH from the pump.

If your getting color at the lower end of the sluice, angle is too steep and velocity maybe too high.

I reckon the gold hog mats are the ants pants compared to whats out there, expensive, but you only get what you pay for!

Cheers

hey metamorphic sorry velocity is not directly responsive to flow mate, GPH is flow rate.
Whether i run 300 GPM or 700GPM through my matts i will capture gold, but the angle at which the water escapes down the sluice determines the velocity.

For example running very low pitch with low flow will see an increase in fines recovery, without enough angle your lights will drop out of suspension and pack up which will cause gold to bounce right on down the sluice depending on your feed rate.

Simply by increasing the pitch which increases the velocity of water and the angle of which is flushes out the riffles you will see alot less blonds and you should see almost bare matt. too much pitch and you will blow out all of your gold.

Running the same pitch with lots of water i.e. higher GPH flow will not increase velocity to the matt unless you are running direct feed pointing down the sluice. (like a power sluice)

The more GPH /flow you add to the mix while keeping the same pitch the more downward pressure you are applying to waters gravity and your slurry which has the opposite effect and removes the flushing action of the riffles.

hope that makes sense....... trying to draw a line between velocity and flow they are very different beasts and speaking from extensive testing with these matts running every different combination i could try there is no one size fits all and even when you think you have it right you still need to tweak to the gold size on the day.

If i can offer one tip in varying your matts, treat each section as an individual sluice and really think about how fast water is moving at the time, in the header water is quite slow, downdraft and bedrock or UR work really well, keep a low profile but let the water speed up, bedrock, razor back or more ur then interrupt that flow with a scrubber or a talon, and vary again to speed up.
Understanding the velocity in the sluice is key to getting the matts right..
read up on this tip sheet as well.
http://www.goldhog.com/goldhogtips.pdf

new talon is great

 

[Goldtarget]

Goldslave, cloth tape is your friend for joining your mats so they can be taken apart. Gold Hog do have a demo video to show example of how to achieve this and how to tape the side wall to prevent losses. When you want to reconfigure pull the tape of. You can join 2,3,4 more mats together as many times as you like.

Ur would benefit from some small expanded over the top if you run in an area of heavies like black sands or ironstone this will make a measurable difference. The exchange in ur tends to drop off dramatically once full of heavies, the extra vortexes created by adding a 3/1 or 4/1 expanded will definitely help in exchange, gold hog acknowledge this themselves. Ur for me and this is only my personal experience is great right at the top or near the bottom of a configuration. If I have chunky pieces coming through I put it at the top so they bury in deep, with the areas of little fines toward the bottom.

There's so many combinations you can run is hard to say what may be the best type of setup for your area, but ur is something I've used with good success when used correctly.
GD has given excellent info above.

 

[Goldslave]

Thanks GoldTarget,
If I can think back that far I am fairly certain it was you who offered me some advice before I ventured Nth, the info you offered was greatly appreciated as I was not certain if my sluice was going to be a winner or not.

The first opportunity I had I put through about 6 or 7 x 20ltr drums of material, and recovered some nice gold which made me very happy, I only had 1 small piece in the bottom section of my sluice and everything was in the top section.

What I did notice and was unable to correct was the 10mm punch plate as a classifier in the top section, you suggested I change that to cable tray but I was unable to do it this trip but intend to do it for next trip, (the little stones were being trapped in the round holes of the punch plate).
There was some interest in the spray setup I adopted!! It worked splendidly and with the big pump feeding it I could afford to have the pump running just above an idle with plenty to spare.
The angle of the upper and lower sluice I work on start at: 1 in 8, ie for every 8 inches long the sluice is lowered 1inch and this works well, I dug some more and we put through probably 10x20ltr drums for very good results and I can't wait till next year to get at it again when there is some water to work with.
I have made version 2 and 3 of my original sluice in hope of having the most ideal setup for me and my disabilities, so far I have been going down the right path and it has stemmed from some countless hrs of research and excellent info from you guys on the forum, thanks

 

[Goldtarget]

Haha mods never end, it's mod, test, mod, test over and over. I only try to impart the pitfalls and the wins I have and keep an open mind. The best learning is always done out in the field. I'm lucky that greater minds than mine are often willing to impart things they know about prospecting, we are all on our own learning curve. I spend time with people who have spent anywhere up to 40+ years prospecting, it always keeps your reality in check.

 

[glot]

I am using my small sluice at home to work pre worked material. Is there some way or some type that can legally be used in Qld or is it simply a case of people looking the other way?

 

[yobskin]

?????? Legal. Dont understand mate.

 

[Goldtarget]

I've read the rules (I live in vic though) and it seems on the face of it pretty clear cut.... Take the material using hand tools and do with what you wish. I really failed to see anything that says something about processing. Might need someone with a bit more local understanding but that is the way I interpret them.

 

[XIV]

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5460

Have a read through this post
there is plenty of info on here, and plenty of debate about what you can and can't use in qld

 

[glot]

Thanks XIV. Just what I needed.

 

[karu]

For the best advice on cleaning up the Gold Hog mats, just have a look at some of their many videos. The easiest way is to roll them inside out - pattern to the outside, then dip into a bucket of water. Everything just falls off.

cheers

 

[Redmanti]

I'm very happy with my Gold Hog matts including the UR and they make an easier clean up.