As we’ve discussed here in the weeks past, prospecting and panning for gold in stream beds, creekbanks, riverbanks, and ancient river gravels is an activity that can add a lot of fun and richness to an RV trip. I love digging and panning for gold and other precious metals. But segregating mineral values out of the fine small rocks and sands at the bottom of the pan is tiring and tedious. Plus, there is every chance that you will lose values by trying to pan out the fine sands and gravels too quickly to finish. There’s a fix for that.
A couple of weeks ago, we saw what the Blue Bowl could do washing fine black sands and non-mineral gravels. This time, we look at the spiral panner. This device separates black sands from gold values like magic. There are several brands of spiral panner on the market, including products like the Keene Engineering GW25 Gold Wheel and the Gold Screw.
Advantages of Gold Wheel
- High rate of fine gold recovery—96%-98% of 150-mesh concentrates.
- Will process 40 lb. of fine concentrates per hour.
- Amalgamate concentrates down to flour gold.
If you are in good ground where there is a lot of mineralized rock and black sands, as you work the contents of your gold pan down, you’ll notice that there is a volume of relatively heavier small stones and a lot of dark or black sands in the bottom of the pan. They are hard to pan out and tough to pan out without losing gold. You’re already tired from swirling and shaking a heavy pan full of material. You can keep panning the fines or put them aside and run them through a classifier and then the spiral wheel.
As you will see in links to the gold wheels above, the machine is nothing short of miraculous at separating gold and other heavy values like Platinum Group Metals (PMG) from the concentrates. Before running them on the gold wheel, a careful classification of the gold-bearing materials is necessary. I classify down to a 150-mesh screen, which will run flawlessly on the wheel. Here’s how to do it.
It is impressive to watch the gold wheel as it can run 40-50 pounds (roughly half of a five-gallon bucket) of black sand concentrates per hour. Just on the last three or four rings of the wheel, you’ll see the bright yellow stuff free of other materials, climb the wheel and flow into your catchment container. Woohoo!
RELATED
##RVT1045
I do have a Gold Wheel works great, gets about 98%+ of the black sand out from the Gold. I have been to Alaska 6 or 7 time and many areas in the lower 48 prospecting. The main thing I have learned is to take your concentrates home. If you find Gold in the bottom of your pan or the riffs in your sluice box, dry out the cons and place in a bucket for later. You want to enjoy camping and prospecting. The most fun is when you get your concentrates home, you can enjoy finding all the yellow stuff (Gold) from your trip.
I totally agree. At the end of a long day, bringing concentrates home extends the fun, so you can wash ’em at your leisure!
This is a subject I never researched and thought that most antiquated techniques were still used. I thought it was interesting to read about these new thing. Thanks Randall.
You are most welcome. There are some amazing gadgets and tools out there today that make the hard work of prospecting and processing heavy material a lot easier.
I still have a sluice box up in my shop attic. Since we boondock a lot here in NV, the poor old sluice just sits up there catching dust. But I HAVVE given some thought to these wheels for dry gold hunting. Especially when down in Quartzsite where you can join a local club for almost pennies and have access to a bunch of gold claims owned by the club. I plan on getting rich – someday . . . . 🙂
I’m with you–I don’t use my legacy standard sluice much anymore. It is somewhat cumbersome to pack around and set up (more on that in a future article on the box) and there are more efficient and easier tools available. For instance, I use the “Gold Hog” hand sluice, as well as the very well engineered and built “Grizzly II” which is not only smaller than the old-school sluice, but does not have to be set up in the stream or at any precise angle.